I would only fire Banker IF...

[BigRedBuster]

I would like to hear intelligible conversation as to what's so wrong with Banker at this point. Lot of uneducation generalizations based on nothing. You do realize that Banker is the DEFensive coordinator, right?

That's because people grasp at straws when things go wrong. A lot of what happened on Friday was on the players, both in effort and technique.

I'm torn on what I think of him. But when people reference technique and fundamentals as being poor, who is that on if not the coach.The difference in simply making tackles in space between us and Iowa was staggering.

They played games earlier in the year where they made those tackles with good technique. So...they obviously were taught how to do it and knew how to do it then.
So.....you tell me who is to blame that they didn't do it in the Iowa game?

That says focus to me (and possibly playing better opponents?). I do agree we've been better this year, but we still see a lot of poor angles and over pursuit resulting in cutbacks and long plays. I think Nate Gerry is a prime example. He's obviously been terrific for us this year, but he misses a lot of tackles.
Again, I'm not advocating either way on the DC, just noting something I've noticed.

Wisconsin has similar level of talent and arguably a better offense. We were able to keep them to under 350 yards offense and 17 points in regulation. Compare that to over 400 yards of offense and 40 points in regulation.

Against Wisconsin, we didn't have total break downs that resulted in long plays that broke our back. Against Iowa, we had scoring plays of 75 and 77 yards almost back to back. We then also had a 56 yard run that set up a TD two plays later. All before half time.

Those three plays were flat out break downs in what the players were supposed to do. It wasn't the scheme. These weren't trick plays or something the players shouldn't have been expecting or prepared for. They just totally were not focused.

We didn't see that lack of focus in games like the Wisconsin game.

 

[NUance]

I posted this in the Fired Read thread. Certainly not saying Banker's Ds were great this year, but he started in a hole losing our whole D-line during the spring:

Wow, so much hate for Banker in this thread. I realize this will be an unpopular thing to say, but we did not *totally* suck on defense this year. I know, I know, the two blowouts. I watched. (

) But despite those two games we finished the year ranked #22 in total defense. (#30 in scoring defense). Sure, that's nothing to write home about. Plenty of room for improvement and all. But you do have to consider that we lost our entire defensive line from last year, including our top four DTs. We played the year with two new starters at DT, one DE who was a walk-on and the other DE who is converted tight end. Even though I'm perplexed and a bit pissed about the two blowout games I was mostly pleased with our defensive performance in the other ten games. I don't think it's time to break out the pitchforks and torches just yet for Banker.

It helped that we didn't play good offenses, and the one that we did dropped a 60 point bomb on us.

» 13: Rushes of more than 30 yards allowed by Nebraska’s defense. That ranks 105th nationally. NU was hot and cold as a run defense all season. The Huskers held five opponents under 100 yards rushing and four teams gained more than 200 yards. NU allowed 4.28 yards per carry, which ranked 10th in the Big Ten. Teams that stuck with the run — Wisconsin and Iowa — were rewarded for it. The idea that the Badgers didn’t run the ball well on NU is inaccurate; Wisconsin ran for 223 yards and 5.87 yards per carry. That’s a good day. That’s Wisconsin’s highest yards-per-carry day all season.

http://www.omaha.com/huskers/football/mckewon-iowa-debacle-could-make-husker-coach-mike-riley-an/article_41184864-e4b5-54f4-b0fd-3d89bfe72a0e.html

Mark Banker is Kevin Cosgrove, except Mark gets the benefit of not playing against good offenses all year.

Do you think losing the top four DTs this spring had any effect on our defense? Cosgrove at least had the benefit of Le Kevin Smith and Titus Adams, both honorable mention Big 12, He also had a couple years of Adam Carriker, the Big 12 defensive lineman of the year. Oh, and he had a young fella named Ndamukong Suh in '06 and '07. You really can't compare what Cosgrove had to work with compared to this year. Apples and oranges, my friend. Apples and oranges.

 

[Red Five]

Not saying that Banker is the long term answer, but...

Comparing 15 to 16, our rush D got worse, but our passing, total, and scoring D improved. We allowed 50 less yards/game and 5 less points/game.

Were the offenses we faced this year that much worse than we faced last year?

2015:

#64 Total D 400.4

#92 Yards/Play 5.88

#9 Rush D 109.9

#32 Yards/Rush 3.77

#122 Pass D 290.5

#84 Yards/Att 7.5

#75 Scoring D 27.8

2016:

#22 Total D 350.6

#46 Yards/Play 5.40

#36 Rush D 141.0

#59 Yards/Rush 4.28

#42 Pass D 209.6

#25 Yards/Att 6.5

#30 Scoring D 22.8

And not that I fully understand advanced stats, but they also show improvement

DS&P+

2015 #57

2016 #21

DFEI

2015 #70

2016 #51

 

[3rd and long]

I would like to hear intelligible conversation as to what's so wrong with Banker at this point. Lot of uneducation generalizations based on nothing. You do realize that Banker is the DEFensive coordinator, right?

That's because people grasp at straws when things go wrong. A lot of what happened on Friday was on the players, both in effort and technique.

I'm torn on what I think of him. But when people reference technique and fundamentals as being poor, who is that on if not the coach.The difference in simply making tackles in space between us and Iowa was staggering.

They played games earlier in the year where they made those tackles with good technique. So...they obviously were taught how to do it and knew how to do it then.
So.....you tell me who is to blame that they didn't do it in the Iowa game?

That says focus to me (and possibly playing better opponents?). I do agree we've been better this year, but we still see a lot of poor angles and over pursuit resulting in cutbacks and long plays. I think Nate Gerry is a prime example. He's obviously been terrific for us this year, but he misses a lot of tackles.Again, I'm not advocating either way on the DC, just noting something I've noticed.

Wisconsin has similar level of talent and arguably a better offense. We were able to keep them to under 350 yards offense and 17 points in regulation. Compare that to over 400 yards of offense and 40 points in regulation.
Against Wisconsin, we didn't have total break downs that resulted in long plays that broke our back. Against Iowa, we had scoring plays of 75 and 77 yards almost back to back. We then also had a 56 yard run that set up a TD two plays later. All before half time.

Those three plays were flat out break downs in what the players were supposed to do. It wasn't the scheme. These weren't trick plays or something the players shouldn't have been expecting or prepared for. They just totally were not focused.

We didn't see that lack of focus in games like the Wisconsin game.

So it appears we agree on the lack of focus. So if a team isn't ready, who does that fall on?

 

[BigRedBuster]

If a team has proven that they know how to play defense, they have proven they can come into a game and go against a decent offense and play well enough to win, the scheme has worked and held decent opponents to a score where we can win.......but then they come into the last game of the year and play like they have never played Div 1 football before......I have a hard time blaming the coaching staff first.

If you are a Div 1 player and you are going into the last game of the year with a chance to go to the championship game with a win and you're not focused enough to make the plays you have been making in 10 of the last 11 games......you need to look in the mirror. A coach should not be needing to somehow get into your head in this situation and make sure you're focused. This should be automatic and expected.

 

[hskrpwr13]

With Ben Miles on board, you think Les wants the job?

 

[Red Five]

With Ben Miles on board, you think Les wants the job?

Sure. But first tell me when he has ever coached defense.

 

[ColoradoHusk]

With Ben Miles on board, you think Les wants the job?

I know you are somewhat joking, but can people stop bringing up Les Miles for the Defensive Coordinator job? Miles has never coached defense in his entire coaching career. He was a long-time o-line and tight ends coach before becoming the head coach at Okie Light, and then moving on to LSU.

 

[Jason Sitoke]

If a team has proven that they know how to play defense, they have proven they can come into a game and go against a decent offense and play well enough to win, the scheme has worked and held decent opponents to a score where we can win.......but then they come into the last game of the year and play like they have never played Div 1 football before......I have a hard time blaming the coaching staff first.

If you are a Div 1 player and you are going into the last game of the year with a chance to go to the championship game with a win and you're not focused enough to make the plays you have been making in 10 of the last 11 games......you need to look in the mirror. A coach should not be needing to somehow get into your head in this situation and make sure you're focused. This should be automatic and expected.

Not saying you're wrong, but it seems convenient to argue that the coaching is not the problem because the defense played well in game X, but the players totally failed in game Y. I think I could argue the opposite and be just as right/wrong

 

[Nebfanatic]

If a team has proven that they know how to play defense, they have proven they can come into a game and go against a decent offense and play well enough to win, the scheme has worked and held decent opponents to a score where we can win.......but then they come into the last game of the year and play like they have never played Div 1 football before......I have a hard time blaming the coaching staff first.

If you are a Div 1 player and you are going into the last game of the year with a chance to go to the championship game with a win and you're not focused enough to make the plays you have been making in 10 of the last 11 games......you need to look in the mirror. A coach should not be needing to somehow get into your head in this situation and make sure you're focused. This should be automatic and expected.

Not saying you're wrong, but it seems convenient to argue that the coaching is not the problem because the defense played well in game X, but the players totally failed in game Y. I think I could argue the opposite and be just as right/wrong

I think we should blame the players....and the coach

 

[Saunders]

I posted this in the Fired Read thread. Certainly not saying Banker's Ds were great this year, but he started in a hole losing our whole D-line during the spring:

Wow, so much hate for Banker in this thread. I realize this will be an unpopular thing to say, but we did not *totally* suck on defense this year. I know, I know, the two blowouts. I watched. (

) But despite those two games we finished the year ranked #22 in total defense. (#30 in scoring defense). Sure, that's nothing to write home about. Plenty of room for improvement and all. But you do have to consider that we lost our entire defensive line from last year, including our top four DTs. We played the year with two new starters at DT, one DE who was a walk-on and the other DE who is converted tight end. Even though I'm perplexed and a bit pissed about the two blowout games I was mostly pleased with our defensive performance in the other ten games. I don't think it's time to break out the pitchforks and torches just yet for Banker.

It helped that we didn't play good offenses, and the one that we did dropped a 60 point bomb on us.

» 13: Rushes of more than 30 yards allowed by Nebraska’s defense. That ranks 105th nationally. NU was hot and cold as a run defense all season. The Huskers held five opponents under 100 yards rushing and four teams gained more than 200 yards. NU allowed 4.28 yards per carry, which ranked 10th in the Big Ten. Teams that stuck with the run — Wisconsin and Iowa — were rewarded for it. The idea that the Badgers didn’t run the ball well on NU is inaccurate; Wisconsin ran for 223 yards and 5.87 yards per carry. That’s a good day. That’s Wisconsin’s highest yards-per-carry day all season.

http://www.omaha.com/huskers/football/mckewon-iowa-debacle-could-make-husker-coach-mike-riley-an/article_41184864-e4b5-54f4-b0fd-3d89bfe72a0e.html

Mark Banker is Kevin Cosgrove, except Mark gets the benefit of not playing against good offenses all year.

Do you think losing the top four DTs this spring had any effect on our defense? Cosgrove at least had the benefit of Le Kevin Smith and Titus Adams, both honorable mention Big 12, He also had a couple years of Adam Carriker, the Big 12 defensive lineman of the year. Oh, and he had a young fella named Ndamukong Suh in '06 and '07. You really can't compare what Cosgrove had to work with compared to this year. Apples and oranges, my friend. Apples and oranges.

I'm not talking about just this year, I'm talking about his career.

He's not a Don Brown, Dave Aranda, or Bud Foster. Hell, he's not even a tier 2 guy like Greg Schiano, Luke Fickel, Phil Parker, or Tom Allen.

 

[BigRedBuster]

If a team has proven that they know how to play defense, they have proven they can come into a game and go against a decent offense and play well enough to win, the scheme has worked and held decent opponents to a score where we can win.......but then they come into the last game of the year and play like they have never played Div 1 football before......I have a hard time blaming the coaching staff first.

If you are a Div 1 player and you are going into the last game of the year with a chance to go to the championship game with a win and you're not focused enough to make the plays you have been making in 10 of the last 11 games......you need to look in the mirror. A coach should not be needing to somehow get into your head in this situation and make sure you're focused. This should be automatic and expected.

Not saying you're wrong, but it seems convenient to argue that the coaching is not the problem because the defense played well in game X, but the players totally failed in game Y. I think I could argue the opposite and be just as right/wrong

That's very possible.

But....let me ask you this. Should a coach have to get you pumped up/focused/excited to play in a game like they played in on Friday?

Where I would argue with is, the coach is responsible to come up with a scheme that works, teach that scheme and then in the game put you in a position to succeed. If in the middle of the season, the players are in games that where it is displayed the coaches have done that, then I would assume they all of a sudden didn't unteach that to the players in the last game of the year.

 

[Jason Sitoke]

Banker seems like a hard-working, loyal, good dude. But was he ever a real rising coaching star? His background seems to suggest that he's more known for being a hard working over achiever who's loyal to fault...not bad traits mind you. What I don't see is a track record or commentary that indicates he's all that innovative or talented at coaching defense. Also haven't seen any indications in the two years he's been here.

It might be unfair to blame him solely for our two meltdowns, but fwiw I've never been sold on him as a particularly inspiring coach that's gonna make this defense the backbone of the team again.

I choose to drink the kool aid that MR is a good college football CEO whose success will scale with the availability of resources. However, part of utilizing those resources is upgrading the coaching talent around you. Took a good first step with Read...here's hoping he stays committed to program success more than he is committed to professional loyalty

 

[BigRedBuster]

If a team has proven that they know how to play defense, they have proven they can come into a game and go against a decent offense and play well enough to win, the scheme has worked and held decent opponents to a score where we can win.......but then they come into the last game of the year and play like they have never played Div 1 football before......I have a hard time blaming the coaching staff first.

If you are a Div 1 player and you are going into the last game of the year with a chance to go to the championship game with a win and you're not focused enough to make the plays you have been making in 10 of the last 11 games......you need to look in the mirror. A coach should not be needing to somehow get into your head in this situation and make sure you're focused. This should be automatic and expected.

Not saying you're wrong, but it seems convenient to argue that the coaching is not the problem because the defense played well in game X, but the players totally failed in game Y. I think I could argue the opposite and be just as right/wrong

That's very possible.

But....let me ask you this. Should a coach have to get you pumped up/focused/excited to play in a game like they played in on Friday?

Where I would argue with is, the coach is responsible to come up with a scheme that works, teach that scheme and then in the game put you in a position to succeed. If in the middle of the season, the players are in games that where it is displayed the coaches have done that, then I would assume they all of a sudden didn't unteach that to the players in the last game of the year.

Also...don't get me wrong.

If Riley announced today that he has fired Banker, I would be excited to see who he is going to bring in and wouldn't shed a tear.

I'm just saying that as a fan sitting on my couch, I'm not seeing enough to be able to make that decision.

 

[Jason Sitoke]

If a team has proven that they know how to play defense, they have proven they can come into a game and go against a decent offense and play well enough to win, the scheme has worked and held decent opponents to a score where we can win.......but then they come into the last game of the year and play like they have never played Div 1 football before......I have a hard time blaming the coaching staff first.

If you are a Div 1 player and you are going into the last game of the year with a chance to go to the championship game with a win and you're not focused enough to make the plays you have been making in 10 of the last 11 games......you need to look in the mirror. A coach should not be needing to somehow get into your head in this situation and make sure you're focused. This should be automatic and expected.

Not saying you're wrong, but it seems convenient to argue that the coaching is not the problem because the defense played well in game X, but the players totally failed in game Y. I think I could argue the opposite and be just as right/wrong

That's very possible.

But....let me ask you this. Should a coach have to get you pumped up/focused/excited to play in a game like they played in on Friday?

Where I would argue with is, the coach is responsible to come up with a scheme that works, teach that scheme and then in the game put you in a position to succeed. If in the middle of the season, the players are in games that where it is displayed the coaches have done that, then I would assume they all of a sudden didn't unteach that to the players in the last game of the year.

I agree that it's hard to blame coaching for players not being 'pumped'.

We hired a guy some years ago who was known for being a coach that 'guys would run through brick wall for', and was (among other reasons) fired for these same kinds of breakdowns against good opponents.