Quit Hating On The Secondary!!

From everything I have read or heard Murrillo didn't play. He will be back this week along with Culbert. As far as the D-line goes I thought they played good. WMU was getting the ball out quickly, Pelini said this himself, he EVEN said that he was happy with the heat applied by our D-lineman considering the type of plays that WMU was running. Ty was all over the place and swing passes or outside runs were shut down largely inpart to the D-line. There weren't any 5yd holes to run through either and our linebackers were pretty much free to roam all night.

 
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Some people desperately WANT affirmation that we have returned to the shutdown defenses of 1999. Well, we haven't had that yet. Whether we return to it soon...we'll just have to wait and see. No fan can just will that into being ;)

Any word on if O'Hanlon is starting this week as well?
I hope not, but since Thenarse is still hurt he probably will be. Guy maybe smart, but when he made mistakes (and there were quite a few) he didn't have the athletic ability to recover. And the one time he had a chance to lay a guy out he whiffed.

 
7. and most importantly people acting excited- even coaches (lol @ ekeler).
Kinda neat to see Ekeler get excited, but why were the backup LB's never used? The players like him and he is an intense coach, but can he manage his personnel?
This is a quote from Pelini on the use of back LB's:

“We don’t sub our linebackers a whole heck of a lot. Some. But the guys behind them are young and inexperienced,” Pelini said. “It depends on the situation of the game and how the game goes, but we have guys ready to go. We rep our guys pretty equally during the week so we’ll be ready to go.”
 
Remember, these guys had poor coaching for the last several years. You don't fix that overnight. The main thing is that they are being coached now, and that they are playing with enthusiasm. They will be okay...

 
7. and most importantly people acting excited- even coaches (lol @ ekeler).
Kinda neat to see Ekeler get excited, but why were the backup LB's never used? The players like him and he is an intense coach, but can he manage his personnel?
This is a quote from Pelini on the use of back LB's:

“We don’t sub our linebackers a whole heck of a lot. Some. But the guys behind them are young and inexperienced,” Pelini said. “It depends on the situation of the game and how the game goes, but we have guys ready to go. We rep our guys pretty equally during the week so we’ll be ready to go.”
Yeah, that's great, but why didn't they play? I am sure Dillard and Glenn were gassed come the 4th quarter, why not give em a breather? I realize depth is thin, but if they have everyone ready to go, why not play em? If not playing now, when is a better time to get them in? I doubt that the Huskers have many blowouts this year aside from possibly the next 2 games and Baylor. There are going to be no opportune times to get the kids experience. Just like a band-aid, it's easiest when you just pull it off. Come next year, if there isn't any quality depth built up, there will be 2 LB's with little to no experience starting along with Dillard(assuming Dillard is healthy, gosh I hope so). I'd like to see more of a rotation used with these guys to get some other guys game action, hopefully we can see that in the next couple of games, we may need some of those other guys to step in later in the season.

 
Some people desperately WANT affirmation that we have returned to the shutdown defenses of 1999. Well, we haven't had that yet. Whether we return to it soon...we'll just have to wait and see. No fan can just will that into being ;)

Any word on if O'Hanlon is starting this week as well?
I hope not, but since Thenarse is still hurt he probably will be. Guy maybe smart, but when he made mistakes (and there were quite a few) he didn't have the athletic ability to recover. And the one time he had a chance to lay a guy out he whiffed.
Actually, O'Hanlon is a tremendous athlete. Coaches say so. Keep in mind he (and others) are pretty raw with it being their first game and such (extensive PT). ;)

..............................................

O'Hanlon then made himself stand out with a 4.61-second 40-yard dash (electronic), 38-inch vertical jump and 3.91-second pro agility. They called a week later to say he had made the team and was to report for a meeting.

 

Before you label O'Hanlon as an overachiever or think that the story is too good to be true, NU defensive coordinator Carl Pelini said take a closer look at those testing numbers.

 

"He belongs out there," Pelini said. "We don't for a minute look at him and say, 'OK, there's a guy who's maybe not as athletic as the rest and just uses his head.' I don't believe that for a minute. He's a tremendous athlete."

 

Both Carl Pelini and head coach Bo Pelini said the competition between O'Hanlon and Rickey Thenarse at free safety will be ongoing. O'Hanlon likely will start again Saturday against San Jose State with Thenarse recovering from a shoulder injury.

..............................................

Link to the story

 
Um, 4.61 is pretty slow to be playing in the secondary at a major D1 program. I realize it was electronic timed, but this is still probably 4.55 or slower by hand clocked time. When athletic ability was used above, I think they really meant he didn't have the speed to recover.

 
Um, 4.61 is pretty slow to be playing in the secondary at a major D1 program. I realize it was electronic timed, but this is still probably 4.55 or slower by hand clocked time. When athletic ability was used above, I think they really meant he didn't have the speed to recover.
LSU's starting S last year, Craig Steltz, is listed at 4.6. Slow, but effective.

Edit: OK 4.59. Of course he didn't have the speed to recover either.

 
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Take into account that last year Pelini's D at LSU wasn't the most athletic group. This showed in the NFL draft. Give these kids some damn time to learn the system and all the ins and outs of the schemes. Pelini has said that all those 40 times and other things don't necessarily mean a kid is going to be good but as long as they understand what they are supposed to do the schemes will allow them to PLAY fast.

 
Um, 4.61 is pretty slow to be playing in the secondary at a major D1 program. I realize it was electronic timed, but this is still probably 4.55 or slower by hand clocked time. When athletic ability was used above, I think they really meant he didn't have the speed to recover.

From what I understand electronic-timing generally adds at-least .1 to the time, so he runs about a 4.5-flat handheld.

Over on rivals they said he's been timed handheld at 4.47 before.

Speed-wise I'd say he is comparable to Thenarse, I'd say the difference in Thenarse's physicality.

 
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I keep hearing all this talk about how bad the secondary is and it needs to improve... yeah we allowed 342 yards passing, because we allowed 8 rushing!!!

When a team drops back and passes that much we're gonna allow some passing yards, especially with how the rules are set up today for passing offenses.

They passed 49 times! oh course they are gonna get a lot of yards. Not to mention 3/4 of the secondary had hardly played in a game let alone in the secondary. They also didn't have anyone to sub in for them to get a break.

:rant

Sorry I just don't get why people are acting like this is such a terrible weakness right now, give it a couple of weeks before you judge.

Also Prince will be a star, you can already see flashes of it whether it has been on Special Teams or Defense
The secondary will be fine, right now they are just inexperienced and no one gave them a break.......thier talent will take over soon enough.

 
I keep hearing all this talk about how bad the secondary is and it needs to improve... yeah we allowed 342 yards passing, because we allowed 8 rushing!!!

When a team drops back and passes that much we're gonna allow some passing yards, especially with how the rules are set up today for passing offenses.

They passed 49 times! oh course they are gonna get a lot of yards. Not to mention 3/4 of the secondary had hardly played in a game let alone in the secondary. They also didn't have anyone to sub in for them to get a break.

:rant

Sorry I just don't get why people are acting like this is such a terrible weakness right now, give it a couple of weeks before you judge.

Also Prince will be a star, you can already see flashes of it whether it has been on Special Teams or Defense
The secondary will be fine, right now they are just inexperienced and no one gave them a break.......thier talent will take over soon enough.
They blow, they are awful, how can you say this??? OMG, how awful.

Just kidding.

Thought you would enjoy.

The Secondary will be proven out, good or bad, soon enough. You play some good passing teams... SOmething was pretty wrong last year, not sure if it was them, the D-line or both, but it was not good. Then again, that was last year...

 
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