It was a hell of an offensive performance by Nebraska on Saturday as they won a shooting down in Stillwater against Oklahoma State. Taylor Martinez led the explosive offense with five passing touchdowns and the defense got a couple of stops in the second half as the Huskers pulled away for the 51-41 victory. With the ten point win, the Huskers control their own destiny in the Big12 North and can take a big lead in the standings with a win over Missouri on Saturday.

So how did the Big Red put up 51 points and not score a rushing touchdown? The receivers came up with most of the balls that they should have and special teams came up huge with the kickoff return by Niles Paul and field goals by Alex Henery. Great job by the special teams units for scoring. Brandon Kinnie was the main target for Martinez as he hauled in three touchdowns to lead the receiving corps.

I liked the fact that Shawn Watson put Martinez behind center for some plays this game. It allows the defensive ends to stay in a little bit longer and not have a full look at the quarterback. Mix that in with some play action like they did you can see why they had such success through the error. The Cowboys defense may not be that good but Martinez looked pretty good throwing the ball and hit the receivers right on the hands. I would never have thought T-Magic would threw for five touchdowns and not run for one. The freshman sure grew up in my eyes and did so at a hostile environment on the road.

The bad part of the game? The secondary still missed a ton of tackles. No matter who is at safety it seems they cannot wrap up and tackle a running back. The big time match up between Prince Amukamara and Justin Blockmon was dominated by Blockmon. Prince had a hard time picking up the ball on underthrown balls and also got caught looking in at the line of scrimmage on a trick play that Blockmon took to the house. A bad game by Price but one that he can learn from. It also didn’t help that the d-line wasn’t stopping the run to help out.

Overall I’m happy with the ten point victory but the defense really needs to step up. Saturday’s match up with Missouri is basically for the Big 12 North title and a return trip to Dallas for the championship. Nebraska’s defense is setup to stop the spread attack that Missou will bring into Lincoln but the defensive line needs to show up and shut down that running game for the Big Red to win. It will be very interesting and I cannot wait!


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Dropped passes, terrible line play, bad decisions in the zone read and some questionable injuries. That is what every Nebraska fan was left to talk about Saturday evening and Sunday after watching Texas come into Lincoln and give the Huskers their first loss of the season. The 20-13 defeat to the Longhorns was not what everyone was expecting before the game but coming off a bye week, Texas knew what they wanted to do and that was take Taylor Martinez out of the game and that is exactly what they did.

Martinez could never get on track in the running game as Will Muschamp had the best scheme setup to slow Martinez down. Sitting in row 18 in the North end zone I was able to see the game up close. I don’t fault Taylor for not being able to execute the zone read plays because it made no difference if he would have handed the ball off or ran it. A longhorn defender was there waiting. So how do you beat that defense?

You put the ball in the air and trust that your receivers and running backs can catch it. Rex Burkhead, Niles Paul and Brandon Kinnie all dropped balls that should have been caught for touchdowns. Had Rex come up with the touchdown early in the game, I don’t think we would be talking about a loss right now. Niles, the guy just needs to strap it up and go out there and make plays like he is capable of doing. You want the ball, CATCH IT!

Sure it sucks losing to Texas. It was the game every fan was looking forward to. However, it is not the end of the season and the team is still looking good to make it to the Big 12 Championship. The guys must rebound in a hostile environment down in Stillwater this coming Saturday but I have faith that they will bounce back and pick up a big conference victory.


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The rosters for Saturday’s Red-White Spring Game have been announced, and like Coach Bo Pelini’s first two seasons, the teams appear to be fairly evenly divided.

The White team will be quarterbacked by sophomore Cody Green and senior Latravis Washington. The offense will have plenty of firepower with I-backs Roy Helu Jr. and Dontrayevous Robinson, along with receiving targets Niles Paul, Mike McNeill and Dreu Young. Up front, center Mike Caputo and tackle D.J. Jones are the leaders of the White offensive line.

Defensively, the White squad boasts a number of players with significant starting experience, led by junior defensive tackle Jared Crick and senior end Pierre Allen. Sean Fisher heads the linebacking corps, while the secondary features Alfonzo Dennard, DeJon Gomes and Rickey Thenarse.

Offensive coordinator Shawn Watson leads the White coaching staff, along with Barney Cotton, John Papuchis, Marvin Sanders and offfensive graduate assistant Curt Baldus.

Redshirt freshman Taylor Martinez and sophomore Kody Spano will quarterback the Red unit, while redshirt freshman Ron Kellogg III is expected to see action on both teams. Keith Williams and Marcel Jones lead the Red offensive line, with I-back Rex Burkhead and receivers Brandon Kinnie and Curenski Gilleylen among the top offensive weapons.

Defensively, sophomores Baker Steinkuhler and Cameron Meredith lead the Red front four, with Will Compton the most experienced linebacker on the Red squad. Veterans Eric Hagg, Prince Amukamara and Anthony West will patrol the Red secondary, while all-conference place-kicker/punter Alex Henery heads up the Red special teams.

Defensive coordinator Carl Pelini heads up the Red coaching staff, along with Tim Beck, Ron Brown, Mike Ekeler, Ted Gilmore and defensive graduate assistant Ross Watson.

Kickoff for Saturday’s spring game is set for 1 p.m. at Memorial Stadium. ? Tickets are still available at huskers.com

(Info courtesy of Huskers.Com)


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Good afternoon Big Red Nation. Some of you were probably wondering why hasn’t Coach Pelini released his weekly depth chart like he usually does on Tuesday’s? Well here it is on Thursday afternoon. There are a few surprises which I’ll talk about below.

Don’t expect to see Chris Brooks getting much playing time as he is at the bottom of the list at the X receiver. Brandon Kinnie is also down the list at X due to not knowing the playbook as good as the other players.

Mike McNeil and Dreu Young are co-listed at the #1 tight end position but both will see plenty have action as Coach Watson likes to use multiple tight end sets. Look for Ben Cotton and Kyler Reed to also get some playing time at the position.

Antonio Bell is listed as the #2 at the Z wide receiver position. Niles Paul is number one.

True Freshman Cody Green is the clear cut man at backup behind Zac Lee.

Your starting linebackers will be Will Compton, Sean Fisher and either Matt May or Blake Lawrence. Phillip Dilliard will play in a backup role atleast for week one.

Alex Henery will be your field goal kicker and punter while Adi Kunalic will handle the kickoffs.

Check out the complete depth chart over at Huskers.Com


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Saturday was the day everyone has been waiting for as the Nebraska Cornhuskers kicked off the 2009 season with fan day inside of Memorial Stadium and then later conducted their first practice of the season. I was not able to make the seven hour drive down to Lincoln to partake in the festivities but after talking with others and reading some reports here is what everyone was talking about.

The Huskers will try to build on their Gator Bowl win over Clemson and know that they need to continue to work hard if they want to have the season they are capable of.

The defensive line is going to dominate this year and hopefully that will result in more interceptions for the secondary Larry Asante commented on.

Expect big things from Brandon Kinnie who is a sophomore junior college transfer. Kinnie has a big body similar to ex-husker Mo Purify.

Barry Turner and Kody Spano are both back and both are 100%. Turner will hold down one end spot while Pierre Allen will hold down the other end. Expect big things from Turner and Allen in 2009!

Chris Williams, Cruz Barrett, William Yancy and Quentin Toailoa were not included on the 105-man roster that Coach Pelini released. Williams was not included on the roster due to the fact that he is not 100% recovered from his knee injury. Expect Williams to be added to the roster but probably use up a redshirt this season.

As for Barrett, Yancy and Toailoa, I would not expect to see much of them in their career. When you are not included on the 105-man roster, that means you cannot report to the team until the first day of class and are pretty much at the lowest spot on the depth chart.

There were three freshman that really stood out to the coaches after the first practice. Eric Martin, Jason Ankrah and Lazari Middleton impressed the coaching staff. It will he interesting to see how the freshman progress through the next month of practices leading up to the first game and if they will see the field.

That’s all for now as I need to hit the road for a birthday party. Hope everyone has a good weekend and I hope to have another report about practice when I get home.


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Nebraska Recruiting ClassIt’s a big day for high school seniors today as they sign their letter of intent to the university of their choice. Things have been busy in Lincoln this morning as the fax machine has stayed hot with 17 LOI’s faxed in so far. Keep checking back as we will be updating the list as we hear of new ones coming in.

One player who verbally committed to the Huskers will not be joining the team as he was not able to get his grades up to bar. Deandre Byrd will be looking to go the JUCO route.

Confirmed LOI’s faxed in:

Brent Qvale
Cole Pensick
Cody Green
Dejon Gomes
Jason Ankrah
Jesse Coffey
Nick Ash
Rex Burkhead
Jeremiah Sirles
Thaddeus Randle
Andrew Green
Chris Williams
Brandon Kinnie
Dontrayevous Robinson
C.J. Zimmerer
J.T. Kerr
Eric Martin
Lazarri Middleton
Dijon Washington
Taylor Martinez

Keep checking back as we have a few more spots to add as the day goes on!


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