Defense Needs to Pick It Up, and Did Purify Catch a Break?

When you consider that more than half of last year's defensive starters are now preparing for NFL training camp, defense is my major concern with the 2007 Huskers. Today's Omaha World-Herald spotlights Ndamakong Suh in a feature and tries to diminish those concerns:

"Having the defensive line be a question mark is kind of a huge slap in the face. But those of us first on the depth chart just haven't had a chance to prove ourselves as much as past players have. This is our time to shine and show what we can bring to the table."

I'm trying to remember the last time we've had so little returning depth on the defensive line and I certainly don't recall ever having to replace every starter. It will be interesting to see how the young Huskers grow into the holes left by the departures of guys like Adam Carriker and Jay Moore.

I've never understood fans who continually bash the Ruud family. Some felt that Barrett Ruud wasn't talented enough to start at Nebraska, even though he's slated to start for the NFL's Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Now the Ruud bashers are turning their attention to little brother Bo. Despite being named all Big XII last year by the coaches and preseason all Big XII by the media last week, I still hear some fans questioning whether he should even start. Steve Sipple of the Lincoln Journal-Star even commented on it today, saying that Ruud's intelligence allows him to always put himself in the right position. And if the story about his work in the weight room is correct, maybe he'll finally silence all those doubters.

Speaking of Sip's column, he gives major kudos to Maurice Purify's lawyer for setting the stage for Purify's one-game suspension. I still believe it's far too lenient, as I felt it should have been for the entire season. From my perspective, the punishment from Callahan is merely for getting himself into trouble again (the DWI) after Callahan told him to stay out of trouble after the bar fight.

Probably the most inane justification for the one game suspension is that if Purify were suspended for the first two games, then he'd be reinstated for the USC game, thus illustrating that Callahan cared more about winning than in discipline. What?!?!?! In other words, if you are worried about the perception about being too lax in discipline, the solution is to become more lax.

Besides, now people will just say that that either Callahan is worried about the Wake Forest game, or doesn't want Purify to go into the USC game without having a warmup game.