Do husker fans today have lower expectations?

[Guy Chamberlin]

I'm looking forward to the season and will be rooting hard for Nebraska.

 

It's really not that different from my last 57 years as a Husker fan.

[Redux]

It's really not that different from my last 57 years as a Husker fan.

 

[Crusader Husker]

With people being fired up, should we ask the question again?

[Mavric]

I doubt people's expectations have changed in the last 4-6 weeks.

 

I think people were just trying to convince themselves that they are fine with a barely-above-average team without really considering what that might look like.  

 

Now that they see it, they realize that isn't what they want.

[Toe]

Relevant snippet from that Misery Index article:

 

Quote

Toward the end of the Pelini era, there were a lot of thinkpieces floating out in the national media about whether Nebraska fans realized they were no longer a national power like they once were under Tom Osborne and whether those years had created unrealistic expectations for what the program could be today. While it’s a fun discussion because it ties into how television has changed the entire landscape of the sport, it’s kind of a straw man. Nobody in Nebraska believes they’re going to return to the 1980s or early 1990s. But is being as good as Wisconsin really too much to ask? The idea that Nebraska can't win a national title is ridiculous. Obviously, it would take the right coach with the right philosophy and some luck in recruiting. But can it happen? Of course it can. If Wisconsin can put itself on the periphery of the playoff discussion every year, there’s no reason why Nebraska can’t be as good or better.

 

[southernoregonhusker]

On 7/31/2017 at 11:10 PM, southernoregonhusker said:

As for the original question, the answer is a hard yes. Of course my expectations are lowered. It's called reality. We don't have the program we used to and that probably won't change. Certainly not in the near future. We are a middle of the pack program and proven so the past 15 or so years.

 

As for this year, I think we win 7 or 8 games. Does that make me a bad fan? No, it makes me a realist. New QB. New D. Average at best O and D lines. Thin in the defensive backfield. Average linebackers. Runningbacks who haven't shown us anything yet. We have some talented players. Just not enough of them yet.

Well, we're worse than I thought we were on July 31.  No way we win seven games.  The new QB, overall defense and O lines are worse than I had thought possible.  Again, we just don't have enough talent, and we only have a few coaches worth their salt.  

 

I think most of the angst from fans on this board comes from out of this world expectations.  

[TGHusker]

1 hour ago, Toe said:

Relevant snippet from that Misery Index article:

 

 

The quote says it all.   We know that the football landscape has changed and how fortunate we were to have back to back Devaney/Osborne tenures, but with all of the resources we've placed in the program a CC ever now and then and an occasion playoff bid or even NC isn't unrealistic. With our west division, we should be in the CCG1-3 times every 5 years and win it at least once.  With that we should be in playoff contention.  I don't think it is too much to ask for a consistent top 15 team and the occasional top 10 (based on the effort placed into the program over 50 years, even that seems like low expectations). Realistically, there is is much more parody in college football.  TV money has evened the playing field and teams that in years past that were never contenders now are.  How often have we looked at the top 15 or even 25 and asked how is that team ranked above NU (we are surprised by the filters of our long tradition - Louisville comes to mind and even Okie State - both have been regular top 25 teams while NU is on the outside looking in).  

[84HuskerLaw]

Lowered expectations presumbaly simply means most fans that once expected the Huskers to win every week no longer expect us to win many games.  Clearly if you expect us to win the national championship this year, your simply dillusional and or have no clue as to football in general and or the currect state of Husker football generally.   

.   

I was hopeful, based on the information provided by the Nebraska media mostly that we had a real passing QB with talent.  That alone was something we have not had for decades.  I also expected our O line to play better since most of the players were returning from atleast one or two yeOur ars 'in the system' and according to the media and the 'experts' who supposedly know about such thngs, our recruits were fairly highly sought after and amongst the better ones in the country.   It seems pretty obvious to me that those 'facts' were flat out wrong.

 

Our RBs and WRs are adequate to win 10 gamea.  I still feel our secondary and LBs and DL are adequate to the same task although our coaches have not played them in such a way as to play agressively.   Why?   I d k.  Maybe the coaches know they players are simply not good enough and we are doing the only thing we can which is to play back and hope the opponent shoots themselves in the foot before they march the entire field and score.  

 

Our punting is much improved as I expected and Brown is still a fine place kicker and kick off man   Only God knows what is going on with our punt returns (the lack thereof).   We remain afraid or uncertain as when and where we should catch and return a punt.  This is inexplicable.  Any 'average' high school football coach can atleast plan a reasonable punt return scheme surely.  

 

We all WANT more than we expect.   Our big picture expectations remain lofty but our present situation expectations are as of today, very low indeed.  I don't expect us to win more that one or two more games and we may not win any.  That is a very sad thing to say but that is how far down my expectations have fallen in just 15 days.   .  

[Nebhawk]

Landscape has changed................Seems kind of same ol same ol' to me.  Alabama, Clemson, OU, Michigan Ohio ST, Florida St are all in the Top 15.  We are the only missing from that list that would rival something found in the 1980's........right.

 

TV Money has changed the landscape, but the powers in football nearly are all the same except for where Nebraska is currently.  Yes most of those schools have had some rough spots.  Yes most have fired head coaches.  Looks like most have figured it out now to.  This is why the time is now to get things righted.  We are the last of the Mohicans.  We haven't found our name on that list for quite some time.  Frankly I don't know one fan on this board or that sits in that stadium that would care what offense or defense we ran, as long as we were winning 9-10 ball games a year and not getting pounded in Top 10 match ups.  Right?  Winning cures those ailments.  If we slinged the ball around the field 65 times a game and could play Ohio St to within a field goal, right now who would say thats not playing to win?  If you could play them within a field goal that means you could also win the game.  We haven't had that feeling for a while either. 

 

Our standards have to matched that of Ohio St and Michigan.  They are the front runners in the conference.  Wisky is a great role model, but they don't have enough horses to compete with those other two right now either.  To me, setting standards like Wisky is like deciding to follow Bill Snyder's lead at KSU when we were watching them win the Big 12 north.  That won't beat Texas or OU on most years.  Same thing for the goal of being Badger.  Thats great for being 3rd best, but more than likely won't get you into too many Playoff's.

[Nebhawk]

Expectations should never be lessened.  There is parity in college football, but not as much as gets reported.  Instead of having a hand ful of teams that can win the title each year we now have two handfuls of teams that can win it all.  We are in a conference where the champion has a chance to be a playoff contender.  One of 5 conferences that have that.  

 

Michigan landed the right guy on try 3.  I don't count Solich in this process because he wasn't really hired.  He was appointed as the overseer of what TO started.  Callahan, Pelini, and now Riley.  Our expectations shouldn't be any less than that of Michigans.  USC, OU, or Texas.

 

Winning is the only expectation.

[huskered17]

I didn't think we could win the B1G this year. I did think we could win our div. I also thought we should be able to maybe compete with any team in the B1G, and not get embarrassed. I don't expect to much now, but I do want to see this team keep pushing to get better and not get embarrassed by Wis & OSU. 

Our players play hard from what I've watched. Riley, OC & Cav need to step up and own this mess.

If the 0-line can't protect Lee long enough, change the play calling or put a qb in that can move around back there. 

There is no wait till next year, next year is a killer schedule. It would be better to find out now who you can count on going forward....

 

GBR!!!

[Sker fer life]

On 7/29/2017 at 8:37 AM, BigRedBuster said:

I'm so tired of seeing this question all the time.

Same here, my expectations are the same they've always been,  unfortunately this program has fallen so far and gotten so mismanaged by the university that it makes it real hard for real fans of this team to stay positive.............Frustated.

[Enhance]

Alongside @BigRedBuster, I'm tired of this question as well. I would argue most fan expectations remain unchanged during the last 15-20 years. The expectation has always been to field a competitive football team that competes for (and occasionally wins) conference titles. That's still an incredibly realistic goal.

 

We should furthermore avoid confusing expectations with apathy. Many fans grow tired of emotionally investing in the program only to see an unsatisfactory result. I can't blame any of those people. It's tough to care and see what we're seeing.

[beorach]

Of course we have lower expectations and anyone who watches more than Husker games understands why.