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Frost said Wiscy was out Nebraska-ing us, so we are going out-Wiscy them with a fatter kicker.

One hint I'm looking for that things are improved are blowouts against bad teams. We used to say the first few games didn't mean anything, even if we scored a lot of points, because the competition sucked. But lately they have meant something, due to how tight those games have been. I want Nebraska to start beating the weaker teams by 3+ touchdowns again.

I've never been more excited for a Nebraska football season than this one, and that includes seasons where you felt going in that you may win a national title. Some of those seasons were more nervous because you knew what a single loss would mean. This year is just pure excitement. It's like going fishing for the first time, getting that first bite. You don't know what's on the end of your line, but you can't wait to see it.

It's nice to see so many people so energized about the new season. A lot of us haven't felt that way for a long time. I actually contemplated giving up our seats and throwing that money into Volleyball season tickets. Kinda glad we held out, and I'm sure I'm not the only one thinking that. How long has it been since there was this much anticipation before a season? 2008? 2010?

You haven't read the playoff expansion thread, have you?

I'm working on a formula to convert JUCO stats to D1 stats, BRB.

This is the first time in over 15 years that we sit on the precipice of a season and we can come to a site like this and no one is fighting. Everyone is on the same team. So, yeah, I'm drinking that up. I don't know what to expect because I've never seen a transition this smooth. That's exciting to me.

I don't remember being this excited for the football season to start in a long time. Even when we lose this season I am confident we will play hard and won't be hanging our heads on the sideline. It feels like everything has changed and we are slowly getting back to where we should be. I'm excited to read about the players, coaches, and even to see what silly alternate uniforms we might be wearing, LOL! Go Big Red!

It still doesn't feel real to me. My fandom has basically been on idle since we fired Bo, I went All In on him, and slowly that devotion turned out to be magic beans. When we hired Riley I, like mentioned, put on a happy face and tried convincing myself all was well and tried spinning positives on it. Don't get me wrong, couldn't be happier about where we are and where we're headed. But my emotions are gun shy after the last to whirlwinds of hope and utter disappointment. I used to get so mad about losses, by 2016 it literally didn't even matter anymore to me. When we were 7-0 and things looked good, ya just knew it was going to come CRASHING back down. And boy did it ever. Then last year, oye... I feel like my fandom needs a jump start to get that charge again. Luckily Scott Frost brought some jumper cables.

The first time Frost and company come firing out of the tunnel and take the field!! I was excited Pelinis first year but this is much better.

Callahan might have been like getting underwear for Christmas, but Riley was like waking up on Christmas morning and finding that Santa took a dump in your stocking.

this hits close to the mark

Tommie Frazier and Lawrence Phillips were spotted by an assistant coach while tossing bales of hay on a remote farm somewhere, and the rest is history.

From Mandel's Mailbag at The Athletic **subscription required** The question was who could be the next team to break into the playoffs and actually win it. He talks about Wisconsin being the obvious answer since they've been consistently good for 25 years but then he drops this in: https://theathletic.com/444785/2018/07/25/mandels-mailbag-who-needs-to-win-their-head-to-head-opener-more-jim-harbaugh-or-brian-kelly/?source=dailyemail We're not the only ones drinking the

Is that like before she was the material girl? I guess if it’s wool, that means they’re sheep? Makes sense.

I think you might have missed me being a bit facetious with that last post. However, you cannot win the title without getting into the playoff, and an 8 team playoff is almost twice as easy to get into as a 4 team playoff (if my math is correct).

Coach Frost: Gotta have patience, this isn't an easy fix. Me: [Full of optimism] Damn those torpedos...full speed ahead.

You didn't really believe it...none of us did. I can still remember driving down to Lincoln for the BYU game with this fake feeling with my friends...I can remember driving back with those friends...and basically just saying "Yeah...well what did you expect"

Stevie Wonder could see that BC was horrible... You can bitch about Bo either way...good/bad Everyone knew Riley was the worst hire possible...people just tricked themselves into thinking it wasn't

Let’s stop trying to compare talent based off on field results. We had a historically bad coach the last few years- that’s why.

Iowa football. Should we tell them that hens don't have teeth?

Riley quit being a coach years ago, but won't hang up his whistle. Glad he's gone.

I am super excited for the 2018 season to get started. HCSF has re-energized the program, the athletic director, the state of Nebraska, and all the fans across the world. Where I differ from ya'll is that I was always excited for the season to start, even at the tail end of Bo's tenure and through Mike Riley's .500 pooh show. I would always convince myself: This is it, this is the year we breakthrough and finally get the program turned around! And then we'd seemingly inevitably crash and burn. But this time, it is different. HCSF is a man of his word. When he says he's going to do something, he does it. And to be honest, I have never before heard any coaching staff, at any school, ever before, preach to their players: "No fear of failure." And one thing I highly suspect, this coaching staff will not tolerate guys loafing and/or giving half effort. I highly suspect that if any player is foolish enough to attempt to "Nick Gates©" a play/series/game that player will soon find himself on the bench and replaced by someone else who will give the kind of effort they're looking for. And plus, while Coach Frost is calm about discussing Nebraska being down, as Sipple pointed out in a tweet, clearly Coach Frost is angry about what Nebraska was allowed to slip to and seems hell-bent on rectifying the situation as fast as possible. That's why I think it is different this time. Time will ultimately tell, but I am 100% in with this staff and these players. It is time for them to take all that built up frustration and release it on each one of our opponents.

2010 or 1994.

I think its important to remember the goal of the committee is to find THE best team and not the top 4 best teams or top 8 best teams. If after 12-13 games its not clear if you are in the top 4 then you surely aren't the TOP team.

Really no need to single the guy out, just move on

you see why nick gates didnt want to stick around now?

Thus, it's really hard to compare teams who haven't played each other and rarely have common opponents. A much better way to determine which team is better? Have them play on the field.

That thread gave me cancer

Because of course

I find it unlikely he was "tainted by Liberty." He believed what he believed before ever going there.

Again, I don't have the ability to go back through individual player rankings. If you are able to add player rankings on all the players I listed, feel free to do so. Also, Schlesinger wasn't a walk-on. He was a scholarship recruit, after being a 2-time all state player from Columbus, as well as the Nebraska Defensive Player of the Year as a high school LB. I would say he was one of the best athletes recruited that year for NU. He just happened to play fullback, so you think he was a walk-on. For Weigert, he may not have had any other offers besides Nebraska, but he was also a Fremont kid, so most schools probably knew it would have been impossible to get him to go elsewhere. You need to stop making the players who were recruited by NU in the early 90s worse than they actually were. I listed the class rankings, along with the key players from those classes. NU did a great job of getting a lot out of those classes. That is through developing great talent. Again, talent and development shouldn't be mutually exclusive. EDIT: After Cdog posted the Lemming ranking of players, let's look at Schlesinger and Weigert. Weigert was the 59th rated Offensive Linemen, while Schlesinger wasn't listed.

How do you mean? There's no opinions or feelings involved in selecting the wildcard teams.

Wrong DT.

Of course a Big Ten, 0 or 1 loss Nebraska makes the playoff. However, Nebraska has had 25 seasons with 0 or 1 losses, with 14 of them coming before 1962 (including the 1890 Nebraska Old Gold Knights, who went 2-0 under legendary coach Langdon Frothingham). That's 127 seasons, or roughly a 20% probability of Nebraska having 0 or 1 loss, if you want to weigh every season the same. Now, they'll be 130 FBS teams by next year, with 4 making the playoff, which gives us a 3% probability of inclusion, but a 25% probability of winning. Now, if somebody who is smarter in math than I am would check this, I would appreciate it (my brain doesn't start working again until next week), but I think that give a probability of both events occurring somewhere in the vicinity of 0.6%. Now, let's expand the playoff to 8 teams. This gives us roughly a 6.2% probability of making the playoff, but a 12.5% probability of winning. The overall probability of both that and Nebraska losing only 0-1 games is roughly 1.2%, or about double what it would be under the current format. Again, if someone wants to check my maths, I would appreciate it. The point of all of this is that, yes, it would be more difficult for Nebraska to win a National Championship under an 8 team format. However, the probability of Nebraska having a 0 or 1 loss team is not that high (the probability is certainly lower due to the difficultly level of today's college football compared to the past, but there's no way in hell I'm working with weighted averages right now), which means it's a far better proposition to minimize your margin of error and maximize your chances of getting into the playoff. That's the point that a majority of posters in this thread that are in favor of an expanded playoff have been making: not only is it more fair, and more college football, it gives Nebraska many more opportunities to be able to win a National Title.

I have thinking the same thing. How can anyone be excited about Cally or MR, and not be full of the kool aid now?

I could settle with him playing like Eric Crouch.

To tie in to what Frost is saying, Nebraska had chances in 2017. But it blew most of them. Nebraska led Northern Illinois 17-14 until 8:52 in the 4th quarter when NIU scored. There was plenty of time to take the lead, but a stalled drive followed by a third Tanner Lee interception ended the game. Nebraska was tied with Wisconsin 17-17 with 5 minutes to go in the 3rd quarter, but allowed three unanswered TDs in the game's final 20 minutes to lose 38-17. Nebraska led Northwestern 24-17 but allowed a game-tying score with five minutes left in the 4th quarter, then allowed the game-winning TD in overtime, then gained -2 yards on their overtime possession. Nebraska entered halftime with Iowa tied 14-14, but allowed 42 unanswered points in the 2nd half to lose 56-14. Nebraska wasn't strong, wasn't in shape, and had poor schemes. 2017 wasn't a talent issue. It was fundamentals, poor mentality, and poor execution. If the new coaches can fix two of those things, we'll be OK in 2018. Fix all three by 2019, and Frost is right - look out.