Nebraska Football - Offensive Staff Changes? (Or No?)

by Jon Johnston on Jan 31, 2011 1:04 PM CST in 2011 Nebraska Huskers Football

It's two days before National Signing Day. Shawn Watson is still Nebraska's offensive coordinator. Barney Cotton is still the offensive line coach. I imagine that many of you are of the mind that Bo Pelini will wait until after the recruits are all in to make any changes to his offensive staff.

I would call that wishful thinking. For one, it would be deceptive to incoming recruits (unless they were specifically told ahead of time there would be changes, and I doubt that). Bo Pelini may be a stubborn, in-your-face kind of guy, but I don't believe he's that deceptive. With him what you see is what you get.

Another perspective might be that it's not deceptive at all. It's the business of college football (so get over your duckies and bunnies world and come join us in the real one).

Which is correct? Which will happen? It's killing you, ain't it, even more so than recruiting, right?

Hey! We haven't done a poll in a while, so let's do a poll about it.

Poll

Will Bo Pelini make changes to his offensive staff within the next two weeks?

Yes

256 votes

No

407 votes

Why Even Bring it Up? It's like you hate your readers or something

88 votes

751 votes | Poll has closed

Tweet Comment 10 comments | 0 recs |

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Comments

I think

if he was going to make a change it would have happened within a week or two of the bowl game. My guess would be this is Watson’s last chance. My guess also would be they are working on fumbling drills right at this moment. And if they aren’t they should be. 45-16 that is 45 fumbles 16 of which were lost. Compared to 16 fumbles and only 4 lost by our opponents. I see some room for improvement on both sides of the ball ONLY 4 FUMBLES RECOVERED ALL YEAR. That last stat caught me by surprise.

by Huzkerfan on Jan 31, 2011 1:19 PM CST reply actions

Ironically, signing day is also groundhogs day

Pelini will walk outside If he doesn’t see his shadow then he fires Watson and Cotton right away. But if he sees his shadow he runs back and hides in his office and it means another year of Watson and Cotton. The forecast says mostly cloudy for Groundhogs day, so there’s a chance!!!!

(sighs) Unfortunately I have a very bad feeling it’s another year of Watson and Cotton….regardless of Pelini’s shadow. That means another year of some impressive numbers against crappy defenses and total embarrassments to any defense that is half decent…or any defensive coordinators that can tie their own shoes and count to 11.

Next season, I refuse to be deceived. I don’t care if we score 100 points 4 weeks in a row. Unless we get through an entire season and outscore every opponent by 2 touchdowns and win the national championship…I will not forgive Watson and Cotton for how I have been emotionally abused by them for the past two seasons, and for how they’ve prevented a team with championship caliber defenses from winning championships.

by Billgrip on Jan 31, 2011 1:47 PM CST reply actions

I voted yes

Becuase thinking that Bo will fire Shawn Watson is the only thing that gets me through my day…. DONT TAKE THAT AWAY FROM ME!

So I tried the Barbasol and Rotel dip and I was very dissapointed!

by Amonra on Jan 31, 2011 3:20 PM CST reply actions

The coaching staff

doesn’t need a bunch of us arm-chair QB’s telling them what isn’t working. They installed a new system last year and they will have to get the players to fill in and learn what works and what doesn’t.

They are smarter than we are when it comes to decisions about the team. If Bo really felt like this offense wasn’t going anywhere, he would change it up. Until then, I support Shawn Watson and hope to see improvement next year.

by Aaron Musfeldt on Jan 31, 2011 5:35 PM CST reply actions 2 recs

You

don’t have to be a college coach or have inside knowledge of the program to see how ineffective the offense was at the end of last year. My problem isn’t necessarily with scheme but with the lack of fundamentals i.e. fumbles, not throwing the ball away, and not knowing the snap count. Those basic football 101 problems good coaching will fix. If they can’t fix the fundamentals how can you expect them to put together a good game plan or implement an effective system???

by Huzkerfan on Feb 1, 2011 10:50 AM CST up reply actions

I'm sure Bo doesn't believe he should apologize for a 10-win season

but he must try to sell Husker fans (his stockholders) on his vision for the future of this offense, whether or not he retains Watson and Cotton. Bo’s not stupid— no coach could NOT see how fundamentally flawed this offense was during crunch time, and how it has cost him two conference championships in as many years. However, he has to show that he’s not just being stubborn out of spite towards his critics. If he is planning to retain the same offensive staff, he must sell people on why he is doing so. Whether that’s because they all had a come-to-Jesus moment in the last month about pulling in the same direction, or they’re reverting back to pro-style (unlikely, considering the testimony of recruits) or whatever, he has to understand that he can’t just be silent following a beyond-embarrassing clunker against a 6-6 UW team.

by FDLink on Jan 31, 2011 6:38 PM CST reply actions

I said no...

I wish he would have done it weeks back,but this close to signing day I just don’t see it happening. I think our offensive woes will plague us for another year.

GBR!
throw dem bones!!!

by hskrntnfreak on Jan 31, 2011 9:04 PM CST reply actions