Was just informed of the vacation they send someone on, let's get the elephant in the room out of the way. I don't have a problem with people I have on ignore, they are there for a reason, so I can't see what they say. What I have an issue with is when I start threads to talk football, them coming in and talking nonsense where many times they are purposely misquoting what I said to make it fit their argument, and then hijacking the entire thread 2.5 pages in where all I see is responses to someone I have on ignore, and I have zero idea what was said only know it was about me. I don't need anyone completely gone from the board, but I feel like i'm on a lecture circuit that most people I can have a genuine talk with, and there's one or two people that come to every single lecture (or in this case thread i've started) and come with:
I have been wrong many times in the past, and i'll be wrong again. But what bothers the one that caused me taking a break is the fact i've gained some credibility and can say things without backing it up with an article or other things. It is what it is. I've disagreed with people about the 4-3 vs 3-4 argument, i've disagreed with people on S&C (which again i'm not as mad about it as it is portrayed), i've disagreed with how to handle certain situations like Riley and others. But enough of that, what'd I miss? I'll summarize some of the talks i've had:
- Defense is what we all pretty much speculated might happen in year 2 of a system (hasn't happened in 5 years). They are doing a pretty good job and our DL is looking extremely athletic/aggressive.
-Speaking of DL, myself as well as others like Damon Benning were told Darrion Daniels we all needed to pump the brakes on inserting him as a starter. I still think that's the case, but he's going to be playing this year. A lot. I don't think the things being said are just fluff.
-ILB is very thin. We will be fine in the long run, but we just aren't there this spring and need to avoid injuries in 2019 there. Honas, Miller, and Barry are your top 3, and they moved Joey Johnson to the middle as I had talked about in January/February on this board in an effort to get him on the field. He will be a better Weinmaster for us and help get us thru some time where we wait for our freshmen class of Henrich, Hannah, Snodgrass, and Reimers to get ready to roll.
-Injuries at OLB and WR (2 spots we don't have a ton of depth) have slowed some development down there. But I still think we will end up having no problem finding "serviceable" guys there. If we can keep Ferguson healthy for 12 games, he's all-conference. Then we just need one more OLB between Domann, Dixon, Tannor, etc.
-Speaking of Dixon, if he could just understand how good he is and get his other stuff straightened out, that would be great. He murders people everytime I go to practice. He's example 1,452 of what you see at a singular practice may be different than the daily things the coaches see/know about.
-Keeping with things the spring narrative is telling me I should be wrong about, I still have a hard time believing Cam Jurgens can be injured for basically 3 straight seasons, put on roughly 45 pounds, move from TE to the interior of the line at C, and be our starter. But a couple staffers have told me they really like him there, and it sounds like they are going to give him every chance to start there for 2019. I just have a hard time seeing it still. I'll take Farniok or Hixson (depending what they do with MFarniok).
-This spring is going to be littered with feel good walk-on stories, especially places like RB where we literally don't have scholarship guys to help. Applaud the kid for working hard and taking advantage of his opportunity, but that position along with a one or two others will be drastically different this fall.
-Sticking with RB, not sounding the alarm but Mo Washington needs more than just the stuff in California to go right. Got to Lincoln late from the 2018 class, losing development now in a time where we could really use him, and some other things. Hopefully it gets all straightened out.
-Last thing on the RB, and I can' take credit for this as Sharp and Benning spoke about it. Jaylin Bradley really changed the way he looks. Sometimes wrestlers when they don't have to maintain weight can really put on muscle/weight in a hurry. With Bradley, the way our S&C program puts on muscle it just got him too big. And sometimes when you are in a position group that may already have the "burner", you tell yourself that's the way you need to be. Ozigbo fell into that trap when we had some speedier/shiftier guys in front of him so he tried playing the downhill guy. It just didn't work for him, and you see what he looked like when he got his body to what was best for him in 2018. He was a stud. I look forward to seeing what Bradley can do this spring, but also know there's a ton of troops coming this summer.
OTHER THINGS
-I told a few of the people on PM about a month ago that I knew for a fact that we were the leader to get Hoiberg as our head basketball coach AT THAT TIME. UCLA and Nebraska had reached out to him, and for some reason he was more excited about Lincoln than Los Angeles. I get the family ties and what not, but I couldn't believe it. I have zero new news other than what everyone else has seen online, and would assume from what I knew a month ago and what others have been tweeting, that he's N. That's a major haul, and is great in regard to "how" he builds his program. We may not have to wait as long to get things going as we thought.
-Nebraska baseball is quietly putting together a great season so far. They got swept by the defending national champions in a 4 game series, and let a nearly double digit lead to Sam Houston State slip away, but both of those teams are Quadrant 1 games. They upset #3 Texas Tech, and are 8-2 besides those games heading into conference play today. Erstad recruited about as good locally as he could for these 2018 freshmen, and they are helping with getting us down the right path. I'm all N for Nebraska baseball this year but knew i'd probably have to weather the non-conference storm). Now it's all about winning as many weekend series' as you can. Also getting our other draft pick from the 2018 class back this weekend in Bo Blessie.
All I gots, yo.
On Dixon. Is is mental breakdowns? Consistency? Academics? All of the above?
