Undone

You could look back at every post of mine from the last three years and see that I am not one of those people. As far as running plays go, we have very few looks and blocking schemes. Rewatch the games closely and you'll see that for yourself. As another poster said, we often change the pre-snap motions, but we're very predictable in how any given running play is being executed.

There has to be more run plays that Riley and Langsdorf can cook up. Even if it's just one play, like a power toss to the outside, etc. Or even a draw for the I-Back out of the shotgun. I'd also love to see the ball get thrown to Wilbon in the flat. He's great as a receiver. I don't know how many more games I can take just watching the line collapse as Lee keys in on the one guy running deep on designed passing downs.

Agreed. Hoppes is not playing good football. When you put two tight ends on the line for a power set to run the ball and neither is blocking well, you're asking your I-Back to run into a big cluster. We have done that over and over in the first four games. Tomorrow night's game is a big one for me in my opinion of Langsdorf. Either the guy adjusts and does something different or he doesn't. If he doesn't, Wisconsin will blow us out and this staff is on a 100% crash course towards being wiped out at the end of the year. If he does adjust, I'm hoping he roughly splits the carries between Wilbon and Ozigbo. Wilbon as the started, Ozigbo getting more carries in the second half.

If Lee is (even only occasionally) basically just choosing where the ball is going to go before his eyes even see the field as the play develops, we'll be lucky to see the end zone a single time against Wisconsin. Run the damn ball tomorrow night, Danny.

+1, Guy. I getcha.

Agreed. In his Junior year after he did the quarterback camp in California, I recall that he did an interview at the 50 yard line in Memorial that got put out on Sports Illustrated or some site. He stated that his goal that year was a 70% completion percentage. He really had a ton of heart and worked extremely hard to improve. He wound up throwing for 62% that season. My guess is that Tanner Lee will not reach that number, even as a combined total if he were to start every game for the rest of this season and next season. But obviously, I really, REALLY hope I'm wrong about that. But when a QB can't read the defense by their Junior year, that usually doesn't get coached out of a guy. That's my main concern.

Just saw this post of yours, Mavric. Yes, we've seen that one before...

The statues tend to weed themselves out? What do you mean by that? The vast majority of the greatest quarterbacks in football history in the NFL were statues, weren't they?

Reed has quietly been playing very good football.

If 8-4 means we go to Indy, it means if we get lucky against Ohio State/Michigan/Penn State in that game we end the conference title drought. Emotions are high right now. But really, it's hard to fire an 8-4 coach. It just is. I want to beat Wisconsin and Iowa in the same season so bad. If Riley can't do that this year, there's no real indication that he's made of the right stuff to do this thing. Riley was 62 when his first season started, correct? I think so. Question: How many years do you give a guy that's 62 to even just win his division when the stated goal is to win championships?

I was watching for this pattern like a hawk while watching it live, Mavric. I do believe that if you do your offensive down-by-down thing again you'll see a pattern where when we lined up at least two receivers wide we were more successful running the ball. And I don't want this to be a "is Wilbon better than Ozigbo?!" discussion (because I just honestly DGAF either way and don't even necessarily know the answer at all), but Ozigbo got more carries. And Ozigbo is a bit more of a Yards After Carry guy than Wilbon, in my opinion. Our running game was more potent against Rutgers than it was against Northern Illinois. And yes, I know that Rutgers is an awful team. But we're starting to see trends. I just freaking hope Riley sees them and puts the pieces together with them by Wisconsin...

I know emotions are high right now, even after winning on Saturday. But just to try to take the emotions out of it... The deck is stacked against Riley a bit this season due to having to play two teams from the East for our "cross-divisional" games that are currently ranked #4 & #11 (Penn State & Ohio State). If Penn State was still in the gutter, the outlook wouldn't probably be nearly as bad. But 8-4 means that we not only win the games we should win but also have to go 2-4 against Wisconsin, Ohio State, Penn State, and Iowa. Even f****** Iowa would be the favorite if we were playing them this weekend at this point. A bit unlucky for Mike, but also, this is a poorly coached team and the responsibility falls on him to make things improve.

I don't even want to think about this game...not looking forward to seeing the line on it...

Good write-up. It's incredibly hard for us to know as fans which one of the four scenarios it is. Sometimes a guy also doesn't see the field because the coaching staff says, "he just doesn't know the playbook as well as the current starter does." This might fall under Option #1 above, or it might be a fifth option. But let's say it's that. How do we not at least try him for a couple of series? Maybe Lee knows the playbook better, but maybe O'Brien has a knack for at least not consistently throwing to a receiver that's entirely covered. Just that in and of itself would be a huge benefit over what we currently are battling.

Dabo took time though. Are you patient enough for that? It's a fair question. If we don't go for the "good resume guy," at some point we're going to have to ask ourselves who we're willing to be patient for. Maybe Frost is that guy. It's definitely not Riley.

That would be correct.

What's so frustrating in general is that it's just the epitome of our whole situation. We recruit two four start quarterbacks but start a transfer that's a junior that throws into double coverage constantly. Like, if it was O'brien doing it you could at least say, "Well, he's trying to get his bearings." But it's a Junior transfer. The problem is that this offense just can't work with a QB that doesn't check down. There are just too many passing plays in the offense. Langsdorf is completely asinine if he doesn't eliminate that stretch play from our playbook. Most of the time we run it, it honestly looks as if not a single one of our 11 players is good enough to execute it. So stop doing it.

I knew somebody was going to say that. That's definitely not the point I was trying to make. No, there is no false dichotomy of there only being two options. Obviously a coach can be both.

From the OP of this thread: "Great demeanor, understands the media's role. Honest, humble, and forthright." Doesn't that describe Riley?

It's possible that you're right, but it's also possible that we don't understand just how much money our program could come up with to buy someone's contract out to accomplish this. The only real positive that I see in Frost is that he in all likelihood actually cares about the Nebraska brand name and tradition and would take turning things around on a more personal level. I could see that angle possibly being a big benefit. But I also think it's stupid to not get a proven coach. Even if it means waiting. Our last four head coaches have not fit into the category of having won or consistently competed for conference titles recently for a Power 5 school as a head coach. Just let that sink in. The most obvious mold of a guy you'd think you'd want to get...and in 20 years, we haven't tried it. I don't think Frost is the best option.

He's missing one thing - the most important thing - An actual resume of competing for/winning conference titles with a Power 5 team in the last 5 - 10 years as a head coach.

I'm pretty convinced Mavric that your observation of us constantly using bunched sets is possibly the biggest thing we're doing to shoot ourselves in the foot on offense. It's a great observation. I wonder what tangibly was so different about this last game with the Oregon game where we miraculously put up 35 points in Oregon's house. Possibly the inclusion of Bryant for part of the game helped quite a bit, but still...you'd almost be hard pressed to find any other of the worst Power 5 schools in the country line up against Northern Illinois and play worse than we did on offense. It just blows the mind from a coaching/scheme perspective.

When what you're trying isn't working, doing something differently never hurts. Using Ozigbo more is at least something to try. We were in so many 3rd & 3 situations on Saturday. There were so few 3rd & 1 opportunities, if memory serves. I really believe we've got to try pounding the rock on 1st & 2nd down throughout pretty much the entirety of the 1st quarter this week, if for no other reason than to let Lee settle into the game.

I love Terry's reasoned response. Probably my main question though is, was our football team not completely embarrassed on Saturday? And as a follow-up, when does the answer to Terry's last comment quoted above start to transcend simply ignoring the outside's reaction to the results on the field. Do Riley and his staff have a relationship with the players to the degree that they're all able to ignore the embarrassment on the field? Probably, but potentially too well. Seemingly almost to a degree that it doesn't seem to ever rebound into an attitude really wanting to change those results.

I'll agree with that, for sure. I'm much more interested in talking about how to un-dumpster fire our current situation.