84HuskerLaw

I can’t break down all the defensive fails like a pro (I am not one btw nor do Inpretend to be one, even on TV), but unconventional offense is sometimes hard to stop using mostly a conventional (base) defense. Too simplistic I know but. Hope we try to find some new wrinkles to be more disruptive defensively. Maybe we just need to guess better! Lol Chin and this bunch of coaches, analysts and all the ‘experts’ on this board will get it figured out, possibly? Otherwise, the fans will get to ‘enjoy’ the OU offensive juggernaut live and in person tomorrow!

Quite the contrary. You say he should be GIVEN the job. That’s wrong. Period. I want the very best we can get. Period. MJ may well be that. We don’t know nearly enough to say one way or the other. Frost was GIVEN the job because of one very successful season, primarily. MJ would look a lot like him if he pulled off a miracle run. The candidate I believe should be hired needs a number of years (10 +) of P5 proven success. We’ve tried the alternative (Bo, Riley, Callahan, Frost) and even Solich had no P5 HC experience. It ultimately failed. Had a real HC ‘nationwide’ search been done for any of the prior hires, we may have avoided a great deal of the issues over the decades. Tom Osborne was likewise a similar case but the key difference was Devaney was AD to steer Tom until he felt he could make it on his own. Tom needed to stay around to help Frank learn recruiting and push him in that regard. He opted to step way back, out of the picture entirely. I believe he didn’t want to overbear or over shadow Frank. Unfortunately, Frank didn’t have the recruiting gravitas and the program collapsed. And recruiting was and remains the primary fail of Neb FB ever since. I know some or even many may disagree but the the key to TO’s great run 1981 - 1997 was his offensive and defensive systems changes to a run based attack / and overall speed defensively. The player types he recruited were easier to recruit and less sought after. He developed ‘above average’ and rarely chased the 5 star players. And his systems were unconventional / different than most of his conference foes. He used a great scout team system to prepare defensively while complex / multiple blocking schemes made life hell for opponents. As his program got better nationally, recruiting nationally became a bit easier and the program became a machine. The last twenty years of mix and match, shuffle and reshuffle, pass and re-pass, coach and re-coach, etc etc has not worked, and in my view will not work going forward. The luster is gone and DONU’s brand legacy is almost worthless to recruiting. In fact, after Riley / Frost, it may be a negative factor to recruiting. That has to be fixed by either the slam dunk ‘legend’ type HC hire or a radical turn away from the conventional schemes. May need both if the HC is a less than stellar. We are not yet back to pre Devaney level but we are close. Facilities and fan base are much better. It took Devaney 6 years or so and that was with TO as OC, the two built the foundation for nearly four decades of top 15 FB. This hire is the most critical in 60 years. I’m glad Trev has time, the money and hopefully the help of some very smart, insightful minds to get it right. Who knows? It may be impossible. The damage is deep. Times have changed. Money and connections, etc are even more important. The best coaches and players and facilities money can buy is the game. But ‘fit’ and long term planning has to be a part of it. It’s an entire system and process to build a program. It can’t happen with a HC contract signature. But it all starts there. I put the odds of Trev and Co succeeding at 50-50 at best.

That’s awful. Nobody should be given the job based on race.

Imo he should not be given the job. Even 9’wins. I think if Trev has a short list of the most qualified coaches, it’ll be tough cause he may have the coach hired by Nov 1 or sooner. It depends on the competition. Many of the coaches referenced have better resume. MJ has one distinct advantage. He gets to have the trial run. Wins are a factor but MJ’s best shot is to show leadership, FB smarts in terms of strategy, game management, practice conduct, media relations, staff oversight, etc. wins and losses are maybe less a factor for this year for this team. Trev knows how bad the team is so he knows Mickey can only do so much. Intangibles. Most fans won’t really see the things Trev sees. He may see a better HC than we ever do or vice versa. Same with interviews and private references etc. with every candidate. We won’t know any of them except the one hired nor likely the reason(s) pro and con. Rightly so imo.

Casey has played very well. This year, thus far, QB play has not been an issue. Frankly the offense is better. Let’s see the next three games. By mid season, we can tell more. I feel better about the offense. If we had a good O line, it’d be our best offense in some time. STs is being coached now. The defense - ugh. Seems like disorganized confusion. That can be fixed over time. Just hard to understand why for me.

Excitement over Frost hire vs Frost fire? Easy, Frost hire although I was one of a small number of had more concerns about Frost being ready for the job. Frost did some good things but it seems clear that, overall, the program has declined considerably. Not just wins. Mickey is mostly a 911 First Responder at this point. Not sure what he can be expected to do but try to keep the team a team. Wins are but a bonus I guess. It’s totally unfair to MJ to hold the residue against him absent clear blunders (not likely). On the other hand, should he find a magic solution, I guess he deserves some big credit. I expect the offense to continue to Whip along. Competition gets tougher so # big numbers should fall off some but the offense despite line struggles is better. Defense is just plain mind boggling. Issues are mental / confusion stuff. They can fix this if the lights come on. I suspect it’s LB confusion but idk really. Need turnovers and some sacks. STs is better. Need to start making FGs and keep coverage errors down.

No excuse for defense being lost really. They had entire off season and really haven’t changed a whole bunch, unless Frost involved himself for something to do? We lost a coach off the defense and some roles shifted about.

Top 30 s I think. but misleading. Classes should be rated by position groups. More indicative. And retention ratings annually. That would tell s great deal more.

I’d guess at times he cared. By end of spring, he realized he was basically useless and he could see how bad the team was going to be. He didn’t give a sheet anymore. Just going thru motions.

You say forget who the coach is but assume he is ‘good’. For me, that’s tough because my expectations will vary by coach a lot: And it depends on this year results, a lot. So, I’d say as follows: Assume we go 3-9 this year: but Trev gets his best guy but not elite. Year 1 2023. 5-7 Year 2 2024. 8-4 Year 3 2025. 9-3 Year 4 2026. 9-3 Assume we go 2-10 this year and Trev gets a middle of Big 12 or Pac 12 guys (good by most peoples’ views based on comments) but below Neb standards imo. Year 1 2023. 4-8 Year 2 2024. 5-7 Year 3 2025. 4-8 Year 4 2025. 6-6 Assume we go 5-7 this year and Trev gets his guy. Year 1. 6-6 plus bowl win Year 2. 7-5 plus bowl loss Year 3. 9-4 Year 4. 9-4 The better we do this year, the better it will be in the future. But it will still take 4 years to get to Big Ten champ game, unless Trev gets Urb Meyer or a very top guy. Most of the listed names are below NU standards btw. It will jump dramatically by Year 2. Year 4 we can win Big Ten champ.

Yea. We read the posts to see wildly differing views of the exact same facts. It really makes one wonder - WTH? Even Bohl got fired before for being the mastermind of a terrible defense with exceptionally good talent. Geesh. Nebraska football deserves a top notch coaching staff. Period.

This is exactly what makes it perfect for Neb. We dont want or need to copy everybody else. Then the only way to separate your team is by getting slightly better players or just getting lucky. Neb never will simply out recruit the rest of the country. Geography and demographics and logistics prohibit it. Osborne showed by being unique, NU can win big! As I say, either hire the best dam coaches ( recruit and scheme) in the country OR find good players and develop them in a unique and special system.

I believe Davison has been in the program in one way or another for many years - long before Frost. I see no reason for Davison to be fired.

We got Whipple already. He’s as good as most of the non-elite coaches being tossed about. Mickey may be just as good as well. If we are just looking for Xs and Os guys with clean resumes, we already have those. Simply replace Chinander with a pretty good man and retain MJ. Frankly the defense had been trending up until falling off the cliff this fall. There must be a logical explanation, so fix it. Was Frost sticking his nose into the defense with some ‘better’ ideas? WTH? Many of the team’s biggest failings Frost addressed fairly well, after being coerced. He clearly FAILED with the lines - the very foundation of a football team and program building generally. Raiola may be improving his group technique wise. All good but raw talent to build from has been neglected. For this he was fired, appropriately so. He mismanaged time, talent and any number of other major issues. Also fireable. If the new HC is not an elite (splash) hire, and it’s a hire based on ‘technical expertise’, schematics, workmanship, etc., I think MJ and Whipple and probably a 100 more similar candidates to consider. No big hurry because national ‘wow’ recruiting is clearly way down the priority list, or at least it would seem that way from a big picture view. If we don’t get a household name home run, then let’s go back to the future with the best run the ball option guy for OC, the top rated DC guy. Keep MJ some of the rest as the new coordinators feel OK. The new HC will be a statement: we are starting from scratch with a very fine ‘local’ contractor OR we are buying the very best cfb ‘architect’ out there. Bear in mind, with this contractor and our own design approach we will need another 5 years to get the roster built, or longer, as pipelines are long term projects. Frost wasted so much time revolving and churning the roster only to leave us with so little in some vital areas. He didn’t develop players, he rented them. He couldn’t train them to be good, he needed them to already be ready on arrival. That’s not sustainable. We need a well organized, well oiled, program, not just a fresh group of raw recruits thrown together for a few practices spring, summer and fall. Maybe MJ and Whip can oversee the offense being designers and builders. Maybe we need the architect. I’m impatient after decades of self help remodel jobs. Either way, I’m Husker but I’m not sure fan base at large will be so patient. Frost pretty much exhausted the patience factor for a lot of us!

But ‘close’ to either 3-0 or 0-3 vs those weaker opponents. A long way to go and a short time to get there. Better plan for next year and in the meantime, let’s do the best we can and build valuable, desperately needed depth via game experience! Let it all hang out and just play so damned hard that the opponents remember playing us, win or lose. Husker Power!

Scott Frost is available and some say he wrote the book on it!

No fear of losing! I’m thinking Mickey Joseph, Raiola, Ruud, Fisher, Dawson, Applewhite and Whipple might not see that montra as the best team motto! How about just Let’s go win cause losing sucks!

The problems are deep in this team. MJ may help but nobody should expect much change between now and next fall. It is grossly unfair to Joseph to put him in that spot. He may or may not be a Head Coach but I guess he presumably accepted the interim job without any promises after thanksgiving. This can’t be viewed as ‘test drive’ or trial run. We need an elite HC. Can he be one? We can’t know one way or the other. Maybe if he and Whipple get along (don’t know that either) then a smoother transition could happen. But, absolutely we have to have a sure thing player magnet on offense and defense as we need about 40 more quality players ASAP. Some will leave. Some will stay. I truly thot Chin had the defense trending up but that game last night was a disaster! No excuses. None.

The expectations (entitlement if you prefer that term) are what makes NU a blue blood program. Once upon a time, Nebraska was not an elite class program, but perseverance and decades of hard work changed the culture and NU became a place for success instead. There is absolutely nothing wrong with success and striving to be the best. Being ‘average’, below average, mediocre, or worse (where we are now), is failing. Every program should aspire to be a championship winning program. That doesn’t mean championships are won every season. But it does mean that short of championships, every effort has to be made to improve. Failure is NOT an option is a better motto. It should be unacceptable and if you don’t succeed, you make changes, work harder, work smarter and you never relent, until you win. The University and it’s academic programs, as well as athletics program, should be always growing better, smarter, stronger, etc. Acceptance of less than the best results (players, coaches, administrators, teachers, class offerings, etc) is unacceptable and inherently doomed to failure. Implicit in no fear of failure is an acceptance that failure is acceptable - maybe next time but if not, oh well, don’t feel bad or worry about. The team appears to have somehow developed a subconscious fear of success in the process. Disappointment from losing the games as a team is a product of the cumulative effect of individual players failing to do their part in the group effort. I hear all this ‘players have to hold each other ‘accountable’ montra and get the culture right stuff. But the coach’s message is essentially- don’t fret about failing to do your part, it’s ok - we will get em next time or the time after that or the year after that , maybe. The problem with this approach is there are a bunch of Frost recruits who will come and now go, after a 5 year stay, that have not experienced winning something meaningful. That’s not fair to those players. Nebraska ought not be the place players go to learn how to lose with no regrets.

I have never understood Frost’s “No fear of failure” culture is at the very heart of some of it. One thing you can say confidently about all 5 of Frost’s teams is they don’t fear failure. As matter of fact, they seem to enjoy it as it’s practically a habit. They find new ways to fail weekly. Just baffling honestly.

This team is not anywhere ‘close’. That whole notion is nothing but a mirage - like the Empower’s new clothes. NU is but a dropped pass or two from being 0-3 vs what could well be the easiest 3 games (opponents) in a decade. Sadly, an interim HC will have an almost impossible task of saving or salvaging any of the remaining season / games. What ails this team is fundamentals and basic football skills stuff. This is not minor tweaks or ‘fixes’. The defense SHOULD have been 3-0 thus far. The concern was getting the offense to come together enough to find 6-8 wins whilst dealing with a very weak O line. They don’t block and tackle, line up and or align themselves correctly. The defense appears lost, confused, unable to adjust, etc. The offense is getting better. We had a number of solid sustained drives. A few too many penalties team overcame them. But, these are against bottom feeder opponents. The STs is not great but better. Reflecting a better coaching approach. FG kicking is now about 2/6 roughly. The defense is just awful, inexplicably so. We were told the defense got the better of it practices. At this point, I don’t believe that. I’d guess it’s all the ‘touch’ / flag football they practice.

That’s the Frost model. If you don’t hire a big name coach, you can’t turn this around. We are facing a 1-11 season, following 5 losing seasons. This is no longer ‘reload’ or ‘ rebuild’. It’s reclamation. Any non legend type HC will be facing the Bill Snyder challenge - possibly decades long. And Snyder never actually got KSU to where NU was for 40 years.

The decision for Trev is now - who can you get. ? Urb?

Amazing game! For GA Southern. Records. Broken.

Just can’t stop them. Come on guys. Ugliest in a decade!