How Do You Spell Expectations in Nebraska?
- Thread starter TGHusker
- Start date
HuskermanMike
Starter
Well, for one he is the all-time passing leader in school history. Say what you will about "oh we always ran back in the day," but the record still stands. He also had many gut-wrenching victories for this team and if it isn't for him Mike may not have had a winning season at Nebraska. His leadership qualities were really good because it seemed he always had the respect of his teammates and if I remember correctly had been referred to as a leader by his peers. The only thing he doesn't have is the hardware to show for it.
Back to the topic, my expectation this year is to make a bowl game but if we want to put a regular season record on it I will say 7-5. One road win coupled with 6 home wins and we get to 7 wins. It could be more if we pull off an upset but it could get dragged back down if we lose to someone we should beat. Overall, I want to see a team come out in 2018 with something to prove, that they are not a 4 win team, that Wiscy will not just rush for 400 yards everytime they play us. OSU will not score like they are playing their third strings, you get the point an attitude and a willingness to win at all costs. That will really show this year and whether or not we have a team that will quit or fight to the end if things end up bad.
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Danimal
All-Conference
Not the biggest Armstrong guy but Langsdorf did not remotely get the most out of him and TA's wheels made way more of a difference than folks cared to admit. Possible we could have found a grad-transfer or JUCO(if Eichorst allowed) to take over but as-is we started the best guy we had. POB has maturity issues, he was not ready to start in Riley's second year. Our problem was that we just didn't have a well-coached offense.
Landlord
Banned
I do like and respect and appreciate Tommy, but a great quarterback he was not.
As far as passing, he started four years which were all more pass heavy than the offenses of almost the history of our program. Tommie Frazier, another four year starter (kinda, both players missed parts of seasons, but the point stands), had 469 career passing attempts. Armstrong had 1,172. That's well over double!
As far as gut-wrenching victories, they were certainly tough fought and involved a lot of heart, but they were over teams like 2013 Michigan (7-6), 2016 Oregon (4-8), and 2014 Iowa (7-6).
HuskermanMike
Starter
By measuring success you go by school records, championships etc. Tommy still has the school record and anything trying to discredit it is just an excuse. Well only if the warriors had 3 superstars instead of 5 Lebron and co could have won, same thing, an excuse.
Do not fault Tommy on the playcalling either, he could throw the ball well and let's not forget a QB drafted had more pick 6s in one season than Tommy during his FOUR years. Although Tommy did have his fair share of picks, he still has the record and that is what matters. He also had to run an offense not suited for him and rose to the occasion and learned it. We obviously don't see eye to eye here and that is okay, I am going by the individual stats but if he had a competent coach he would have some kind of hardware to bring back to Nebraska.
Success and greatness are not the same thing - especially in football. Trent Dilfer is not a better quarterback than Dan Marino because he won a Super Bowl and Marino didn't.
TA has a lot of records because he had a lot of OPPORTUNITIES. As @Landlord noted, he had so many more attempts than most other QBs we've had. He would have had to be the worst QB we've ever had to NOT end his career with a bunch of records. That doesn't make him great. That means he got a lot more chances than most.
Landlord
Banned
If we want to go by records and championships, Tommy has no championships, no championship appearances, and a 29-14 record as a starter, which is about 65%.
Maybe it was because he was the best player at that position and sometimes the best player on the entire field.
Best player at his position, yes.
"Sometimes" the best player on the entire field ..... probably "sometimes". But - like I said earlier - the problem with TA was never that he couldn't do something. He was capable of doing a lot of things well and at times he did. The problem was he couldn't do them well consistently enough to be a really good QB.
3 games after he graduates before his head coach was effectively fired. If he was a good fit, how does that happen? There is no loss so bad in game 3, year 3 that can cause such a move if years 1 and 2 were promising.
I won't argue he wasnt underrated, maybe even underappreciated, but the decision to stay with him rather than find a player to execute their vision (assume for a second they had one) definitely plays a part in how events ultimately unfold.
HuskermanMike
Starter
Thanks for reading my whole post. Now if you read the last part where I say I am comparing the records and that this was implied as a general statement, not Tommy only. You are correct though he made Mike Riley's tenure look a lot better than it was and that is why he brought no hardware with him. Also, I could argue he has a better record if he has an offense that is more suited to him.
Fair enough, but he is still the record holder and arguably would have crushed it by more if he had run an uptempo offense for his last two years. I kind of agree with he had more opportunities than most but that is his fault? It feels like people are reaching to discredit his accomplishments which is what I am trying to back him. I am not saying he is the greatest ever at Nebraska but that he was a QB that fought hard and broke records with his hard work despite being in an offense not suited for him.