This guy "got it" about last season and the possible impact of Casey Thompson.

[Woodhead]

We had a good to great quarterback run game which I believe we lost when Martinez went to Kansas State. Can Thompson pick up some of the slack? I have no idea, though his college results would suggest he won’t. Just as I challenged you and said you had hope not facts, you can do the same for me when I say I think we lost a lot in the run game from the quarterback position. There is just no way to know. Personally, I don’t see anything in our offensive line or running back room that leads me to believe we will be anything more than modestly better than last year. I do hope for better results though, I’m not sure with Wipple in charge of the offense and a young inexperienced O line coach we should be counting on any improved production from the running game. There is absolutely no evidence on paper that would suggest an improved running game.

The only insight provided us as to whether the run game is trending up comes from Huskers defenders and D coaches. They claim a marked improvement has been observed. Now, coaches have agendas, thus commentary from them deserves a staid response, but players tend to be more forthcoming. I trust their claim of change, but as to how much difference that translates towards will take live fire to discern.
Apologies for not meeting the original challenge of evidence on paper, but, to my twisted sensibilities, any reported change is good, while paper and football should only converge in a George Plimpton novel.

 

[NorthwoodHusker]

All I’m saying is, he was the best threat we had. Sometimes the only threat.

And sometimes he came through with defenses knowing that.
He had only one true my guy beats your guy in Wandale,though he did have some talent around him last year and his first as well.

 

[HuskerNash]

The only insight provided us as to whether the run game is trending up comes from Huskers defenders and D coaches. They claim a marked improvement has been observed. Now, coaches have agendas, thus commentary from them deserves a staid response, but players tend to be more forthcoming. I trust their claim of change, but as to how much difference that translates towards will take live fire to discern.
Apologies for not meeting the original challenge of evidence on paper, but, to my twisted sensibilities, any reported change is good, while paper and football should only converge in a George Plimpton novel.

Do you expect players to say there is no improvement? Or to say any part of the team is struggling? The off-season is full of things are different, we’re working harder than ever, watch out for Nebraska, etc. every year. I got my fill of it in and drank that Koolaid in 2019 and again in 2020. I’ll be drinking some Kool-Aid again come July but nothing other than hope tells me we will have a winning season.

 

[NorthwoodHusker]

The only insight provided us as to whether the run game is trending up comes from Huskers defenders and D coaches. They claim a marked improvement has been observed. Now, coaches have agendas, thus commentary from them deserves a staid response, but players tend to be more forthcoming. I trust their claim of change, but as to how much difference that translates towards will take live fire to discern.
Apologies for not meeting the original challenge of evidence on paper, but, to my twisted sensibilities, any reported change is good, while paper and football should only converge in a George Plimpton novel.

I agree, not much there,but what is is from a more reasonable group, the players.
I would expand on what they said beyond in including the RBs, as in, less line more RB praise.
We can attribute a better run game to worse run stop, but singling out RBs is a whole other matter

 

[Goal-line]

I didn’t say anything about wins or fumbles or interceptions. Give me one example of a running back providing more than Adrian Martinez did in the run game? Say what you want about Martinez he was our most explosive offensive weapon. Who would you nominate for that role? Maybe if he would’ve had some support surrounding him like an offensive line or a go to running back he would not have had to be responsible for whether this team lived or died. He had his flaws but to deny he was our biggest and almost only running threat is just being ignorant. If I’m not mistaken Nebraska generated 5300 yards or so last year and Martinez was responsible for 3300 of those yards or about 63% of every yard gained.

I just question your description of "good to great." How would we know what might have been when the entire game plan was focused on the play of one player, the QB? Unfortunately, Frost had his feet stuck in the mud with Martinez for four years.

 

[YUENGLING]

And sometimes he came through with defenses knowing that.
He had only one true my guy beats your guy in Wandale,though he did have some talent around him last year and his first as well.

Time will tell Thompson is moving to a conference that plays defense very well and Martinez is moving to a conference where defensive play is often questionable. I wouldn’t bet against either one this coming season.

 

[TFrazier]

Time will tell Thompson is moving to a conference that plays defense very well and Martinez is moving to a conference where defensive play is often questionable. I wouldn’t bet against either one this coming season.

That is an interesting point. Martinez might make an easier transition to the Big 12 while Thompson could struggle at times in the Big 10. Too bad we have to wait until August to find out.

 

[cthusker]

Does one year of impressive success at Pitt translate to the Big 10 and specifically Nebraska? There is no way to proclaim we are going to be any better or worse for that matter. You are spewing hope and that is great but don’t try to make it out as anything other than that.

Honest question. Do you believe (or not) we've upgraded our offensive talent from the players and coaches from last season? Not asking for tons of stats, blah, blah, etc as that's been done ad nauseam while some try to prove the unprovable either way. Only on the field performance will actually settle that arguement. Personally I believe we've made significant improvements on the offense via players and coaches. Does it translate into a much better season? My feeling is based primarily on a new QB and several new coaches. I saw what MSU did last year mostly via the portal with a coach that had a losing 1 year record at the sCUm. lol Just saying I think there's enough postive things Frost and staff have done to have reasonable expectations of a good season. Also need to consider our schedule versus last year killer one.

 

[Husker In Oklahoma]

Time will tell Thompson is moving to a conference that plays defense very well and Martinez is moving to a conference where defensive play is often questionable. I wouldn’t bet against either one this coming season.

I think some of this is over exaggerating to a degree. On paper, the BIG looks better on defense, but is it? Some of the offenses in the BIG are junk, making those stats look better. Only Ohio State, mostly, has an explosive offense. I’m gonna guess this BIG defenses wouldn’t look as good playing against a conference full of pretty damn good offenses. If the Big 12 had to defend BIG offenses on the weekly, their defensive numbers would look much better. Oklahoma State, Iowa State, Kansas State, Baylor, TCU play pretty solid defense. It works in reverse as well. It’s just misleading.

 

[Huskerwisdom]

Martinez played his worst games last year against our most beatable conference opponents (outside of Northwestern who we could have likely trounced with anyone at QB):

Illinois - 16/32 - 50%,
Minnesota - 18/33 - 54.5% (after a god-awful first half)
Purdue - 14/29 - 48.3% 2TD's/4 INT's

3 winnable games, 3 awful games from our QB. And that isn't even going into critical mistakes in other close games.

Yes, we can all talk about Martinez's big play ability, etc., etc., but many of the problems he had he MADE for himself. Slow reads, wrong reads, not finding open receivers, running too soon, running too late.

He's a great kid and all of that, but Thompson will be a huge upgrade over him

 

[NorthwoodHusker]

Martinez played his worst games last year against our most beatable conference opponents (outside of Northwestern who we could have likely trounced with anyone at QB):

Illinois - 16/32 - 50%,
Minnesota - 18/33 - 54.5% (after a god-awful first half)
Purdue - 14/29 - 48.3% 2TD's/4 INT's

3 winnable games, 3 awful games from our QB. And that isn't even going into critical mistakes in other close games.

Yes, we can all talk about Martinez's big play ability, etc., etc., but many of the problems he had he MADE for himself. Slow reads, wrong reads, not finding open receivers, running too soon, running too late.

He's a great kid and all of that, but Thompson will be a huge upgrade over him

I'm in the camp upgrade where needed vs scheme we dont needs as much where AM excelled.
We dont need as much QB run. Alternatives are better reads, whos the hot man on quick/forced decisions and better pocket presence.
I think Thompson wins here, whereas AM wins in positive QB run, whether its designed or broken play.
AM in many occasions trusted his feet instead of the hot man, and hesitated when he did throw it to the hot receiver, disrupting timing advantage.
So some of AMs runs were his decisions leaving us with unknowns had those passes been completed on time.
Watching Thompsons tape, he sold plays much better which if done really well is a very undervalued ability.
In pure passing, AM would have one or two explosive passes per game then disappear. Why this only happened in rarity is a mystery to me.
Thompson seems much more consistent, slightly more accurate and sees the field and backfield better imo

 

[cthusker]

I'm in the camp upgrade where needed vs scheme we dont needs as much where AM excelled.
We dont need as much QB run. Alternatives are better reads, whos the hot man on quick/forced decisions and better pocket presence.
I think Thompson wins here, whereas AM wins in positive QB run, whether its designed or broken play.
AM in many occasions trusted his feet instead of the hot man, and hesitated when he did throw it to the hot receiver, disrupting timing advantage.
So some of AMs runs were his decisions leaving us with unknowns had those passes been completed on time.
Watching Thompsons tape, he sold plays much better which if done really well is a very undervalued ability.
In pure passing, AM would have one or two explosive passes per game then disappear. Why this only happened in rarity is a mystery to me.
Thompson seems much more consistent, slightly more accurate and sees the field and backfield better imo

AM played in 39 games for Nebraska and had a total of 48 total turnovers (int+fumbles). CT simply needs to avoid costly turnovers and we'll have a better season imo. Be interesting if nothing else to see how he does this season at KSU.

 

[Cisco]

There are a lot of reasons and established track record to be skeptical that a turnaround will occur. It's also unlikely based on history.

Nonetheless, I'm hopeful for this season and potentially going forward. One of the main reasons is Special Teams. I don't think we can overestimate how much of a difference consistently strong ST play would have made over the last several years. All of the beat writers and those around the program that I've heard speak on the subject all say that Bill Busch is highly organized and detail oriented. Combined with bringing in proven specialist, I am pretty confident that we'll see substantial improvement and I think it will make a big difference in our results in the win/loss column.

While less of a tangible factor, I also think there's a chance to build a little momentum and confidence this season. The schedule looks a little more forgiving this season. We've found 1,001 ways to lose a football game over the last four seasons. Much of that can be traced back to tangible reasons like Special Teams and turnovers, ect... But I think confidence and momentum can play a role in that sometimes. Given how often it's happened in the past, I can imagine that when adversity began to strike, especially late in games, players and coaches have probably thought "Here we go again."

Stringing together a few wins early in the season might help the psych of program. And I think we have a very good opportunity to do so this Fall.

 

[NorthwoodHusker]

AM played in 39 games for Nebraska and had a total of 48 total turnovers (int+fumbles). CT simply needs to avoid costly turnovers and we'll have a better season imo. Be interesting if nothing else to see how he does this season at KSU.

Their offense/scheme wont let him expose himself as much.
I suspect he'll do very well

 

[Cisco]

Martinez played his worst games last year against our most beatable conference opponents (outside of Northwestern who we could have likely trounced with anyone at QB):

Illinois - 16/32 - 50%,
Minnesota - 18/33 - 54.5% (after a god-awful first half)
Purdue - 14/29 - 48.3% 2TD's/4 INT's

3 winnable games, 3 awful games from our QB. And that isn't even going into critical mistakes in other close games.

Yes, we can all talk about Martinez's big play ability, etc., etc., but many of the problems he had he MADE for himself. Slow reads, wrong reads, not finding open receivers, running too soon, running too late.

He's a great kid and all of that, but Thompson will be a huge upgrade over him

I don't know if Thompson is an upgrade over Martinez or not. I don't think he's more talented personally. I think they are probably fairly similar. I thin Martinez may have a higher ceiling but a lower floor. If Thompson is simply less mistake prone at key moments it will go a long way. In the Big Ten West it's important to not beat yourself.