Stealing Nebraska's identity

[Hunter94]

The only (potentially) bad firing decision was Solich. All other questioning, pressure, and firings of coaches and ADs was deserved, and the firings (post Solich) did not cause us to go away from what we were good at in the 70s 80s and 90s. Most of that was gone already. One of the coach/AD duos purposely tried to get rid of these things because they thought they knew better.

The questionable/terrible decisions were the hirings, especially the 1st and 3rd hiring after Solich.
 

I really don't get what you're talking about with Iowa. I haven't paid much attention to them, ever really, but it seems to me they've been doing the same type of thing for at least 40 years now, or whenever Hayden Fry started. That said I do see similarities between those 2 teams and Nebraska. Neither is great at recruiting due to similar geographical/population issues that Nebraska has, but they still seem to be at least decent every year (although Iowa tends to have a really crappy season occasionally). Both of those teams show that development of decent players can lead to success. But obviously our goal is to do more than they have.

when we caned Solich there was no plan,  getting Frost seems like the best move in many years....we shall see.........8-4 may be the new norm here for a long time.

sounds pretty good vs. 0-6 so far.

 

[GSG]

when we caned Solich

 

[Xmas32]

As mentioned above above, I am unsure of the last time in recent years (post Solich) we have had an identity.  We tried numerous times to establish WCO, spread, inside/outside zone, up tempo, Pro style, no style etc....Throw in each generally tried to implement scheme "X" with players previously recruited for another, multiple OC's and DC's for each scheme with some of the kids seeing a new coordinator/position coach almost every year they were here destroyed any resemblance of who or what Nebraska was.

Ref the original OP, Wisky has emulated NU very well IMHO.  Not specifically in scheme, but in composition.  They've recruited very well for their system. IIRC, 2-3 DC's the past 4 years, maybe an OC change, HC change and they still roll on.  They have embraced the walk-on program and never let it drop.  The do a great job at finding/developing talent.  And most importantly, even as viewed through the lens of Frost and Co, they play incredibly sound, fundamental football.  They are very good at execution.  They pay attention to the "little things".  They play disciplined on both sides.  They played physical and beat you down.  These characteristics, more than anything, identified NU in it's "glory days".  Regardless of the triple option, counters/traps and FB play, NU was physical on both sides.  They were perfectionists in their approach  to the game.  Frost was a part of this.  He is going to bring it back.  Regardless of scheme, we get back to sound, fundamental and physical play, we start to win.  A lot.  

Iowa?  They too play sound, physical football......

Frost will get us back.  It will just take  longer than most thought.  Like Moos said yesterday, "It took us 15 years to go from first to worst.  It's gonna take time to go from worst to first"....

The stability they've had in the coaching ranks is helpful.  They've also absolutely nailed their last few coordinator hires Aaranda/Wilcox/Leonard on the defensive side and Rudolph their current OC is a former all Big Ten lineman who absolutely understands what Wisconsin excels at.  To me that's the biggest difference and a credit to Alvarez, Wisconsin just never really got away from what made them successful under Cryst and Bert and when they had a guy who wasn't a fit (Anderson) they quickly identified it and moved on.

 

[ScottyIce]

I want what Nebraska's got.

Not Wisconsin. Madison blows.

Not Iowa. Iowa blows.

 

[NUinID]

Haven't seen any national championships won by these schools recently, or anytime for that matter....I get the idea but we do not want to be Wisconsin and we definitely don't want to be Iowa.

Yeah, I understand what you are saying.  You want to be OSU.  In order to be OSU Nebraska has to be Wisconsin and Iowa first.  That doesn't mean they have to play the exact same brand of football, but they do need to be a solid disciplined hard nosed football team that gets the most out of its players.  They need to be able to consistently be 9-3 or 10-2 before they can be 12-0. 

 

[Hunter94]

Yeah, I understand what you are saying.  You want to be OSU.  In order to be OSU Nebraska has to be Wisconsin and Iowa first.  That doesn't mean they have to play the exact same brand of football, but they do need to be a solid disciplined hard nosed football team that gets the most out of its players.  They need to be able to consistently be 9-3 or 10-2 before they can be 12-0. 

+1

 

[Nebfanatic]

Yeah, I understand what you are saying.  You want to be OSU.  In order to be OSU Nebraska has to be Wisconsin and Iowa first.  That doesn't mean they have to play the exact same brand of football, but they do need to be a solid disciplined hard nosed football team that gets the most out of its players.  They need to be able to consistently be 9-3 or 10-2 before they can be 12-0. 

Yea sure but I personally think all of this we need to be like 'x' program is stupid. We need to do our own thing. We aren't following anyones blueprint but our own and Scott Frost's.

I get it with the hard nose, disciplined play whatever else but Iowa is no better than Northwestern. Why not say we want to be like Penn State? We recruit closer to what they were doing before the last 2 years then Wisconsin and definitely Iowa. Back to back 11 win seasons and a top 10 perception.

Wisconsin is there too in terms of recent success but I don't know if they would look as good if they had to play in the East. Iowa not really even close and the only reason they had a big success in the recent past is due to our weak division. No heavy hitters, every team in our division is essentially the same. All tough in their own right, but not elite. We want to be elite.

 

[Hedley Lamarr]

Yeah, I understand what you are saying.  You want to be OSU.  In order to be OSU Nebraska has to be Wisconsin and Iowa first.  That doesn't mean they have to play the exact same brand of football, but they do need to be a solid disciplined hard nosed football team that gets the most out of its players.  They need to be able to consistently be 9-3 or 10-2 before they can be 12-0. 

Tell that to UCF that went from 0-12 to 13-0 in two years...they didnt sit in mediocrity and wallow around 7 or 8 wins each year and give their coach a multi year extension for being barely above average. 

 

[Making Chimichangas]

Haven't seen any national championships won by these schools recently, or anytime for that matter....I get the idea but we do not want to be Wisconsin and we definitely don't want to be Iowa.

Yeah, why would we want to be Wisconsin right now????  I mean they've only:

1. Won like 3 conference titles since we've joined the BIG.

2. Were a loss to Ohio St in the CCG away from the playoffs last year.

3. We've beaten them once since we joined the BIG and they've beaten us like a red-headed, immigrant child.

Remember back in the day when Tom Osborne would win conference championships, but had trouble winning bowl games?  And people said he, "Couldn't win the big one?"  That's where Wisconsin is right now.

So if you seriously wouldn't "trade places" with Wisconsin right now, then :dunno

 

[ScottyIce]

Yeah, why would we want to be Wisconsin right now????  I mean they've only:

1. Won like 3 conference titles since we've joined the BIG.

2. Were a loss to Ohio St in the CCG away from the playoffs last year.

3. We've beaten them once since we joined the BIG and they've beaten us like a red-headed, immigrant child.

Remember back in the day when Tom Osborne would win conference championships, but had trouble winning bowl games?  And people said he, "Couldn't win the big one?"  That's where Wisconsin is right now.

So if you seriously wouldn't "trade places" with Wisconsin right now, then :dunno

Okay...

You're right on a lot of accounts, but with Wisconsin, it just feels like this is always as good as they are going to be. It doesn't feel like they are ever going to take out the big boys. What is their recent record against tOSU, Michigan and Penn State since 2012?

1-9

Iowa is 3-5 in the same time frame. Nebraska is.... 4-5.

That's exactly where we were with Bo. Winning tons of games but never over the hump.

So is that where you wish we were? Back with Bo doing that?

Frost is going to do that and more. 

 

[TAKODA]

Wisconsin didn’t steal our identity, they copied it.

Iowa is nothing like what Nebraska was. If anything their mediocrity reminds of our last 15 years, just more stable and consistent, and extremely more boring.

Nobody stole our identity, Peterson and Callahan threw it away. Pelini couldn’t resurrect it and was satisfied with only beating doormats and was basically a raging bad guy. Riley was a frikken joke and let mediocrity, softness and a loser attitude settle in.

The fans have not caused the failures of the last 3 coaches. You don’t stick with a direction that is going nowhere or the wrong direction.

Wisconsin has made the Nebraska blueprint work and has been a very solid program. Iowa is....well, Iowa. I don’t want to be either one of them but I sure wouldn’t mind if we were more like Wisconsin, at least until Frost gets us back to being Nebraska.

The only thing you said that I agree with is that it is Frost or bust. I firmly believe he will get us back to being a regular contender. It won’t be as quick as anyone wants and it won’t be painless but we’ll get there. If he can’t get it done nobody can and I have no interest in seeing what the next guy might do.  I will be done with it.

The bolded I agree with as well. +1

Now the question remains, if it is Frost or bust, does that make us Husker fan’s “Frost-ed Flakes”

 

[LaunchCode]

Okay...

You're right on a lot of accounts, but with Wisconsin, it just feels like this is always as good as they are going to be. It doesn't feel like they are ever going to take out the big boys. What is their recent record against tOSU, Michigan and Penn State since 2012?

1-9

Iowa is 3-5 in the same time frame. Nebraska is.... 4-5.

That's exactly where we were with Bo. Winning tons of games but never over the hump.

So is that where you wish we were? Back with Bo doing that?

Frost is going to do that and more. 

TO went 21 years without a title or undefeated season.  Wiscy has a similar track record over the past 20 or so years and is one of most consistent winners in college football.

The one thing not in their favor, it's a lot tougher to get to the championship game now than it was in the 90's.  Bigger more well funded conferences with much better coaching and talent in the bottom teams, 9 conference games instead of 7, more games period, plus a conference championship game and a playoff game as well as scholarship/roster restrictions.  

 

[ScottyIce]

TO went 21 years without a title or undefeated season.  Wiscy has a similar track record over the past 20 or so years and is one of most consistent winners in college football.

The one thing not in their favor, it's a lot tougher to get to the championship game now than it was in the 90's.  Bigger more well funded conferences with much better coaching and talent in the bottom teams, 9 conference games instead of 7, more games period, plus a conference championship game and a playoff game as well as scholarship/roster restrictions.  

  

As I was saying... I don't want to be Wisconsin or Iowa. 

 

[LaunchCode]

As I was saying... I don't want to be Wisconsin or Iowa. 

Who then?  Canada?  

You might be onto something we could win a lot of games.

 

[grapevine7]

While I can understand many here who reject the notion of being like Iowa - who would want that - I simply cannot understand why Wisconsin is not an acceptable model.  They have identity.  They have consistency.  They have success.  Iowa - well, they've been a couple steps off Wisconsin, but their program appeals to me because of their consistency.  Don't look now but another Ferentz appears to have been able to figure out how to coach.  Once he takes over, that'll be another 20 year coach. Think of that -- 3 coaches over 60 years.  Iowa can continue to mold players that will come thru their program.  Iowa will get all the best tight-ends - that's who they are, but they may start to specialize in other areas as well.  Wisconsin, of course, has the great O-line, year in and year out.

They have clear identities.

What is Nebraska's identity?  That's our problem.  Nobody can answer that question, except Scott Frost someday.

It would feel better if another program stole our identity, because it just ticks me off that we just gave it away. 

Alright - rant over.