84HuskerLaw

I dont think we lack in the WR area and in fact, I think I would tip the scales for this year's bunch as being overall better. We missed DPE as it would have been so helpful to have him in September. I think one of the things that is hurting now is the losses earlier when our injuries were so critical to key areas and truly impacted the gameplans. I believe our coaches felt that early on we would have to outscore opponents to win. (by this I mean it would require the offense to do more than its share to win as the defense was going to struggle). This perception by the coaches led them to approach games with the idea that it would require even more passing that perhaps even a passing oriented crew would want. Riley repeatedly said, before the first game even, that our running game was going to be 'ify' and inconsistent and we would have to rely more on the pass that he wanted or would be ideal. Whether this was in fact true or just a self fulfilling prophecy ( Riley subconsciously wanting to throw a lot) is debatable. I think we are getting BETTER play from the WRs and QB. Running back is big drop off as all would likely agree and this in turn makes our running game unreliable. I actually feel the offensive line play is pretty comparable or perhaps slightly better this year. I think we lack depth or Riley lacks confidence in the back ups and this results in the line play getting weak in the 4th quarter as fatigue sets in which has hurt our ability to finish drives, get first downs when we desperately need them, etc. I think our excessive reliance on the passing game has produced too many 3 & outs and 'brief' drives where our time of possession has been very abreviated. This has led to our defense getting worn down by late in the game as well, thus hurting us in those do or die periods when we can stop the opponent and they win in the last minute. LB play has been OK and comparable to last year but injuries have really decimated us there and we have hardly ever started the same bunch in back to back weeks. This has led to a lack of faith by coaches and a feeling of desperation and the need to try to force things offensively to seek to 'out score' teams vs. physically dominate. With the lack of faith in the LBs, I think we have had to limit our pass defense and put too much pressure on the secondary to assist in the run stopping department. this has led of course to giving up WAY too many passing yards. I think the coaches believed going in to the season that most Big Ten teams' strengths were running so we'd be OK if we gave more effort and scheme to run stopping vs. passing defense. Sadly, we've made our opposing QBs look like all pros and setting records. Hence, we are dead last in the nation in passing yards given up. On the plus side, our scoring defense is NOT terrible even with the defense issues cited. Bottome line: I believe I would pick this year's team in a game against last year's team. But it would be a toss up really. Won loss records aside it would be a battle.

Purdue 24 NU 17 I almost hate to write anything but things just don't feel very positive for me right now. I hope and pray big time that I am wrong.

Personally, I would like to see the name Bo Pelini banned. That is history. I was a Bo guy for most of his time here. He is gone. He is NOT coming back thank goodness as he was a source of much difference, debate and downright argument. Huskers need to be united. We don't need to discuss the past any more. Nothing we can do to rewrite or change history. It is what it is. Please stop. As for discussing the present coaching staff and HC, that is certainly very important, relevant and justified. Now, we need to focus on how we can help this team win a few more games this year if we can and certainly offer our positive suggestions on how to make the team better in the future. If someone has an idea for what the current coaches can do to improve our play, great. If someone feels we need a new coach or entire staff or somewhere in between, that's fine as well. Suggest a real honest to goodness coach by name and skills and why he would be better. Stop bashing and start offering real sincere, meaningful positive suggestions for who, what, when and why. Just my opinions.

This is being discussed in most of the threads already. I think a majority agree that more QB runs and better, diversity in the run game with more running plays and fewer passes will make this team better and would have resulted in at least two or three more wins instead of losses.

This whole "buy in" thing is a freaking fabrication by some self promoting "insiders." Teams that don't buy in get blown off the field consistently. They don't continually battle back to be in a position to win at the end. The sad thing is, unlike some of those Bo teams (and even Callahan teams) that got toasted, this team really hasn't faced a great team yet. Heck, I'm not even sure that they've faced a good team yet (NW may qualify). I have some serious concerns about what will happen if NU faces a great team under Riley. Luckily, MSU is a bit overrated and athletically vulnerable. That's definitely a winnable game. The "youth movement" is an insult to some kids who have given 3 to 5 years of their lives to a program where some fans would throw them on the ash heap rather than admit that this coaching change was a colossal screw up. The 'youth movement' is NOT insulting to the seniors. It is reality. We can surely all agree that when a game gets out of hand scorewise, most coaches (except the A HOLES who run up the score) pull the starters and play the young ones and back ups. Both teams substitute freely late in most games. I believe MOST will agree with this surely. This same logic applies to teams whose SEASONS are basically over as a practical matter, especially in years like this one where the substitutes are NOT playing at all as the games have been nail biters down the to end. We have not been blown out or blown anyone out all season! Thus, most of the kids on this team have not be able to play. That is NOT FAIR and is also bad for morale, bad for future planning and etc. It is especially unfair to the young players who have come to learn and are wanting to be ready to contribute to Nebraska's football future and legacy of success.

I don't believe we have seriously tried to establish the running game in most of the games so far. You must run and run and run. I would suggest you run the ball on first down atleast 75% of the time thru the first 3 quarters of the game, NO matter what the result, assuming we atleast average 3 yards per carry. Now, this assumes we use good playcalling with some degree of creativity. One cannot run the same basic plays. That means you run some inside, outside, traps, options, etc. You need a diverse running game as well as a diverse passing game. We should be running at least 45% of the time on 2nd downs. We should run atleast 40% of the time on 3rd downs with less than 5 to go. 25% runs on 3 and less than 7. Pass or run option on 3rd and less than 10. Throw 95% of time on 3 & 10 or more. Use draws and screens on 2nd and extra longs and 3rd and mediums.

NO. NO. NO. We are recruiting an excellent young QB named Obrien who is coming in to school in January. We'll have him. Why bring in somebody in the fall with a short time left to back up Tommy ? Not likely to learn the offense in a short period. Doubt a juco could be here in January.

After pondering the future of Husker football since the game yesterday, I have gone through several phases and perspectives. At first, my reaction was simply disgust and a sense of hopelessness immediately set in as what I felt was realization that the team and program had slipped much further down the slope into football mediocrity or worse. Dread and a sense of loss, almost like when one experiences the death of a friend or acquaintance perhaps. There was an overwhelming feeling that something that had been a part of my life for almost 50 years was gone, perhaps forever. I had feared this day might come but always been hoping I was wrong and that somehow things would once again turn around. As I said, this was my overall response. I felt this way since late in the game yesterday afternoon until the past hour or so. After reading so many of the comments on this board in so many different threads (basically there are about a dozen on the same basic topic - what's wrong and why and how can we fix things? I actually was finding myself becoming more and more negative about the coaches, the program and the possibilities of saving it. In complete frustration I shut my computer off and turned on the TV to watch more boring programming (none of which I care in the slightest about seeing). Quickly, my mind returned to thoughts of the program again. Then, almost suddenly, I came around to looking at the positives once again. I just kept thinking that there is no way the program could sink this far this fast. I was long aware of the issues within the program and the overall talent inadequacies, etc. But, we are still Nebraska and we still have some pretty good football players on this team scattered throughout the depth chart. Our biggest problem is a serious lack of depth in almost every position. Riley and his assistants are reasonably good coaches. They have to be as they have survived in a tough profession for many years and have held positions near the top. There are literally thousands of football coaches in America and only a handful get to be Head Coaches at major conference programs and last for a career. There have been only a handful of champions (conference and national) in the past 18 years since 1997. Perhaps maybe 40 schools total when you think about it across the 4 major conferences and the national titles. That is not many. Most of them have had a couple coaching changes at least during the same time span that Nebraska has had 4. Riley won titles in the CFL and was a HC at an NFL team. You don't get hired by the professionals without some dam good references and the ability to demonstrate thorough and complete knowledge of the game of football. These thoughts make me once again believe Riley can actually do this job. I have listened to enough of his pressers to know he 'knows' football and he can identify the problems as well as the areas of success of the team in each game. At least, he has generally touched on the things that I identified. I don't have access to films and replays to watch each and every play, etc. but my reactions to his statements and answers to questions have been that Riley is realistic, honest in assessments and aware of what is going on (both good and bad). He is not pretending or attempting to conceal our issues. This I think is very important. Prior staffs didn't always admit their shortcomings. Recruiting is therefore the KEY to our future. We have the resources, the coaching, the support, the fans, a top notch conference with the opportunity to play and win against good but not overwhelming competition, etc. Now, it is just a matter of finding and attracting the top level talent. We've done it before and we can do it again. Riley has found a few diamonds in the rough as it appears Pat Obrien QB is one. Assuming we hang on to him, he is showing his senior year to be one of those rare ones that Nebraska would not have had a chance to get. We have a bunch of talented pass catchers already and Obrien and perhaps a 2017 QB recruit will follow as well giving us the depth and future we are needing at the MOST critical position for Riley and Company to develop for their offense. We need to bring in one top notch running back this winter or next certainly as a number of our backs will be gone in couple years. We always need linement (about 3 offense and 2 defense each year). I believe we have young guys for the next couple years so we have a chance to get some in and develop them if we start this winter and next. Tommy Armstrong is playing well at tiimes and unquestionably is better than last year. I believe he will improve another big step over the coming 10 months as well under the coaching of this staff. Having a quality back up will also be good too as the coaches may be free to let Tommy take more chances in the run game. Right now we just can't afford to use him as a running back. He goes down and we are apparently sunk. There is need for LBs and DBs of course as those guys are never fast enough and we always need depth to make it through the long seasons. We have recruits in many of the positions that seem to be reasonably good. A couple appear to be diamonds in the rough. We don't have enough stars in terms of rankings but I believe we are finding some talented guys. The class - if it holds up under this negative season outcome - will make the team better almost certainly. I believe we will be better next year as the number of seniors who are major contributors without solid back ups this year is fairly limited. We will be OK next year, especially if we get more reps to our younger players in the remaining games this year. We need to focus on NEXT year as much as anything. Plan ahead and develop for the future. This year is OVER in terms of results or rewards. I remain positive in the end that things are going to get better. It is always darkest just before the dawn as they say! i believe a new dawn is coming soon and there will be brighter days ahead. they will be here before we know it. Keep the faith my fellow Huskers. Be positive and support the team. They will keep working and will get better. We are not being outclassed in these games. We are few missing pieces and plays away from a winning season and a few more good players away from being a contender in the conference. We know the Big Ten champs were the nation's best last year. There is a chance for a repeat. If we become winners in our conference, we will be able to compete nationally as well. It is not hopeless and we should keep our heads up and eyes and hearts focused on the future. It is ours if we want it.

Lincoln, not just the stadium itself during the game, will be dead or certainly eerily quiet and subdued after a disheartening loss. In this case, it was not just the NW game that was lost but really the bulk of the remaining hopes for the season sailed away as well. Frankly, this loss was the roughest and worst of the year in my view. Any unrealistic hopes or wishes for something to be salvaged for 2015 were gone. The team played poorly once again for at least half the game. We just can't put together 4 quarters. I really can't remember the last time the Huskers played well and up to par for an entire game, start to finish. I'd think it might be in the 2000 bowl game against Tennessee. We played really well that night as I recall. That is a bunch of games ago!! By the time you have gone through 15 seasons and all those long spells between January 1 and Sept. 1, you kind of lose the ability to get fired up and stay focused for a long Saturday pregame to post game party. Losing has always taken the wind out of the downtown party atmosphere. I was not there but I can imagine the bars were not even three quarters filled after the game either. It would have been pretty much a downer but not the usual kind of 'shock and dismay' but more the grumbling disgust feeling as the product on the field contiunes to suck. Let's face it: the Huskers are just not very good and are not playing very well. It is the fault of many things combining together - way too many years of subpar coaching, recruiting, over hyping, under performing, failing to strive for excellence, etc, etc etc. Whatever can go wrong, does! It will take the combined efforts of literally 120,000 people from the fans to the players and their friends and families, and the students and faculty and the merchants downtown , etc. Nebraska football was a phenomenom really. It is gone! It won't come back easily without a mammoth effort. It won't happen overnight or within a year or two. It is a complete rebuilding process. Many have written on this board and in the papers, etc that Nebrasks doesn't need rebuilt, it needs a good tune up! I say BS to that. We are facing a complete rebuilding from the foundation up. Many have contributed to its collapse and many will be required to remake it.

I suppose we really didn't learn anything new about football or the Nebraska football team or the weather or much of anything else. Yesterday was a very uneventful and uneducational day really.

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. You may well be on to something here with the questions about whether the players today really understand the game. Perhaps they have played too many video games. I really feel like today's young people are substantially different that a generation ago. The world has changed and growing up in it has changed as well. Kids don't have the work ethic and the drive and the desire to sacrifice for the future in my opinion. I find far too many 'play the game' and the minute the final seconds tick off, they celebrate or scratch their heads briefly wondering why not, then off to their next 'in the moment' adventure. The pain that should accompany a loss is just not as apparent and perhaps is not as painful as it needs to be. Do these kids today not care? Do these games really matter to them anymore? I wonder.

Honestly, I do care how we win as well as that we win! for now, I would like to win anyway possible but it appears that winning is not 'in the cards' this season. I therefore believe we must focus on the future! Riley is here to rebuild Nebraska into a championship caliber program who can get us back in to the top ten of college football. I believe Riley needs to focus on 2016 and 2017. Assuming he is going to be retained for another year or two, he needs to show progress NEXT YEAR. Winning a crappy bowl game is NOT as important as having a winning season next year! To do that, he better be getting his young players as much experience and practice and game reps as possible. We can't afford to play seniors and even juniors as 2nd stringers at this point in the season. next year starts Saturday in my view! Play the freshmen and sophs. So you're saying don't play: Tommy Armstrong Josh Banderas Cethan Carter Maliek Collins Sam Cotton Ross Dzuris Sam Foltz Trey Foster Ryker Fyfe Nate Gerry Lane Hovey Kevin Maurice Greg McMullen Alonzo Moore Terrell Newby Brandon Reilly Michael Rose-Ivey Vincent Valentine Jordan Westerkamp All of whom are juniors and returning next season? Makes. Sense. I did not say to not play juniors who are starting. Yes, play them But if they are not starters or starting level players, then they should sit. Senior certainly should sit. Yes. I am serious. This has been a problem for a decade. We are not playing our young guys to build experience. This year, we have not seen even hardly a snap from our number 2 or 3 QBs and the season is fast approaching the end. Next year we will return one QB (senior Tommy A with real game experience and his experience will be as a transistion QB into whatever the final new offense we have or will ultimately morph into). With no experience returning, we will have to wait two more seasons while we train our next starting QB. That is just not acceptable. Frank Soich got us into this rut as during his last several seasons, we became so desperate in trying to win each game, week by week, all season long, that we never got meaning ful playing time to the back ups. Eventually, we found ourselves in the weak posiiton of starting each new season with far too many unknown players in key positions (they are all key really). Westercamp is a starter along with Valentine, etc. You are deliberately trying to argue with something I did NOT say or suggest. There are some on this list certainly that are not playing much already. If they are in line to play because a senior is ahead of them, then fine they should move up. But we don't play 2nd string or 3rd string juniors ahead of 3rd string freshmen or sophs. We MUST restore the program. We must invest in the future. Wasting valuable playing time trying to win our 4th game this year when we have 30 or 40 young guys are riding the pine waiting for what? Their chance to go 4-8 because they are green as gords?

Honestly, I do care how we win as well as that we win! for now, I would like to win anyway possible but it appears that winning is not 'in the cards' this season. I therefore believe we must focus on the future! Riley is here to rebuild Nebraska into a championship caliber program who can get us back in to the top ten of college football. I believe Riley needs to focus on 2016 and 2017. Assuming he is going to be retained for another year or two, he needs to show progress NEXT YEAR. Winning a crappy bowl game is NOT as important as having a winning season next year! To do that, he better be getting his young players as much experience and practice and game reps as possible. We can't afford to play seniors and even juniors as 2nd stringers at this point in the season. next year starts Saturday in my view! Play the freshmen and sophs. So you're saying don't play: Tommy Armstrong Josh Banderas Cethan Carter Maliek Collins Sam Cotton Ross Dzuris Sam Foltz Trey Foster Ryker Fyfe Nate Gerry Lane Hovey Kevin Maurice Greg McMullen Alonzo Moore Terrell Newby Brandon Reilly Michael Rose-Ivey Vincent Valentine Jordan Westerkamp All of whom are juniors and returning next season? Makes. Sense. I did not say to not play juniors who are starting. Yes, play them But if they are not starters or starting level players, then they should sit. Senior certainly should sit. Yes. I am serious. This has been a problem for a decade. We are not playing our young guys to build experience. This year, we have not seen even hardly a snap from our number 2 or 3 QBs and the season is fast approaching the end. Next year we will return one QB (senior Tommy A with real game experience and his experience will be as a transistion QB into whatever the final new offense we have or will ultimately morph into). With no experience returning, we will have to wait two more seasons while we train our next starting QB. That is just not acceptable. Frank Soich got us into this rut as during his last several seasons, we became so desperate in trying to win each game, week by week, all season long, that we never got meaning ful playing time to the back ups. Eventually, we found ourselves in the weak posiiton of starting each new season with far too many unknown players in key positions (they are all key really).

In the post game analysis of the radio broadcast following the Northwestern loss, former Husker QB Steve Taylor proclaimed repeatedly that the brand of football I just described above as 'being dead' or something similar in meaning. Saying basically, that almost nobody runs that style of football (option football in general) with a high degree of runs and a few passes just sprinkled in to keep them guessing once in a while and for something to give the receivers to do in practice besides hit the blocking sleds another few hundred times, it is long past and is no more. We saw Georgia Tech defeat those pesky FSU 'Noles yesterday. Frankly, we are committed for better or worse to the Riley approach for a period of time. He will either get things going in a better direciton by next season or he won't. After two disasterous seasons (I consider 3-9 to be disasters certainly), I am confident that changes will occur. Perhaps Riley can change his style by adding key assistants to the staff who can help him convert to a "Nebraska brand of football" as described above if his west coast style fails. Otherwise, Riley will retire and move on and Nebraska will scour the country seeking the next 'right fit' and maybe, with a bunch of luck and devine intervention, ":Nebraska football" as we all so desperately desire it, will again be restored and prevail across the college football realm.

We all know we don't have great running backs. We don't have a great offensive line. We don't have a great QB. We have a few very good ones at best across most of the positions on the team. Certainly we don't have a sufficient number of any of the above to turn our below average team into an excellent or great one. No matter who coached this team, we are not capable of being great as we don't have the talent for such. That is simply the facts. We all know that Riley intends to run an offense pretty much exactly like the one he is running this year; only he believes it will function much better because he will have his traditional pocket passer who will slice and dice the defense theoretically. We don't have great players in most positions but as soon as we do, we will once again be winning most of our games and the restless fans will calm down again and perhaps someday things will be back to normal. Many Husker fans don't like, as a general statement, watching the 'west coach offense' style of offense. They have enjoyed watching the grind it out, toughest man, competition of the power running attack. They don't mind a pass thrown in there now and then just 'for fun' mostly. But serious football is played in the trenches by tough guys blocking hard and tackling harder. Running backs who dish out the punishment rather than take it. The offense exerts it will to dominate the line of scrimmage and push the opponent backwards until they are shoved quite literally into the own end zone. Ah, yes, indeed that is Nebraska football - the old fashioned way perhaps but still it is Nebraska football "as a brand"

3-9 seasons back to back? Ugh. That will pretty much doom the program to about 40 years of aimless wondering in the college football desert. I hoped Mike Riley could lead us back to the promised land sometime in my remaining lifetime but at age 57, that doesn't seem very likely.

Well, I am very concerned that that 'through these gates" WON'T walk enough fans to fill that huge stadium and fill the coffers of the UNL Athletic Department sufficiently to continue the many sports and support the various programs and players that have been accustomed to having the very best of everything in order to compete at the highest levels. The 'greatest fans' in college football will remain very agitated and disturbed by the lack of success of the flagship football program. These greatest fans will not simply sit idly by while the house that Bob Devaney built and Tom Osborne remodeled and expanded several times is allowed to waste away into something it was not supposed to be (a home for losers). Teams that fail to win are subject to continual change and alteration and eventually disintegration. It is the nature of the game and the way it is meant to be played. Every team and program must always strive to be the best; nothing short of it will suffice. Husker fans know this as do the fans of most every other team throughout meaningful sports around the world. What makes Husker football fans the 'greatest' is their dedication and loyalty to 'their team' and the passion and determination to see the team compete with honor and desire to be settle for nothing less than the best, each and every time they take the field. We will cheer for them win or lose and come back for more, rightfully expecting more and never accepting in silence anything less.

No doubt these coaches are much more inclined to call plays like they are coaching in the NFL or CFL than in college. In the pros, a great day running the ball is to get 140 yards on 30 carries in a game. In college, that is NOT even close. You need to average 5.5 yards per carry and run for over 250 yards in the game to have a decent running game. A good running game averages over 300 yards per game and gets 400 in the games against lesser teams. We are not close to that and will never be with the gameplans put together by this staff. That is what a commitment to the run needs to be. It is not calling X number of running plays, it is running the ball with the intent to get yards and first downs and TDs on the ground and using passing to complement the runs and keep the defense honest and pulling them out of the box when they crowd it too much for too long.

I don't get the comment about sucking the past 15 years because I quite simply do not see it that way. Whether we deserved to be playing the game or not, we did play for a NC in 01'. In 09' we had one of the most dominant defenses with a DL that should have won the Hypseman. 10' had the makings of a very special season until Martinez got injured. I'll admit we've been on sort of a roller coaster ride the past 15 years, but we've had highs with those lows. Hey, it's just my opinion. I started following the Huskers in the 70's as a young boy, attended UNL in the early 80's during the "scoring explosion" of Gill, Rozier, & Fryar, followed the team closely and travelled to a lot of games in the 80's and 90's.......and then on that fateful day in 2001 in Boulder my football soul was crushed and it has never been the same since. Followed that up with an undeserved appearance in the NC game of 2001, bad timing and coaching decisions made getting rid of Solich, hiring Callahan, Pederson, tearing down the history of the program, distancing the program from former players, destroying our power running identity, going WCO, replacing those mistakes with an a$$hole of a coach in Pelini, winning no games of substance, no championships, getting blown out and embarrassed in any game that mattered , numerous defensive futility records, almost all strings and records broken in the last 15 years. Yeah, there were a few bright spots thrown in there......a few. I'll still stand by my statement that the last 15 years has basically sucked compared to what we once were, and I'm not just talking 94 thru 97, cause nothing is going hang with that comparison. I'm an old geezer I guess but I do feel sorry that many of the younger fans seem to think 9 meaningless wins against average to bad teams actually means something. TO almost always had us one heartbreaking loss away from a natty and perpetually in the top ten. Sorry, but if the height of a persons fandom has been post 1997, that person simply does not understand what it was like to be on top of the CFB world. But I am also jealous of those people because they seem to be able to elicit a bit more joy and happiness out of whatever it is we have been doing on the football field for the last 15 years. And those fans have my respect because I'm pretty sure I would not be the fan I am without the pre 1997 base I have. If I had to start during the Callahan regime, I don't think there is any way in hell I could be a Husker fan. I started attending games in 1968 and listening in about '65 at age 7 on the radio. I have loved Husker football and really enjoy all the Husker sports and teams generally. Even though I loved playing basketball, I have felt for for about 10 years that Nebraska should simply drop men's basketball. Talk about an exercise in futility: Nebraska has NEVER WON A CHAMPIONSHIP IN BASKETBALL IN FOREVER! We are NOT competitive in most games really and we are a team that many of our opponents will chalk up in the 'win' column before the season starts and rightly so. I still feel that way. If we get to the point of making the decision to hire a new men's coach because we just aren't getting to where we want to be, then it is time to simply discontinue the program. Put the resources into the other teams and maybe boost them up a bit. Football is the cash cow (or has been since late in the Devaney era when it became popular to buy season tickets and actually go to the games and not just buy tickets to give to friends and business customers as complementary 'thank yous'. Many tickets were bought after Devaney drove from town to town across the state to meet local business men and ask for donations. The program took off and we could buy our way into the elite of football programs. Times have changed and kids have changed. Life has changed. America has certainly changed (and not for the better clearly). Our program has changed even though many of us wish it had not. We long for the good old days. Before Osborne retired in my view. We are not anywhere close to what we once were as a program. Now, getting a win is a big deal - no matter who we play. We used to be able to predict with a high degree of reliabilty on how we'd play etc. Now, the balloons are released with a field goal! That used to be a no no and they would be held until the first TD was scored. Period. Yes, our expectations are lower and 'standards' are lowered. They have to be. Things have change (and not for the better). In my opinion.

The reading on this long post was indeed a walk down memory lane but a rather harsh and brutal one. There were certainly some highlights as well as all the negative stuff that could have been mentioned. (I know the poiint was to kind of show where we were back then and how we got to where we are today). There was very little discussion in this historical perspective of recruiting and what led to the downfall of a dynasty. Frank Solich was NOT recruiting and I don't think you mentioned that when Frank out of the blue (in my opinion) abruptly fired a bunch of long time Nebraska guys (Tenopir and Darlington etal - you don't get more "Husker" than them) in an attempt to shift blame for the program's precipitous collapse from his 'non recruiting' basically. Frank was not a great playcaller and he even put for the idea that in his last season (as it turned out) he had hired Barney Cotton as offensive coordinator and to call the plays. It so happened that I sat next to Barney Cotton's barber and neighbor from Lincoln during the games. I asked him early on during that fateful last season for Frank as HC as it seemed quite remarkable that the playcalling was virtually unchanged despite someone else calling the plays. I remember my questions was "Come on now, these plays seem so much like what Frank did! Does Barney call the plays or not?" Barney's neighbor and friend replied: "Yes, Barney calls the plays but Frank tells him what to call!" Exactly as I thought. Even after Frank fired all the long term Nebraska coaches who provided the stability and legacy of Tom Osborne, Frank refused to change. It was not getting better. yes, we fired a 9 win coach who had been there for many years (a true Nebraska guy and Tom Osborne's hand picked successor) but it was because he was not getting the job done. Frank was in over his head and the primary area of failure was RECRUITING!!! After just a short half decade of dismal recruiting, Nebraska's cupboard was bare almost. Now, it appears we find we still have inadequate talent. I believe Mike Riley has the coaching know how to win games with a team laden with top notch talent. Many experienced coaches can also. But he needs talent to execute his offense well. He needs talent to execute his defense well. He needs talent to execute in special teams. At this point, we know the talent level is at best 'average'. I think we are kidding ourselves in thinking we have anywhere close to 'top 30' level talent. I would rate our talent overall at perhaps number 55 nationally. We are barely playing at the number 65 or 70 level but some deficiency is to be expected when you consider we are in the early days of transition from Bo's schemes and playbook to the Riley schemes. Players are still learning the designs and etc. I expect Mike Riley will coach his players well and we will win the number of games our talent level indicates we should win. Many times, the coaching legends say "It's not the X & Os but rather the Jimmys and Joes!" We all know the best teams usually win. The best coaches eventually tend to have the best teams if given the time and the resources to compete fairly. But all schools and programs are not equal. Some locations and schools have natural built in advantages. Nebraska has both advantages and disadvantages. I am sure Mike Riley believes the pros outweight the cons and he would not have come here to be a one year flop and done head coach. He believes he can do this and brought his family and many friends and associates to a whole new life in Nebraska far from Oregon's 'home' comfort. Let's give him a chance and support him. He is Nebraska's coach and needs a reasonable chance. We can't say Mike Riley lost all of these games. The team and program did. Blame can be shared by all involved from Tom Osborne to Frank Solich to Bill Callahan to Bo Pelini to Steve Pederson to Bill Byrne to Eichhorst, etc. The fans bear some of the blame too!

It is eerily quiet on the board after this loss. I would conclude that there are many Huskers, even the die hards on this board, that are giving up on this team and season. This one apparently was the final straw that broke the Husker's backs. I think we need to focus on the future! The coaches need to look at what can we do the rest of this year to begin getting better for next year. Play the underclassment and if there are redshirts with talent, take a hard look at how much practice time they are really getting. We need to be more than ready for the first game in 2016. Start studying film of our first few opponents and practice accordingly. We got to find ways to win next year. I believe our conference schedule will be tougher so we need to win all we can. Maybe even plan to 'punt' the tough ones and practice for the winnable ones. If we are going to lose to Michigan State anyway, let's play our thirds and fourths. Avoid injuries, etc. Again, build for next year and after. This year is over.

Aimless

Well th Pete Elliot face in 1957 guided the husker a to a 1-9 season. Glen Powell went 3-7 back in the 30's. Well, that is a big relief. At least we won't have to go back into the World War II era to find a record we haven't surpassed (or perhaps that is not the correct word for doing worse than?) As the say, records are made to be broken! I guess it is a good time to reboot and start all the records over again anew! Husker fans have been living in the past for way too many decades now. Five decades of winning football had to end. Now we can start over. I suppose we should start by changing the school's name and colors and the team nickname and logos and etc. This will immediately stimulate massive sales of all new Husker gear and so on. I think we should consider a modern name such as the "Prairie Chickens" or Squirrels or perhaps something more 'intimidating (assuming that is not too politically incorrect nowadays?) such as the Farmers or recognize our new found interest in high academic achievement by choosing the name 'the Students". What say all of you?

Sadly, this is very possible. A 3 win season with 9 losses? FDR may have been the President the last time that happened? Or maybe we never lost 9?

Honestly, I do care how we win as well as that we win! for now, I would like to win anyway possible but it appears that winning is not 'in the cards' this season. I therefore believe we must focus on the future! Riley is here to rebuild Nebraska into a championship caliber program who can get us back in to the top ten of college football. I believe Riley needs to focus on 2016 and 2017. Assuming he is going to be retained for another year or two, he needs to show progress NEXT YEAR. Winning a crappy bowl game is NOT as important as having a winning season next year! To do that, he better be getting his young players as much experience and practice and game reps as possible. We can't afford to play seniors and even juniors as 2nd stringers at this point in the season. next year starts Saturday in my view! Play the freshmen and sophs.