Nebhawk

The crazy thing about the 03' season was that Texas was rated high, KSU might have been there best team ever, and Mizzou was really improved. That was a rebuilding year! 10-3 record. This program has never recovered from that season. Everyone views those losses as really bad losses. How do those losses compare to Texas Tech, Kansas, Purdue, Illinois, NW, Iowa, and etc........ Hindsight is 20/20. This program still hasn't learned that yet, or its boosters. I would much rather have losses against 3 Top 15 ranked teams than against cellar dweller Big 10 teams, and thats what weve had now for 4 years. Northwestern, Iowa and now add Purdue and Illinois to that list. At least when you said back in 03' that KSU, Texas and Mizzou were your only losses, you could also point at the year before and going 6-7 and getting beat by everyone. If memory serves me correct, all those teams in 03' that did beat us were rated in the Top 15 when we played. When was the last time we could say that we only lost to higher ranked teams????

Who knows if Mcelwane will work out at Florida. Muschamp did recruit some really good talent. Can he recruit better than Muschamp? Harbaugh is just starting, and I do think that he will be beating the Buckeyes soon, causing Meyer to retire once again because of the pressure to win...........if the Buckeyes don't go one probation first. Those are the big winners from last years big time job openings. Herman at Houston is a great hire, good gig. I think it will take a special job for him to leave right away. I think most are seeing that Houston is a good place to start out at. Sumlin sure did fine from starting there.

Might as well add Texas to that list as well. Getting shut out in Ames doomed his time there. That will open up Houston, cause thats where Herman will go. Houston is a better gig than 2/3 of those other jobs. Its just starting. I think that KSU will be looking for a head man as well, since Snyder has stayed about 2 years to long. That list will get longer, and it will have more Power 5 schools added to it. Its hard to sit here and say, lets wait, its also hard to say lets fire Riley and Co. If you knew that Tom Herman would come running this way, I would go and lock him down now. Right now were looking at Trev Alberts and Scott Frost. That is our only reasonable coaching prospect in my eyes.

Its so hard for those who wear Big Red glasses to just ignore the fact that its more than coaching thats effecting this team. Its way more than just coaching, and I think alot of people on the outside know and can see it more clearly. When you have a former O-lineman, Zatecha, saying that talent pool on the O-line is not up to par, thats someone who played, and knows the position. If you don't have good line play on either side, your not winning alot of games.

Houston is a unique job. If I were and up and comer to the coaching ranks, thats a great job to have. Just getting the inner city kids from Houston that know one else wanted, builds you a pretty fine team from the start. That is an underrated job, in my opinion. The right coach, right mentality, and the right fit are keys for recruiting the correct players to Nebraska. Useless to spend so much time getting players from the West Coast to come here. Best thing to it get Texas kids, schedule OU on a regular basis, and you will have that marquee game to get back the Texas pipeline once again. Schedule yearly games against Rice, Houston, Utep, OU, TEXAS, TCU and other Texas schools. Not hard to establish a foot print in that region once again. Scheduling is key. Get rid of South Alabama, BYU, and Miami's and get into our backyard of recruiting once again. REally not that hard to figure out if you ask me.

The whole facility arguement has gone by the wayside. There are alot more programs now with top notch facilities, not just Nebraska. We have better facilities 15-20 years ago, but now everyone has caught up to that. What most programs don't have is 5 National champ Trophies in there facilities to show recruits. Thats what is missing. Bo and his staff didn't bust there balls to recruit 5 star players. They saw Alabama, Texas, OU, and decided it wasn't worth there time to pursue those players. Rarely, if you look at recruiting sites, did you ever see a player with offers from OU, Texas, Alabama, Florida St and Nebraska. More times than not, you saw Kansas, KSU, Iowa, Iowa ST or even worse Western Kentucky, Ohio, Toledo....etc if you catch my drift. If you want the 5star players, go and recruit them. CAn't get them if you don't try.

Shaw is a Stanford Grad, former player, just forget that one right now. He is home, and he isn't leaving. Harbaugh started something there, and Shaw just took it and made it better. Hard to imagine that Stanford is doing what they have been doing now with their academic standards, but it shows how good of a recruiter Shaw is. Herman will more than likely end up at Texas from what is going on down south. Strong just sealed is deal in betting blanked at Ames. Richt, might get booted at Georgia after this season, but they did lose an all conference rb early on this year, and are young. Regardless, fire Eichorst soon, then hire the replacement, which might as well be Trev Alberts. In two years we can move forward with a different coaching staff. My only issue with that is Wisky and Iowa getting a stronger hold on the division. Please, anyone that thinks Bo would have been 9-0 at this point needs therapy. He was never 9-0 with better teams. Poor argument in my opinion.

I read somewhere that is was said that this team is lacking basis fundamentals. IF that reallly is an issue, then we are not recruiting from the right places. Basic fundamentals better or at least you would think are being taught in HS. If we are spending practice time teaching basis knowledge to our players, no wonder we can't beat Purdue. Fundamentals are formed early on in this game. YOur either taught the right way or your not taught at all. I wondersometimes whats going on. Is it fundamentals or is it want to and desire to make the right plays? I suggest that everyone hunker down and just deal with what we are seeing right now, because we will have this staff back for at least one more season, if not two. No one is going anywhere this year and we might as well either like it or just not watching it for the last few games this season and next year.

Transition years are tough. I think that realistically no one could see this coming. On the other hand, losing talent like Ameer and RG isn't replaceable overnight, because it took 3 years for those guys to become Ameer and RG as Huskers. The cupboard wasn't bare, but mighty thin in spots. QB being one of them. RB has talent, but lacks any kind of in game college experience. Newby played some last year, but not enough to be considered a veteran. Kenny Bell was a very good downfield blocker, and did catch more passes than he dropped, something that has happened far too much this season. You can make arguements for both sides in this discussion. Coaches aren't doing a good job, and from a pure effort stand point, the players are not leaving it all out on the field each and every down either, and that has been an issue for the last 3 years. ONce this team has gotten behind in games in the last few seasons, they have either quit or found ways to quit. Thats on the players more than coaches, but like I said, its hard to really go one way or the other. I will say that I have seen players in the right position to make plays, and seen alot of whiffs on defense, and thats been an issue now for at least 3 years. Offense, dropped passes are not something that has just occurred this season, that has been a plague for the last few years as well. QB's making bad decisions have almost been a part of this program now since TMart.

Top 4 Do-able choices 1. Tom Herman, although rumors have him going to Texas a given-thanks Iowa ST. 2. Scott Frost, with some Huskers coming along like Turner and Ron Brown ( Must install sense of pride back) 3. Mark Richt- although not a big fan of his, he can recruit, he can win 9 games on most years. Frank Solich 2.0 is my fear 4. Anybody other than current staff I nominate Scott Frost.

Right now, its hard to say anything positive about coaching or players playing. The effort by the players in the last two weeks bothers me as much as some of the ugly play calls. Right now, we are a bad football team. Fundamentals........sure, but these are recruited players, recruited to play at a D-1 school/program.........fundamentals I would hope were taught in High school and for those here for more than one year. I just hope, pride kicks in this week, a we give Sparty a run for the money. Right now focus needs to be on Sparty. Lets see some pride. We can blame coaching for everything, but these players haven't executed fundamentally. Hail Mary.........never let a guy get in front of you! Little league football.........So on and so forth. Not giving the coaching staff a free pass, but I read comments on here like we must have recruited idiots who never played the game. Come on.........the coaches aren't good, but if you can't see that the players aren't very coherent either, your blind.

As for talented rb's coming here, the will come because part of playing rb in the NFL is catching passes out of the backfield. We haven't been getting 4 and 5 star running backs since Ahman or LP regardless of that notion. Marlon Lucky was a 5 star from LA, who didn't even get offers from UCLA or USC........never have understood that ranking?

Ridiculous. Justify your fandom, if that makes you feel better. I don't know anyone who doesn't want the best for the team. Right now, heck, for the last 14 years we haven't been relevant on the national scene. The only thing that I am trying to figure out is if this season is just a part of what it takes to get things back in order. Were we heading towards this rock bottom venture for the last few seasons, and just didn't see it coming? Sure we can say Bo wouldn't have lost to Illinois or Purdue. The other games, I won't go that far yet, because Bo's history says that NW might have won, and Wisky had his number. I would say 5-4 might be our record, but still looking at 7-5 in the barrel yet. Doesn't matter though. Bo is gone. I truly think that this was coming with Bo, either this year or next. Talent in recruiting was going down and so was expectations. This was coming. Riley, has no business being here. Good guy, good west coast coach, just not meant for Big 10 football. I agree, its time now to move forward. Maybe if Cal keeps losing, that job would open up and Riley would just go. I hate to see us fire another coach right now, but its needed I think. I just don't want this to be personal against Riley because he didn't come here to torch the program. He had or has a plan, but its not working. He knows that, but its too late this season to change. To many hours arleady spent on this offense. I think we have him one more year. I think once PErls is gone, we have a new AD, and then possibly a new coach the season after that. Nevertheless, everyone is a fan. Some more over the top, some more relaxed, some are just plain unappeasable, but all still Big Red Fans.

Running the ball in the midwest theory. Sure teams still run the ball. Thats all they can do. Look at Wisky, Iowa, and Michigan. They have to run, but if you stack the box, and stop the run, they are going to lose. This is why you have games like Wisky/Iowa, 10-6 ball game that no one could pass the ball. Balanced attack is the way football is going. Big 10 is just still 20 years behind. Sure Ohio St won the title last year, but that was a balanced attack of passing and rushing. Fundamentals of football still require to run the ball to soften the defense. That will never go away, but recruiting, and getting players to midwest schools requires an open mind on offense. Move forward with the game. We fired two 9 win coaches in the last 12 years that recruiting runners for the running game and were getting lit up either by the pass or rush.

Sure winning is important. However, Meyer didn't destroy tradition to win at OSU, neither did Saban at Alabama. They embraced it. This is why in a big part they have been successful, along with recruiting top 5.

The program needs tradition and those with that tradition back. Our offensive lines played harder under Cotton than they are now. Sounds like Cavanaugh is a good coach, and might be one who would stay. The point is pride back into the program. Bringing back those who can recruit to Nebraska and fit Nebraska. Those are only goingto be Nebraskans, who either played here or grew up here. Since Solich, we have complained about every offensive CO, and almost every D coord. These other staffs can't please the fan base. So far not other staff can do anything right. Solich was fired because all he did was run the ball, option attack. It was said that we needed to move into the next century. Upgrade so we can be relevant for the future. That brought us Callahan.

I would have demanded Frost been our OC under Riley to begin with. Iowa St just beat Texas. Strong is out. Herman will go there, and say good night to Baylor, TCU and Oklahoma ST. It will once again become Texas and OU. Mark that down. This is why the only real option will be Frost. Yes, his only credential is former great player. If you look at that in that manner. He played for some great coaches, worked for others. He has put time in on special teams, played defense, and offense. Knows the option attack and well and the spread option attack. Currently, he is the option.

Frost is running Oregons offense. SOme of you posters got tor realize that Frost is running what Helfrich wants and what Chip Kelly started. Frost knows the landscape. He knows Nebraska Football. He would know the Big 10 , because its alot like the Big 12/Big 8 he played in. He understands. This is also why you hire TO or Trev to become AD. Simple plan. Forget about flashing the money. Hire someone that money is the least of the concerns. Since Solich, we have struck out 3 times. 3 times now hiring crap. 3 times hiring coaches with no Nebraska ties. If we make this mistake one more time, this program is gone, and won't return. If we decide that Riley and Eichorst are done now, we are limited in interested parties in this gig. Good upcoming coaches won't come here. They will wait for a more stable atmosphere somewhere else. Money won't make a difference. Program that into your heads. Money will not buy a good enough coach. Bring in tradition, and bring in Nebraska ties.

If you read media hosts opinion, those on this board and other Husker boards, we need to go back to our tradition. That is the strongest opinion. i would agree. If that is the direction of the next move, whether now or next year, Frost seems the logical choice. Trev Alberts seems suited to be AD. This would involve Osborne, potentially Gill, and other former Huskers who desire to coach and be with the program once again. Forget the sexy hires, forget showing the money, and just go and get Frost for $3mil per. Settle in and let them have 5 years to correct this mess. It will now take at least 3 years no matter who is coaching to turn things around. The Pelini firing set this program back. Players never bought in this year. Riley is a nice guy, but never should have come here. Never should have been in this position. This is what I feel is the only move available in the current situation. Frost belongs here. I think this would rejuvenate the program. Bring Gill back. Bring back Barney. Marvin, and the whole gang if necessary. I don't care if TO comes back as AD for a year or so.

I just hope all our boosters are getting together and the blank check is being wrote out for both Eichorst and Riley. Both.

0-7 Kansas team that is playing harder than we did today. They are running hard yet, trying to defend yet. Maybe our players should take note. Maybe our coaches should take note. Maybe, ah f@ck it.

I am sitting here watching KU play. Getting there rears kicked by OU. But they have a new HC. He is playing 4 true freshmen at receivers position, true freshmen at QB, and basically freshmen on both sides of the ball on the lines. They suck, but they are getting better. They are implementing a system, with there players. I can respect that much more than what is going on here. Like I said, its KU, but they show signs of getting better. We look like we are going in reverse.

Its all scrambled right now. Everything. Can we fire and rehire now? Should we? Are we satisfied with Scott Frost as our next HC? That my friends is the only route we can take this year. Tom Herman won't come here in this situation. Richt is getting beaten all the SEC teams with winning records. Herman will get offers from much better situations than this one. Trev Alberts and Scott Frost are the only options for redoing the Husker sports issues and Football issues. Like I have stated in the past and will continue to put out there: No one knocked the door down to come here the last three times we hired a coach. No one with greatness. No one with naitional title worthiness. No one. We have taken unproven coaches with bad attitudes and who thought they were bigger than the program. Saying this again. Its going to take a Nebraskan, either player for former coach to get this ship from sinking. I think we have demonstrated that hiring just any coach isn't going to work. I think its a given now that we have to have someone with Husker roots in order for the appreciation of the program.

I am with firing Eichorst now. Thats where we need the immediate attention. Can we fire and rehire a new coach this season? I would say that maybe. Should we, yes. Financially don't think I would. Need to find an AD with some kind of coaching ties to someone thats a great coach and would come here, clean up the last 12 years of disfunction and move us ahead. Trev Alberts is the only person of interest with family ties. The only one who might come in and turn things around. Erstad looking at the Dodgers says our athletic department is hurting some. Big 10 move is destroying this athletic program in all areas. Recruiting is twice as hard now. Even for baseball. We played in the Big 12, south weather in April and May. Not in Michigan in April and May. Volleyball will be the next to take the hit. Its all relevant. Its all a part of the issue right now. We can overcome Big 10 and its ways, but only with the right AD.

The program is in trouble, has been in trouble for years now. This is what is known to be rock bottom. Now its time to move on and find that coach who can at least get some respect back for the program. When your behind, you have to score quickly and thats done by passing. The run game isn't there. The biggest run play of the game was a check down by Newby. That was a pass play, audible to run play, something that TA doens't do. Since we think that running the ball is the answer, and all Big 10 teams are heavy on run defense, why not try to pass some more than most do. We don't have the O-line to man handle teams, we don't have running backs to carry for 25 times per game. The best part of this team is our WR's. They are decent. Run the ball........every Big 10 defense is keyed to stopping the run. Every Big 10 team is geared to run the ball, but only a handful win more than 7 games a year. Don't get me wrong, running the ball is important, but when your unable to run and have to pass, you better be able to gain some yards on the pass. Running the ball is great if used right. THis coaching staff is not a run first oriented staff. What they are trying to do is bring in better athletes to the field than Bo did. Passing the ball brings in more speed, and better offensive talent overall. Once you get those players on campus, you can create a better offense. Don't forget, we lost Ameer last year, he was the running game.