Rhule says he believes the team is better than they are showing. He better be right or it is going to be another long season.
John Papenhagen
As with anything said by a UNL mouthpiece over the last decade - they’re full of crap until they prove otherwise.
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Jeff Sims is not the answer at QB. I cannot believe he is better than what we had on the roster. He’s a turnover machine trying to be a QB. This is one that Ruhle got wrong.
JB
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Matt, I believe that your team is a dumpster fire.
Due to poor play calling you lost a winnable game against Minnesota. Then you got hung in there for one half against Colorado before crumbling. It looks like Scott Frost v2.0.
Greg Zimmerman,UNL '75
Overland Park, Kansas
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I hate to have to agree… somewhat. Frost stuck with Martinez regardless of his effectiveness and Rhule is trending that way with Sims. If Sims is truly our only real option, we’re in trouble this year. Here’s an article on it that is unsettling.
https://www.si.com/college/nebraska/football/henry-mixed-messaging-worse-for-huskers-than-beatdown-in-boulder
I’m not sure Rhule’s got a lot of choice at QB, and it wasn’t always clear that Frost did, either. (When they did go in, they weren’t very effective, as I recall.)
Today it seemed like they didn’t want Sims to run, or maybe there just weren’t any plays where running was a better option until the play he scored on.
I thought the defense played well enough last week to win, and fairly well again today, at least for 3 quarters, until they were running out of steam, but the offense let them down time after time. Yeah, there were defensive mistakes, but the offense had more of them.
Our offensive line play has been substandard for many years, and in particular our offensive tackles have been consistently awful. Highly experienced by now, but literally no improvement since they started “starting” several years ago.
Until the offensive line play improves, turnovers aside, I’m not sure it matters who is at QB.
Jerry
GBR
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I think you make a great point about the offensive line. The greatest QB ever can’t get anything done behind an inadequate line.
John Papenhagen
I think things will get better on the left side of the O-line when Teddy P. returns from injury, but the future for the right side appears bleak until we get some new players next year. There’s (2) 5-star O-line high school recruits that are high on NU, one from Iowa, and one from California. My understanding is that the player from Iowa is 90% likely an NU signee, and the other is maybe 60%. Getting either one would be a big help but obviously both would be a coup. One can only hope that we can survive until then.
Meanwhile, it’s prudent to remember that patience is a virtue.
Jerry
GBR
Hey Jerry,
I think Husker fans (at least this Husker fan) have been pretty patient for the last 20 years. Yes, we’ve grumbled (sometimes a lot) but we’ve stuck with the team through thick and thin mostly, at last few years got rather thin admittedly.
Some people are plum tired of being “patient.” I listened to the post game radio show on Huskers.com. Almost all the callers asked gppd questions, without much negativity or angst.
GBR,
Maybe it comes from being a Cubs fan or a Northwestern alum, but I’m fairly patient with first-year coaches.
Jeff Sims is in his 4th year of eligibility, so unlike Martinez he won’t be a factor in multiple seasons at Nebraska. Does Nebraska have any commitments from a QB for 2024? I would like to see Haarburg get some more snaps in the next two games, though
I would say I am pretty much in that camp of being patient with first year coaches. I think it is just that people have had to put up with pretty bad stuff at least the last five years. As a result sometimes I got the vibe that people felt all that had to be done is get rid of Frost. Well, that happened and people just felt they would see more from Rhule. Well there is still a long season ahead and just speaking for myself I want to wait and see before I get angst over anything.
As far as the QB situation. The coaches I would think have seen each QB take many more snaps than any of us have. I have said this before but the fans only see the games. The coaches are around the players to talk to them and observe pretty much daily. The coaches also want to win more than does any fan. There has to be reason Sims is the QB and I doubt the reason is we are better evaluators of the QB than the coaches would be. I would believe the coaches aren’t happy with what they have seen either.
John Papenhagen
On the QB situation, I don’t think Casey was fairly evaluated before turning him away. My biggest issue with Ruhle and Sims is that we all knew Sims was a turnover machine before coming here. What the heck did Ruhle expect? In that regard, I believe he made a boneheaded decision.
JB
True, but we’re seeing what Sims is doing in the game.
I have often wondered why football coaching of the QB position isn’t more like the way a baseball manager handles his pitcher. If the starting pitcher is getting hammered he’s pulled for a relief pitcher.
One difference is the starting QB can return to the game.
Greg Zimmerman, UNL '75
Overland Park, Kansas
Coach Osborne did exactly that several times during his coaching career, the most recent being Tommy and Brook in the 94 Orange Bowl.
Coach Rhule has said that he and Coach Osborne meet periodically, hopefully this will be a topic for discussion between them soon.
Jerry
GBR
Yeah, but there is not a QB as good as either Tommie Frazier or Brook Berringer on the roster, IMHO, and the OL isn’t as good as they were back then, either.
True and Osborne had to make his decision based on an injury to Frazier. That isn’t entering the decision now,
John Papenhagen
Perhaps a better example would be when Osborne benched Mike Grant in 1992 after a loss to Washington and started true Freshman Frazier against Missouri.
But there probably isn’t a Frazier on the bench.
I remember TO playing an unproven sophomore QB, Turner Gill, over senior Mark Mauer early in the 81 season (2nd half of the Auburn game and starting the Colorado game) due to performance issues (among other things turnovers) in the first 3 games. NU was 1-2 at that point with losses to Iowa and Penn St and a win over Florida St.
At the start of the season Turner was the 3rd string QB behind Nate Mason and Mauer, but then Nate got hurt, and Mark wasn’t consistent. Granted, our current backups aren’t nearly the caliber of player that Turner was, but consider that no one knew that at the time (except for the coaching staff).
Also, the pressure on the coaching staff to change QB’s, and on the team to not lose another game, was extreme, not unlike what’s happening this week. Hopefully this will work itself out as it did then. Time will tell.
Jerry
GBR