EngineeringHusker

Seriously. I do not understand all of this conspiracy theory crap. There is nothing fishy about Eichorst hiring Riley. There is no advantage for him to hire someone he doesn't think will do a good job. WHY????? Hiring a bad coach doesn't help you get a different AD job- that doesn't necessarily look good for your qualifications. Eichorst has pretty much told us why he hired Riley. When Eichorst was at South Carolina (I believe this was the school), Riley's name came up for consideration. Riley's name also came up several other times in Eichorst's career. I think even Barry Alvarez had mentioned to Eichorst that he would consider hiring Riley. Ultimately, Riley's name came up a lot around Eichorst, and he latched on to it. I think he thought he was getting a hidden gem. Now whether or not the hire was a good one is an entirely different topic. One that you can probably find a thread or two about if you do a little digging on the site. Another question. Why would Riley want to give up his essentially lifetime contract at Oregon State to come here and not give a crap. I'm guessing he probably likes to coach, and I'm sure he would like to win. Again, can he win- another discussion. I know asking for a little bit of reason is a tall order on an internet message board, but can we finally give up on this nonsense about Eichorst and Riley conspiring and not caring?

Overall good post. The bold part is a good point. Over the last couple of years I wasn't a Bo guy anymore. However, after watching the games this year it definitely seems like the problem is deeper than either coaching staff. Perhaps, I shouldn't always blame the coaches including Bo as well. The team has been soft in the past and is still soft. Apparently, Bo's "us against the world" mentality was good enough to inspire our guys just enough to beat teams like Illinois- the games we have inexplicably lost this year. These couple of crap games that we won in the past due to this mentality are the only real difference between last year and this year. It's still the same uninspired, mistake-laden football as in the past. Our record is different, but the games still look the same- the few games when our guys play to their actual potential, they look pretty stinkin' good (Miami 14, Minny 15), but this is rarely the case. The big difference between '95 and now (beyond the running vs. passing debate which has been beat to death on this board) is the accountability. You weren't going to take a play off like some of the kids do now. You didn't want to let your teammates down, and besides, they weren't going to stand for that crap anyway. As a last point- definitely agree with the football smarts idea. I swear it's like some of the kids have no idea how the game of football works when it comes to decision making. They almost need a class or something. Heck, maybe even just watching more actual football games would help.

Seriously. Why would Eichorst, as an athletic director, want to hire a bad coach and not care about his hire? If Eichorst wants to have a future as an athletic director (especially back at Wisconsin like so many want to believe), how would not caring help his case. Honestly, I think Eichorst went with who he thought was best. Whether that ends up working in the long term is yet to be seen. Besides, maybe it's just because I'm in academics, but what is so wrong with academics? Ultimately, the university was created for academics and serves ~25,000 students currently. There's no reason the two can't exist harmoniously. It seems like sometimes on this board people lose site of the main vision of a university.

I do not understand why we cannot capitalize on good things such as better field position. It's almost like we don't play as hard in these instances. 99 yards to go or down by at least one score- go hard, catch passes and make plays- the guys can do it. Heaven forbid we use any of this stuff to our advantage. Lord knows how much better we'd look if we could capitalize in these situations.

I was at the game. Langsdorf stuck with the run majority of the game. I think he called a good game considering how bad our OL was getting beat. Receivers missed easy catches, and Tommy made a horrendous decision on the pick six. I'm more encouraged than most by the play calling. Special teams and the late game collapses are the biggest concerns by far. Secondary continues to improve. Good point. Our guys were in position for a few different nice plays/possible scores but didn't make them. Tommy overthrew Newby a bit on a wheel route, Reilly dropped a nice pass in the endzone. Turner had a few drops and hesitated on a deep route where the ball was well thrown. Tariiq Allen dropped a good ball toward the end of the game. Special teams were poor. I'm not usually into really ragging on coaches or calling for heads, but man... Read....

Minus an all American running back and defensive end, right? That's like having $105 then saying you pretty much have the same amount after you spend the hundred.Oh man do we miss Ameer. If we had him around the season would look much different. His motor just never quit. I think he would have willed us to win at least a few of these losses.I'm sorry but your slightly delusional if you think even Ameer gains that. many more yards running Langsdork's favorite Run it up Reeve's butt play with this bad oline Obviously we don't blow everyone out of the water with Ameer, but it looks much better. His extra 1 or 2 yards would add up. Heck, ole DL may be more willing to run with a top quality back like Ameer. Let's be honest- our backs this year are just okay. But ultimately I guess it doesn't much matter. Thing is our backs could be handled better. We have Newby running up the middle too much when the guy just doesn't run tough. He is no more an every-down back than Cross but Cross hasn't gotten nearly the reps. Cross should get more than the occasional short-yardage connversion. Wilbon looked good in the first two games then he never gets another freaking chance. Ozigbo starts looking good then he disappears. We burn Stevenson's shirt to do be unimpressive on returns and never get carries. I did love what they were doing with Janovich, he's been a revelation this season, props for that. But even there where were his carries today? Of course it sucks we don't have AA anymore, he was a great back, but it appears we could make better use of what we have. Surely, (I hope) the pulling of Stevenson's shirt was totally his own decision, i.e., he'll transfer if he doesn't play or something of the sort. I haven't been a big fan of his decision making on returns. I think if we had one back who had just pulled away from the pack it would help. Newby has been good in protection, but is not a tough runner. I wouldn't mind seeing Cross get more carries, but I understand that he's not the every-down back as well. Not sure what the deal is with Wilbon (surely there's something going on that we don't know about). I like the way Ozigbo runs, and he was in for a few series today, but I don't know how well he knows the offense. On the last Illinois play he pretty much said he had no idea what was going on. I will say I think our running back corps would be much better suited to a multi-back style of offense- get Cross and Newby in at the same time. I know one of DL's biggest things is he doesn't want to show his hand- likes to run Cross outside when you would expect it up the middle due to his size and so on. Having a couple of options in the backfield would open up the playcalling a bit I think. In any case, I appreciate the good discussion- this can be hard to find on the board after a loss.

Good post. It would be nice if it was just as simple as "run the ball more", but that just isn't the case. We all forget how many times we were just stuffed on the run.

Minus an all American running back and defensive end, right? That's like having $105 then saying you pretty much have the same amount after you spend the hundred.Oh man do we miss Ameer. If we had him around the season would look much different. His motor just never quit. I think he would have willed us to win at least a few of these losses.I'm sorry but your slightly delusional if you think even Ameer gains that. many more yards running Langsdork's favorite Run it up Reeve's butt play with this bad oline Obviously we don't blow everyone out of the water with Ameer, but it looks much better. His extra 1 or 2 yards would add up. Heck, ole DL may be more willing to run with a top quality back like Ameer. Let's be honest- our backs this year are just okay. But ultimately I guess it doesn't much matter.

I'd agree with this. In the BYU game, I think I was more nervous after Mangum came in, and dangit the stinkin' freshmen did it. For some reason I think Hill would have tried too hard on the Hail Mary, and we'd have pulled it out. They always have a knack to put the ball on the money against us...

Minus an all American running back and defensive end, right? That's like having $105 then saying you pretty much have the same amount after you spend the hundred. Oh man do we miss Ameer. If we had him around the season would look much different. His motor just never quit. I think he would have willed us to win at least a few of these losses.

That is lack of depth, kids get tired. But the problem lately has been more offensive than defensive. Look at the number of plays and we should have killed NW on the scoreboard, but dropped passes, RB's who can't break a tackle or find a hole to save their life, and a QB who has no football intelligence wears the defense out in the 4th are killing this team. I agree. Also, the kids are being put into situations to win, but they're not making the plays. That's not on the coaches. A coaches job is to put people into a position to make plays. The kids just aren't. This x10000!!! Thank you! I agree that not every play call was a good one. But, I can think of several plays that were just left out there due to drops, etc. The main difference from last week to this week- players making plays.

Agree with this. Big difference between last week and this week is the dropped passes. We make those, and this game is much different. The pick 6 was bad though. If he could just learn that sometimes you gotta take a sack or throw it away...

Nebraska 24 Minnesota 13 Rushing 156 Passing 254

So there's been plenty of talk about what is wrong with our team this year- coaching, play calls, talent level and what not. However, it seems to me that the problem goes far beyond any of these simple things. I'm not a football expert and definitely not a psychology expert, but it looks like the majority of the problem is all in the players' (probably coaches' too) heads. In three of our losses we have had the lead going into the final drive, and in the Miami game I think it's safe to say we had the momentum going into overtime. Each game has been ours to lose, and unfortunately we managed to do just that each time. One thing I have noticed about our team over the last several years is that we do not usually play very well at all with the lead. Our best drives are usually when the players have felt their backs against the wall. For whatever reason, the need to make the comeback has made our guys play their best football. This has been evident this season such as in the comeback against Miami and even our final scoring drive against Wisconsin. We had more than our fair share of comebacks under Bo as well. My question is, why do our guys need to feel the pressure of being down to focus and perform well? Why has this been the best motivator the team has had? It's been pretty apparent that we don't do well when we are winning or have a big game on the line. I can think of several instances where this has been the case. This season we have been in the driver's seat for BYU, Illinois, and Wisconsin. We were in the position each time to win and really probably should have. Please don't say this is only a Mike Riley problem though. The team crapped the bed several times under Bo too. We blew it to a lousy Texas team in our redemption game. Also blew a giant lead against OU in the BIG XII Championship game. Even the the infamous 408 game we got out to a pretty decent lead in the first quarter. This problem has extended beyond Bo or Riley. Why do our Huskers lack the killer instinct to put teams away? We seem to play scared- too worried to make a mistake and blow the game. I know sometimes poor calls may have been made, but please don't bring that up. That topic has been beat to death, and as my former high school basketball coach said, "players make plays." For whatever reason, this year the opposing teams always seem to make plays. (Ya know, just once you'd think they'd mess up ) I haven't coached kids before, and at 26 I still sometimes feel like one, so I don't necessarily know how you go about fixing this. I don't know if this is a byproduct of an "us against the world" mentality where to get riled up you have to believe people are out to get you, as some people have said Bo instilled in the program. Heck, it may even go back to Callahan and Solich. How do you go about changing the mind set of a bunch of 18-22 year olds? Obviously winning, winning big, and winning a lot would be a big help. I know it's easier said then done, but I think if our guys can figure out the mental game things will really turn around. I apologize for the long post. I have been a lurker for many years, and I guess I just kinda let loose. I've gotten a little tired of the Riley this- Bo that posts and am interested in people's insights into this sometimes forgotten part of the game.

LOMS. Thank you. Your reasonable posts have been a welcome sight in one of the quirkiest seasons I have seen.

Definitely. Let's just how we can snag him up before someone else does...

If people are wanting to waste their money and give it away, I know a poor, grad student who is willing to take some donations

Exactly. It doesn't matter if Tommy improvised that third down pass. The game should never have come down to that, and games NEVER hinge on one play. I think this is the problem for Nebraska right now. Not good enough to really blow teams out, so games are going to come down to one or two plays late in the game. So, when it does, the coaches need to learn from their past mistakes (BYU) and do something a little different. The one thing really seems to hold us back is the lack of killer instinct. This is a mindset thing that we have had for a very long time now. When we're down at the end of the game and need a miraculous comeback we start playing tough. But for whatever reason, when we're in the lead we just can never put it away. We've had some very good comebacks before (Michigan State, OSU, even Miami this year). I don't know how many times we have blew a lead and lost a game that we should have one (OU in the BIGXII Championship game which would have helped Bo's case for staying, BYU, tonight). Heck, even the 408 game. I thought we were gonna roll in the first quarter after our fast start. I was hoping Riley could fix this, but we've already blown two leads this year and nearly a third to S. Miss, so I'm pretty worried. I think it's bigger than a single bad play call or coach or player. There just hasn't been something right in the mental game.

Honest question here. Are you glad we are losing? Nope. It saddens me. It just pisses me off that I'm being labeled as a bad fan because I thought that the Riley hire was bad. I hate seeing this crap, I long for the 90s. Imagine what would have happened if someone who questioned the Riley hire had started a thread like this. Instant ban. Are you happy with what you've seen so far this season? Can't say that I am. Unfortunately I am too young to remember most of the 90s, although I do remember the beat down of Peyton Manning in 97. I guess I should apologize. Everybody is so upset- I'm pretty dang upset, and I was going to bicker with you, but I shouldn't. Ultimately we'll all Husker fans, and we just want to see them win. Our lousiness has transcended a single coach or play call. We've been so meh for so long, and I guess we all just can't take it anymore!

Honest question here. Are you glad we are losing?

Except the running back ran a pass route and was looking back for the ball, and Tommy, you know, threw the ball. That's the most detestable thing Riley had done here. He f'd up, own it. Riley throwing guys under the bus? Doesn't sound like a nice guy move, or we didn't "execute" Well, if it was a run call, should he have just lied? Ultimately, there is also some onus on the players to "execute". They are the ones playing the game...

This kind of BS reminds me of why I don't normally visit message boards after a loss. People get to emotional and forget to use reason and common sense. No doubt. I don't know why I come here after a loss, because I know what sort of crap will be spewed. But dangit, I can't help it.

Agreed. Honestly, save for maybe Janovich and Ozigbo, the entirety of the offense played terribly. I don't even necessarily think the play calls for the most part were bad. I was nervous from the beginning when Tommy ran on the 3rd and 4 and didn't get it. He didn't run with same fire he usually does.

Bad call to pass on the last third down. But they went for the kill shot- don't know that I'd call that nutless. Killshot!!!!???? THERE WERE 55 SECONDS LEFT!!! WHY THR f#*k WOULD YOU THROW AND STOP THE CLOCK???? YOU RUN AND TAKE THE CLOCK DOWN TO ALMOST NOTHING! Killshot....gimme a friggin break. I never said it was a good call. I just think you should be more precise with your words. Going for the first down is not what you call "nutless". Get a first and they don't even get the ball back. Besides, I believe I saw that it was supposed to be a designed run for Tommy.

Thats some good ole Bo pointing the finger and not the thumb. Kids don't execute...... At some point the kids don't. Even Bo wasn't always wrong in that regard. The execution today was not good on the players side nor the coaches.