Nebraska and Illinois.....in two days!

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I understand the hate for Bert on this forum, but I believe many of you are under-estimating him.
I think he's a good coach. He won at WI with Barry, but you still have to be a decent coach or you aren't going to hang there long, nor win long.

Arkansas was a tough deal and he had Robb Smith as his defensive coordinator.
We should all understand by now how hard it is to win anywhere with Robb Smith as your Defensive coordinator.

Bert's quote about not losing was essentially, the best way to win in college football is to not beat yourself.

Exactly what Nebraska did was beat themselves.
It's the exact same thing that PJ says about the 78% (winning turnover battle).

There are plenty of things to rip on Bert for, but a bad coach wouldn't have taken Illinois for a win over that Nebraska team with the team Illinois had on the field on Saturday.
 

cjbfbp said:
Yes, not only does Illinois have proximity to large recruiting markets, but the state has been one of the better midwestern recruiting markets for our team so a rise in their program could have a negative recruiting effect for our program.
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Fleck has really worked Illinois well during the Lovie tenure. Bert might put a kink in that hose for a while.
 

Face The Facts said:
I understand the hate for Bert on this forum, but I believe many of you are under-estimating him.
I think he's a good coach. He won at WI with Barry, but you still have to be a decent coach or you aren't going to hang there long, nor win long.

Arkansas was a tough deal and he had Robb Smith as his defensive coordinator.
We should all understand by now how hard it is to win anywhere with Robb Smith as your Defensive coordinator.

Bert's quote about not losing was essentially, the best way to win in college football is to not beat yourself.

Exactly what Nebraska did was beat themselves.
It's the exact same thing that PJ says about the 78% (winning turnover battle).

There are plenty of things to rip on Bert for, but a bad coach wouldn't have taken Illinois for a win over that Nebraska team with the team Illinois had on the field on Saturday.
Click to expand...
I've always had a soft spot of Kirk and Bert. I think they have been good coaches and they have been fun counterpoints in the rivalries. It's funny that now my fondness for Bert now upsets both Badgers and Gopher fans.
 

I
Face The Facts said:
I understand the hate for Bert on this forum, but I believe many of you are under-estimating him.
I think he's a good coach. He won at WI with Barry, but you still have to be a decent coach or you aren't going to hang there long, nor win long.

Arkansas was a tough deal and he had Robb Smith as his defensive coordinator.
We should all understand by now how hard it is to win anywhere with Robb Smith as your Defensive coordinator.

Bert's quote about not losing was essentially, the best way to win in college football is to not beat yourself.

Exactly what Nebraska did was beat themselves.
It's the exact same thing that PJ says about the 78% (winning turnover battle).

There are plenty of things to rip on Bert for, but a bad coach wouldn't have taken Illinois for a win over that Nebraska team with the team Illinois had on the field on Saturday.
Click to expand...
I heard during the game that Illinois has the most Super Seniors in the FBS. He took over a losing team, but one with a bunch of experienced players who are probably buying into his coaching. Beating Nebraska should not be a surprise with that formula.
 

Face The Facts said:
I understand the hate for Bert on this forum, but I believe many of you are under-estimating him.
I think he's a good coach. He won at WI with Barry, but you still have to be a decent coach or you aren't going to hang there long, nor win long.

Arkansas was a tough deal and he had Robb Smith as his defensive coordinator.
We should all understand by now how hard it is to win anywhere with Robb Smith as your Defensive coordinator.

Bert's quote about not losing was essentially, the best way to win in college football is to not beat yourself.

Exactly what Nebraska did was beat themselves.
It's the exact same thing that PJ says about the 78% (winning turnover battle).

There are plenty of things to rip on Bert for, but a bad coach wouldn't have taken Illinois for a win over that Nebraska team with the team Illinois had on the field on Saturday.
Click to expand...
Agreed, he'll do well at Illinois I think. Or at least get them out of the cellar
 


MaxyJR1 said:
I

I heard during the game that Illinois has the most Super Seniors in the FBS. He took over a losing team, but one with a bunch of experienced players who are probably buying into his coaching. Beating Nebraska should not be a surprise with that formula.
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Yes.
He has a very large group of Super Seniors, especially on his O-line. So being a decent coach, he embraced that and is essentially playing Wisconsin ball with them.

Are they the most talented? No. But if he can coach 23 and 24 year old's to block 19 and 20 year old's, he'll do fine with that formula if they minimize mistakes.

This is a contrast to how even Fleck may have handled that group.

Bert's team next year will be a "Year Zero" or "Year One" team because of so many new faces, but for his first year, starting with the old guys and awarding playing time to younger kids as they earn it seems like a wise plan and a winning formula against teams who make a lot of mistakes.
 

Whoever called that game a pillow fight earlier described it perfectly. That was two very mediocre football teams going at it. Nebraska looked more talented along the DL, but Illinois looked more talented at the skill positions on both sides. Both OLs were subpar. Very few explosive athletes on offense for either team. Illinois did look well-coached and didn't do much to beat themselves...whereas Nebraska looked like an undisciplined mess.

I don't doubt Bielema can have success at Illinois, but taking over a Wisconsin program that was riding a decade of success with a demonstrated blueprint for recruiting and gameplanning is a VERY different proposition than taking over an Illinois team that has been mired in mediocrity (or worse) for decades. Guess time will tell.
 

Minnesota's ground game will pound both these defenses like a Trevor Bauer whore
 

Nebraska has some decent WR's, but the issue is no one can throw it to them consistently.
 



Nebraska has more talent, but the Illinois coaches simply out coached Nebraska. Nebraska seemed to have a better game plan, but the Illini adjusted and the Cornhuskers did not.

Also Adrian Martinez wasn’t a leader in that game, nor a consistent passer. He spent game time being upset with his own mistakes, and not rallying the offense to keep going. By the end if the first half I was thinking Frost might start the second half with a new QB. Maybe he should have.
 

MGGopher said:
Whoever called that game a pillow fight earlier described it perfectly. That was two very mediocre football teams going at it. Nebraska looked more talented along the DL, but Illinois looked more talented at the skill positions on both sides. Both OLs were subpar. Very few explosive athletes on offense for either team. Illinois did look well-coached and didn't do much to beat themselves...whereas Nebraska looked like an undisciplined mess.

I don't doubt Bielema can have success at Illinois, but taking over a Wisconsin program that was riding a decade of success with a demonstrated blueprint for recruiting and gameplanning is a VERY different proposition than taking over an Illinois team that has been mired in mediocrity (or worse) for decades. Guess time will tell.
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Mediocre is being nice. Those were two bad football teams that will be at the bottom of the west.
 

WAGopher said:
Nebraska has more talent, but the Illinois coaches simply out coached Nebraska. Nebraska seemed to have a better game plan, but the Illini adjusted and the Cornhuskers did not.

Also Adrian Martinez wasn’t a leader in that game, nor a consistent passer. He spent game time being upset with his own mistakes, and not rallying the offense to keep going. By the end if the first half I was thinking Frost might start the second half with a new QB. Maybe he should have.
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I kinda wonder what Nebraska's record would be if Martinez was more consistent. He seems to be up and down on accuracy and if that was better, I bet they at least squeeze out this win, if not a few more from past seasons.
 




WAGopher said:
Nebraska has more talent, but the Illinois coaches simply out coached Nebraska. Nebraska seemed to have a better game plan, but the Illini adjusted and the Cornhuskers did not.

Also Adrian Martinez wasn’t a leader in that game, nor a consistent passer. He spent game time being upset with his own mistakes, and not rallying the offense to keep going. By the end if the first half I was thinking Frost might start the second half with a new QB. Maybe he should have.
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Two of their offense's biggest plays were AM scrambling on a pass play and then getting huge yards.

Why not just do that as a called play?? QB delayed draw. Obviously the defense would start spying, so then you try to take advantage of that.
 

swelna said:
I kinda wonder what Nebraska's record would be if Martinez was more consistent. He seems to be up and down on accuracy and if that was better, I bet they at least squeeze out this win, if not a few more from past seasons.
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Well and it's not just Martinez... like he's the best QB they've got for years now?

That's on Scott & Co. too.

It is akin to the Mitch situation IMO. So many folks rag on him ... you know what? We know what Mitch will give you, we knew it for years, at some point bitching about / at him about not being better seems absurd.

Folks were all over Mitch when the core of the problem was that it was some other folk's job to either make him better ... or find someone better.

I think Mitch took a lot of flack because the latter didn't happen.
 

A_Slab_of_Bacon said:
Well and it's not just Martinez... like he's the best QB they've got for years now?

That's on Scott & Co. too.

It is akin to the Mitch situation IMO. So many folks rag on him ... you know what? We know what Mitch will give you, we knew it for years, at some point bitching about / at him about not being better seems absurd.

Folks were all over Mitch when the core of the problem was that it was some other folk's job to either make him better ... or find someone better.

I think Mitch took a lot of flack because the latter didn't happen.
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I think eventually it was people being frustrated that Kill didn't find better options (even when there appeared to be better options already on the roster).

Kill was a bit stubborn.
 


Ohio State could line up in some funky way that they've not shown on film the last two seasons.

Doubt they'll do that, with the same HC and coordinators. Probably want to keep things as simple as they think they can get away with. But they could. EDIT: I guess technically this is only Coombs second year as DC.


That's always the tricky thing about first week games, especially when playing against a team with new coordinators.
 

highwayman said:
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I stopped after a couple minutes. Tough to watch. At about the 0:30 mark I felt I should pick up the phone and call one of those mental health hotlines* for this guy. Looks mostly like DNFFS (Delusional Nebraska Football Fan Syndrome), which is evidenced by the first part of his comment starting at the 0:56 mark. However, he seems to come back to reality immediately with his words in the latter half of that comment.
Either way...lots of issues there.

* update...At least it would have been a local call, this guy is in Minnesota. Odd.
 
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