[Husker] Bo Knows Stubborn

[James Moreau]

Time for me to weigh in on the OU vs. NU match and Bo's stubbornness.

As I finally digested all of the banter on the OU vs. NU game Saturday
night, I came to several conclusions, and these are strictly my opinion:

1. Bo Pelini was going to stick with Martinez unless he got hurt.  It was
clear that he could have pulled Martinez to insert Lee or Green at any time
after Taylor had fumbled the ball for the third time, even if just to settle
him down, and nobody would have blamed him.  But, I think that Bo had a
bigger picture in mind.  He clearly did not want to rattle the young
freshman's confidence by pulling him out of the game when we were so close.
It was almost as clear when he was running wildcat at will against OU and
then stuck Martinez back behind center that it was serving the same purpose.
He didn't want to say, "we don't think you can handle QB, but we're going to
keep you on the field as a decoy."  I just don't see him using him in that
capacity.  The other thought is that Bo doesn't make calls on offense to
overrule Watson's calling, like many Head Coaches do when they have a
coordinator calling plays from the booth.  I'm not sure how that dynamic
works with Bo and Shawn, but I'm guessing Bo is more in tune with the
defense and doesn't get the call from Watson and then make the call himself
as to choices.  I'm guessing that falls directly to Zac Lee wearing the
headset and calling in the play to Taylor.  I believe that Watson tries too
hard to insert his plays into the game, even when something is working, much
like Callahan did, just to show he can mix it up, but I think we know how
that played out.

2.  OU's defense was the reason for Taylor's tough time.  If you look at the
film a little closer, it appeared that OU was coming out wide with the
pressure, as well as getting a good push up the middle during obvious
passing situations.  This is what helped OU contain Taylor.  He clearly
couldn't get outside when they were running up field first, and then
collapsing in on him.  The few times Taylor did break containment, he was
able to make a decent play, although that was early and when it was clear he
couldn't have a deep threat, the safeties were cheating up to help stuff any
chance of him getting loose in the second level.

3.  I believe, and it was hard to find because I didn't record the game, but
it appeared that Bo on the last time out of the game pointed to Taylor and
it appeared that he said, this is your game, go out and get it.  I think he
was showing Taylor he had his back, and it was up to him to make a play.  I
for one would like to see Shawn Watson apply for and get a head coaching
position elsewhere, but I'm not sure that would solve our offensive woes.  I
don't know, but I clearly remember Osborne making a comment one time about
running a play until the defense can stop it, sometimes which got him
accused of running up the score because teams had a hard time even stopping
the fullback dive play in the fourth quarter of games.  I'd love to be able
to see that style of play return.

4. Taylor has raw athletic talent, but it is clear that he needs to work on
his mental preparations a lot more for the bowl and the next season.
Several times while watching Rex run the same zone read, he could tell when
the end was going to crash down on the RB, and pull the ball and take it up
inside where the hole was.  Many times this season, Zac was doing the same
thing.  Making the right read.  I'm not sure how Martinez graded out in
games on his reads, but there were many times in the games after Missouri,
that he wasn't making the right read and either the RB was getting stuffed
or he was.  Before the Missouri game and the injury, I think because of his
speed, he was able to make up for a bad read when he kept the ball, and made
huge gains.  After the injury, he couldn't out-run the defense when he'd
keep the ball on a bad read.  I'm sure that this is something that can be
taught with time, but I wish that we would have had the opportunity to see
Zac Lee in for one or two series on Saturday to make those reads and get
Oklahoma off the ball a bit and open up more for Martinez.

Again, these are just my observations, feel free to discuss.

James Moreau
UNL Class of 94.