Fru

Riley took over a program that had 7 straight 9+ win seasons, 7 straight bowl appearances, and 3 conference championship game appearances. Do you truly in your heart believe that that paper tiger 9 win team in 2016 was the result of Riley's illustrious coaching skills? Or was it because he took over a solid program with a solid roster?

The Scott era went so bafflingly bad that it challenges what I thought I knew about sports, statistics, life, God etc. There’s an element of chance in any coaching hire. But never in my wildest dreams could I have imagined it going the way it did. The twists and turns, near misses, almosts, and would’ve could’ve should’ve’s. Just utterly insane. The quotes pretty much confirm what we all already knew. It’s still a bit jarring to hear it confirmed directly from the coaches involved though. The program was in a tailspin and they weren’t capable of fixing it. I don’t necessarily see that as “Still blaming Riley” but rather acknowledging that we had back to back disastrous hires.

I know, it’s truly an unpopular opinion. And for the record, I hope and pray for their demise like any Husker fan. The hate runs deep. I think that’s the main part of it, I’ve always enjoyed Boulder and Colorado in general.

If not for their fan base, I always thought CU would have been a fun “Second Team” to root for.

I would much rather they hang on to Barta for as long as possible.

I really try to not be a “But the refs!” guy too. But man it seemed they let Iowa be super aggressive defensively while calling everything they could on us. There were a handful of times Walker pleaded his case and I thought they were going to T him up for it or something. Ultimately it doesn’t matter. Got the W. Most competitive team in years. Hope they can make some noise in the B1G tournament.

I think I predicted 5 wins for this team. So happy to be wrong. Kudos to this team and Fred for battling.

I'd say it's more of his complete lack of any meaningful P5 experience than his age. Yup. It's just part of it. I'd say this is my biggest concern with multiple guys on the staff, not just Garrett. A solid chunk of these new guys have zero P5 experience. Some I can understand, like Wager. What he lacks in P5 experience, he'll surely makeup for in Texas connections and recruiting. But after buying in big time with Frost and Co where most had little to no P5 experience, I'd say anyone is justified in have a reasonable amount of skepticism with some of these hires. And don't get me wrong. I'm not rooting for or predicting failure. I want it to work and hope I'm wrong. Hopefully there's a cohesiveness here now that's obviously been missing for years.

Garrett not playing the position is hardly my biggest gripe. I feel like I was pretty clear about that.

Neb’s success under Rhule certainly won’t hinge on who the WR coach is or how old they are. However I think peoples main gripe (mine included) was that Rhule had the biggest assistant $$ pool a Neb coach has ever had… And for WR he hires the 24 year old son of a buddy of his. Does that really seem like a good faith effort? The absolute best possible option is this 24 year old, former Baylor walk-on, that didn’t play or coach the position and whose dad coached for Rhule? Really? I think it’s a fair criticism at this point. In 3 years, what is the more likely scenario… - “Boy, the WR room sure is in excellent shape. We really nailed it by taking a chance on that 24 year old.” Or - “Yeah… hiring a 24 year old with no coaching experience as a P5 position coach didn’t really pan out.” Maybe that first scenario happens. Who knows. Maybe he truly is the football wunderkind he’s been made out to be by some folks. I certainly hope so. I also recall Rhule being a little indignant when questioned about it on the Compton podcast. I enjoyed his overall candor, but his reaction to getting questioned about it struck me. If he’s bothered by folks making fair criticisms about a questionable hire… he ain’t seen nothing yet.

Edit: Disregard. Outdated info.

Agreed. Biggest staff $$ pool in the history of the program and multiple hires are genuinely baffling. I think there’s been public comments from Rhule and White regarding not strictly using the 3-3-5. So that’s encouraging. But guys like Raiola, Knighton and McGuire are admittedly concerning. The recruiting is nice, but …Callahan, Bo, Riley and Frost all recruited well here too. Is recruiting to Neb more difficult than some other places? Yes. No question. But multiple staffs have turned in top 25 classes, and all have consistently outrecruited our division. I’m not sold on this narrative that recruiting to Neb is some impossible, Herculean feat. Overall, still wait and see mode. Some things have been nice. Some are concerning. C.

So they’ve lost their OC to Rutgers, DL to Purdue, and their CB to Wisconsin. 3 lateral, in conference moves. Definitely seems like something is going on up there.

I have a difficult time believing Rhule made a good faith effort to get the best possible WR coach, and it just happened to be this child. Biggest assistant $$ pool in program history. Absolutely baffling hire.

Yeah they got bounced in the NIT in 17-18. But my overall point is, a .500 B1G record doesn’t guarantee an NCAA bid.

I feel like any time a coach has to restructure their contract… they’re on the hot seat. I can’t help but remember the 2017-18 season where Neb went 22-11 overall, 13-5 in the conference and finished 4th overall in the B1G, and still didn’t get a tournament bid.

Going into this season I had zero faith in Fred. I didn’t think they’d get 5 wins total, and didn’t think they’d get a single conference win. Currently at 8 wins, one against a top ten ranked rival. Also took the number one team in the country to OT. I imagine 15 wins is probably the target number for Fred to keep his job. If they can keep up this defensive play, a lower post season tournament seems possible.

I think the trenches determine how far we go. As of now I’d say 3-4 wins. I’m not terribly inspired by Knighton or Raiola. Portal additions/losses can change things, but that’s where my head is at for now.

I don’t think anyone expected Raiola to have the OL completely flipped in one season. I think it’s fair to say that most folks expected to see some kind of growth. They didn’t need to be perfect, they just needed to look like they were taking the right steps forward. The only thing off the top of my head I can say that they appeared to improve on, was false starts. I remember in ‘21 there were multiple games where there were constant and sometimes consecutive false starts that absolutely killed drives. I don’t recall seeing anything quite that egregious like that this past year. That being said… I do remember our OL often times looking completely clueless and not giving any effort. The blocked PAT against Illinois comes to mind, as does North Dakota. I said this in a different thread, but what’re the sheer odds that the absolute best guy Rhule could find for OL, just happened to be the guy that was already here? Rhule has more money for assistants than any other Neb head coach has ever had. Why not pony up and go get a proven guy for one of the most critical units on the team?

Excellent post. Very well said. Rhule talks a big game about developing the trenches. Then he goes out and hires a DL coach whose college experience is 2 years at an FCS school. Then you’ve got Donovan. What’re the sheer odds that the absolute best guy Rhule could find for OL just happened to already be on the staff? Yes OL takes time to flip. Yes DR had a couple bad breaks. But there were times the OL truly looked like they’d never played football before. The DC hire is also a little confusing/concerning. I would’ve also guessed a DC would’ve been hired first and then give input on assistants. I’m also leery of a 3-3-5 system, if that’s what he intends to run. Yeah yeah yeah, it allows flexibility for this that and the other thing. But forgive me if I’m a bit jaded by coaches who have to show they’re the smartest guy in the stadium. Looking at the arrival-departure list, I feel like we’ve only really upgraded at a couple spots. Every other spot looks like a lateral replacement or even a bit of a downgrade. Rhule has the biggest $$ pool for assistants a Neb head coach has ever had, and these hires seem to have thin or unimpressive resumes. I’ve also heard a bunch about how all these guys are great recruiters. Okay, that’s fine. But in our worst years and thru multiple staffs, we’ve always been able to outrecruit our division. The issue is we haven’t been able to develop and keep guys. To me, that gets fixed by having competent coaches. I was hoping Rhule would fill out a staff with experienced guys, with some of that experience coming from the B1G. Few seem to fit that description.

Raiola definitely walked into a bad situation. He also caught some bad breaks with Nouili and Prochazka. Obviously OL takes some time to flip and maybe he just needs more time. But with how comically bad the OL has been for years now and Rhule having the largest assistant $ pool the AD has ever given a head coach… it’s difficult not to think “Go get a proven guy.”

Wow, massive win. I didn’t think this team would notch 5 wins this season. Happy to be wrong.

Unreal.

“Coach, Hank from DeWitt here. What do you think about changing the tunnel walk music from Sirius? Should Nebraska switch to Nike from Adidas? You’ll never do all red uniforms, right? You hate Lil Red too, dontcha? When is the right time to play The Killigan’s song?”

Fickell is my first pick too. I’d argue the ranked team stuff is appropriately emphasized. Dude is wanting top dollar, and his best win is a 2016 win against 19th ranked Navy. I also have to question him for hiring Joe Brady as his OC at Carolina. Brady had one of the thinnest resumes ever and his biggest claim to fame was a one year stint as a passing game coordinator for a team that had a record number of draft picks. Really Matt? That’s the guy you think is ready to be an NFL OC? My mother in law could have been the passing game coordinator for LSU that year and had similar results.