Armstrong at QB

[BigRedBuster]

Right now, Miami is sitting at #22 total defense. I'm sure they were ranked higher than that going into our game. We put up 34 points (7 from defense), 343 yards rushing, 113 yards passing on 9-13. That's 6.8 yards per play.

We beat them with the big play and grinding it out on the ground. We had one player with 229 yards rushing and another with just barely under 100 (96).

Right now, I am not seeing much to complain about with our offense.

 

[Landlord]

Armstrong is running well. Very physical and confident. It's been great to see. I think he does a decent job passing. Sometimes really good compared to last year. He can get better but I do like what he's shown through 4 games operating as our Qb this year. The more experience he gets the more things will slow down. He is a sophomore. Even Ameer is a lot bigger, stronger and a better running back today than he was as a sophomore when he took over for Rex. I think Tommy can follow the same path as Ameer. It just takes time, more games and some seasoning.

He's averaging almost 9 yards per carry. He's probably not going to take it to the house, but when he runs he's getting chunks of yards. In Taylor's first season, he averaged less than 6, his other two were closer to 5, and his best season barely broke 1000 yards. For as good of a runner as he was, Tommy will likely surpass him by the end of the season. That's some pretty solid company to be in when you're talking about a rushing QB. He doesn't guess on the zone read - he's rarely wrong. That's a welcome change. Add to it that he's fairly calm in the pocket, scrambles well and has an effective deep ball and he's only going to get better. I feel really good about Tommy at this point. He'll get more in sync with his WRs as the season goes on. If he throws an INT or two, it is what is. That's going to happen. 9TD to 2INT...I'll take that all season long. Feed the ball to your skill players, capitalize on your opportunities and limit the mistakes. He's doing all that and then some.

Just to be fair, through the first 5 games, Taylor was averaging almost 11 yards per carry.

We were all salivating and getting hard-ons because Taylor, Rex and Roy were all hovering around 10 yards per carry the first handful of games that season.

Which is not in any way to take away from Tommy or to try and compare him; he's done very well picking his times to keep it and Beck has done a good job getting him running opportunities. One of those 15+ yarders late against Miami was the same play that sprung Taylor for 70+ yards against MIchigan State in 2012.

 

[NUpolo8]

Anyone still worried about Tommy at this point is just picking nits.

His national ranks through non-con:

Passing Efficiency - 21

Passing Yards - 37

Passing Yards Per Game - 53

Passing Yards Per Attempt - 14

Passing Yards per Completion - 5

Passing Touchdowns - 20 (tied with 6 others)

Completion Percentage - 98

Rushing Yards - 36

Rushing Yards Per Carry - 6

Rushing Yards Per Game - 48

Total Offense - 21

Those are from the NCAA stats site.

That is great and all, but outside of Miami, we have been playing very tough defenses. FAU as an entirety have been laughable and Fresno is giving up 55 points to FBS teams. Mcneese St is an FCS school no matter how good they are down there. Let's not get too far ahead of ourselves.

Except everyone plays a similar schedule. One laugher, one Power Five opponent and one (for conferences with nine in-conference games) mid-level opponent or (for conferences with an eight-game conference schedule) two laughers/mid-level opponents.

This isn't an apples-to-oranges comparison. Aside from some teams being better than others, we've essentially played the same schedule as everyone in a Power Five conference so far.

It's quite possible Nebraska has the worst/easiest schedule of any of the top 25.

 

[knapplc]

You're welcome to do the legwork and post those schedules. I've done so for quite a few of Tommy's QB comparators, but I'm not doing it for the full Top 25.

I'll say this, a quick glance at Sagarin shows 8 teams with lower SOS's than Nebraska.

 

[Mavric]

It's quite possible Nebraska has the worst/easiest schedule of any of the top 25.

Not sure if you mean to-date or for the year but so far (according to Sagarin) aTm, Baylor, Michigan St., Notre Dame, Stanford, Mississippi St. and Arizona St. all have easier schedules and Wisconsin and Ohio St. aren't ahead of us by much.

 

[Dr. Strangelove]

It's quite possible Nebraska has the worst/easiest schedule of any of the top 25.

Not sure if you mean to-date or for the year but so far (according to Sagarin) aTm, Baylor, Michigan St., Notre Dame, Stanford, Mississippi St. and Arizona St. all have easier schedules and Wisconsin and Ohio St. aren't ahead of us by much.

How has MSU (Oregon), Stanford (USC), and Mississippi St (LSU) possibly have easier schedules than us? That's one thing I don't like about Sagarin, sometimes the stuff he presents is strange.

Earlier this year after Rutgers beat Washington State on the road, he still had Washington State ranked much higher than Rutgers...

 

[MichiganDad3]

There is no way Osborne would have overlooked the turnovers the way Pelini has with his last 2 quarterbacks. Not a chance.

Osborne didn't have to throw a Freshman quarterback into a part-time starting role mid-season when his four year starter got injured very often, so it's hard to determine what he was willing to overlook, if by "overlook" you mean not yanking the quarterback out at the first sign of trouble, with no better option available.

Osborne certainly stuck with quarterbacks who threw more interceptions per attempt than Freshman Tommy Armstrong did last year, not to mention lower completion percentages, fewer yards per carry and fewer wins per start. This year Tommy appears to be doing better. Actually, Tommy Armstrong is doing everything we used to love in a quarterback, while nearly eliminating his turnovers. Again, it's a bit mystifying why we're not supposed to enjoy Tommy Armstrong too much.

If you're saying Tom Osborne would have started Cody Green, Zac Lee or Ron Kellogg III over Taylor Martinez.....I think he might have started Lee in 2010. I don't know if he would have maintained that stance, or if that would have been better for Nebraska football.

The one thing most overlooked when trying to compare Armstrong to really any of those QB's in the TO era is the fact the QB wasn't nearly as big of part in the offense in the TO era. We went down to Manhattan, KS with a third string walkon playing the 16th ranked kittycats. We handled them just fine primarily because Turman didn't have to make all the zone reads and things the QB now has to do in this offense. Taylor Martinez would have excelled and more than likely hoisted a trophy or two had he been born two decades earlier. When I see Armstrong play, I see a player with a tremendous amount of upside. We'll know a lot more about his abilities in the next 30-45 days.

I remember TF throwing some horrible interceptions. A couple were in national championship games.

 

[Mavric]

It's quite possible Nebraska has the worst/easiest schedule of any of the top 25.

Not sure if you mean to-date or for the year but so far (according to Sagarin) aTm, Baylor, Michigan St., Notre Dame, Stanford, Mississippi St. and Arizona St. all have easier schedules and Wisconsin and Ohio St. aren't ahead of us by much.

How has MSU (Oregon), Stanford (USC), and Mississippi St (LSU) possibly have easier schedules than us? That's one thing I don't like about Sagarin, sometimes the stuff he presents is strange.

Earlier this year after Rutgers beat Washington State on the road, he still had Washington State ranked much higher than Rutgers...

Because MSU's other three opponents are 100+ and two of them are 190+. Stanford's other two opponents are 130+. Miss St.'s other three opponents are all 110+. Our worst opponent is Florida Atlantic at 115, the other two are Top 100.

 

[True2tRA]

Right now, Miami is sitting at #22 total defense. I'm sure they were ranked higher than that going into our game. We put up 34 points (7 from defense), 343 yards rushing, 113 yards passing on 9-13. That's 6.8 yards per play.

We beat them with the big play and grinding it out on the ground. We had one player with 229 yards rushing and another with just barely under 100 (96).

Right now, I am not seeing much to complain about with our offense.

They're waiting in the weeds again. Waiting for something to jump on. It will most likely happen and when it does the sky will fall and the world will end.
Although, there is a good chance it won't happen this year like it has in the past. Maybe we don't lose. Maybe we do lose but it's close. I really can't see us losing a blowout like the past few years. If we lose a close one I guess we'll have to resort to complaining about close hard fought games.

 

[NUpolo8]

It's quite possible Nebraska has the worst/easiest schedule of any of the top 25.

Not sure if you mean to-date or for the year but so far (according to Sagarin) aTm, Baylor, Michigan St., Notre Dame, Stanford, Mississippi St. and Arizona St. all have easier schedules and Wisconsin and Ohio St. aren't ahead of us by much.

I'm saying it's the eye test.

I would hope (probably ill-fated) that we can all agree that FAU, McNeese and Fresno are very bad. In fact, the FCS squad may be the best we've faced so far. We frankly so not know how good Miami is, and won't until later, but they don't look good. Talented yes, but not good.

I'm happy with Tommy too. So I'm not saying, I'm just saying.

 

[knapplc]

So I'm not saying, I'm just saying.

We get what you're saying.

 

[True2tRA]

Armstrong is running well. Very physical and confident. It's been great to see. I think he does a decent job passing. Sometimes really good compared to last year. He can get better but I do like what he's shown through 4 games operating as our Qb this year. The more experience he gets the more things will slow down. He is a sophomore. Even Ameer is a lot bigger, stronger and a better running back today than he was as a sophomore when he took over for Rex. I think Tommy can follow the same path as Ameer. It just takes time, more games and some seasoning.

He's averaging almost 9 yards per carry. He's probably not going to take it to the house, but when he runs he's getting chunks of yards. In Taylor's first season, he averaged less than 6, his other two were closer to 5, and his best season barely broke 1000 yards. For as good of a runner as he was, Tommy will likely surpass him by the end of the season. That's some pretty solid company to be in when you're talking about a rushing QB. He doesn't guess on the zone read - he's rarely wrong. That's a welcome change. Add to it that he's fairly calm in the pocket, scrambles well and has an effective deep ball and he's only going to get better. I feel really good about Tommy at this point. He'll get more in sync with his WRs as the season goes on. If he throws an INT or two, it is what is. That's going to happen. 9TD to 2INT...I'll take that all season long. Feed the ball to your skill players, capitalize on your opportunities and limit the mistakes. He's doing all that and then some.

Just to be fair,

To whom?

 

[NUpolo8]

So I'm not saying, I'm just saying.

We get what you're saying.

Well said

 

[Mavric]

It's quite possible Nebraska has the worst/easiest schedule of any of the top 25.

Not sure if you mean to-date or for the year but so far (according to Sagarin) aTm, Baylor, Michigan St., Notre Dame, Stanford, Mississippi St. and Arizona St. all have easier schedules and Wisconsin and Ohio St. aren't ahead of us by much.

I'm saying it's the eye test.

I would hope (probably ill-fated) that we can all agree that FAU, McNeese and Fresno are very bad. In fact, the FCS squad may be the best we've faced so far. We frankly so not know how good Miami is, and won't until later, but they don't look good. Talented yes, but not good.

I'm happy with Tommy too. So I'm not saying, I'm just saying.

So you've spent quite a bit of time watching the opponents of the rest of the teams in the Top 25?

 

[knapplc]

So I'm not saying, I'm just saying.

We get what you're saying.

Well said

For real, though. Nobody with any sense should claim we've played a tough non-con. FAU was bad, Fresno was epically bad, McNeese St. shouldn't have given us nearly the game they did and they're D1AA, and Miami has athletes but a crap coaching staff and not much cohesion. So I totes understand when people aren't bragging up our schedule.

It's just that not many teams have played an impressive non-con, and in fact most try not to. Miami should have been a much better team than they were, and were Golden not their coach they may have been. We'll see what they look like next year with a new coach. We have BYU as well, so the schedule should be better.