Beck #2???

Today, Bill Callahan said that Harrison Beck is the #2 quarterback, despite the fact that the official depth chart says Joe Ganz is #2. While that might explain why Zac Taylor was left in to be abused by Missouri, this is a real head-scratcher at this point in the season. I know Callahan apparantly doesn't care about redshirts, but barring a serious injury to Taylor, it makes no sense to play Beck this late in the season.

If Beck ends up playing in a game in a mop-up situation this season, it won't be the first redshirt mistake this staff has made. Last year, Cornealius Fuamatu-Thomas got thrown into the Western Illinois game late, then never played. The staff somehow thought he could still claim a redshirt year, but found out after the fact that wasn't possible.

Of course, after watching Thomas this season, I'm not sure that saving a year of eligibility for him is a big deal. Thomas was especially bad on Saturday. Several times Thomas whiffed badly on blocks; he was constantly slower than the defensive end to react to the snap count. Lydon Murtha didn't fare much better, but if we're going to have a problem at tackle, I'd rather take a chance on playing the talented freshman over the confused, inexperienced senior.

Saturday's game plan is still a puzzle in my mind, and to many others. Starting the game, it looked like Nebraska planned to run the ball on Missouri, based on their previous poor rushing performances. However, that game plan was abandoned when the Huskers went down 21-3. Which kind of made sense - until a couple of Mizzou fumbles allowed Nebraska to tie the game at 24-24.

Nebraska set a modern record for fewest rushes in a game: 19. 4 of those were sacks of Zac Taylor, so really it was 15.

15 rushes by Nebraska.

Read that again: 15 rushes by the Nebraska Cornhuskers.

I'll say it again: 15 rushes by Nebraska against the now #67 rushing defense in college football. (My guess is they probably were somewhere in the 80's before the game.)