Ric Flair

Good thread about a disturbing trend.

Agreed. I just don't see how the super sunshine guys (my prediction for the season was 1 loss btw) will never place ANY blame on the coaches six years in. No blame at all. It's always the players fault. When I think that blame has to fall somewhere in the middle. Agreed. We've been sold a bill of goods about how the problem was Watson's offense, the lack of talent, players not executing, too many injuries with not enough depth, that Pelini was forced to keep on some assistants, that the new assistants weren't seasoned enough, that Pelini is a first time head coach, and so on. At some point you simply run out of excuses...and that's what I see happening. Pelini's defense is nothing short of a complete dumpster fire. The offense has some great weapons and a seeming inability to fully utilize them. I think the visible dysfunction on the sideline during games gives a good clue as to the dysfunction running through this program. And it's hard not to feel the growing sense that Pelini is over his head as a head coach and simply can't get the job done.

This seems entirely reasonable. Bo learned most of his defensive philosophy while in the NFL for eight years. I don't know that he innovated much on any of the basic concepts. When I think of terms like guru or genius in the context of football, I think of great innovation. So I probably wouldn't go that far with Bo. He understood the concepts very well and had the right type of personality to coach defensive players. Combine those with the the amount of talent he had to work with in 2003, and you had the perfect storm for great defensive results. Same goes for 2009 and 2010. But when the talent isn't great, his defenses run into big problems. And he's very stubborn about the way he does things. I envision his output like this: From what I've heard, the big boosters wanted him back in 2008 and TO didn't have much of a choice. This may or may not be true, but it would make sense to me. The boosters emotions are no different than any of the fans', and Bo was very popular because he was the last string holding together our decades of proud tradition that had started to crumble between 2000 and 2007. I remember being at the 2000 Alamo Bowl and listening to everyone chant "We want Bo!". It may not have been the most logical desire, but it made sense from an emotional perspective. Bo's personality fit here and Frank hired him, so (in a minor way) he was the last viable link to Frank, Tom and Bob. Since Frank had already been fired, the fans wanted to hold onto whatever remaining link they could. They didn't want to see an outside hire with a whole new staff to break the 40-year continuity that was so rare in college football. After Callahan was fired, those emotions from the Alamo post-game came rushing back, and the powers that be were set on Bo. As a head coach, he was entirely unproven-- literally had never been in the position at any level. So it was a risky hire. But maybe he was the best available. I don't know. The results have been better than Callahan but still mixed. With great talent his defenses can be scary. With average talent, they can be scary bad. We all laugh at Cosgrove as the epitome of a clueless defensive coordinator, but several of Bo's games have matched or exceeded Cosgrove's worst. We can't ignore that. And Bo's assistant hires have not been home runs by any amount of Kool-Aid. I'm not drawing any grand conclusions from any of this, but it's safe to say that 2012 is not where we want to be. And what we saw against Wyoming is not where we want to be. Maybe Bo has lots of potential for change and improvement. Maybe not. All we can do is wait and see, and hope. And get in lots and lots of ridiculous arguments about it on the internet. Great post. I think it would be crazy to fire Bo right now. But I think it would be even more crazy to accept this as the status quo for another season or two. So if the 2014 season ends and we haven't seen measurable improvement, I think it'll be time to pull the trigger. 9 or 10 wins with a blowout loss or two, an upset loss to a team we shouldn't lose to, multiple games where we give up 600+ yards and the sense that the coaching staff is consistently overmatched and outcoached are not sustainable at Nebraska.

Agreed. I don't think there are any excuses left. The scheme hasn't worked in the last couple of years and Bo doesn't seem willing or able to change it. And as much attention as is being paid to lack of talent, experience, etc. the elephant in the room is that Pelini and his staff are being badly outcoached several times a season.

I think it's a mistake to blame anyone but Bo at this point. These are his schemes, his hand-picked and developed players and coaches and his team. There are no more excuses left. And in my opinion, he's simply not getting the job done.

If the defense was playing well, I don't think fans would care when the Blackshirts were handed out.

I don't think Papuchis is the problem. It's Bo's defense. These are all guys Bo recruited and developed. Bo hired and developed Papuchis. So there are no excuses left.

That doesn't surprise me. He looks some combination of confused/embarrassed/frustrated during these meltdowns. I honestly think he's just in over his head. Wyoming has a fraction of the talent that we do, but they seem to have a better coach. And that's a recurring theme during the blowout losses and meltdowns...we're getting outcoached.

We've needed to "tighten up" for about three full seasons now. The problem doesn't seem to be figuring out that the defense can't stop anyone. The problem is that the coaching staff simply can't figure out why or what to do to fix it.

The problem seems to be coaching. Our staff just seems overmatched.

I'm thinking the solution is to have Bo hire a few more inexperienced yes-men from Youngstown to stop the bleeding.

I'm seeing a lot of holding too, but you can't let Wyoming come into your place and run roughshod all over you and blame it on the officiating. We should be so much better than these guys that the officiating is irrelevant.

I hate to be Debbie Downer, but I'm quickly losing faith in Pelini and this staff. This is beyond ridiculous.

There's yet another score. Wow. This is disappointing. They're just their missed FG away from being tied.

Why do what makes sense when it apparently feels so good to do what doesn't and fail?

Crappy giving up the TD, but loved the sack by Mitchell on the 2 pt. conversion.

Yep. They can't resist trying to get cute.

I'm incredibly impressed with our running backs. Can Ron Brown be moved to coach the defensive line? Maybe he can fix that unit too.

At least the refs seem to be trying to fix their mistakes.

Q is a beast...love that guy.

This Agreed. The defense needs to get fixed. Now. The fix is the same as last year. They need to get pressure on the qb. When they blitz or rush more than 4 they have so much more success and the players seem to come alive. When they just sit back and let the offense run their game, they get gashed. They need to get more aggressive! Plain and simple. This "contain" sh#t DOES NOT WORK! I agree with you. But isn't the "contain sh*t" and bend but don't break basically Pelini's whole defensive philosophy?

Newby is running like a MAN. I'm very impressed. Ron Brown is doing a hell of a job.

This Agreed. The defense needs to get fixed. Now.

Agreed. Between his mobility, pocket presence, arm, accuracy and football IQ, I see no reason he can't spend a few years holding a clipboard in the pros.

We have so many weapons on offense and just can't seem to find ways to use them or get them the ball.