Khus
the Red
Roll the Dice
Most of us have a pregame ritual on gameday, whether it’s wearing that hat you got the day Tommie Frazier verballed, satiating your Husker OCD by flipping the deadbolts in your house 20, 30 and 7 times in honor of NU’s three Heisman winners, or simply staring into space all morning, clicking off formations and reciting stats like a Red Rainman. Given the outcome of Saturday’s cirque du absurde, one might think that the men slapped the horseshoe extra hard as they went Tunnel Walking. Not so. Remember, there is no such thing as luck. None. Never has been. Never will be. So feel free to do as I do; smash that mirror, scoff at the feline crossing your path, go out of your way to walk under the ladder. Only in the rarest, dearest and most sincerest of circumstances have I wished another Red one luck, and then for the sentiment rather than the supernatural. Yet no mystical force nor equestrian hoofwear kept NU on the fortunate side of the win-loss column. In the end, it was only an Ickes that made it so. And as it was, I spent $20 on a pay-per-view event that felt like a three-hour punch in the stomach. Lucky me.
Callahan’s demeanor almost universally exudes confidence and a positive attitude. He’s careful to answer questions like “Why has the offense struggled so far?” with “We’re just a block or two away from a tremendous play” or “Why haven’t we seen more of the hotshot youngsters at receiver and running back?” with “They’re coming along tremendously and we hope to have them contributing soon” or “What suggestions do you have for fans who might have lost their temper during the Pitt game and began wildly swinging the gameday battleaxe around the living room?” with “There are some tremendous products for repairing plaster, hardwood floors, trimwork, light fixtures and house pets.” All of this may be true, but the fact remains that many of the Red faithful are tremendously concerned.
This game exposed the fact that it’s not just O-line that is keeping the offense in shackles. As I have said since game one, the tight end position is a liability without Herian. There were a few improved blocks against Pitt, but offensively this position is not going to intimidate anyone. Much is being made of our receivers getting jammed at the line, which I could not see through the tunnel vision camera work of network television. However, even a dead Ray Charles could tell that when ZT has four seconds to look left--look deep--look right--look deep--look at the defensive tackle’s abdomen filling his field of vision, there are guys not getting free. And if our pass-catchers do not yet know how to fight through the first five yards of contact at this point, they are running out of time to learn. In fact, they have less than two weeks.
As Ulysses Everett McGill once said, we’re in a tight spot. Norvell has already spoken about the need for playmakers on the field. If that means mixing in the inexperienced young ’uns, we accept mistakes such as penalties and turnovers for a shot at thawing the offense from its cryogenically-frozen state. That’s the risk. And there’s the playbook factor. It’s not been kept to just slightly beyond the table of contents purely for the purpose of secrecy; it’s still new to the old guys. Throwing in a bunch of newbies, no matter how much raw talent they might have, would be like wearing a pink leotard to a biker bar. It might look cute and raise a few eyebrows, but ultimately you’re asking for trouble.
This especially goes for the quarterback spot. ZT is may not be Rich Gannon, but any experience in the system is far too valuable at this point. Don’t even think about Beck losing his redshirt this year, unless an unusual situation arises, such as injury to ZT or Gantz. Don’t think about Beck losing any kind of normal shirt either, and if you find yourself thinking about him in a pink leotard, perhaps it is time to have a long conversation with your wife.
Two X factors may be Chris Brooks and Cody Glenn. Brooks keeps getting whispers about getting worked into the offense more, but he’s raw. Glenn is the better bet to be an impact; with almost every carry he gets he looks hungry and mean and hard to bring down. So who’s left? There is no luck, but there is Lucky. However, RB isn’t the hurting-est part of the O. At this point, a supposed difference maker like Lucky with his supposed difference-making pass-catching WCO hands needs more catches in the flat and on swings than handoffs. Perhaps tossing a few to Lucky, while Pork Chop and Glenn continue to scat ‘n smash, may make the tight end deficiencies less damaging. Unless there are other issues that should limit his field time, it’s hard to imagine a better time to find out what Hollywood can do.
The Blackshirts can make up for most of the mistakes that would come with offensive risks and the mistakes of youth. The lack of turnovers in this last game likely saved it from being a loss. However, every defense has its limit on how often it can bail out an ailing offense, and at some point these Blackshirts may have One of Those Games. If that should occur before the offense finds some semblance of competency, even the ugliest of a one-point win will be a Rembrandt by comparison.
We have two weeks to get ready for the Clones, a team that thinks they’re better than they really are. While confidence can go a long way, Ames Community College is eminently beatable. We’ll talk about birds who think they are weather disturbances next week if we get the chance. In the meantime, rub that rabbit’s foot or monkey’s paw or shard of broken mirror. Perhaps you’ll get results. Then again, perhaps you’ll get only a damaged thumb.
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Frailty, thy name is STILL Sooner!