[Husker] Winning record?

[kaufsss at aol.com]

8 or 9 wins was optimistic - sure - but looking back and forward could have easily happened.? My goals for the year were 1. to be better than last year - ( accomplished so far - hope we don't meltdown at the end like last year) and 
2. make a bowl game.? It seems they always talk about how much those extra practices help at the end of the year.? 

Anyone else wonder if the 5 straight home games helps or hurts at the beginning of the year?? A road game is a bonding experience for a team - us against the world or whatever - the team came together for this game better than any before.? Maybe we NEED to schedule a cupcake early on the road to get this together? 


Steve Kauf
A husker fan deep in South Texas

Not the Victory but the Action
Not the Goal but the Game
In the Deed the Glory


-----Original Message-----
From: Steve Reichenbach <reich at inetnebr.com>
To: gbrlist at hotmail.com; husker at tssi.com
Sent: Mon, 13 Oct 2008 9:08 am
Subject: Re: [Husker] Winning record?



I don't think anyone thought that 8 or 9 wins was a sure thing and
now that NU is 3-3, even 8 wins will be difficult.  That said, most
people who thought that NU could get to 8 or 9 wins figured NU could
win its first four (NU was 3-1, losing to Virginia Tech by 5) and
five of its last six (still to be played) and that any losses in
those games might be offset by other NU wins.  Through 5 games, I
think the consensus was that NU did not play or coach to its potential.
>From a W-L perspective, that was most costly against Virginia Tech,
a game that NU could have won.  Had the NU players and coaches done
a better job earlier in the season, especially against Virginia Tech,
NU could have been 4-1 going to Texas Tech where NU controlled it's
own destiny on its overtime possesion with five clearly winnable
games remaining.  So, even with the benefit of hindsight, 8 wins was
not and is not unrealistic.

Is it worrisome that Pellini and his staff didn't turned things around
quicker?  I think that neither the team nor the coaches were satisfied
with the first five games.  Frankly, based on the first five games, I
think there was reason for concern that not everything was going well.
But, this is Pellini's first head coaching job and this staff is still
learning to work together, so it is years too early for alarm.  Against
Texas Tech, the coaching, playing, and confidence was at a higher
level, and I think the staff, players, and fans are happy with the
progress but not satisfied with the mistakes and the outcome.  If NU
improves from the level of play against Texas Tech, e.g., by reducing
mistakes and better success on defense, then I think that there still
is reasonable hope for 8 wins.  Except for OU, the two toughest teams
come to Lincoln and the two other road games are against the weakest
teams in the North.  But, with the loss to Virginia Tech, NU's margin
for error for an 8 win season is very small.

> I remember seeing a couple of posts before the season started, and
> even during the early games against the le
sser teams, that talked of 8
> or 9 wins.  I didn't take them seriously and I don't think most others
> did either.  Before the season, I looked at the schedule and thought
> that 7-5 would be a successful season.  6-6, ho-hum.  5-7, no real
> progress.  To be honest and blunt, I thought the goal for this year was
> to be significantly less terrible than last year.  We were yesterday,
> at least the offense was, but the jury is still out on the whole
> season.  To get to 7 wins, we must win 4 out of the last six games.
> Clearly, the next two are musts to achieve that goal and even then we
> will have to win two out of the last four to get to 7 wins.  This is a
> really tall order.  Our defense is really bad, just terrible;  hard to
> read about progress from last year.  Joe Ganz is a fine quarterback, a
> leader in every sense, and the best thing about this team.  Yes, the
> play in OT was about as boneheaded as they come, but up until that
> instant he was everything we could hope for in a QB.  The offensive
> line played a great game.  They were not dominant from a strength or
> power aspect, but they executed technical play-blocking as well as can
> be done.  (It's why I thought the play call on 4th and 1 in the first
> half was a bad choice.  They were not beating TT's DL with strength,
> and with the DL in tight on that play, we needed to do something else
> than run it into the line, not gonna happen.)
> 

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