Week 1 Report Card: Western Michigan
by Husker Mike
on Aug 31, 2008 11:46 PM CDT
in Football
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All day today, the coaches have been busy studying the film from last night's game and grading every player. Well, I don't have film and I was busy all day visiting my mother-in-law, but that's not going to stop me from issuing my own grades again this season. And of course, you're more than welcome to chime in with your thoughts as well.
Offensive Line: C- Good pass protection, but they never were able to open up many holes for the I-backs.
Running Backs: C+ Tell me if you've heard this before: Marlon Lucky looks great outside the tackles, and rather ordinary within. Gotta find a way to get him the ball in space. Love the two I-back sets. Lucky's touchdown pass was set up here, as well as Joe Ganz's 30 yard option run in the first quarter.
Quarterback: B Joe Ganz would have gotten an A if I had graded him towards the end of the third quarter. (Then he threw a couple of bad interceptions.) But you can tell he's got good command of this offense.
Wide Receivers: A Nate Swift isn't flashy, but he gets open and makes plays. Menolik Holt is a tough guy to cover.
Defensive Line: A- Hey! Was that a pass rush I saw last night? And was that a negative sign in front of the opponent's rushing totals most of the night. Me likey!
Linebackers: B Every so often, Cody Glenn looked like a converted I-back out there. But the rest of the night, Glenn was a playmaker.
Secondary: C- Yeah, Armando Murillo and Ricky Thenarse spent the evening on the bench injured, but the replacements did ok Anthony West would probably like to have a few plays back from the first half.
Effort: A Guys were pursuing the ball all night, especially Cody Glenn. (Anybody else get the impression he was working out a bit of frustration that had been building up the last couple of years?)
Coaching: B+ Shawn Watson mixed up his playcalls pretty well, though I would have liked to have seen more rushing in the first half. But it was hard to argue with the results. Defensively, we saw a lot more variety in our defensive looks. (No duh.)
Overall: B- A lot of good things in the first half, but mistakes in the second half made this game closer than it should have been.
Elsewhere in College Football
Texas A&M: F Arkansas State is about as close to 1-AA as you can get.
Pitt: D- Mediocrity has a new home. Thank goodness.
ACC: F At least Duke spanked James Madison.
Texas Tech: C Offense looks good but defense continues to be an issue.
Buffalo Bulls: A+ Even if UTEP was looking ahead to the Bovines, that's an impressive debut for Turner Gill's squad.
Athletic Directors who schedule games: F Crappy games up and down the dial this weekend, and the TV networks had no choice but to televise some of them. Please, can we get strength of schedule put back into the BCS formula?
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O-Line
I’m not sure where I stand on their initial 2008 performance. On one hand it seemed that they just didn’t get the job done, but on the other West Mich put 8-9 men in the box to stop the run, which we advertised all week long that we were going to do. I guess if I heard that as a WM coach, I might alter my game plan to protect myself?
I was pleased to see that after all of the hype about WM’s two super All Conference defensive ends and how they were going to control the game, blah, blah, blah…..what defensive ends! The Husker tackles apparently owned those guys. That was a super effort on their part! No sacks
Huskers will be tougher by BIg 12 time
by Carolina Husker on
Sep 1, 2008 7:28 AM CDT
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I went back
and made it through part of the game. Allergies kicked my ass so bad yesterday it was difficult to concentrate. I think part of the problem with the run game was flat out missing assignments.
WM did sell out to the run quite a bit but instead of picking up the blitzing linebackers on the run, we flat out missed them or ran right by them.
I’m counting on the line to be a cornerstone of the team. They have to improve if we’re going to have a great season. They can play like they did and we’ll have a decent season, but…. who wants that??? Ha!
Go Big Red Nebraska!
Our Cobs Are Bigger Than Yours!
Corn Nation!
by corn blight on
Sep 1, 2008 8:33 AM CDT
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On those awful schedules .............
I’ve thought of a straight-forward way to encourage teams to schedule reasonable non-conference games. No changes to the BCS formula or NCAA rules are required. Simply have the BCS establish the following eligibility requirements for the BCS championship game (and only the championship game.
1. Championship game participants must have played no fewer than 10 games against teams from BCS conferences (including Notre Dame).
2. Championship game participants can not have played any games against FCS teams.
Thats it. Simple, easy, and pretty convincing. How would you like to be the AD at, say, Texas Tech, with a 12-1 record and #2 ranking and get to explain to your fan-base why you can’t be the National champions?
Run the ball. Stop the run. Win the game.
by RunTheBall on
Sep 1, 2008 7:00 PM CDT
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