Nebraska and the Big Ten: A decade of struggle for stability

From the article:  "The question is how much of Nebraska's struggles can be attributed to joining the Big Ten, and how much can be tied to internal reasons. To find out, ESPN spoke to people in and around Nebraska's program since the Big Ten arrival."

I can't read beyond that to get Rittenberg's interviews, but honestly, it's almost all internal. We're on our fourth Athletic Director and third coach in ten seasons since joining the conference. We have no continuity, we're constantly tearing down and rebuilding, and we have terrible roster churn. Contrast that with the teams we're trying to beat for our division:  Wisconsin - three head coaches. Iowa - one head coach. Northwestern - one head coach. 

 
knapplc said:
From the article:  "The question is how much of Nebraska's struggles can be attributed to joining the Big Ten, and how much can be tied to internal reasons. To find out, ESPN spoke to people in and around Nebraska's program since the Big Ten arrival."

I can't read beyond that to get Rittenberg's interviews, but honestly, it's almost all internal. We're on our fourth Athletic Director and third coach in ten seasons since joining the conference. We have no continuity, we're constantly tearing down and rebuilding, and we have terrible roster churn. Contrast that with the teams we're trying to beat for our division:  Wisconsin - three head coaches. Iowa - one head coach. Northwestern - one head coach. 
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The recent Bill Moos events seem to support this. I think the new AD hire is great, but forcing an AD to retire to pave way for somebody else - and the pathetic attempts to make it publicly seem otherwise - was pretty bad.

That isn't to say that the coaches don't bare responsibility. Riley was a disappointment on the field, but he was hamstrung by people in the Athletic Department which made his situation worse. 

Frost is failing on the field as well, I'm not sure how much a healthy Athletic Department would help him. 

The problems at Nebraska are deep. That's all I can conclude. 

 
Dr. Strangelove said:
The recent Bill Moos events seem to support this. I think the new AD hire is great, but forcing an AD to retire to pave way for somebody else - and the pathetic attempts to make it publicly seem otherwise - was pretty bad.
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I do wonder though if some of the rumors of Moos not exactly holding up his end of things are true. If so, then maybe the administration really made the most of the situation in terms of saving face publicly.

I've also wondered if the Moos/Alberts conversation is a bigger deal just because it's still the offseason. Funding, facilities, and support of Frost seem to all be in order (as far as I can tell anyway); I'm not really sure how much difference it makes in terms of the W/L columns who the athletic director was this season or even next.

 
Dr. Strangelove said:
The recent Bill Moos events seem to support this. I think the new AD hire is great, but forcing an AD to retire to pave way for somebody else - and the pathetic attempts to make it publicly seem otherwise - was pretty bad.
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This was a move TOWARDS stability. Moos already gave word he was out in the next year. Really not the time to have a lame duck running the Athletic Department. NIL, New Facilities, Football is in a crucial period. We needed someone who was gonna be here for the next decade to overlook these things.

 
I absolutely cannot stand this "Nebraska's stuck in the past and needs to accept it's an average program now" stuff. It's specious and surface-level and completely devoid of any context or history so that it can make points the authors want to make. No reasonable fan thinks the 90s are ever coming back but with the resources and money this place has it's still a good program and job that can still be winning 8 or 9 games consistently if it has competent people and systems in place. We consistently delivered top 25 teams less than a decade ago and Frost has signed nothing but top 25 classes, so this "They can't sign recruits anymore!" stuff is bologna.  Rittenberg can eat my shorts. 

 
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knapplc said:
From the article:  "The question is how much of Nebraska's struggles can be attributed to joining the Big Ten, and how much can be tied to internal reasons. To find out, ESPN spoke to people in and around Nebraska's program since the Big Ten arrival."

I can't read beyond that to get Rittenberg's interviews, but honestly, it's almost all internal. We're on our fourth Athletic Director and third coach in ten seasons since joining the conference. We have no continuity, we're constantly tearing down and rebuilding, and we have terrible roster churn. Contrast that with the teams we're trying to beat for our division:  Wisconsin - three head coaches. Iowa - one head coach. Northwestern - one head coach. 
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But then there's teams like Ohio State in the other division who have had 3 head coaches and 1 interim since we joined. Contrasted with Michigan and Michigan State who each had 2 (Hoke's first season was our inaugural as well), or Penn State with 4.

Only one of those teams has been consistently good and they've had as much turnover as us.

 
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ZRod said:
But then there's teams like Ohio State in the other division who have had 3 head coaches and 1 interim since we joined. Contrasted with Michigan and Michigan State who each had 2 (Hoke's first season was our inaugural as well), or Penn State with 4.

Only one of those teams has been consistently good and they've had as much turnover as us.
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On one hand OSU has been extremely lucky, but on the other they have a really well run athletic department. 

 
The one good point I saw made in the article is that the rest of the conference has gotten a lot more competitive since it did when we joined. The floor has risen considerably for a number of programs while ours has dropped out.

We're also trying to find firm footing in a division marked by stability, and consistency and momentum. Iowa/Wisconsin have decades long identities and approach and personnel while we seem to hit the reset button every few years.

 
I can't see the Nebraska football team doing significantly better had it been playing in the Big 12. 

I haven't crunched the numbers on the other 25 teams that fall under the athletic department. Since I'm too lazy to click, does the article address this, or is it just about our football struggles?  (our basketball struggles date back to James Naismith inventing the game) 

 
Lorewarn said:
The one good point I saw made in the article is that the rest of the conference has gotten a lot more competitive since it did when we joined. The floor has risen considerably for a number of programs while ours has dropped out.
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Yep. Minnesota, Iowa, & Northwestern are all roughly on the same level (with Iowa being maybe just a half a rung above the other two). And when one of them has that golden schedule season when their cross-divisional games contain only one or sometimes even no tough teams, they'll have one of those 10-2 seasons.

Maybe sounds like excuses but we really haven't had one of those "golden schedule" seasons. Not that having one would have allowed us to go 10-2...but still.

Basically, most if not all of the teams in the West are roughly on the same level outside of Wisconsin.

 
Lorewarn said:
The one good point I saw made in the article is that the rest of the conference has gotten a lot more competitive since it did when we joined. The floor has risen considerably for a number of programs while ours has dropped out.

We're also trying to find firm footing in a division marked by stability, and consistency and momentum. Iowa/Wisconsin have decades long identities and approach and personnel while we seem to hit the reset button every few years.
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The last 5 years have been the worst five of our modern era and we're playing in a division with three of the teams on historic all-time stretches in their programs' histories running development systems that have been entrenched for 15+ years. This isn't always going to hold true. It would be nice if national media people had enough context to not write short-sighted stuff about how NU and Purdue are the same now but I guess it comes with having our recent record.

 
J-MAGIC said:
It would be nice if national media people had enough context to not write short-sighted stuff about how NU and Purdue are the same now but I guess it comes with having our recent record.
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Their job isn't to give a historical prognostication, it's to report about the state of things right now. 

We will probably get better, but right now we're dog crap and dog crap we will remain until we prove that we're something else.

 
One coach who had the locker room willing to run through walls for him went scorched on the next HC before that person was hired. Hired a happy go lucky guy who didn’t hold players accountable - probably made John Parella sick to his stomach and never wanted to coach college kids again. To Frost, who’s ego and connection to Riley would be like having a Colorado Buffalo come coach the Huskers.

The on field success ties to the AD, but I’d put 95% of this on the stark contrast of flip flopping head coaching personalities and philosophies. 
 

Which is why I think a 5 year overhaul is due for anyone coming into this program. 

 
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