presidentjlh

Well now that the Huskers have actually shown they can control a game and roundly beat a team with inferior talent, I am cautiously hopeful that the same can be done. They do throw a lot which is relatively a weaker area for our defense as opposed to our lockdown rushing defense, but I think a similar result to what we saw against Northern Illinois is very doable. Again, it's going to come down to basic fundamentals of holding onto the ball and playing disciplined, which of course has been our struggle for 20 years, so I'm not going to be super confident just yet. But I feel a little more comfortable than last week.

It is not because of his injury. It is because he turned the ball over more than anyone in the country when he was healthy.

All I have seen is that Sims has proven a complete inability to hold onto the ball in even the most basic of situations and Haarberg has not shown such. For me, there is no question unless and until Haarberg struggles himself.

Yes, it was Northern Illinois. Obviously that is a caveat. But right now, Haarberg should obviously be the starter until his play shows otherwise. Quite simply, he did not produce needless, unforced turnovers at the same rate as Sims. Yes, there was that one throw. I'm not going to say "MY GOSH THIS MAN'S A WORLDBEATER!" But, frankly, with him, we probably get the win over Minnesota because he turns it over at least one less time. Again, I want to clarify, I am not saying he's the real deal. But, I think it'd be madness to go with Sims right now because Sims has done nothing but show an inability to maintain possession at a level I have never seen.

I get you but to me it's not truly a great season unless you win the conference or finish with less than 4 losses.

We have the talent that the 75% chance would make sense, but yes, this team has been a mental case in the extreme for over 5 years now. I would never bet on them as a sure thing.

I'd say more like 20 years at this point, with some glimpses of good things in the late 2000s-early 2010s.

If the day comes where we accept this, I can finally stop being a fan and move on with my life.

I jumped off the Frost bandwagon about a couple years in, so I feel fair in saying that obviously it would be insane to even consider firing Rhule at this point. I think what a lot of this comes from for you and other fans is justified though in being concerned, because the fact is this: For the past 20 years, we have watched other programs immediately jump from being garbage to excellent in the span of one or two seasons. Heck, even Pelini took us immediately to 9 wins his first season (his problem being that his floor and his ceiling were one in the same). Every year, we watch a program who has floundered suddenly put it together and succeed again. Look at Tennessee last year. Hell, look at Texas, who fell down and now is back up again. The simple fact is, of all the blue bloods who had a tumble, outside of maybe Miami (which to me is inexplicable) we are the only one who has continued to struggle for so long. We haven't even gotten the joy of one truly great season. We have had to essentially eat s#!t for 20 years, with only two seasons even approaching what I'd consider great in 2009 and 2010, and even then they did not get there. I was 8 years old when we last even won a conference championship, and I am 32 now. That's absurd to me. Literally no one save a few non-traditional students in UNL's undergraduate program was alive when we were last good. None. So, this fanbase is right to be absolutely frustrated, because frankly, it does seem like horses#!t that everyone else gets to actually bounce back, even if just for one season, but we don't.

Well getting to Iowa's level at this point should be the goal, for now. I think that's fair enough to say that we need to get there first anyways before we can start worrying about becoming great again.

Well if that happens, sure, then we switch it up. My point isn't "Switch from Sims and never go back to him." My point is: At this point might as well try something else to see if it clicks.

I agree, although I will note that winning is the best recruiting tool. So I can live with this system if we see improvement. I admit, I am more optimistic on recruiting. There are limits, but I think you can get talent anywhere. Yeah, a lot of guys won't go for the location, but not every guy is that way. Nebraska pulled star recruits when it was great. So I am not as worried about recruiting long term if you can show that you're building a program.

Oh trust me, your boys won't need to do a thing to get those turnovers.

Question: What do you propose I do about it?

4 out of 10: Premise was great to rile up people, but you played your hand too openly.

That's insanity, I do not care that the other options might be worse, because frankly, how? How could they be worse? How could it really get any worse than 7 turnovers in two games? I suppose 8 turnovers or more, but hell, at that point, what's the difference?

Oh it was totally a tongue bath, but I figure there's nothing that we can control about that. I was hoping the same, to come out and make them eat it a bit. What is most frustrating is that on defense, until they were gassed by the offense failing so badly, they absolutely were hitting them in the mouth.

Two turnovers shouldn't be enough to cost us the game, sure. But at this point, I'm still very skeptical from what I've seen, because most of the turnovers have been unforced. I can live with the occasional forced turnover, I don't expect ball carriers to be superhuman or for QBs to thread the needle perfectly where there's no other option. It's the unforced stuff that I know drives us nuts.

Even if Rhule doesn't work out, this absolutely is not on Trev, who has done everything on his end so far exactly as I would want a good athletic director to do. He doesn't take bs, he is all business, he doesn't care if its his buddy that has a position, either put up results or get lost. It's been a while since we had such an AD. And if you see my other posts, you know I'm very much not an understanding type, so take what I say seriously here: Trev is not the problem. Not one bit. Can that change in the future? Sure. But right now, I don't see anything that has concerned me, nothing where I'm like "What the hell was that?"

I see zero reason to believe we win this game or any other at this point. You don't win any games when you turn the ball over on average 4 times a game.

This is exactly what drives me nuts. Multiple decades of the team doing stupid s#!t like this. It shouldn’t ever be a problem. Ever.

It’s completely reasonable to say the honeymoon is over. It’d be one thing if the team got beat by just being outtalented, frankly the last quarter was that and I could have lived with that. The issue is that for 20 years we’ve been dealing with the absolute garbage mental stuff. Turnovers, penalties. When is the last time this team had a game where you could say they were clutch? Michigan State like 7-8 years ago? The mental stuff should be fixed like day one. Talent is one thing. But to see the same bonehead stuff, and worse to keep a QB in who clearly needs benched (and frankly just cut) is inexcusable, at any season.

We’ve been waiting 20 years for the rebuild to be finished. Pelini won 9 his first season.

Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.

I guess pleased so far but until we actually play games, there's nothing to really say.