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Barney Ball is back!!!

cyclonelifer

cyclonelifer

Active Member
Jan 30, 2007
383
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Manchester, England
daveharm.blogspot.com
I apologize for not posting this earlier, but with the demands of work and lately the weather it kind of got put on the back burner. Thought I'd share a story that appeared in the Lincoln newspaper about a month to a month and a half ago.

The article was about the '08 kNU team and how everything is in place for a great year. Pelini will bring the D around and the O is all set.

The addition of Cotton to help with the line, which has a world of experience and is the largest in the B12 only good things can happen.

I remember the last time Barney had "a world of experience and the largest line in the B12." Not to pretty!

Last year was fun being in this state and watching the implosion. I really wonder how long the love affair will last if they're not National Champs in a couple of years.

I'm personally looking forward to watching Cotton and hope he has the same experience with this large line...
 
If they're not in a bowl game this year NU fans will be calling for Pelini's head.
 
I remember we were all once excited to see Barney Cotton come to town. Thought he'd be some kind of savior. Little did we know he wasnt much better than Marty Fine.

Maybe his lil boy Ben won't redshirt and we get a chance to see him get knocked around the field when they come to Ames.
 
I always blamed barney for this as well, but stopped blaming him after I found out how weak we were as a team.
 
Maybe the wise thing to do is to hold off judgment of Cotton as an offensive line coach until after the 2009-2010 season. His skills or lack thereof will be obvious by then.
 
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iowa_wildcat said:
Maybe the wise thing to do is to hold off judgment of Cotton as an offensive line coach until after the 2009-2010 season. His skills or lack thereof will be obvious by then.
Click to expand...

Especially since he is in Nebraska, he is not working with a lack of talent at the O-line.
 
dundermifflin said:
I always blamed barney for this as well, but stopped blaming him after I found out how weak we were as a team.
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We were just fine as a "power" running team early in the McCarney era - Matt McGettigan was the strength coach then too. In fact, running the ball was our calling card. We ran for tons of yards. Somehow, we became a finesse team, wiith all that shotgun, on offense. Barney has to share a lot of the blame - no one on the OL except for our center wanted to fire off the ball.
 
dundermifflin said:
I always blamed barney for this as well, but stopped blaming him after I found out how weak we were as a team.
Click to expand...

That is part of it. I have a friend who know a lot about football, set by me at one game and said how bad of feetwork and other fundementals the line had. This was when BC was coach coaching all those big srs. The teams went from give up 30some sacks two years in a row to around 10 the next year with mostly new guys that were underclassmen, heck one never played line before. All the blame of a bad line shouldnt fall on BC but there is quite a bit that should. Last time BC was at NU it didnt turn out too well. Just tell a NU fan about is line at ISU and watch their face change from a smile to a pissed off look.
 
We know that Barney didn't enjoy the same talent here as at kNU, but does anybody remember the interviews last fall with the O-linemen who talked about how different the blocking schemes were from the Cotton era? Cotton's blocking schemes were very simplistic compared to what we are doing now which partially explains why we were getting killed on stunts and blitzes.

This could be interpreted different ways - like keeping things simple so they are less likely to be screwed up, or simple for the level of talent. I see the flip side being that the schemes at the college level are getting more advanced, and simple doesn't get it done anymore unless your talent is quite a bit better than everyone else's. It seems to me a talented coaching staff would have no problem figuring out how to stop a team with an average/below average line with simplistic blocking schemes.

Maybe the game has passed BC by? We'll know for sure in about 3 years.
 
Tornado man said:
We were just fine as a "power" running team early in the McCarney era - Matt McGettigan was the strength coach then too. In fact, running the ball was our calling card. We ran for tons of yards. Somehow, we became a finesse team, wiith all that shotgun, on offense. Barney has to share a lot of the blame - no one on the OL except for our center wanted to fire off the ball.
Click to expand...


No, no, Barney does not have to share much of that blame. The blame lies solely at Danny Mac's feet for keeping a very, very poor asst. coach in Marty Fina around for much to long.

Barney never got a real chance to coach guys he recruited and developed. When he gets that chance at kNU I think the results will vindicate him.

We were a finesse team because we could not be a power team. There were a bunch of weak, slow boys on the line and that is not a power make-up.

I really tire of everyone trying to hang our lack of success on Barney who was here what 2 years?
 
cyeah said:
No, no, Barney does not have to share much of that blame. The blame lies solely at Danny Mac's feet for keeping a very, very poor asst. coach in Marty Fina around for much to long.

Barney never got a real chance to coach guys he recruited and developed. When he gets that chance at kNU I think the results will vindicate him.

We were a finesse team because we could not be a power team. There were a bunch of weak, slow boys on the line and that is not a power make-up.

I really tire of everyone trying to hang our lack of success on Barney who was here what 2 years?
Click to expand...

This is just an incredible, incredible post.

Danny Mac had his issues. His utter failure to develop "O" lines was just one of them. Special teams was one of the others....

I, too, don't hold Barney Cotton much responsible for being involved in a fatally flawed "system".
 
Sneak scrimmage shot of the kNu oline:

fat-football-player.jpg
 
Just a reminder that the world's largest offensive line record is held by Ellsworth Junior College from Nov 16 1992 (when they were mentioned in Sports Illustrated and had a small picture): 455, 430, 410, 380, and the little guy at 350. Of course, before the end of the year, one or two had grade problems, one quit, etc. The running backs never did see the opposition.

http://www.iavalley.cc.ia.us/ecc/athletics/football/FootballTimeline.htm
 
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I think I'd do just about anything to have Steve Loney coaching the offensive line here again......:notworthy:
 
iowa_wildcat said:
Maybe the wise thing to do is to hold off judgment of Cotton as an offensive line coach until after the 2009-2010 season. His skills or lack thereof will be obvious by then.
Click to expand...

I don't know, I think that after three years at ISU, we are qualified to judge how he did and project. I do think that he started to turn around the OL recruiting...less fat kids and better athleticism. He brought in Stephens, Hulbert, Johnson, Lamaak (who we all assumed was eventually going to OL), as well as some whiffs in Vargas and Fiacco. He was hampered by the large number of Fine recruits on the roster, so he couldn't bring in tons of bodies.

I do think that Barney can do OK with the talent that NU has. But I'll always remember him putting our biggest slowest starter (Fisher) at LT and watching Bret Meyer get crushed every play because Scott Fisher couldn't handle speed rushers. In fact, Meyer was never the same after that year. If Cotton does stupid things like that at NU, their fans will turn on him in no time.

It's not even a question that ISU has a better OL coach. McFarland put together a better OL in 6 months than Cotton did in three years.
 
Tornado man said:
We were just fine as a "power" running team early in the McCarney era - Matt McGettigan was the strength coach then too. In fact, running the ball was our calling card. We ran for tons of yards. Somehow, we became a finesse team, wiith all that shotgun, on offense. Barney has to share a lot of the blame - no one on the OL except for our center wanted to fire off the ball.
Click to expand...

As much as we all love Seneca Wallace here, you can probably blame part of the shift to "finesse" on what he did on the field. The coaching staff tried to duplicate that with Bret Meyer. It failed miserably.
 
cyeah said:
No, no, Barney does not have to share much of that blame. The blame lies solely at Danny Mac's feet for keeping a very, very poor asst. coach in Marty Fina around for much to long.

Barney never got a real chance to coach guys he recruited and developed. When he gets that chance at kNU I think the results will vindicate him.

We were a finesse team because we could not be a power team. There were a bunch of weak, slow boys on the line and that is not a power make-up.

I really tire of everyone trying to hang our lack of success on Barney who was here what 2 years?
Click to expand...

Well, I tire of fans blaming Marty Fine was also at ISU "just two years."
You might be interested to to know what 'ol Marty, the coach that Cyclone fans like to blame for so much, has been up to lately:

He's been head coach at Bryant University in Rhode Island, where he has totally turned around the program in his four years. All that he's done there:

1. Won two straight Northeast-10 Conference titles
2. Took Bryant to their first-ever NCAA Div. II playoffs the last two years
3. Was conference coach-of-the-year in 2007
4. After his first year at 4-5, has had records of 7-3,8-3, and 8-3.
5. Preparing Bryant for their first year of NCAA Div. I Subdivision play this fall, a step the university has taken based on the energy and success that Fine has brought to the program.

Yeah, that 'ol Marty Fine, he must be just a terrible coach...
 
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