Missouri Post-Game Reaction: Trying Hard Not to Be Sick
When I woke up this morning, I honestly believed Nebraska would win today against Missouri. I had that confident feeling all day. Once the game started, it lasted for almost one quarter. The 52-17 defeat in Lincoln made two things abundantly clear. First, Missouri is exactly as they were advertised to be. Second, Nebraska has the capacity to play very, very poorly no matter how many catchy Bo-related slogans fans come up with. The first realization is a testament to MU, who is a legit conference title contender. The second is enough to make me absolutely sick.
Credit to the Opponent
Missouri has an excellent football team. Chase Daniel deserves the Heisman hype. Maclin is a playmaker. Coffman is a clutch player. They can run the ball effectively. Most importantly, they execute at a very high level. They look almost seamless on offense. I give them all the credit in the world for being exactly what people thought they were.
By the way, that still includes a somewhat leaky pass defense. Why in the world NU wasn't more aggressive throwing I won't know. But, that's on NU. Missouri's defense played just fine, thanks. They really only gave up 10 meaningful points. That's just a fact. Nebraska is far from Oklahoma on offense. But, the Tigers were not playing Oklahoma.
Now...the Ugly Part
There's my take about Missouri. This is a Nebraska site. So I'm going to write about Nebraska now. This won't be pretty.
I am not quite sure what is worse - the fact that I honestly thought NU had a chance to win and ended up getting completely routed, or the fact that NU played about as poorly as they possibly could have tonight. I gave credit to Missouri because it is due. But, the Tigers are not THAT good. Are they? NU played like absolute garbage tonight. To beat the Tigers, they would have had to be as close to perfect as they could. They were the opposite. Here are the specifics.
- Penalties. Are you kidding me? Collecting fourteen penalties for 101 yards is almost surreal. The game was played at home for Pete's sake. Sure, there were two kind of questionable calls early. But seriously, false starts, off sides, holding - those are absolutely self-inflicted wounds that kill games. Sorry folks, if you show me a heavily penalized team I'll show you a poorly coached team. That is unacceptable.
- Turnovers. The Huskers were negative 2 in turnovers. The pick 6 in the 2nd quarter was a back breaker. The defense didn't create even the opportunity and hope for a takeaway. To beat MU, the Husker would have to have gone +2, at least.
- Offensive game plan and player personnel. Okay, seriously, I have no idea what we're looking at here. I get that everybody (myself included) WANTS the Huskers to be a running team. I get that. News flash - they're not. They aren't Tom Osborne's Huskers, or even Frank Solich's Huskers. Offensively we aren't even close to Bill Callahan's 2005 Huskers. Nebraska has the personnel to throw the ball. When it is done well, it can set up the run game and make the run game more effective. Nebraska had success against MU through the air early. But, almost stubbornly, the kept trying to go back to the run.
- I have no clue what is going on with the I-backs. What is the infatuation with Quentin Castille. I get that he is this physical specimen. But, he's "all bus team." The kid left his feet unnecessarily three different times. And, he put the ball on the ground. That should be the end of that.
- Find five offensive lineman who can play hard and play together, and go from there. We have 10 guys who supposedly can play. Five need to get established, quickly. Then, they sort out the backups. The musical chairs they have going now only complicates things. And, our center and guard play was poor tonight.
- Joe Ganz' touchdown-to-interception ratio stands at 7 to 4. That won't cut it in the very tough Big 12. I love the guy. I really do. He's gutsy as hell and plays very hard. But, that's kind of the problem. He's trying so hard to make every play and hold the ball so dang long it leads to negative things like sacks and forced throws.
- Finding something positive to say....Nate Swift and Todd Peterson deserve credit for being hard working playmakers on offense tonight. They brought their ability and made every play they could. Too bad they were pretty much alone in that.
- Defensively, I don't know what to think, either. Part of me knows that NU ran in to an absolute buzz saw tonight. Wow, the Tigers are sharp. But, physically, NU isn't getting it done either. Missed tackles lead to touchdowns against spread teams. End of story. And, our safeties are about as far from the "Mike Brown ideal" as the possibly can be right now. It's pretty disheartening.
- The game plan that Ekeler was so jacked up about? Basically, the Pelini brothers threw every gimmick set at MU that they could in the first half, and the Tigers just danced on by. That's the mark of a great team. They just do what they do, and do it so damn well you can't stop it. As my friend Steve says...NU has a very long way to go this season. And, much further to go before they resemble the kind of team that rocked them tonight.
It's enough to make a guy sick. Nebraska needs to get better quickly to prevent that same ill feeling from developing around their season.
10/4/2008
Darren, you are exactly right on ALL aspects brought up in this article. . .
10/4/2008
I’m not trying to be a jerk or anything, but I am glad finally that Nebraska is experiencing the same kind of humiliation they inflicted for so many years when they could hoard and stockpile players (before the new NCAA ruling). It’s time that NE fans realize there are other good teams out there, and that their team is not infallible.
Omaha, NE
10/4/2008
I brought it up on the live blog but I’ll mention it here again: for me the most telling part of Nebraska’s progress to date was a quote from Pelini as told to Chris Spielman. (This is Ohio State guy to Ohio State guy, so I buy the honesty.)
When asked whether or not the staff had tried to initiate too big of a change in the defense, Pelini reportedly responded: “Chris, I’ve tried to make it as basic as I can.”
It was a short snippet in the middle of a massacre but, for me at least, it said quite a bit. Pelini would never say to the Nebraska media that he didn’t have the talent to succeed, but, when just talking to a guy who used to play the game? That was my read.
That said, it’d be foolish to give anyone a pass. Players or staff.
It’s a tricky line to walk for Nebraska fans. Is it too early to start wondering about Pelini and the mistakes we’ve seen so far? Probably.
But didn’t we just get burned waiting for a guy to get “his recruits” in place? Yep, we did.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying it’s already time to start questioning the coaching. Rather, I’m not sure what the best action is.
But I do know this, and as I mentioned earlier in the week, successfully rebuilding teams don’t get blown out. There have to be signs of progress and I didn’t see many Saturday night.
That’s what’s scary, be it year one or year four.
Kansas City, MO
10/4/2008
I have a Husker-sized hole in the logic of all of my football analysis. Every week that we have lost in the last few years, I look at the next tough opponent and say, “If we fix, this and this and this, we can win against the next guy.” The “to fix” list is longer than the list of things that are working. But if Bo just focuses on fixing like two things a day this week, we can probably beat Texas Tech (can sarcasm be heard over the internet?)
10/5/2008
I am absolutely dumbfounded!!! Iowa State looked better playing KU (only losing by 3 points) than we looked against Mizzou. At this point, there is no one on our schedule who we can say is a “sure” win.
I don’t know what it is with this team, but it’s obviously a number of issues. Do they have a damaged psyche from last year? Is it hard for them to un-learn the bad habits from the Callahan years? Are they not smart enough to play mistake free football? Are they just inferior athletes? What is the answer?
My expectation level for the defense was not very high, but I was very very disapointed in the Offense and Watson’s play calling. It’s frustrating to watch. Why does it look so easy on some drives…and so bad on other drives?
Anwers??? Go shotgun and let Ganz sling it around. Let a short passing game act as a running game (including shovel passes). On defense, I believe Bo is doing all he can…all I can say is that I hope he recruits well.
10/5/2008
Well, I thought we’d lose this game. If you thought we would win, you were fooling yourself. The most I hoped for was a close loss… I was expecting something like 45-40.
The worst thing is that our offense seems to get more and more ineffective every game.
The defense was not supposed to be our strong point this season. We were supposed to improve from around 115th to somewhere around 50th. I think we’re around 60th now, so keeping with preseason predictions that’s about right.
I absolutely do not buy that we don’t have talent. We may not have top 10 talent, but that’s no excuse to losing like we did. Look at what Buffalo or Illinois did. Again, it’s like everyone has been saying… our players didn’t develop properly… that’s coaching… that’s Callahan’s legacy. One year is not enough to take subpar performers and make them excel.
Schemes. Pelini has a very complicated defense, especially for the secondary. He has repeatedly said he was throwing a lot of new stuff at the players. Pelini has repeatedly said that he his defense to be as MULTIPLE as possible. Multiple means more formations and plays, more plays= more stuff to learn, more stuff to learn= need more time to learn. He has tried to make his system more simple for this year, but it’s still too much for players that spent most of the offseason working on fundamentals.
Our offense is still the West Coast, basically. I think, it’s still too complicated for the college level.
Pelini says blame the coaches. I will. Watson you suck. Pelini, Ekler, and the other Pelini, you guys have no discipline. You lose your cool on the sidelines and your players commit too many penalties and mental errors. Mental errors is another way of saying stupid. You make mental errors on a test and you get a bad grade. A bad grade means you’re stupid. The players are stupid. You guys are supposed to teach them and you suck at teaching them fundamentals… don’t turn the ball over, don’t commit penalties, don’t miss tackles.
Looking at the other Big 12 scores… with the exception of ISUvsKU they were all by large margins of victory. I think we will see a lot of that this year in the Big 12 with all the high scoring. A close game can seem like an easy victory with a 20-point difference, and Big 12 teams can put up 20 in a flash.
10/5/2008
With such a rich and winning tradition in Nebraska it’s understanding that you thought you could beat the Tigers. Here in Columbia we have endured decades of humiliation and believe it or not I don’t wish the same pain for you and the Big Red faithful. Oh and by the way,
CHASE FOR THE HEISMAN!
10/5/2008
How can anyone place this loss on a defensive scheme? Pelini did a pretty good job with the defense in 2003. The losses in 2003 were large probably in part because of the talent gap between us and the teams we played. I don’t buy into the fact that there isn’t talent here at NU. The problem I see is depth and developed talent within that depth. What we are seeing now are juniors and seniors on the field who may have not had 3 or 4 years of actual practice development. Not all, but some. None of our linebackers have any experience from last season. None. This is going to take several years to turn around where NU can compete with the big boys. I just hope that the team doesn’t melt down like last season. And I’m optimistic that it won’t. What blows my mind after 5 games is the offensive issues.
10/5/2008
Great synopsis Darren….you pretty much hit the nail on the head.
I had no doubt before the game that Mizzou had vastly surperior talent and it would take a lights out performance by the entire team just to have a chance to beat the Tigers and after the game that opinion didn’t change a bit of course.
I can deal with the loses (even an uglier one like this) but what frustrates me is the non-ending parade of mental mistake after mental mistake in all aspects of the game. Right now Alex Henry is the only consistent player on this team. That lack of consistency comes back to the coaching staff and how they’re preparing these kids. Of course once the whistle blows it’s up to the kids to perform but how they do that is a direct reflection of how they prepare and practice during the week.
I have tons of questions about schemes and what not but Bill Walsh and Buddy Ryan can be scheming for you and if you don’t execute it won’t make a bit of difference.
You don’t have to be ultra talented to execute…and that for me is the biggest continuing disappointment from this group…but thankfully it at least can be fixed…Now the offensive game planning that might be another thing…
Better get it straight quick because Mike Leach will gladly hang another 70+ on us if given the chance….
10/5/2008
Even though I’m a CU fan I don’t have much to crow about so I won’t. It looks like the CU-Nebraska game should be a dandy this year. Good luck against Tech! Should have considered Gary Barnett!
10/5/2008
I was predicting a 48-28 Husker loss before this game, hoping it would be closer than that, but not really expecting the Husks to be able to hang with Mizzou. Too many weapons on their side, and we haven’t really shown much this season. My greatest disappointment was that we weren’t competitive. I was hoping those games were behind us. Losing a well played, competitive game is hard to take, but losses like this one are just plain discouraging. Too many things to fix before TT, I’m just hoping we can salvage a 7-5 season.
10/5/2008
Austin and Dwayne, you have some good points to consider. One thing that needs to be talked about though, is the dominance of the SPREAD OFFENSE. I think Pelini may have found a new respect for the spread in the Big 12. Is it just “football is football” coach? I don’t think so.
The spread offense makes sub-talented teams able to compete with the big boys. My case in point, Texas Tech and Missouri in the recent often competed well against our defenses that were pretty solid. Now, that both teams have great athletes and even Heisman candidates, they are scoring on us at will.
Could we have played better with better talent. Of course. Or a better scheme. Maybe?Will defenses develop a way to stop it? Maybe so, but I haven’t seen that happen yet.
By Pelini’s own admission, he said, you are not going to get very many sacks against Mizzou. The QB is too deep, the line splits are too wide, the QB gets rid of the ball quick. Every play is good for 8-80 yards. If you blitz the QB, lookout, you will turn around and find Maclin in the end zone. And the passsing threat opens up the running game.
I hope we consider the humiliation and our disapointing offensive play and ask ourselves, why can’t we run it? Everytime we go to a spread formation (especially in the 2 minute drill) we eat up yards. Ganz does much better out of the gun. He has more time to read the field. And like Chase, he is a shorter QB and needs to have some distance from the d-line so his balls are not batted down (no pun intended).
Our average offensive line would not matter either, the ball will be out fast. No running game, fine, we will pass it most the time and surprise teams with a run here and there. The O-line can’t create holes, no problem, take 5 foot splits and create a hole before the play even begins.
Coach Watson. I believed in you, because your stated philosophy was to use the talent you have in the best way possible. Well, now we know what we have, the question remains, are you using that talent in the best way possible?
Out of defeat, we can learn a thing or two. Well, this defeat, if nothing else, has made be into a believer, the Spread Offense is for real. The sooner we swallow our pride and start truly scheming are offensive play based on our strengths and weaknesses, the sooner we can at least be competitive in games.
10/5/2008
These are the same players from a year ago (discounting the idea that any true freshmen could make a major impact in this conference on either side of the ball for us). This conference is so much harder than the one Callahan left behind. cbs showed a graphic of the SEC and the Big 12 yesterday…both have 7 (I think) teams in the top 25…TT was not as good last year, Texas is still hovering around greatness, OU is OU, OSU is good and getting better. The only team to have dropped a little is KU, and I think anyone who can compare schedules could have expected that. Long story short, Bo got dealt a hard hand at a very hard table, with very critical onlookers being most of us. Metaphors aside, how can we expect a huge turnover in results this year? We have effort and the desire to win. I know. I was there Saturday, and I saw it. The guys were pulled together. The intensity was the same to the last defensive play we had. That takes courage and the ability to keep your head up.
I’d like to attribute the afforementioned mental mistakes, or stupidity, to how eager our very young secondary and LBs are. The O line, I just don’t know. I thought that was BC’s trademark of recruiting, but they aren’t getting a good push or protecting well at all. In their defense, I watched Ganz panic way too much and too early. We had maybe 5 passes that were purely pocket, by the book, drawn up drop back and pass plays. That means only those 5 were executed right. Can’t win making stuff up on the fly.
This is a rough stretch for sure. Losing faith or talking about if the coaching needs a change is insane.
THIS WAS THE FIFTH GAME OF HIS FIRST YEAR AGAINST THE SECOND BEST TEAMN IN THE WHOLE DAMN COUNTRY FOR CRYING OUT LOUD !!!!
Just because we got spoiled with domination the last 30 years doesn’t mean that’s going to shield us from a talented opponent.
Play on, stay proud, bleed red.
10/5/2008
Your dynasty is over. You dont have a coach and you dont have talent. The only thing Bo could do was talk about some defensive scheme he had and a shutout. All that shows me is he has no confidence in his team and has to talk smack before a game. The red is dead and its black and gold now, baby!
10/5/2008
This may be a weird take…but here is mine:
I teach for a living. More specifically, I teach 20-24 year old kids how to deliver weather forecasts on television. When I first get these kids, they have an idea of what to do because they have watched TV weather their whole lives. But much of what they are doing is completely wrong. It is a two year process in my course and I have to teach physical fundamentals (called mechanics) and mental development (called “weather story”). In my teaching I have found consistencies from class to class and year to year.
1) You can’t simply just tell a kid what to do and they automatically do it. It takes a ton of repetition. I can go in one week and say “never call it a ‘cool front’, it is a cold front” but undoubtedly at some point they will make the mistake a few more times before it gets corrected
2) Many times, a kid will learn and be able to tell you what is right or wrong, but when you put them under the lights and microscope, they will go back to their crutch which is usually mistake. Ever wondered why you hear so many “ums” from people that get a little nervous during public speaking? It is a filler and something that makes them for the slightest second feel comfortable
3) At some point, everything will click. There is no distinct moment that I can point to and say that is the moment it will happen. For each student, it is completely different. But when that point happens, the amount of growth and success is often exponential
Does any of this sound familiar? Yeah, our football team. They are learning. I guarantee in practice they are doing a lot more right than wrong. If they played like this in practice, Bo would let us know. But when we put them on the field, under the lights, under the pressure, they ultimately revert back to old habits which are “comfort” for them.
So while Bo wants me to blame him…I am not going to but rather have at least some patience for the teaching process and realize that 9 months is not enough time to change the excruciating habits of old. They will learn and get better with time. But patience, my friends, is a virtue…
10/5/2008
Renny,
I must of said a lot of “ums” in between all the explecatives last night during that first half. I agree with what you’re saying and it jives with part of my point that some of these juniors and seniors may not have had much opportunity. I don’t know, just a hunch. Um, isn’t Texas Tech up next?
10/5/2008
I’m sorry, but I forgot the young man’s name who Coach Pelini was chewing his ass…all night long. Can anyone shed some insight as to what it was the kid DIDN’T do? I have a feelng it was a tackling or coverage issue.
I’ve seen worse ass chewings but I have to tell you that I felt really bad for that kid, on national TV.
First, I understand that it’s not Coach P’s fault that there is a camera aimed at his schnoz (all night) while he is “conversing” with the youngman, but still…
10/5/2008
Renny,
I don’t know why I put your name instead of mine on my previous post. Sorry about that. Anyway, the helmet to helmet call on Potter against Daniel is fine with me but if they are going to call that, the referees need to call the previous no call on Ganz on his first touchdown pass. I don’t see much difference. My other point is that call against West on MU’s second td. Very bad call. West is turned and the ball is pretty far out anyway. My point is, some of the penalties against NU weren’t actual penalties and the refs need to balance the calling out. Rarely do you see a game that’s called like that. OU7, not sure but I think it was due to the missed tackle. I just saw it but it did appear after watching it again that he did somewhat have to move around the umpire in the middle of the field which may have caused him to get his head behind Maclin. The first quarter wasn’t as bad as I thought it was. The nail seemed to be that pick that Ganz threw before the half.
10/5/2008
I have a question. If Ganz has a habit of putting the ball up for grabs deep in his own territory why does Watson keep calling pass plays down there and why does he keep Castille running the ball when he keeps fumbling. Big plays against us. I also think we need to go to the shotgun. There is a saying in sports that I believe. Never change a winning game, always change a losing game.
10/6/2008
News flash…we’re not that good. We have a long way to go and it’s not gonna happen this season. Honestly, I think this is good for Nebraska fans. We don’t deserve anything. This is what we did to teams for years and years. Hopefully, if we ever improve, we’ll appreciate the success even more. We can play the “if we do this and if we do that and if this happens we should keep it close”. That’s garbage. We lost to the #3 and #4 team in the country and we lost big. We’re probably going to lose big next week. I hope we don’t but I’d say there is a 99% chance we will.
Congratulations to the Missouri Tigers and their fans, except Truman. That guys doesn’t know how to win humbly. Missouri is a great team with a lot of weapons and NU couldn’t stop them. NU is not disciplined and if you’re not disciplined at this point in the season the penalties will keep rolling up.
Castille should not be playing unless it’s mop-up duty. Ganz is making horrible decisions when under pressure. Our defense is still playing out of position and can’t tackle. I also feel embarrassed to be a NU fan if our players are spitting on opposing teams faces. If that in fact did happen, that player should be reprimanded.
10/6/2008
I think Bill in Iowa has a good point ... we should consider moving towards the spread offense. Not only would it allow us to compete more effectively with less talent, it would give our defense a chance to see it in practice every day.
We have been able to compete with conventional offenses, but have not been competitive against talented spread teams.
I think our talent stacks up well against a team like Kansas, but with them running the spread they put 70+ points on us. I hope Watson and Pelini learn some lessons from Mo and TT. The top teams in the Big 12 are running some form of the spread.
10/6/2008
Nebraska fans need to face some stark reality. The great Nebraska teams of the past will never appear in Lincoln again for the following reasons: (1)the reduced number of NCAA scholarship now awarded prevents the old Nebraska practice of stabling talent, (2) the parity in the Big-12 and elsewhere in the Country means Nebraska will not get many highly-talented rescruits, (3) Nebraska, Kansas State and KU will be fighting over junior college transfers and not 5 or 4- star recruits, (4)high school recruits today have no memory of Nebraska as a competititve football program because the recruits were not even walking when it was, and (5) Nebraska fans need to make their goals more realistic (such as just winning the Big 12 north division once in a while) so that they do not become overly depressed. Also, I predict that Polini will eventually leave Nebraska to join a competitive football program. He does not have the patience to wait many years to see if Nebraska can turn its program around to at least be competitive with Mizzou.
10/6/2008
have patience and click ‘post this comment’ just once, some ramblings aren’t worth seeing once let alone two or more times
10/6/2008
@ a few obnoxious opposing fans,
Where have you guys been all of these years? It doesn’t take any courage to pop onto a DESTINATION web page and spew your nonsense.
How did your teams do in the first year of your teams new football coach?
Jeez, how short of memories do SOME of you “fans” have?
If Coach Pelini turns this thing around this season or next would you come back and say anything positive or just spew insults?
My guess is you wouldn’t be heard from again.
Get a freaking life, will ya?
10/6/2008
I just to have to say a few things about the direction that the the Huskers have taken.
I’m probably going to repeat some things that are already on here as I agree with many of the posts.
First of all this is Bo’s FIRST year as a head coach.A first yr headcoach that inherited a mess worse than prob any of us can imagine!!!
I believe in him and I believe that he is the right man for this job.I stand behind him 100%!
We went up against the #4 (at the time) team in the NATION against a coach that has coached for 20 friggin yrs! We are rebuilding!!!!! I’m so sick of people wanting instant gratification.We really are spoiled arn’t we. Yes we had it too good for too long.
I agree these the guys made some real air head stupid non execution errors…alot of them! But try to remember that these are KIDS that trying to play a game for our ENTERTAINMENT!They go to school,they have to keep good grades…they have to practice…then be expected to go out every Saturday and kill themselves for us “fans”. You think they’re not ashamed are embarrassed?That was an incredible loss.
Just hang in there and be true to these guys.There is no magical wand.There is no miracle cure.Callie and Co did a real number on these guys.Give Pelini time to build their confidence.
One thing that does bug me,is hearing Bo saying over and over that “It’s my fault” “I’m not doing my job”...shouldn’t he be making someone else accountable?I mean somewhat?
10/6/2008
I hate to say this, but I do not know if Barney is a good coach? I love the guy and he was a Nebraska player and a great one, but I wonder about his coaching ability. I know some people from Iowa State that think he just made shambles out of their offensive line! I hope the friendship between Bo and Barney doesn’t get in the way, like it did with BC and Coz.
With that said, I believe in most everything you said and was my way thinking also. I just hate penalties and think that they come from poor coaching. I thought that last year and was in hope that they would clean that up this year! I also would like to know, what the heck happen to our kicking game!!!!
10/6/2008
George, you made some good points, but on a more optimistic note I am going to counter:
1) Yes, not as many scholarships to hoard talent - so that means the talent is spread around to more teams - including the Huskers 2) Parity in the Big 12 and constantly being named as the top conference in the country (along with the SEC) means WE WILL get recruits who want to compete in a big time conference. If you think Mizzou is going to get all those recruits then refer back to #1 3) Nebraksa will not take the short cut route of JUCO players - that has already been stated by BO - so let K-State and KU have them, we WILL be developing talent 4) Recruits may not have knowledge of how great we were, but if they want to play in front of 85,000 screaming fans they will come to NU. Mizzou might have a big program, but their stadium looks like a high school program. Ultimately, most recruits will come to a school to play for a coach who they believe in 5) Yes, we should be realistic, give Bo and crew more than 5 games to make these dire predictions. Bo is not going to quit on us and we better not quit on him or the team. This is going to take time to fix. He is the man who can do it. How many years did it take Pinkel to get the Mizzou program where it’s at? How many years did it take Osborne to win his first Championship? Yes, we were embarrassed by Mizzou, but now we know where this team is at and how hard they have to work to get to that level of play. The only way to improve is to play the top teams in the country. Yes, it’s ugly, but it’s the only way to become great, there are no short cuts.
10/9/2008
Bill,
I think that NU would overall benefit from going to more of a spread offense as well. However, I think that one benefit that “traditional” I-form or pro Ace-form formations have in cfb is the ability to DOMINATE. Look at OU, OhioSt, LSU, and USC. All of these teams run a traditional or pro offense. All of these teams are “premiere” teams… they recruit the best of the best… they can dominate another team just by the size, athleticism, and skill advantage alone. They have the depth needed to pound another opponent into the ground by the 4th quarter. They win by possession, field position, and defense. The other teams win by long shots and inspired performances…. not by consistent superior play. The spread offense gives more opportunities for that one “big shot” down the field.
I think, that the NU coaches felt that NU had the players, size, speed,and talent to DOMINATE other teams… that NU could run a traditional or pro offense and beat other teams. That might work out in the long run, and it might be for the better, but for THIS year, it won’t work. I, personally, would, like to see NU DOMINATE other teams by our sheer physicality, but I don’t think it will happen in one year.
Keep this in mind… as more and more teams go to the spread, they need faster (and usually smaller) players, leaving only a few strong (and brutal) teams out there. I would prefer NU to be a physical team.
Think about this… what would you rather have NU become… an MU team that can be great, but only every 3 or 4 years when a great QB comes along, or a VaTech team that is great year-in and year-out due to their physicality? I would prefer a physical team over a finese team.
10/9/2008
p.s. practice makes perfect. the more you practice the better you’ll become. To speed up the process the players have to FOCUS more in practice. They have to concentrate on the technique and scheme. Let’s see if Bo can instill a sense of FOCUS or CONCENTRATION on the players.
Plus, in my experience, you always practice better than you play. In practice you’re calm and yet energetic (if you wan to be there) and focused (if you have the right concentration)... in a game you’re nervous and hyper-energetic (too much energy). Ideally, you want to play on gameday as you play in practice, because it’s at practice where you play the best (if you’re a great player… think Vince Young… you can excel your practice performance in a game situation).
Play like no one is watching.