Did you not read the entire post. The kid was not back there on BB next punt.
Not sensitive whatsoever. I'm not the one making excuses for a unit that is struggling. Just giving you the info that this group is not in a good spot from a first hand account. I don't think Foley is the answer. Like I said it is early and I hope he can turn it around, but Foley is the one coach that seems not to be making a big jump.
No not a gnt drinker. My assessment is that this is the only part of the team that hasn't improved. We can't get kickoffs to the endzone which is where everyone of them needs to be especially against good returnees.
we did get kicks to the endzone. Every team also calls short kicks to try to bury the other team inside the 20.
I agree with this. Defense has played a very good 2 games. If the defense has been playing poorly or inconsistent try to bury them deep. But the way they are playing right now. Why take the possibility of taking it out of the defense hands.
Nothing swings momentum like a big return
That's one philosophy. Evidently, either both Georgia & Ohio State don't follow this same philosophy OR they don't have a kicker that can consistently get touchbacks. They've both scored a lot of points and roughly half of their kickoffs (very quick math from the last game of each) don't make it to the endzone. I'm not opposed to getting a touchback every time. Especially when our coverage team is horrible. At this point, I don't think they are horrible. As a matter of fact, they've covered pretty good MOST of the time. Yes they've given up a long return so maybe one of the defensive starters that's on KO got out of their lane. Reviewing the game, it's difficult to say as the TV coverage doesn't present the best angle.
another reason to do it is to save our starting defenders' bullets
I don't think it's that easy of a call. I understand the sentiment after some struggles over 40 last year, but you could also say it's his first and only miss this year. Does a guy lose the job just because of one miss? How does that affect the next guy and your decision process with him if he struggles?
You drive for show and putt for dough.
If you're not kicking to the outside of both hash marks, you've not doing it right. You gotta shrink that coverage area into 1/3rds.
People who I believe watched that missed kick more closely than me said it was a poor snap and hold. I don't know if he'll get better or not. I just know for a 19-20 year old that was a pressure packed situation and wondering whether the ball is going to be where it needs to be when you go to kick it wouldn't be a confidence inspiring event. I guess I like our kicker situation a LOT better than CU's. I expect Alvano will be fine going forward and if not Rhule won't hesitate to try someone else.
Try to intentionally let that cat from USC have catches on the 5-10 yard line, and we are asking for trouble. He's way more dangerous than the CU kid was.
I'm not sure we have a better option than Alvano but we might get to find out. The ISU fans I was watching that game with couldn't believe that kid made that kick. Making that one kick doesn't mean he's a better kicker than Alvano but that was a clutch moment.
I thought of Alex Henery's NFL career as well. The guy was dang near automatic in college, drafted in the 4th round, and I think it was his 4th year in the league, started the first two games 1-5 and never played again.
This is Nebraska football. Don't take the scholarship if you can't handle pressure. Go to Kearney or Chadron State.
Is there a sports franchise or college program anywhere in the history of the world that fired coaches after starting out 2-0? When the team hasn't had a winning season in almost 10 years? And if it ever did happen, maybe a team with the dumbest owner, how did that work out? So far, it sounds like we would have at least three vacancies on the staff this week and zero idea what to do next.
In most cases during the glory years guys had time to mature as players before they were thrown to the dogs in front of 76,000 fans in Memorial Stadium. I don't disagree that he shouldn't play if he can't handle the pressure but I'm not ready to give up on him either. Who is our other option? That is the problem. It's another freshman from WCC. Is that Rhule's failure or is that still on Frost at this point? Other kickers see a returning starter sophomore scholarship kicker and I would guess not many wanted to come to Nebraska to compete with that. I don't believe that social media blather calling for his benching is going to help the situation either. For right now, it appears he apparently is our most consistent kicker. All of the whining is because of one missed kick on Saturday that multiple "experts" have said was affected by a questionable snap and hold.
Why would you fire coaches that improved.
I’m guessing that’s code for “if it doesn’t get fixed, it’ll get fixed by a new guy.” Like Kong likes to say, Rhule put Foley on notice.
Hire a second special teams coordinator. Here's a pretty good one Bill Busch. I hear he's in town from time to time.
Because a lot coaches believe they can get them to return it at the one and have them start at the 10 or something. Then they get the team fired up.
There is no doubt Alvano has had some issues. Otherwise our special teams looked pretty good Saturday. I think Rhule would like that comment back. We’ll see if they can fix the kicking situation but firing Foley isn’t the answer. Recruiting a new kicker is probably the answer.
What color is the sky in your world? Rhule just literally said that it was one of the worst performances his teams has had. There were all kinds of issues.... Coaches don't just say that for the fun of it.
I don't think anyone actually expects a coach to be fired 2 games into our most promising season in 8 years.
It is bright blue today. Rhule also has called almost every player on his roster an NFL player at some point or another. Do you take as gospel every word that a coach says in a press conference? He knows the fan angst. He let those of you losing your mind that he understands the concern and will try to address it WITH THE PLAYERS HE HAS ON HIS ROSTER and by trying to recruit over them. Tom's teams gave up returns at times too so that really doesn't concern me all that much. They'll get that fixed. Fixing a kicker though is problematic if you don't have a better guy to replace him. The best approach IMO is to build the guy's confidence as much as you can without yapping about it in a press conference. Rhule has done that some by saying he's been perfect from 30 yards in practice.
No one is losing their mind, they are pointing out the weak link that could end up costing us during the season if it doesn't get shored up. The first two games have had numerous errors across the board on special teams. This is coming after a year where special teams was god awful and the leader of the group had to start off the season giving himself an ultimatum. Recruiting is going to help, but similar to other groups, sometimes you just have to try something else. We have two other kickers on the roster and one of them needs to be trotted out against UNI to see if they can make something. We need to know that we can make a field goal under 40 yards before conference play. The theme of this year is chasing 3 and hard to chase that number when your kicker and ST could cause the same results as last year when games get close.
