The Spirit of Bob Devaney

+1

If Bo flames out, Chris Petersen is tailor made for this school.

@Nebula Very thorough, rational and well reasoned post that for my money is spot on. @Flu You hit the nail on the head, I don't think we turn the corner on this thing until we commit to spending some serious money for a proven coach.

Bingo. I believe this is what it is ultimately going to boil down to with our next HC (whoever that may be)..whether or not we are willing to step up and offer significant money to the tune of 4 Million which seems to be what it takes to get an elite coach these days. Our next coaching hire will be a critical one...if we do not get it right we will fade into irrelevance.

I just don't understand why we as fans have come to accept this. Anytime a question like this is raised people are ridiculed and the typical retort is "shame on you for asking" combined with a response pointing to TO's past and how he almost left for CU...it took him time...etc. etc. (or some variation thereof). The college football landscape has changed and i think a big problem for us is that we are not changing with it. Leadership starts from the top down and if we have antiquated thinking at the top, then how are we ever going to find our identity as a program again? Whether it's Pelini, Beck or whomever else at what point does someone take a step back and question our approach? Why do we insist on sourcing folks who need to learn on the job instead of going after coaches with a quantifiable pedigrees? This is not Rocket Science...Alabama did it, LSU did it, Michigan did it, South Carolina did it. All of these programs hired Head Coaches with a proven pedigree of winning as HEAD COACHES at their previous destination. Isn't the definition of insanity doing the same thing over and over and over and expecting different results? I'm reminded of the many years it took Dr. Tom to realize that the missing ingredient he so desperately needed (on a simplified level) was lots and lots of SPEED. When he finally realized this and made it a recruiting priority, a legend was born. It is time for us to get proven coaching commodities; again, Nebraska should not be a destination where you learn on the job. Put simply, we deserve better than that...

In my thread that was locked where I saw this loss coming from a mile away (god forbid my opinion be negative) here. You said: "Look at the bright side. Even if Nebraska loses this game, we're still top 3 in the conference." Though the arc of our program over the last decade and dealing with game after game after game after game like the one we witnessed tonight have both left me so weary, I am going to try my level best to take a Measure of solace from your words. Suffice it to say, this will not be easy as I fear we are in for a long season...

@Subhusker What link?

Can we get someone to give a play by play in this thread to those of us who have been screwed by the rain delayed Braves/Mets game?

This must be a geographic issue, I wonder if there's an overload channel?

What the hell is going on here? I'm tuned in to Fox and they are showing the Braves vs. Mets, WTF?

@Huskershark I am trying to tell myself that we'll be ok but it's not working. I'm depressed before the game even begins. How can I enjoy it if I'm going to be in fear the entire game that we'll lose?

So after the Southern Miss game I was pretty frustrated by the play of our D-Line and the fact that once again our Achilles heel appears to be an inability to stop athletic Quarterbacks that successfully run the Zone Read. I made a prediction after that game that we would drop 4 games this year and UCLA would be one of them. I was immediately ridiculed with the majority of the board responding that we were going to blow UCLA out of the water, they played Rice, etc. etc. Then the line opens with us being 4-7 point favorites depending on who you listen to, followed by a general consensus of the national media that we would prevail in a tight game...far from blowing them out of the water as many of you said would be the case. I have a bad feeling about this game and still feel that we are going to lose a close one, I hope I'm wrong and will gladly accept my humble pie if I am. This is the new world I live in..a die hard fan harboring a fragile psyche with little to no confidence thanks to what has transpired over the last 10 years. Yes, it sucks.

@'SkersRule "Igetbored216" is not the only one who believes that the play of our D-Line against Southern Miss last Saturday portends bad things to come down the road. I hope I'm wrong but 5 years of coach speak have left me numb. At the end of the day we have still not beaten a team ranked in the top 15 since I don't know when, we continue to lose 3-4 games a year..these are indisputable facts that can't be argued even if you don't like the fact that people point them out. Not all fans fit into the good little box that our peers would like us to, pardon us for being frustrated after another off season of being told how our D-Line is going to be better this year only to come away from game 1 with warning signs and evidence to the contrary.

So it is apparent that we are going to get torched again on the Defensive side of the ball. We are in year 5 and are plagued yet again by inconsistent and poor D-Line play, we get little to no push on the interior of the line and get absolutely torched by the Zone Read. I fear we are in for another long year which basically means the following: - An inability to win any big/important game - Inexplicable losses against teams we should beat (Northwestern) These two elements have become the hallmark of the Pelini Regime. I'll give credit where credit is due, our Offense looked freaking awesome and that was one thing that left me pumped up but it is just so frustrating to get out of the gate and immediately be faced with more of the same on Defense. I hope they're able to fix the problems but at this point I have little to no faith in that because this coaching staff has not demonstrated (at any point in the past) that they can fix the problems on the Defensive side of the ball (without Suh on the roster). If we can't stop Anthony Alford running a basic Zone Read, then how are we going to stop Brett Hundley, Braxton Miller, et. al? This is what I predict: UCLA - Loss Ohio State - Loss Michigan - Loss Michigan State - Loss So there you have it, another 4 loss season.