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Obviously things haven't worked out well so far. But we are actually doing a lot of things well. It's mostly that the few things we aren't doing well are having a huge impact on the games. Yes, those things need to be fixed. But I think we're actually playing a lot better than the results show - as Frost said. Here are the stats to back it up: We are #43 in the country in Yards per Game. Not great but we were #3 in the country after one game and took a nose dive when he had to play our backup QB. But we are #103 in the country in Points per Game. That's a 60 rank difference between how our offense is moving the ball and how we're scoring. That is the second-worst rank difference in the nation (Purdue is 67 spots worse). If we can keep moving the ball like that, the points will come. And the crazy thing is it's almost the exact same story on defense. We are #39 in the country in Yards Allowed per game. Again, not great. But we are #90 in the country in Points Allowed per Game. That's 51 spots worse and that is the worst difference in the country. Points are obviously what wins and loses games. But I've long said that yards are a better indication of future success. Points can be fluky - special teams and defensive TDs come and go, especially on a small sample size. And turnovers can change field position in a hurry. But if you're good in the the yards categories - or, in our case, much better than the points have shown - chances are things will even out. I think we'll see a regression to the mean going forward. Which in this case is a good thing for us. Maybe not this weekend as we play our toughest opponent so far. But it will show up soon.

Not even remotely comparable. Riley took over a team that hadn't won less than 9 games in over 7 seasons. And proceeded to drive it into the ground. Frost has to fix that mess.

This might explain part of our problems.....I'm pretty sure this wasn't taught by the staff. Maybe a miscue? Complete whiff? Looks like the left side did the same, with better results....

The irony here is hilarious. The same guys who were calling for Riley's head after the BYU game are now preaching "patience" and claiming that the Nebraska Way pixie dust will take time to work. Daily Reminder: When you: 1.) are one of the top-paid coaches in America; 2.) were given a blank check to hire anyone you wanted for assistant coaches; and 3.) needlessly spent your offseason taking cheap shots at the previous staff ...people are going to question your efforts after you open 0 - 2 including a loss to a Sun Belt team. No one expects you to win a conference championship this year. But when your team comes out flat and uninspired after taking a loss to Colorado...

These numbers say turnovers, special teams, and penalties are killing us, which is also what my eyeballs tell me when I watch the games.

Yep it will happen. I have full confidence Nebraska will go into Ann Arbor and pull off the upset over Michigan. Adrian Martinez will be healthy and will play, giving the offense it's dual threat, plus Michigan won't have much film on Martinez and Nebraska's offense. It's an 11 AM kickoff meaning I am sure the Big House won't be that much of a home field advantage. I think Nebraska has a great week in practice, and guys get after it and challenge each other, meaning come game time they will be ready. Nebraska and Frost have nothing to lose going into this game. Michigan and Harbaugh on the other hand have a lot to lose. While Frost is coming into his homecoming, Harbaugh's seat is getting warm at his homecoming. Nebraska's defense has actually been a plus this year (as long as we are not in a 3rd and long situation), and I think the blackshirts will show up vs an uninspiring Michigan offense. Look for Nebraska to play loose and free while Michigan plays like they are walking on egg shells. I don't know, it's a gut feeling that Nebraska gets the first win of the season vs Michigan. It was a feeling that I had shortly after the game yesterday. I am fully confident Nebraska beats Michigan and it creates one great momentum swing for the Cornhuskers going more into conference play. GBR

Just to be clear, this is what I posted on another thread: A year ago most folks were saying that a run-first offense and a QB who could complete 70% of his passes was just what we needed. I've seen plenty of experienced first-string Nebraska quarterbacks have much worse days than Andrew Bunch did yesterday. Throwing Bunch under the bus doesn't explain much. For the last two weeks, Nebraska had some very big penalties go their way, and got away with a lot of uncalled stuff, too. Let's not talk about the officiating. The legitimate penalties are bad enough. We've also gotten away with a few fumbles we managed to recover. We aren't snakebit, just sloppy. As always, the play-calling is great when it works, idiotic when it doesn't, and the play you would have called would have been totally awesome. Some people think 9 carries for 27 yards Devine Ozigbo could have fallen forward for that two-point conversation because he was having his way with the Troy defense. It's possible that we're still living in a 1990s daydream. Add it all up, and it seems to be a matter of discipline and focus. The team can't maintain a rhythm. It's hard to do, because that's exactly what opposing DC try to break, but it's also what a veteran, well-coached team does. We aren't a veteran team, and honestly our coach isn't quite a veteran himself. The team appears to have energy and talent and it would be sad and stupid not to assume they can get better every week. The team has screwed up the Scott Frost love-fest that was waiting to explode, losing two games we were desperate to pencil in on the win column. As bad as the reaction is on this board, it's hard to imagine any coach we would have kept or hired not getting it worse. Don't know how far this particular team can go, but I'm definitely interested in watching them gel and find their rhythm. I actually expect them to give Michigan fits and wouldn't be shocked if they won. There's too much of the season left to be this cranky.

I don’t know if Riley would be 0-2 or not. He was fired, he performed poorly enough to be fired and he was. Blaming him for this start seems a little far flung when it seems to be consensus that our turnover margins have cost Nebraska their first two games and the people who have committed them, Adrian Martinez, Bunch, Bell, et al, aren’t Riley guys. That’s not a previous staff/culture thing. That may exist, but there’s been no shortage of roster turnover and talk of buy in that the “fix what Riley broke” trope seems forced.

hate SF much? did he beat you at marbles when you were a kid?

First of all...as to the bolded, you joined this board in July of 2016. So how tf would you know? To everything else you said, Martinez got injured during what might have been a touchdown drive to seal the win against Colorado and didn't play against Troy. And the next best QB on the team transferred. Pump the brakes on your outrage. It's so outlandish that it almost feels like trolling.

Well ...MountainMan blew the hell out of that plan almost immediately.

Honestly it would just be really nice if threads wouldn't devolve into arguing over past coaches and who did/didn't support them. This thread has good potential to actually discuss our team's play.

Boy, that went over your head.

To be fair, many of us NEVER wanted Riley hired in the first place. We knew he was a failure from the outset.

Played OL in school, have helped coach it since. Cut blocks are very common, and like someone mentioned, are used to bring D-linemen's hands down (instinctively) for a quick pass. That said, this was terrible technique. One, cut blocks should be made parallel to the line of scrimmage. If you're going to just dive straight forward, yes, the defense is going to walk around you... Two, if you're going to use two offensive linemen to cut block, they need to cut in the same direction. Why the tackle seems to cut left and the guard dives right is... interesting.

As it was in 2015, when you also pleaded patience.

I don't think anyone expected game 1 to be cancelled, our 1st string qb hurt, 2nd string transferred and starting our 3rd string walk on either.

Now that I’m sober.... LB play is really good. DL play is pretty decent DB play is still trash ST play is still 450 Washington is the best RB but teams are going to figure out that he cuts to the outside a lot and be prepared for that Bunch is not a good QB. Not to say in a couple more years of training he won’t be. But he isn’t now and people need to realize Frost and Verduzco are not the miracle QB developers many have made them out to be. The OL sucked from the first snap. Bench them all and play someone else. Can’t get much worse than that Receivers need to help their QB. It’s the only way we will possibly see even 1 win this year These coaches will not clean up penalties. It’s not what they do. These coaches took a lot of public shots at the last coaching staff. Everyone loved it. What did they get from it?

I remember when people would post "Only Saban, Peterson and Bo have won 9 games or more each year over the past ____ years"

The frustrating thing about the first two games is not that the players are not playing hard, it is that they are not playing smart at all. I honestly thought that the first thing that Frost would do is eliminate the stupid fouls we commit in every game. So far, the fouls have killed us and they are the reason we lost both games. A lot of our players are just not playing smart football. Being an athlete is good but we need smart athletes who do not beat themselves. Unfortunately, Riley recruited the wrong type of players and we will need to endure a bad season until things get better. I am not expecting much this season. I was hoping for a miracle start but it just seems like we will have to ride this season having low expectations. If we make a bowl, this season will be a great success. Nevertheless, I am confident that Frost will not rest until Nebraska is back competing for championships. It might take 3-4 years but he is the man for the job and I am 100% sure that he is not the type of person who likes to lose games like these. The team is still detoxing from the poison that was Riley.

Remember we heard this along with tons of other preseason hype. I don't buy it at all.

Guys... let’s not freak out. Do you... do you remember how the program was literally crumbling under Riley? Do you remember how toxic the culture was? The apathy of the coaches and the staff? We literally have the best coach possible in place to fix it. We have to be patient. The sky is not falling. It will be okay. And who knows, maybe we will pull an upset against Michigan next week... stranger things have in fact happened.

Frost has said that NU has installed about 80% of the offense so far, and NU used a backup, walk-on QB today. It’s tough to compare year 2 at UCF with a returning starter to year 1 at NU with 2 brand new starting QB’s in 2 games.

We hire the best young coach in the game that happens to be a Nebraska legend that took over a 4 win dumpster fire playing a 4th string QB and people expect a natty championship first season. Its freaking game two of the season. We werent winning the whole thing this year. The sun will come up tomorrow, life will continue. Scott Frost is the right man for the job. Lets wait a few years to bring out the pitchforks.

He threw for a 70% completion percentage. The fact that our special teams let them run a touchdown back and our kicker missed a field goal was not his fault. Our offensive line got horrible push on multiple 3rd & shorts. That was just painful to watch. We should have won the game 23-17.

I learned that good things really do take time, and that we have to attempt to be patient.

I wanted to see how all the other teams that had coaching changes are doing so far this year. Obviously not all coaching changes are equal, as some are due to poor play, some due to a coach finding another job they like better, some due to scandal, etc. SCHOOL 2017 COACH REPLACEMENT Arizona Rich Rodriguez Kevin Sumlin Arizona State Todd Graham Herm Edwards Arkansas Bret Bielema Chad Morris Florida Jim McElwain Dan Mullen Florida State Jimbo Fisher Willie Taggart Georgia Southern Tyson Summers Chad Lunsford (interim) Kent State Paul Haynes Louisiana Mark Hudspeth Billy Napier Mississippi State Dan Mullen Joe Moorhead Nebraska Mike Riley Scott Frost Ole Miss Hugh Freeze Matt Luke Oregon Willie Taggart Mario Cristobal Oregon State Gary Andersen Jonathan Smith Rice David Bailiff Mike Bloomgren South Alabama Joey Jones Steve Campbell SMU Chad Morris Sonny Dykes Tennessee Butch Jones Jeremy Pruitt Texas A&M Kevin Sumlin Jimbo Fisher UCF Scott Frost Josh Heupel UCLA Jim Mora Chip Kelly UTEP Sean Kugler Dana Dimel I've bolded the teams that I think have looked better than expected: Arizona - (1-2) Arizona State - (2-1) Arkansas - (1-2) Florida - (2-1) - With a loss to Kentucky that ended a 31 game winning streak over them Florida State - (1-2) Georgia Southern - (2-1) Kent State - (1-2) Louisiana - (1-2) Mississippi State - (3-0) - Mullen had them doing well before he left for a "better job" Nebraska - (0-2) Ole Miss - (2-1) - Average win over Texas Tech, but got curb stomped by Alabama Oregon - (3-0) - Different scenario when a coordinator just steps in to take over a decent team Oregon State - (1-2) Rice - (1-2) South Alabama - (1-2) SMU - (0-3) Tennessee - (2-1) - Two wins over garbage teams Texas A&M - (2-1) - This team wasn't terrible last year, and Fisher has a lot of experience UCF - (2-0) - Obviously Frost left them in pretty good shape UCLA - (0-3) UTEP - (0-3) Obviously no one here needs a reminder, but it takes time to get things going with a new coach. There was a coaching change for a reason, and you can't fix certain things overnight. Luckily, I think Nebraska has the right guy in charge now so we shouldn't be showing up on a list like this for several decades.

2021 OH. HUGE get for the Huskers. She picked Nebraska over Stanford

I didn't really care for that either. But, if you're going to do it you better make damn sure you don't lose to a middling PAC-12 team and a Sun Belt team right out of the gate. Not a good look.

You gonna pass that?

I am one of those odd people that doesnt care about year 1 at all. I have zero expectations of anything. Installing a new offense and defense. Our entire offense was not recruited to run this scheme at all, minus the guys Frost brought in. I expect us to make improvements from this year to next and I expect to see the BIG jump in year 3 where we are actually competing at a nearly elite level. Until then I want to keep my emotions out of it and just enjoy the process.

Pretty disappointing if true. I've had high expectations for Farmer this year. That may explain Coache's comments post game. Come on Farmer. We need you to do better.

In 2017 UCF lost 15 fumbles and ints combined to gaining 32. I don’t know if 15 is “a lot” but I do know we are on pace for over 25 for the year (and yes I know “on pace is a somewhat silly stat) I’m not looking to argue with you or anyone. I’m just finding humor in people telling everyone why this is more or less fine when any other coach wearing the N would have a lot of unease hovering around him. Every Nebraska fan is a Scott Frost fan. But Frost the coach has had his cape ripped off so far and it’s a little curious if not disturbing.

And just for perspective: UCLA has the money, the sunshine, the recruiting advantages, and Scott Frost's more proven mentor. And you really wouldn't want to be UCLA right now.

Didn't want to create a new thread for this and didn't know where to put it. Another thing that was incredibly frustrating to be honest was Young's play on their final touchdown drive. Here's the first play. Gifford's on the edge on the left side of the line. The way Young bites to the right of the field instead of staying home is seriously so hard to watch: The second play (their touchdown) isn't quite as bad because he does get blocked, but the whole defensive effort is just bad and not smart: Need to play in space better in conference play. It seems to have been the motion man both times that got us off of our assignments. Hard to watch! We really needed Mo Barry on this drive, IMO.

I seem to remember TheSker being beyond insufferable concerning Mike Riley, think he wanted him fired before game 1 IIRC.

I first want to say that I have no doubt that we have the right coach. SF and his staff are the ones that are going to turn this thing around. As I look at the state of the Nebraska program, I can't help but wonder if the UCF 0-12 season in 2015 wasn't as bad as it's been made out to be. Sure the record is as bad as it get's but look at the whole picture. They had a head coaching change during the season. They lost several close games and it looks like the wheels fell off at the end of the season. The fact remains that in the previous 3 years (2012-2014) the program was 31-9 (77.5%) and won 2 of 3 bowls games. One of those bowl games, was a Fiesta Bowl win over Baylor. That year, the program finished the season #10 in the country. The following year they were 9-4 and then went 0-12. What's my point?........... Nebraska has been in bad shape for close to a decade and went full dumpster fire under Riley. This turnaround that SF is being asked to do is a far bigger project than UCF was. Sure he more resources, but this in not the same scenario. He's also competing at a higher level. Most of the UCF players in the program when he took over knew how to win and compete before the 0-12 season. It's about changing a culture. Unfortunately that takes time. In the whole scheme of things, I still don't think it's going to take long for them to compete for conference championships, but we're still going to have to take some lumps. I have optimism for where this program is at at the end of the season. I think most of us, me included, had the bar too high. All along, I just wanted to see progress. Given the fact that they tackle, I can say that I'm already satisfied. We've seen strong progress in the box score in most categories (except penalties and turnovers...and score). There's just something that makes me think these guys are going to win a couple of games that they are not even supposed to compete in. He's done it before and he'll do it again, but this is a tougher turnaround than his last one. GBR

Agreed. With the final scores as close as they've been, I think turnover margin is our biggest issue.

I learned that if we keep shooting ourselves in the foot with turnovers, penalties , bad special teams play etc we’re going to have a hard time winning any games this year . We have some talent and much better team attitude /mentality if we can clean up the errors we’ll be fine .

51 new players this year- 1/2 the team is new. Many are freshman. The speed, the atmosphere, and the intensity of the game itself has to be overwhelming. And then Frost is coaching them to make their mistakes at high speed-which they are-and it may look they their not playing smart but really they're just playing fast and instinctive and they don't have the experience for it yet. But I also think that now is the time to just rip the band-aid off and learn to play fast. Learning curve and painful but also necessary. But that special teams tho- If I could fix one thing with a magic wand- it would be that

I'd like to welcome my Grandson to this world. He was born. 9/15/18, at 12:11 am. Welcome, Liam. 6th Gen.

Yeah... Because we didn’t pass to them at all today... Remind me who caught that big catch towards the end of the game that got us into the red zone? Oh, a tight end you say?

I'd rather they pick up an FCS game on Oct. 27. And we are still undefeated in conf. play 0-0 baby.

When we start winning, and winning a lot, I expect all the haters on this board to completely disappear and piss off. Such a bunch of goons. Its pretty obvious the cupboard was left pretty bare by Riley and Co. We are going to need a few recruiting classes to get things completely turned around.

This narrative is getting old real quick.

You wouldn't be able to understand anything and you'd just be worried about spiders and s#!t.