Sept. 7, 2004
For the third time in my life I heard Memorial Stadium do a collective sigh of relief. The first was the BobFather's opening game when we threw a pass. The second was when Tom finally let the greatest QB in the history of Nebraska football, Gill start against the vermin in '81 after a 2-2 start. The third was Saturday, when we moved the ball crisply. We have an offensive coaching staff and talent to execute a complex offense that is very hard to stop. I know the performance was against an outmanned team, but we didn't make unforced errors like procedure and delay-of-game penalties that plagued us the last few seasons. With all the shifting that we did in a new offense, the execution was very impressive. The plays were called in a decisive manner, and we haven't seen that in years. The last two years our team couldn't have moved the ball against air as well as we did Saturday. Lately our team the has been painful to watch. Surely we will have tough spots this year, but this team is fun to watch.
On a individual basis Joe made a lot of very fine throws. The pass to Amos that was called back was very impressive. He can make the throws; obviously he must improve his judgment. But overall for a QB in his first start in a new offense, he did a good job. He will have big interception and big yardage games this year as he continues to mature in the offense. We have three very good RBs. Ross looks much quicker this year and is a good receiver. Green is extremely fast — we haven't seen speed like that since the other No. 30. Jackson does a nice job of picking his holes and has a good forward lean to finish his runs. Herian is an all-American talent in a system that will produce huge numbers for him this season. Amos was pleasant surprise and gives us another deep threat. The O-line did a good job on a outmanned team as well they should have. This part of the team remains a question mark, but we will learn a great deal more about them in the next two weeks. On defense it was good to see Cooper have a quality game. He adds depth to the linebacker corps. The D-ends were impressive as a group with Carricker continuing to look like a star. Bo Ruud is faster and more athletic than his brother — he was all over the field when he was in the game. The defense was dominant, but again it is hard to get a good read on the strength of the defense because of the quality of the opponent.
Southern Miss will be a stern test. They are well-coached and have fine athletes. They appear to have a better team than Pitt, so we will know a lot more about our team after this week. This game is particularly interesting because Southern Miss has an up and coming D-coordinator in Nix. We will see if he can slow Bill's offense down.
That was a terrific start and we have an offensive coaching staff that won't be out-coached. That alone is a big improvement over the last couple of years. I am very encouraged. We aren't back yet, but we are on our way.
Keep the Faith. GBR.
-- The Colonel