A Disappointing, But All Too Familiar Day In Lincoln

Okay okay, to the facebook crowd out there, I will start off by saying sorry. I'm sorry for the constant heckling and flooding of facebook status updates chastising the Husker's every mistake, and there were a lot! It must have been annoying for those who actually made comments and then were annoyed by the constant "popping" sound that little red box in the corner makes every time I responded. I apologize. But also stand firm by saying, you you don't like reading it,...then dont. It's not a hard concept.

Now on to the game.

The writing was on the wall. The huskers have struggled against EVERY decent opponent they have faced this year. Every. Single. One. It was only a matter of time before the under performance caught up to us against an opponent we should have probably beaten easily. Field goals and horrendous red zone offense just isn't enough to win games. 8 turnovers? We were lucky we weren't playing a GOOD team. This one would have been over by half time. Roy Helu has no business being in the game today. There are obviously things wrong with him that are preventing him from playing to his full capabilities and right now he is a liability for us. I would say rest him until he can fully heal instead of running him every week and continuing this injury. I know we are already banged up at this position, but as we say today, D. Robinson looked more than adequate to step up. I think Mendoza could also be a play maker with his speed. Today and next week would have been a good opportunity for us to heal some bumps and bruises we have suffered.

Oh and Bo, enough with the hardass attitude towards the media. We all know Helu is injured. We know it happened on that 40 yard run in the fourth quarter against Missouri. We also know that he flew down on a separate flight with about 9 other huskers because they were sick with the flu. Quit pretending that these things are not happening. It's okay to be honest with us. Oh, and don't even get me started on the whole Quintin Castille fiasco. Eventually the fans are going to get tired of you dodging questions.

I feel today was a direct reflection of coaching philosophies that these young men are exposed to in practice. Helu played with a green "no contact" jersey all week. And we are surprised he fumbled why? This is division one football and our players need to be ready to go on gameday. Helu needs to be used to the game speed and full contact that he will expect come Saturdays. Oh and our starting center didn't even practice the last two days this week but started the game. I believe he was then later benched in the first quarter. If the players are not ready to go for practice, and can't participate in full on contact, then they are not ready to play in games. ITS SIMPLE!

Now on to Zac Lee. I know he has caught a lot of guff since last week and many people are calling for him to be benched. A positive today was that the offense actually moved the ball. While Watson still insists on throwing three yard dump passes on 3rd and 18, we were able to get the ball down the field at times. I wish Watson would stick to the ground game and not get spooked and return to his mundane patterns to the flats. However, today I feel Zac Lee ran out of chances. Earlier in the week I mad a few people upset via facebook when i referenced putting Cody Green into the game and said it was like throwing a rose into a toilet. At the end of the day, its still just a rose in the toilet. Cody Green, as talented (or untalented, we don't know yet) as he is, still is not going to change how this offense has come to be this season. I feel there are going to be growing pains if he becomes more involved in this offense. We have seen that he needs some fine tuning with his passes. However we have also seen that he can add that spark that this offense needs to make big plays. That being said, Zac Lee, I'm sorry, but your time is up. We can no longer afford you throwing behind receivers, throwing over receivers' heads, throwing into triple coverage, and making horrible check downs and audibles. We need to see what Cody can do. Hey, could it be any worse than what we saw today?

A bright side to todays game is that Suh continues to show that he is a BEAST. We very well may be watching the best defensive tackle to ever play for Nebraska. Keep up the good work big guy. You are keeping this team together and give us fans something to cheer for. I shudder to think about what is going to happen next year without him. I'll wait to think about that.

Oh, Henery, you're pretty good too.

On a final note it was brought to my attention by a respectable and intelligent husker fan i have know for many years that it appears that via facebook I often just bash the team without providing a personal stance on any issues regarding the team. He is right. I have been doing that and was forced to examine where I stand. Here's his post and my response to him. Hopefully this clears things up, a little bit.

Intelligent Husker Fan: "I support the idea of an opposing point of view in the form of a blog...even as a die hard Husker fan. I just think it would a good idea to clarify your stance on the various issues being discussed (i.e. is Bo the right coach? is Nebraska a great program and/or a great team? Should C. Green be the starter? Are the blackshirts back?). I think everyone would forced to take you more seriously, especially if you are able to back up your comments with factual information."

DO: "Is BO the right coach?-not sure. I like his emotion and his attitude, but i wonder how much he just lets Watson run his rink-a-dink offense, and how much he is actually involved. I'll admit i didn't like the hiring of Bo at the beginning. He's grown on me a little.

Is Nebraska a great program? At one time yes. but right now we are far from it. We have a lot of progress to make in a lot of areas before we will even be considered an above average program (currently, not historically).

Should Green be the starter? I think he deserves a chance to at least play in some games and get some experience. I mean it can't be any worse then what we are seeing right now. I'm not saying he is the answer and there will most certainly be growing pains if he is to see extensive playing time. But it cant hurt to experiment a little.... Read More

Are the black shirts back? No. And i could care less if that tradition ever comes back. Like Bo said last week, its not about the blackshirts, its about the red and white that they play in during games. Without Suh, I think our fron line is average. Without Dillard i think our linebackers lean to the inexperienced side. and our secondary has been exposed several times at key points during games."


I know this is getting long, but I wanted to include a message I received from another Nebraskan that I thought was funny. Here it is:

Nebraskan: "I wish I hadn't wasted my time with the game today, I should've just checked your status update play by play.
Its too bad this guy isn't wearing a husker shirt, then it would be too perfect for your blog."

***its the picture at the top of this post***