Nebraska...not feeling Frosty anymore

[hack]

To me your last sentence is overdoing it. Hoke has yet to lose in Ann Arbor; he's not gonna lose 3 times next year. Those teams aren't going to be significantly favored. Perhaps a little bit if any. You're right about the RB situation, but why not consider Deveon Smith? He's a 4-star recruit. IIRC the knock is that he lacks big-play speed, but excels between the tackles and is a consistently reliable 4 yards a carry. That's good to have! Borges is going to call play action whether he's got Deveon Smith back there or Vincent Smith, so if he's got Deveon, and the kid can come right in and contribute, then that's a big big difference from the season just completed. By the time they play O$U that back and the OL will have gone through much of their freshman learning curve.

And what about Wyatt Shallman? We expected him to switch to defense, and IIRC he's too tall to fit the conventional profile of an effective RB, but in particular given the situation he's gonna get a look still, right?

[Hannibal]

To me your last sentence is overdoing it. Hoke has yet to lose in Ann Arbor; he's not gonna lose 3 times next year.

I hope that you're right. Even if he loses two though, I guarantee you he's not going undefeated on the road.

[hack]

I don't think he loses two. He very well may win all three. My reasoning:

1. Borges finally has the players that will put him in a position to look competent. A new set of starters on the OL who are highly regarded and won't have to adjust from what they were doing under RichRod, plus him finally being free of the albatross that is Denard Robinson: Al Borges' nightmare is over! He can finally be himself again. (Yes I'm being sarcastic, but seriously we no longer have to deal with the mismatch of talent and coach). Again, the offense is an RB away and there are already two four-star football players coming who have played that position in HS. Maybe we'll start to see Hoke and Borges as a team calm down and stop courting ridiculous risks when they have more of their guys in place.

2. The defense, and this is my real reason for hope. Mattison isn't losing a Mike Martin and an RVB this year. Kovacs is the only serious, serious loss, and there's Wilson who has been groomed. Last year's defense IMO was a little better than this year's, but next year Countess is back and Taylor will be an upperclassman starter. There's more continuity on the DL plus the infusion of talent. Presumably James Ross is going to really benefit from a second offseason in the program and he and Ryan will be terrors on the outside. Ross could really help eliminate Michigan's problem defending the edges against mobile QBs. So IMO the defense next year really takes a step up. I see the defense as a year ahead of the offense in fully departing the RichRod era.

[Hannibal]

Borges can be himself again? I guess that means he can be the guy who has gotten fired from his previous jobs? Even if he feels comfortable, the early returns on our offensive line coach indicate that he is a Tony Gibson caliber guy.

I don't know that Kovacs is as much of a loss as people are saying. He's one of the most reliable guys that we have ever had back there, but he's not a playmaker at all. Not like Shonte Peoples or Marcus Ray. We could really use some of those in the defensive backfield. We didn't have an INT in the entire month of November. The MSU game was the last time that a DB picked off a pass. We were a staggering -11 on interceptions this year.

[hack]

Not a playmaker, but Brian puts it right -- when's the last time you remember M giving up a long TD? Why's that?

Dymonte Thomas is coming. As is improved corner play.

I'm sure you know what I mean about Borges -- it only gets easier for him from here, not harder. He'll still suck, but at least the degree of difficulty is gone.

We'll see how the kids come along, but the line was pretty stupendously bad this year and you gotta therefore wonder about the coaches.

[entropy]

GBR!

[THE_WIZARD_]

Too bad that truck can't be our fullback.

[THE_WIZARD_]

Wisconsin 56 UNL 3

[entropy]

Sounds like neb is outnumbering Wisky 3:1 by people in Indy.

[geo weidl]

Good luck guys.

[whodean]

Wake up, corn flakes.

[Dr. Strangelove]

Huskerz looking like the Ohio State game Huskerz

[entropy]

I have hit the liquor cabinet.

[iam416]

Could we have a Leaders Division team winning the Conference Title but not the Division Title? Apparently, there's a chance.

[entropy]

Out coaches badly. Nebraska forgot to show up