September 14, 2009

I apologize for my fan base for not getting back to blog last Thursday as I promised. Life gets busy but no excuses...so we'll blog 4 days this week.

The Hot List:

1. Nebraska/Arkansas State breakdown
2. Husker Volleyball
3. Big 12 Power Rankings

1. It was another stellar offensive game for the Huskers as Zac Lee continues to show his maturity and knowledge of the offense guiding the Huskers to 5 scoring drives in the first 6 possessions of the game. That kind of start made it almost near impossible for the red wolves to figure out how to attack Nebraska's defense and make it a game. I have become very impressed with Zac Lee's passing arm. He's been able to not only throw the ball all over the field but to deliver the ball with superb accuracy. Over 2 games the Husker's have shown that they haven't lost a beat since losing Ganz, but that the offense is evolving under Zac Lee into a more passing potent offense. It was nice to see Niles Paul become a focal point in the offense as I feel his play will be critical for Nebraska to upset Virginia Tech on the road this upcoming Saturday. The questions are becoming worrisome for the Husker Defense, the bright side was that they once again didn't break, but certainly bended a few times, giving up 10 plays of 8 yards or more. The play of the LB's has become a bit of concern for defensive coordinator Carl Pelini. He expressed that his young LB's will need to work at getting off blocks better and tackle better. These areas will need to be addressed this week as I expect the coaching staff to input a stronger defensive game play to stop the likes of Tyrod Taylor.
GRADE OUTS:
Offense: A-
Defense: B-

2. It's finally happened, after 90 games of victories, the Nebraska Volleyball team lost 3-2 to UCLA on Sunday at the Devaney Center. There was some irony in this game and John Cook's daughter, Lauren Cook, schooled the husker volleyball team to take home MVP in the Player's Challenge Tournament. It was difficult to watch as once again a very talented Nebraska player left the state to adorn colors of another team. This was the first meeting with Father and daughter, going to the daughter this time. Her play of 5 kills, 48 assists, and 15 digs in the 5 set victory gave her Bruins a big win over the Huskers. It was surreal to see the home winning streak come to an end, but as one person told me once before, streaks were made to be broken. Nebraska once again shot themselves in the foot with service errors, notching 9 in the loss, this play will most likely be Cook's focus this week. I'll be looking to see how the team bounces back from this loss, but knowing how Cook gets his teams focused....I'll be expecting them to rebound.
As for his daughter, I can't imagine how thanksgiving dinner will be like this year at the Cook house....more of this story to be played out in following years to come.

3. Tim Griffin of ESPN, posted his updated Big 12 Power Rankings and we find Nebraska still at #5 behind Kansas, OSU, Oklahoma and Texas. I agree that the gem of the conference will continue to be Texas as long as they keep winning...the get Texas Tech and College Gameday this Saturday. I would still put Oklahoma 2 after slaughtering Idaho State on Saturday, but I feel Nebraska should be #3, ahead of OSU who struggled mightily on defense and allowed Chase Keenum and Houston to pull out a 10 point upset win on their home field. I don't believe in teams walking around in uncharted waters, but I do believe that if you put too much emotions into one game, you'll more than likely lose the next one....too bad OSU wasn't mentally tough for that challenge. The Huskers are more than deserving of being the 3rd best team in the conference and if they go to VT on Saturday and make a statement I feel Tim will be changing his tune next week. How he feels Kansas is better than the Huskers at this point of the season is ridiculous. KU did play well on the road last week allowing UTEP to score a meaningless, but after 2 games Todd Reesing has only throw 3 TD passes, with all conference WR Briscoe hauling no TD's. Its clear they want to run the ball more this season, but after two games with Northern Colorado and UTEP have hardly allowed them to be ahead of Nebraska. I guess the real way to settle which team is better will come in November when the two tangle. I still like the Husker's winning that game...but there's soo much that can happen to both teams before than.

Coming back Wednesday........Skocz Out