The Bone Yard

I sure hope we keep Beck than for more than just next year. He should be able to put up big numbers next year, but I don't think the real quality H.C. jobs become available immediately to him so soon. Who knows, but Bo and Eichorst will need to use big salaries incentives to keep their best assistants.

Can't agree more with the fumble by Ameer. Even though it was maybe not the best play call, you just can't have a guy with his ability have you hold your breath in critical game situations. It should be interesting to see how our RB order of rank plays out for next fall ...we've got the horses, even though we'll all miss Rex.

It is good to see us really mine the state of FL much better. It will be important to do so, as a lot of FL kids value the B1G fairly well as an option for their choice.

I don't think Ameer has a major fumbling problem outside of punt returns. He had a lot of touches and fumbled the ball four times this season, losing it three times. Obviously that's not good, but when a team fumbles the ball as much as Nebraska does, I put that on the coaches. Same with the punt returns. Ameer put the ball on the ground a lot, but so did his teammates (four different players fumbled punts this year). The coaches need to address these problems and address them thoroughly.

I agree. Zero fumbles should always be the goal, but for the number of touches he had over the season I don't think his fumbles were excessive by any means. Turnover Martinez is another story of course. I hope I saw a turn of events on special teams this last game. Not spectacular by any means, but pretty solid and most importantly much more aggressive. This phase of the game needs even more work than the defense. Enough with the fair catches. Sometimes needed but IMO a team should not have more than 5 of them over the course of season. We have to have been somewhere north of 30, not to mention the fumbling issues. Ouch. Some will say it and I don't disagree, but we need another coach handling this, even if that means Els needs to leave.

Went back and looked at some films of Jonathan Rose at a football camp. He has outstanding ball skills in coverage, and I think he could be a great addition at safety. Haven't heard him discussed much on the boards but I think he could be a good one.

I think Tommy Armstrong is going to add a lot next season for the simple reason that we will have a competent back-up to Taylor. I thought our O picked up a lot this season after Taylor started running the ball aggressively (mainly after the start of conference play). I believe Beck will give Taylor the green light to do this even more this coming season with someone who can come in and spell him if he's injured or simply gassed after running the ball a few times.

Taylor has got his fundamentals of pocket passing down pretty well now. Although he has improved at "buying time" when the pocket collapses, he is very poor when flushed out of the pocket and "re-setting" to throw. Hopefully he will work on that aspect of his game so he can become a complete QB.

I like AA a lot. He is a very strong runner. He does fumble in critical situations, so he has to be aware of that and improve there. I do think Beck needs to get Braylon more involved in the O. The way I look at it is we have a "quick strike" threat with Taylor running the ball. Braylon is more of a threat than AA to take to the ball to the house and would add another dimension to that "quick strike" capability. We also hopefully have T. Newby coming in. He combines power, speed and quickness better than either Braylon or AA.

If our young guys and transfers come though on D and with a weaker schedule I see a real chance at a BCS bowl next season.

As usual, great article. Bo is young, as is his staff. If Eichorst and Bo can keep this staff together, I do think Nebraska can be a big time player on the national scene for years to come. The staff seems to improve each year--especially with recruiting, which is key. My fear is that guys like Beck leave and with that goes consistency. If that happens, the 10-4 seasons will be here for awhile.

Welcome to the board DD. Hope to see you around more. Uv.