[Husker] It's Game Week!

[Don Mares]

I drink the kool aid every year.  Maybe that's why I'm both a cubs fan and
Husker fan. Good thing huskers win more since they don't serve beer at the
games.

I think we will be improved on offense this year. How much so?  I'm not
sure.  I believe Taylor has improved with his off season mechanics (foot
placement and arm follow through).  I'm guessing he will still fall when
someone touches his shoe laces so not a great scrambler but crazy fast and
explosive if you give him room.  I'm confident the receivers will be
improved, better ability to get open and not drop balls.  They are
supposedly a very talented crew.  Rex is still super Rex and Ameer and
Imani will help him out.  I'm not as confident about the offensive line.
Last year we were somewhat banged up with apparently no depth, hopefully
that doesn't happen again this year.  Maybe we have some more depth, I
really don't know.  That's the biggest question mark for me and without
them, we won't be successful.  It's year two for Coach Beck and that's
really the biggest determinant of improvement in my opinion.  Hopefully
they understand each other better and they can complete some more passes to
be more evenly balanced and not rely on Rex for everything.

I think we will be improved on defense this year.  It's my belief that
learning and understanding the defense in Bo's system is challenging and
complicated.  You really have to know your ABC's and be disciplined enough
to hold to your responsibilities and not get distracted by other players on
the field. Bo requires really smart, disciplined players with strong play
making ability but with it, his defense will be as good as any in the
country.  Mostly because he disguises it better than anyone in the
country.  One guy misses his key and the whole thing falls apart.  We have
a lot more depth this year.  We don't have Lavonte this year which was our
whole world on defense a year ago.  Jared Crick and Alfonso Dennard were
both stud's but injured for the majority of the year.  Our defensive line
was devastated by injuries last year.  Keep them relatively healthy and a
lot more experience and we should be quite a bit stiffer up front.  Line
backers lose Lavonte which is a HUGE loss but Compton was playing really
well at the end of the year.  Fisher has seen a lot of snaps.  Whaley has
been in the program for five years.  Hopefully those young guys can get
coached up and we can distribute Lavonte across all of them.  Defensive
backs were all incredibly young and didn't know right from left last year.
We may not have anybody in the top of the draft but if those guys know what
they are doing and stick to their responsibilities which they should since
all of them are a year older, wiser and more experienced, we'll be much
better in coverage this year.

I have no idea about special teams especially with the rules changes but
we've been good there in the past.  We should be good there again this
year.  It will be interesting to see how much of a difference Beck makes in
year two of the same offense and all the familiarity the players have with
it.  Additionally, I'm glad Bo is back in charge on Defense with a young
new defensive coordinator in Papachus and a couple new really good
recruiters and hopefully equally good coaches.  In the end, if we can hold
onto the ball and not lose the turnover battle, we'll have a fighting
chance and I like our chances.

I think we can lose a maximum of two games and still be in the hunt for the
legends division championship.  Which ones do we lose?  I have no clue nor
do I care as long as we get to the B1G championship.  I hope we win them
all and there are no games we don't have a chance to stack up well in.  Get
to the championship game and its a successful season.  Really successful if
we win that game which we should.  Wisconsin has practically a whole new
coaching staff and QB.  Miss out on that division championship and the
season is a bust.  Those are my predictions.  I like the make up of the
team but we'll see what happens.  Anything can happen good or bad.  It's
going to be a fun year.

Don



On Mon, Aug 27, 2012 at 1:43 PM, Paul Dalen <quesohusker at gmail.com> wrote:

> As an industrial engineer I tend to look for trends and relationships
> between things.  One thing that I've found as I dig deep into the stats and
> records of NCAA teams over the last couple of decades is that teams rarely
> improve or regress more than 1 game either way from one year to the next.
> That makes 8-4, 9-3, or 10-2 the overwhelmingly likely candidates for a
> final regular season record.  Another is that a returning QB generally
> means that a team won't regress from one year to the next.
>
> I was pretty low on the Huskers at the end of the year last year.  I said
> 7-5 or 8-4 then.  I'm not quite as down on them as I was, but there are
> still many questions to be answered about this team, so I'm going to play
> it safe and say 9-3, with losses to Michigan, Ohio State, and someone else
> we shouldn't lose to (not Wisky, though).
>
> On Mon, Aug 27, 2012 at 12:59 PM, Dick Karre <dkarre at comcast.net> wrote:
>
> > On 8/27/2012 10:48 AM, Nick Chevance wrote:
> >
> >> And finally, limited injuries. That's hurt us in the last couple of
> years
> >> too. They say the team looks lean and mean. Lets hope that means
> healthier.
> >> A good sign is that no player is limited for this first week. Nick
> >>
> >
> > Part of that would be a better rotation on the O-line. The last couple
> > years the coaches have talked about playing lots of guys to keep them
> > fresh, but by the end of the year the same five are playing the whole
> game
> > and they're all banged up.
> >
> > --
> > Dick Karre
> > dkarre at comcast.net
> >
> >
> >
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