[Husker] For What It's Worth ...

[Steve Reichenbach]

Sometimes, I think "We're all in this together" and "We win as a
team and we lose as a team" gets taken too far.  I think one of
the reasons that the teams of the mid 90s were so great is that
there were players who held other players to make muster.  You
got the feeling that Frazier and Peter weren't the most loved
guys on the team and if someone screwed up they had to answer.
I think Ricky Henry could have used them focusing his attention,
maybe a set of stadium stairs for each yard of penalty (as was
reputedly an instrument of gaining attention).

> ... these what I took from yesterday's game.
> 
> During WWII the bomber command of the US Air Force stressed one thing 
> above all concerning  flying in formation: group integrity. Taken 
> literally, it's an oxymoron but taken figuratively it's the concept 
> that the welfare of the bombing group supersedes all other 
> considerations in completing a mission. In Husker gridiron terms it 
> might be called "collective maturity," the lack of which I believe 
> lies at the heart of the team's problems. What I saw yesterday was a 
> Husker squad that lacks collective maturity, which might explain the 
> penalties, dropped passes, and bonehead decisions as well as the 
> O-line's occasional  incompetence.
> 
> In other words, the loss didn't occur because X dropped a pass or Y 
> was called for holding, which I see as a by-product of individuals 
> trying too hard to do a great thing. Rather, the Scarlet and Cream 
> lost the game yesterday due to lack of team cohesion, that is, a lack 
> of group integrity.
> 
> Can it be regained? How can it regained? If answers do exist, only 
> the coaches know them. I sure don't.
> 
> Steve Stone