[Husker] My Husker thoughts

[Alan Siporin]

A solid point made by Dick Karre about the need to teach fundamentals in the
middle of the season (or even three games in to respond to another post as
well). What's worse is that we hear this same excuse after nearly every
loss. It seems to me that whatever the problem (fundamentals, technique,
scheme) after the first offensive series, the defensive coaches should be
able to gather the players and say you are doing X wrong, or you forgot to
do Y. Focus and do it right the next series.

The one element that wouldn't work this way (and that Mike Nolan brought up)
is a talent gap. That would take time, and very successful recruiting. Which
brings me to my main point of concern:

When Pedersen changed coaching staffs he implemented a major shift in
program philosophy. The old philosophy was still to recruit the best talent
possible, but countered some inherent Nebraska weaknesses in attracting top
talent with a unique offense that allowed us to cherry pick those kinds of
players, much as USC cherry picks from the whole pack. Nebraska was the best
at what it did, so we got a pretty good shot at the best of the lineman and
qbs that ran that offense. We will always have to compete with everybody for
running backs, but with the best rushing offense year in and year out, that
should be a wash, at worst.

As we recover from a hard loss, several possibilities exist. On the bright
side, maybe what's in place is working and just needs more time. On the
gloomier side, maybe the new overall direction for the program dooms us to
years of mediocrity. Or yet another possibility is that what Callahan is
trying to do can work, but Callahan isn't the guy to make it work.  Perhaps
it's none of the above (talent, technique, etc). Instead its the staff's
inability to motivate properly. Osborne was the master and that, and spoiled
us rotten. 

The feature on USC's Friday approach to practice (having fun and goofing
around keeps them loose) struck me as a possible key, especially when we
were missing tackles right and left (and center). Maybe the Husker players
were over-revved and consequently kept over-running the play.

That's long enough for now. I'm ready to move on to Ball State.
Alan Siporin