Timeouts

Hoosker

Hoosker

New member
Go ahead and delete this if I'm repeating someone else here, Mods, but can someone explain to me why we didn't use a timeout in the 3rd quarter?

You all know as well as I do that Bo Pelini is NOTORIOUS for using timeouts on defense. He's done this since he got here, to the point where you want to tear your hair out sometimes.

Here is the scenario:

We lose some steam going into halftime, but still lead 21-10 AND we get the ball to start the 2nd half.

Taylor misses a clear opportunity to run the ball on 3rd down to get some points on the first drive. Punt.

UCLA TD - 8:21 left in the 3rd - (17-21)

UCLA TD - 6:02 left in the 3rd - (24-21) ....now? ....no? ...okay...

UCLA TD - 3:39 left in the 3rd - (31-21) ....nothing yet? ...okay...

UCLA TD - 0:26 left in the 3rd - (38-21) ....welp, too late now...

And you all know the rest.

Can anyone shed some light on this? I've been racking my brain since the game ended trying to figure out Bo's logic on this one.

I included a screenshot in case you guys don't believe me.

Screen Shot 2013-09-16 at 7.04.26 PM.png

 
Football isn't basketball, where you burn timeouts to break opposing momentum. Timeouts as I have seen them are used for one of 3 reasons: making an adjustment to some issue you see before a play, avoiding a delay of game penalty, or stopping the clock before the end of a half.

 
You still need to get your guys together and regroup sometimes though. Just the act of calling a timeout sends a message to the team that something needs to change otherwise we're f'd.

All I'm saying is that it sure as hell didn't do any good saving them for Taylor and company in the 4th.

 
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Bo does have a history of calling defensive timeouts whenever. In the beginning of his tenure it didn't bother me. Now, it speaks to poor game management. Once in awhile, okay. Every game? That's a problem.

 
My uncle used to rant about time outs incessantly. He claimed Tom Osborne had a graduate assistant somewhere on the sidelines, carrying a huge sack of timeouts that he hadn't used in all of his previous seasons as head coach.

Then we entered the Solich era, and Frankie spent timeouts like a drunken sailor does his pay. I remember Solich calling a time out after Nebraska just fair caught a punt, after the offense came out on the field. My uncle launched: "WTF! dumb*ss spends a time out on 1st and 10?!

"I guess he never thought he would have to face a 1st and 10 in his career, so he doesn't have a play designed for it."

"It took Osborne 20 some years to save up all those timeouts in a sack, and now Solich thinks he gets to take them over to the refs and cash them in! #!&!$?!

Yep those were good times...

 
If he would have called a timeout somebody would still be on here frying him about it. It's a no win situation. No use playing the what if game, we lost to a better team and it's time to move on.

 
There should be a grad assistant or somebody on the team whose job it is just to watch the clock and figure out when to go for two points. I have seen Hall of Fame NFL coaches draw a complete blank when choosing the obvious choice, as they have a dozen things happening at once in the midst of chaos. Then when asked after the game why they didn't call a time out (or why they spiked the ball on 4th down to stop the clock), you can see the ol' two watt light bulb kick on over their heads as if, "Oh yeah! That would have been smart!"

 
You get a chance to get your guys together and regroup after the scores while the offense has the ball. Luke has it right. In the 3rd quarter you hope you'll come back and might need them during an end of the game drive, or you might need them for the other reasons he gave.

 
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