Sorry for the absence…been a tad busy since the Holiday Bowl. I still plan to give a wrap of the bowl and the season along with a preview of next year and probably a recruiting wrap-up…as soon as I am able to clone myself.
In case you have not seen it, here is the tribute video and Suh’s acceptance from last week’s Outland Trophy ceremony.
Enjoy….we are certainly going to miss the “House of Spears”…
Go Big Red!!
Wanted to convey a few thoughts before the bowl game on the 30th….
I’ll be honest with you all. I have not given this game much of a thought. Maybe because I haven’t fully gotten over the Big-12 Championship game or the fact that the best college football player in America didn’t win the Hypesman or that Turner Gill is now the head coach of the ChickenHawks…or maybe it was too much “quality” time with the extended family being snowbound in York, NE during the Christmas blizzard of 2009.
Whatever the reason, this game has just not risen to a level of consciousness with the Vibe that makes any sense. But I will give it a shot.
The Vibe expects both the offense and defense to pick up where they left off in the Big 12 Championship game. That means the defense should be its nasty ol’ self and the offense will be just a level above comatose.
We are being told that Cody Green will see some playing time…hopefully it will not be just one series at the 1/2 yard line…just so Zac can have a different view of the game… The Vibe would like to see some quality playing time from Cody to see what he can do…see if he has matured a bit. Regardless of who is at the helm of the offense, expect more of the same bad vanilla stuff we have seen for the entire second half of the season. It will be nice to see what should be a completely healthy Roy Helu and Rex Burkhead in action.
Defensively, expect Suh to play his last college game like it is his last college game. His effort may not be ”Longhorn-esque” but he will have a fine game…along wih the rest of the defense.
It will be a low-scoring game for sure. Two pretty good defenses and marginal offenses. The Skers will win the day…they will do it for the band.
Good Guys 20
Desert Cats 13
GO BIG RED!!
“Not the victory but the action;
Not the goal but the game;
In the deed the glory.”
…Of Scarlet and Cream!!!
I have a confession…the Vibe was thinking “blowout” on the part of the Horns against the Huskers on Saturday. I tried to ignore it…I tried to forget it…I refuted it, I disobeyed it.
Glad I did!!
There are no superlatives left to describe the Blackshirt’s effort against the T-sips and in particular, the play of one Ndomakong Suh!! They did absolutely everything they needed to do (except score a defensive touchdown) in order to win the game. You know your defense played well when ESPN’s Chris Berman, while discussing the great play of the NFL Bengals on Sunday, said “the Bengal defense is playing as good as Nebraska”. That is a pretty high compliment…regardless of the outcome of the game.
The bottom line is that if the Huskers had the etsiest bitsiest, teeniest weeniest, a mere miniscule, tad, scosch more offense, Nebraska would have pulled the biggest upset in college football this year and could have finished the 2009 campaign 12-1.
But I am not going to dwell on the negative here…not after that defensive performance…no way.
I am not even going to complain about a BS review when the clock had run out (what the heck was McCoy even thinking?). I am not even going to expound on what could have been had that last kick-off not gone out of bounds, giving the Horns the ball on the 40 yd line. No, I’m not even going to bitch about a couple of the most phantom of pass interference calls against the Husker when the ball was clearly un-catchable.
Nope, I am just going to relish in the fact that the Blackshirts, with their performance against one of the best offenses in the country, single-handedly returned the Nebraska Football program to national prominence and respect.
To watch Suh single-handedly dismantle one QB’s Heisman hopes while
displaying, for all the world to see, who is indeed the best player in college football, was a sight of pure pleasure for sure. If that performance does not earn him the impossible feat of a defensive player winning the Heisman, no performance ever will. He was named a finalist and will be in New York next Saturday for the presentation…so there is a chance.
All-in-all, it was a great game and a great Husker effort. To borrow a phrase from everyone’s favorite First Lady – Michelle, for the first time in a long time I am proud…DAMN proud to be a Cornhusker!!!
Go Big Red!!
Today, Nebraska can silence its critics (including me).
Today, Nebraska can showcase a Heisman Trophy candidate.
Today, Nebraska can dismantle an opponent’s Heisman Trophy candidate.
Today, Nebraska can have an identity on offense.
Today, Nebraska can cash in on all the off season blood and sweat.
Today, Nebraska can run through a brick wall for their coaches.
Today, Nebraska can play for their fans and for each other.
Today, Nebraska can take the next step in its journey to reclaim its rightful position among college football’s elite.
Today, NEBRASKA CAN WIN THE BIG 12 CHAMPIONSHIP!
Today, it is time to BELIEVE!
GO….. BIG…… RED!!
Kudos to the Huskers for reaching their pre-season goal of winning the B12 North and making it to the championship game. It was rarely pretty at any time all season but I am reminded that style points don’t really count for much. What does count is the final score and putting W’s in the win column.
I’ll be honest…the Vibe is rather weak this week. The Vibe is getting no real clear vision for how this game will go. If we play like we have, the Horns will smoke and it won’t even be close. If we play closer to our maximum potential, then the game will be close and we might even win.
We certainly need to take a page or two out of the A&M gamplan from last week. The Aggies were able to put some points on the board by running the ball…mostly between the tackles and with opportunistic passing. The Huskers will need to do the same. Add in some “trickeration”, take care of the ball and minimize penalties and I think we can scratch out 20 to 24 points against the Horns. Oh, and I hope we worked on blocking the backside safety blitz and have put new plays in place to exploit this…’cause the T-Sips will likely do the same as the Puffs did last week and that is to blitz 75% of the time.
Defensively, Suh and Crick will need to have their best game of the season for us to have a chance. Carl and Bo will need to get a bit more creative with some blitzes of our own to keep McCoy off-balance and corner or safety blitzes should help in keeping him in the pocket more and giving Suh and Crick a better chance. This will mean that our remaining D-backs will be one-on-one with Shipley & Co which will be a challenge but one I think we are up to.
It would also be nice to get a few breaks our way…a turnover here, a great punt return there…something that will give us an advantage to take some pressure of our feeble offense.
The Vibe thinks the breaks will come our way and that the Huskers will rise to the occasion and play their best game of the season. Historically, the series between the Skers and the Horns has nearly always been a pretty close game. This one will be no different. It will be nip and tuck but in the end, the Huskers will find a way to win!!
Good Guys - 20
Bevo’s Boys – 17
Keep in mind, at the end of the day – win or lose, it has still been a pretty good season for the Huskers and at least our logo (unlike the Horn logo) doesn’t remind anyone of a certain part of the female anatomy.
GO BIG RED!!
“Not the victory but the action;
Not the goal but the game;
In the deed the glory.”
Yet another excellent “insight” report by AggieReport.com…those who probably know this weeks opponent as well as anybody.
Go Big Red!!
So much for Herbie McScoreboard’s bold prediction of a blow-out…
I am almost a bit embarrassed to say that Friday’s game was the 1st game I had seen in person since the Skers played Pitt in Pittsburgh (2003?). It was fun to be there…in a game atmosphere. Other than some trash-talking going on around us (from both sides), the CU fans were pretty good and we had a great time.
Ok, enough of the nice stuff…time for a bit of a rant…
The complete ineptness of this offense is nearing “biblical” and certainly is an embarrassment to Nebraska Football.
It is possible to have a “run” oriented, “safe” offense and still be about twenty times more creative and original than this offense is right now. Look at Georgia Tech, look at Stanford. Hell, look at Florida.
And the worst part of it all is that the offense’s ineptness is beginning to show up on the other side of the football. The 15 to 20 more plays per game, almost all season long, is beginning to wear on this great defense and it is showing up on the field…more and more each game. The Blackshirts are tired and I sense they are just flat-out running out of gas in the tank from having to carry this team on their back…all season long.
The stats don’t lie. The 2009 Husker defense has played a lot more than last year or more than other good team’s D have. Through 12 games so far, the defense has played 830 snaps. That’s 90 more plays than the 740 during the 12 games of last year’s regular season, or 12% which roughly equals to an extra game and a half that the Blackshirts have had to be on the field.
Then, compare the number of defensive plays to offensive plays run by Nebraska. In 2009, that play ratio is 1.11. Basically, defense is playing 1.11 plays for each play the offense makes. In 2008, the ratio was 0.87.
Compare our stats to other top teams for this year:
Team Total Plays Def Plays per Off Play
Nebraska 830 1.11
Florida 705 0.88
Alabama 725 0.89
TCU 729 0.85
Texas 800 0.88
Notice how tightly grouped the data is for healthy, top-performing teams. This stat shows how hard our defense is having to work to basically match Florida and Alabama in scoring defense.
In the off-season, this offense needs to be completely”re-built”, similar to what the defense started last year. If that means every current offensive coach goes and we start over…so-be-it.
The bottom line is…the current state of our offense should not be tolerated by anybody for one more minute of gametime…period.
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