[Husker] worst ever

[Pat Gaule]

I might be the youngest person on this list at 23, but this is easily 
the worst defense I've ever watched.  I don't think it's a stretch to 
say that it may be the worst in over 40 years.  Craig Bohl was far from 
a defensive mastermind, but for as much criticism as he took, none of 
his defenses ever looked this atrocious.  He was shown the door after 2 
horrible losses to end the 2001 season and the bad 7-7 season in 2002.  
Without looking up stats, I seem to recall that the defense was pretty 
good for the first 11 games of 2001 and at least adaquete in 2000 
(although I do remember some complaints). 

Meanwhile, Cosgrove has been here for 4 years and never had a very good 
defens.  This season looks like it may be the worst of all.  As much as 
I'd like to see him fired right now, I don't think it would accomplish 
much since we don't have anyone to replace him.  That said, we need to 
have somebody else on the sidelines next year.  Let him finish out the 
season, but barring a miraculous turnaround, this has got to be his last 
season.  It's probably no secret that I've been a huge critic of 
Callahan, but the offense looked fine today and he called a damn fine 
game.  At this point, the defense may be the only thing that'sholding 
him back.

The defense was absolutely sickening today.  It wasn't as if Ball State 
receivers were making a huge amount of spectacular catches in triple 
coverage.  They certainly had some tough catches, but for the most part, 
their receivers were wide open. The holes in the d-line looked big 
enough for me to run through.  You don't drive 94 yards on 5-6 plays in 
a good defensive scheme.  Teams will get beat on big plays from 
time-to-time in any system, but when it happens time and time again, 
regardless of the competition, then something is clearly wrong.  If the 
excuse for this is that Cosgrove's defense is "better suited for the Big 
Ten" or "we only have problems with teams that run misdirections", then 
that is no excuse.  Contrary to what some may believe, the mobile QB is 
not going away in college football.  In fact, it's probably something 
that Nebraska will have to deal with frequently in the Big 12.

Teams in the SEC used to look at Nebraska and stare at our team speed in 
amazement.  Currently, the SEC is the best conference right out there 
and I doubt Nebraska would even manage to qualify for a bowl game if 
they played in that conference.  If this coaching change was made to get 
us back up to the top, then we need to have a defense that can play at 
that level.  Cosgrove has proven he can't deliver that to us.