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Per the 247 Composite, we have 11 four-stars on defense (Jackson, Lee, Henrich, NPG, TRobinson, Dismuke, Darrion Daniels, Wildeman, Tannor, Anderson and Green). Two of those are Pelini recruits (Lee and Anderson) Two are Riley recruits (Jackson and Dismuke) The other seven are all Frost recruits. Four of them are on the defensive line. Five of them have barely played because this is their first year in the program. Add Gray to the seven and Frost has gotten more four-star recruits then Riley left him in three years. Even though Pelini hasn't been here for five years he's still contributing as much to these numbers as Riley is. Carlos Davis (Pelini) is our next highest-rated defensive player. The next three are Frost recruits (Hannah, Honas and DWilliams) followed by Khalil Davis (Pelini). Meaning Riley left Chinander a grand total of two of our 16 highest-rated defensive players. Only six of our 16 highest-rated defensive players were not recruited by Frost. And all that is coming off back-to-back 4-8 seasons. I think they deserve a little time to right the ship before passing too much judgement.

I am going to take a moment to give a positive shout out to the offensive line. A unit I have been extremely hard on for years showed up vs a tough opponent in Wisconsin and did a great job. They not only held their own for most of the game, they at times got really good pushes against a stout Wisconsin defense. Since I am at it, also nice to see Jurgens snaps have improved since his consistent high snaps. Yes I could have posted this somewhere in other threads, but felt this is such a big unit and a core unit for any program and team trying to get better and they have been so unimpressive over the years, that I think it takes it's own thread to give these guys major applause for doing great vs one of the better defenses in the Big Ten.

One further note on this: Out of those Top 16 defensive players, only four of them are linebackers. All four are Frost recruits. Two of them are true freshmen that basically haven't played yet (Henrich and Hannah). So they were left no decently-rated linebackers to work with in a defense where over a third of the guys one the field are linebackers.

This is "big" news, right?

Just making things up now? Held was #40 in 2018. He was half-time on the job for less than three weeks before the vast majority of recruits signed. So you picked a year when he had almost no time to actually recruit and still slighted him. Good work. Very objective. And he's currently #27, not #40. Just keep pulling numbers out of thin air.

We can win out. Yes, there were mistakes today. But there were a lot of positives to take as well. Excited to see Ty get in the game and play well for being a true freshman NT. OLine played the best game of the year. A few of the sacks weren’t on them. Get the two wins. Go to a bowl. Recruit your a$$ off.

$h!tty

idk man i definitely expected you to make a weird thread pontificating in uninspiring prose after the loss. you do it after every game. seems exactly like what i expected tbh

I've posted this before but it bears repeating. The guys we're putting Blackshirts on may be decent enough players, but here they are in yet another defense led by yet another group of coaches, not the guys who recruited them and not the scheme they were recruited to play in. Chaz is a good follow on the twitter. If you don't follow him, go fix that before reading this. He speaks volumes of truth. And all this was said before Ferguson was cut. Even very talented players would have some buy-in issues and some head-spinning after being taught a defense by a coach, then being told to unlearn that and learn this new defense by this new coach, then being told to unlearn all that and learn yet another new defense by yet another new coach. Everyone's (justifiably) frustrated with the record and the play on the field, but there are reasons beyond "scheme doesn't work" that this stuff happens. This right here is Post of the Day material. It's where I'm at.

I think "tweaks and nuances" from a really good defense would be a lot easier to accomplish that a complete transition from a terrible defense, right? I'm not sure the transition from a 4-3 to a 4-2-5 is really all that much. As you said, it's not really anything new, just more of something they've already been doing. Plus, you know, they have some talent which helps. Definitely not the same as 4-3 to 3-4. I'm not sure Minnesota is quite as good as advertised. They haven't had the greatest schedule have benefitted from facing some bad offenses. They've played the #113, #95, #101, #121 and #99 offenses in the country plus an FCS team. They got us without our starting QB and we've been inconsistent at best. The last two games when they've actually played some good teams they benefited from three Penn State turnovers to hide the fact that PSU gained 7.1 ypp (1.2 ypp ABOVE their season average). Iowa isn't exactly a great offense (#81) and they got right at their season average YPP against to Gophers. But all we're doing is arguing semantics. I understand why people are frustrated. I'm not saying I'm not. But I don't think it's a closed case yet. There are a lot of things that go into it. I don't think less than two years is enough to say for certain that one set of reasons is completely trumping the other. The difference between reasons and excuses are only in the eye of the beholder.

To his credit he has posted stats, and overall defense wise we are slightly better in total defense and scoring defense, but we're still not very good compared to the rest of the country. What I wanted to look at is how our defense has preformed in B1G play this year to last year. Nice apples to apples comparison - and were gonna need to see if Chin is any closer to figuring out B1G offenses. Scoring Defense Current : 33.7 Last : 34.3 Total Defense Current : 429 Last: 466 Defense Yards per Play Current: 6.2 Last: 6.1 Rush Defense Current: 233.9 Last: 224.6 Pass Defense: Current: 195 Last: 242 Defense Pass Eff Current: 134.8 Last: 118.7 3rd Down D Current: 46.2% Last: 45.4% Turnovers Gained: Current: 6 in 7 games Last: 15 in 9 games Redzone D: Current: 94% (woof) Last: 84% In B1G play you could not say we are any better on defense than we were last season. Actually a lot of stats show regression. Regardless of progress, these are bottom of the barrel stats both seasons - and if we continue to play like this against B1G teams we will be lucky to make a bowl game.

Big man must have some wheels too

Last year's week 10 Nebraska team would beat this year's by 30

And, if you look at those programs and the recruiting level of their respective recruiters, you need to take into account the recent success of those programs. A program like Alabama or Clemson will certainly allow an average recruiter to look like a superstar, just because of the product they are selling. None of them are recruiting to teams that have been in the dumpster for 10 years. The fact we get any four star recruits is a freaking miracle in my book, considering our recent lack of success on the field.

To the bolded, false. To the italicised, false. And to the underlined, also false.

Holy hell is right. It's downright laughable that you think Trump asking a foreign government to investigate his political opponent pales in comparison to the "horror" on the list you provided. If we're going to attribute every stupid/bad thing that happens at every federal agency to the president, the list is going to be long no matter who the president is, and no matter how good they were at their job. With Trump it's something that he actually did himself.

What if I ate silicon, vinyl, silver, gold and Plexiglas and crapped a cell phone?!

We will be 4-7.

First the petty parts of the arguement, the tweaks and nuances have involved secondary coverages more man/zone and vice versa. That right there is a huge transition. Went through it in college, and that was when defenses weren’t near as complex as today’s are. Knocking Minny’s schedule of offensive teams is not saying much when looking at the juggernauts Wisky has faced sans OSU. So the moral victory about yards against them doesn’t hold the same weight if we’re gonna exclude Minny’s defensive resurgence. The point was with them was it turned around and was bought in QUICKLY. But that is here nor there like the first sentence of your last paragraph. My biggest sticking points along with some others, are turnarounds with changes DONT need four years to see results, NO ONE was bitching about the exact same guys last year that “weren’t P5 players” or “untalented” or however else they’ve been talked about this season, and what has changed since then????

Not everything in here is an attempt at a gotcha. Based on what you've posted here, your actual beliefs about all this are genuinely perplexing. You haven't posted much, but from what I can gather, you think impeachment is a bad idea because it will fire up Trump's base more than his opposition. From what polling I've seen (and election results recently), that doesn't appear to be so clear cut to me. You don't like any of the Dems running for president that have a shot to win. Fine. You also seem to think corruptions and bad acting under bade presidents far outshadows what Trump is guilty of. Flat out disagree in the strongest possible terms there. All presidents and pols in general are likely guilty of garden variety corruption, IMO. Trump is... something different. Something far worse, because he seems determined to push things as far as he can to see what he can get away with. Even if this last point is true, does that mean we shouldn't deal with the clear and present corruption that is the focus of these impeachment proceedings? That we should just let it go and focus on beating Trump next year? No. No it does not.

All that is assuming we are facing the same level of offense in both years. This year we've played teams rated -0.26, 1.97, -0.98, 1.07, 0.67, -0.12 and 1.30 in Football Outsider's FEI ratings. Average = 0.52 Last year we played teams rated 0.64, 0.47, 0.25, -0.17, -0.17, 1.22, -0.14, -0.64 and 0.25. Average = 0.19 The difference between those two numbers is worth about 30 spots in the middle of the rankings.

Well can you say in place longer. This is Jim Leonhard’s third season as DC. Yes the Badgers have been a 3-4 team since Aranda was hired. But leonhard has instilled his own tweaks and nuances to the defense which differs from Aranda’s and Wilcox’s. Halfway through last year Iowa dumped the 4-3 for the 4-2-5. So from Day 1 through spring ball for years it had been 4-3, now they’re instilling more responsibility, rules, reads, and principles to a nickel package that for years probably got 30 minutes at most during the team practice block perhaps twice a week. Minnesota cut bait and switched coordinators part way last year. Again new coordinator equal new philosophies and what nots. Here they are this year Top 25-30 in most defensive categories. One LB(yes he is very good) does not make that difference. Teams have dealt with scheme/coaching changes for years and in so many cases transitioned fairly smoothly WITH the existing talent on their rosters. Maybe the players responded better when not having to hear their coach say they need more talent on the field. Am I saying talent wise things are perfect here? No. Are they as bad as some make it out to be?? No. At the end of last year there was an excitement of who was coming back on both sides of the ball. Both the coaches and fan base were saying guys have bought in and things were trending upward. What has happened since then????

Good stuff, Mav. People need to calm down about firing coaches that have been here less than two years. Great examples of why that's true.

That game wasn't a 16 point game and could have really tilted on a few big plays. Wisconsin returned a kickoff for a TD. 2AM with a late read leading to an INT that set Wisconsin up with good field position to make it 24-14 Missed FG Twice unable to convert after getting into scoring range.

The instant gratification crowd that "want it now" mentality. Not wasting my energy on them. Why even bother with that mess. Everyone knew going into this with a new coach that things were in shambles. Being on the outside looking in, we just dont know how bad it was. We dont know what residue is still there from two different coaches and just how deep some of that rot is left behind. Obviously, Tyrin Ferguson could of been some of that rot. But we just dont know. What I do see is most of the team is on board but I am sure there are a handful of holdouts. But if they are the "best" you have and they are not totally rotten. Then you go with what you have. The most childish thing I read on here and on other social media posts are the worst. Fire Frost, Fire Chinander, blah, blah, blah. Those kinds of people lack patience and definitely do not fit the bill of "grown up" by any means. Heard the same crap for the first 20 years of Osborne's tenure as football coach. The best, and most intelligent thing out of that was the powers that be had the patience and resolve to stick with it. Sometimes, you just have to block out the insanity and role with the punches. So the "instant gratification" crowd and pound sand. Why? Sitting on the outside, looking in, and only seeing a small fraction of what is truly going on does not allow those to make educated, or intelligent assessments. The team is getting better and it shows. You can see those that truly give their all. Firing a defensive coach in year two is not the answer. There is just no real talent on the team at this time to provide a good pass rush. In the end, it takes less time to destroy something. Takes longer to build something worth while. Be happy someone wants to be here and correct the damage. It is written in his face, and emotions. You want instant gratification? Go buy a box of lucky charms. I hear their "magically" delicious.

For 2020, Clemson has #1, #14, #15 and #56 (in the Top 100) Ohio State has #2, #4 and #66 Georgia has #3 and #60 Texas has #5 (Tim Beck, if you're curious), #34, #39, #48 and #67 LSU has #6, #7, #11, #41 and #74 Notre Dame has #8, #47, #68 and #87 Oklahoma has #9 and #82 Auburn has #10, #37, #38 and #73 Oregon has #12, #42, #59 and #63 Alabama has #13, #21, #24 and #43 Texas A&M has #16, #17, #54, #79 and #92 That's nearly half of the Top 100 on those 11 teams. But I don't think those recruiter rankings are all that reliable. It requires 247 to apply the proper guy recruiting a player to each player. I'm far from convinced that actually gets done correctly and uniformly. And it's skewed to the teams that have have traditionally recruited well. For example, Ohio State almost always pulls in a Top 5 class but only has two of the Top 60 recruiters and Larry Johnson doesn't even make the Top 100. Georgia has the #5 class in the country and only has one inside the Top 60. Oklahoma has the #10 class and only has one of the Top 80. It's just a fluff piece to get clicks, imo.

I don't give a s#!t how 247 ranks our coaches as recruiters. That is the most cherry picked data I can think of. Look at the incoming talent, thats all you need to do.

Yea actually they are but keep driving your false narrative bus, I'll keep to the facts.

My addition to #4 - is there any candidate that puts a D behind their name that you would ever vote for? All this whiny bs is just because you've got party loyalists trying to act like they aren't.

Were you around for TO's first 10 years? I didn't say just because it worked for TO that it would work for Frost. I only tangentially mentioned talent. My only intent was to show that at one point our defense sucked, we made changes and got better. And it took 2-4 years. And finally, I said I wasn't sure it would work, but swapping coaches every 18 - 24 months hasn't exactly worked either.

Defense played solid today considering Davis and Daniels didnt play. Wiscy runs the ball well. I was surprised we didn’t give up the big runs today. Taylor put your 250 against a great Iowa run defense. We had a true fresh ty Robinson playing nose. Give those kids time to develop and we will be fine. Let alone we will have a couple more playmakers to go with wandale (who didn’t play).

I'm terribly frustrated by the defense. Just about as frustrated as I used to be when the Florida teams would destroy our season. I remember saying, outloud, "Oh cripes, we've got Florida State at 3 and 17, right where they freaking want us!" Then they'd hit a 20 yard pass. Over and over and over. Our defense could NOT defend against that. I, and everyone I knew wanted the defensive coaches replaced. But Tom brought the defensive coaches together within a teaching confine and they learned, how to do the seemingly impossible. We changed players, we changed schemes, we changed mentalities, but we kept our coaches. And we succeeded. Still, it took two - four years to happen. But, it, happened. That doesn't mean that Chin is the answer, but it seems like he should be given the same chance.

You don’t know that. are we probably going to win? No. but to just flat out say we have no chance ....well...why the f#&% even Play the game then? Or why watch?

Glad you’re not on the team or coaching.

I looked at Scott Frost's 7 year contract as the whole deal. I'd not be surprised if it takes most, if not all of that time to get us back to being a very good football team. And I'm not talking about Nattys or Conference Championships every other year...I'm talking 9+ wins per year and not getting blown out in the losses....and looking like what we think Husker football should look like.

No president in recent history has been caught using taxpayer money to bribe a foreign government to generate dirt on his political opponent. If we had that evidence I'd be for impeaching that president and removing them from office. Period. That's all the integrity it takes to understand this situation, and why it's imperative that we convict Trump for doing what he has actually admitted to doing. If we don't, we're a HUGE step closer to autocracy. Which should terrify you when you're on a public board with traceable data voicing political opinions against a particular politician/party. Because in an autocracy, that's going to ruin your life.

Who? Ozigbo is the only one I can think of, Morgan and the O-line guys were Bo's recruits, not Riley's.

Also agree. Greg Austin is quietly doing a good job.

Gotta agree with both of you( @PaulCrewe). Do I think our O will improve next year? Yes. I honestly thought it would be better this year.....This staff, like all others, needs to play with the cards it's been dealt. Other coaches and teams across the country appear to be doing that and doing it well. It bugs me that we blame Riley for all the woes/culture/lack of talent etc...., But IMHO, the reason the O is struggling is the loss of 4 Riley guys......I'd be tired, as a player, of continually being talked to about culture and lack of buy in/athleticism. I'll be the first to call out myself for calling out players..... What is the staff doing to combat this? Willing to change play calling to "protect" the O and D? Better manage the RS's. Use the 4 games to get them experience? I look at the Wisky game yesterday. Mills goes beast mode for 188 and only gets 5 touches in the 2nd. I know we were playing from behind, but 30 minutes is enough time to lean on your bell cow. Let him do what he had done the first half....Help the LB's so the ILB is not asked to cover a WR or RB across the field. What has frustrated me forever is the recent OC's Beck/Lang's?Wats would "stop themselves" instead of making the D stop them. At the end of the day, I need to remind myself Frost is in year 4 as a HC....Ruud in year 1....Chin in year 4 as DC etc....And I might be wrong, but would think the B1G is more difficult to navigate than the AAC. Just gonna take time.

273 rushing yards to a team that's struggling to make a bowl and doesn't even have its top two rushing threats? Wisconsin needs to fire their DC!

How much of that 2.5 T is liquid though? Bezo and Zuckerberg type wealth isn't just cash. It's their shares in their companies.

Just curious here. Since the 2013 recruiting classes per 247 composite rankings, Wisky, Iowa and Minny have each only had 1 “decently ranked” (ie four star) linebacker sign with them. So maybe coaching?

It's right between the ears. If this is the mindset of course they'll lose.