Quote:
Originally Posted by Kevin
Your team has a lot to be proud of. Callahan, I think is still learning how to be a college coach all over again. His post game comments (unlike the infamous 'effin hillbillies' retort in '03) were pretty classy. That is all subject to change if he whines about officiating or anything of that nature, but so far -- huge improvement.
Your front 4 on the defense were incredible, Blake couldn't cut it at head coach, but he's clearly an excellent position coach. I understand that they're all gone next year? Your LBs were great at bottling up Oklahoma's run. I think the injury to #71, Trent Williams contributed to that though.
Your defensive weakness is in your secondary. The corners are generally small and they have a really bad habit of getting beat. Grixby was having a real problem with Kelly. He was clearly just out-talented back there. I have no idea why NU's defensive staff didn't try someone else on Kelly.
I'm not sure if it was NU's offensive line being terrible or Oklahoma's pass rush that was great -- perhaps a combination of the two that had Zac so rattled all night. NU's offense relies a lot on good protection and timing. Oklahoma clearly took that away from them with its dominating pass rush. That was probably, more than anything else what decided the game. Zac was hurried into throwing a lot of bad passes resulting in turnovers. If NU's defense wasn't so stout, this game would have been a rout.
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I don't disagree with anything you said - it's all spot on. With this game as a prime example, I really think the main difference right now between Oklahoma/Texas/USC and Nebraska is we have 2 solid recruiting classes, compared to 5+ for the other teams - Frank Solich really left our cupboards bare - and while I think we have all the coaching we need, we're sorely lacking physical talent. Taylor and our front 4 on defense are all gone next year, but Callahan's excellent recruiting the past few years will hopefully mean a short transition - getting Keller from ASU is huge - we have a QB with DI experience and a full year redshirted under Callahan to learn his offense.
Nebraska did deserve to be in the Championship game - there's no doubt about that. They just now need to make the next step and win it.