[Husker] don't fall for it

[Nick Chevance]

On Wed, Oct 13, 2010 at 10:28 AM, Mike Nolan <nolan at romaine.tssi.com> wrote:
> Mack Brown is almost certainly playing the 'psych' game with his players,
> the media, the general public and maybe even the Huskers players and coaches.
>
> And he's VERY GOOD at that game.
>
> Whether it will make any difference or not on Saturday, who knows?
> --
> Mike Nolan

I couldn't agree more.  Despite whether he's an upstanding member of
society or just a scuzzbag Texan, he's talking us up in hopes that 1)
our players might get a swelled head and take some of their edge off,
2) it paves the way for a gentler landing with their fans should they
lose, and 3) the sports media and fans see him as a kinder, gentler
football coach.  He's hoping for a win-win regardless of the outcome.
And the truth of the matter is, he's a football coach.  Its his thing.
 Bo's thing is to ignore everything except the next game.  We know he
really doesn't, just like we know that Brown is telling his players
that they are better than we are.  Its called coaching.  I'm still
surprised that a knowledgeable group like this still reacts to this
Coach Speak.  I mean, c'mon guys.  Bo just talked up Gilbert's running
ability on the BigXII teleconference this morning.  Do you think we're
really overly concerned about their QB running?  Not anymore than
anything else Texas does.

I'd rather hear the reaction to their defensive coordinator Muschamp
who apparently said a week ago that their defense is geared to stop
spread offenses (I can't find the link right now but I did see it a
few days ago).  Well, I think that was the plan that KState put in,
and at least in the first half they had some success in doing that.
Texas is probably faster and quicker than KState, man for man, so how
do we see that match up?  Is it all assignment football, against
better athletes?  Can we expect to run gashes in Texas's Defense like
we were able to do to KState and Washington?  I liked that first
series at KState - run a little run, pass a couple of times, roll the
QB out once or twice.  KState couldn't figure out where we were going
to slap them next.  By the time the 3rd quarter rolled around, there
was no need to throw anymore (TM was 4-4 in the first half).  I think
the first couple of series will be really interesting to watch the
coaches strategies.

One last thing.  Anybody notice how well this staff seems to make
adjustments to what the other team is doing?  For instance, when
KState started throwing to Thomas in the first two series, we didn't
seem to get that covered up right away.  By the third quarter, David
was covering that flare out of the backfield and KState got nothing
the rest of the evening.  That's always been a theme on this board but
I haven't heard anyone mention it yet this year.  I think they
probably adjust better to the other team than any other staff in
recent years.

Nick
-- 
“It isn't necessary to have relatives in Kansas City in order to be unhappy.”
          Groucho Marx