84HuskerLaw

Over the years, Nebraska has had many fine assistant coaches from around the country. Surely, some of them are still in coaching. Where is Kevin Steele. He was a darn good recruitier and LB coach back in the '90s? I believe he has been around the country and gained even more experience. He was good enough for Tom and he coached up some of our best defenses. Lane Kiffen apparently might be available. His father was certainly a great coach and would have a good Nebraska connection of course. Where is Turner Gill? He certainly knows Osborne's offense and has got some significant experience as well. He is very smart and has plenty of Husker ties. Coaches with experience at SoCal, UCLA, Texas, Oklahoma, Alabama, LSU, Florida, FSU all have plenty of potential and would have good experience. I would stay away from NFL coaches unless they are short termers with more time in the college ranks, preferrably at least 10 years of experience.

It feels like we make the other team's QB look great because we make the other team's QB look great! LOL

Unsatisfactory.

Unfortunate!

I don't think the O line play has been terrible all season. We have had some periods of success. I think we are playing some young guys and would like us to be playing more young guys. It is now time to play for next year and the year after. Losses are plentiful already and we need to get something for our losses besides more bad memories for our senior class. They need to sit unless they are NFL bound and I am not sure we have any NFL caliber on the team (punter ? maybe but maybe not).

I would actually argue that Pelini didn't do what you say he did. Most of the people on that staff were new to him, with the exception of Cotton, Brown, and Saunders. Eckler and Papuchis were GAs or interns at LSU with Bo. And Carl! Yep. Bo had about as many buddies on his initial staff as Riley. It's a totally normal thing to do. Just about every coach does it, and it's not going to stop when Riley goes. The next coach will bring in "his guys" as will the next. The only time "hiring your buddies" is a problem is when your buddies don't get the job done, and you don't fire them. But that also seems to be a pretty common theme amongst coaches. Fair enough. I guess my beef is that Riley seems to have guys who were simply his friends instead of finding "known" entities who happened to be high caliber. It's reasonable for guys to want to hire known entities that share their schematic goals, etc., but I'm not sure how common or acceptable it is to hire guys who are mediocre just because they're your friends. As someone else pointed out, Riley has a very wide network of coaches he "knows" and has some relationship with. Snuggling up to his woobie assistants just because they are his binkies is a bullsh#t, weak move. The Nebraska job gave Riley the opportunity and, frankly, an expectation to push the reset button, and shift from the play-calling HC to a CEO HC who relies on coach-in-waiting type coordinators. Let's be honest: The one and only coaching qualification that Riley, at age 62, had for the Nebraska job was his demeanor. He's friendly, respectful, calming, nice to the media, etc. Fine. I get it. You want the Riley to rinse the taste of Bo out of the program's mouth. But if that's the plan, then if you're Eichorst, you tell Riley: "But your friends are coming with you. The checkbook is open. Go out and hire top-flight coordinators who can manage the Xs and Os while you be the face of the program. Don't just use this gig as an opportunity to bring your entourage up to the penthouse." That didn't happen and now we have Mr. Rogers and his stoned, loser friends putting their feet all up on the couches and eating all our food and drinking all our drink with nothing to show for it. I understand the point you are making but I feel it is unfair and goes too far. We can't say all of the staff are doing that poorly frankly. There are some aspects of this team, despite the win/loss numbers stinking that are reasonably good. Overall, our tackling is better and there have been decent periods of O Line play. Our RBs are simply not great so we are not getting the something out of nothing runs we got so much of from Ameer last year. Those are hurting and are putting us in too many 2nd and 8 or more.

I am guessing the last time we lost 8 or 9 in a single season, Truman or Ike was President and we were getting ready to start building the interstate system and the engineers were thinking about adding air conditioning to luxury cars! Face masks were being added to helmets maybe? Putting pads inside the uniforms to take some of the pain out of the game? IDK but it was likely before even us 57 year olds were born.

Our running game should have been more effective as the 4th quarter wore on because of fatigue etc. Of course, you don't wear out a defensive front seven by throwing the ball 49 times with over half being incompletes. We punted too much but when you don't lean hard against those guys, you won't wear them down.

You live by the pass and you die by the pass. today, we died, again! It seems most Husker fans believe (with many decades of experience to support it) that you win more games when you run the ball alot as opposed to passing alot. Run yards count for twice as much as passing yards. I believe statistics for the past 50 years would prove without question that the winningest teams RUN THE BALL the best. Mike Riley may KNOW this and he may even admit it in interviews but the problem seems to be that he does not really believe it in his gut. I believe he has coached too much in the pros and the pass happy years of the PAC TEN. I believe Nebraska has won almost 100% of its games for many decades when rushing for 400 or more yards in the game. I believe we win about 85% or more when rushing for over 300 yards in the game. Many teams will pass for 300 and lose. Passing for 400 means you will win a majority but we expect to win more than 55%.

The problem we had running is that Northwestern had a dam good front seven that could run well enough we really weren't going to succeed running wide. We are not fast enough in the backs to turn the corner, except now and then on counter actions and reverse type things. I don't recall EVER once failing to get a first down on 3rd and short when we ran the ball because I don't think, except for Tommie's option TD run, we ever ran on a third down. We had several times when were clearly in 4 down territory where we only need to get 2.5 yards per carry to ram it through for first downs. Our success rate throwing on 3rd and short is poor at best!

Seven years? Now that is not even a possible consideration. We lose 50 or 60 games in seven years (7 X 9 = 63) is absolutely insane! Now, if he turned things around it would be great. But, no matter how much we may want to give Riley time (he is very likeable personally), if he loses this recruiting class we are going to have a big problem. Our class last year was only mediocre and if we get a bottom 20 level class (it is possible if we lose out), then there are many many many more losses to come. Once you fall to the bottom, you usually can't get back up without either cheating or a miracle. God used to be a Husker but as we can see with all of these gut wrenching, heart ripping losses, God has foresaken the Huskers.

I confirmed what I already knew: my pregame analysis said we were going to lose (check out my prediction of score, etc.) but my heart still yearned for another Husker miracle - but of course alas to no avail. Close losses are adding up to a losing season! We may not win another game this year! That is a realization that is very hard to accept - 3-9 is absolutely NOT acceptable. Now, I don't know what the Athletic Department does about it but we need to do something to attempt to right the ship before we lose it all. I am afraid if we don't win another one, we will lose this recruiting class or the bulk of it. We absolutely can't afford that as we are already playing with half enough quality players.

Just when we had a little hope before this game to get things going right, we are now facing a serious risk of finishing with a bunch more losses. Our two road games are going to be difficult and the home games against what appear to be the best teams we've played all year are looking scary! We may not have the fight left in us to keep the blow outs from coming. These kids are in a very precarious place certainly. they may collapse now. Let's hope they can somehow find some courage and guts and get up and resume the fight.

No confidence. 5 losses takes a serious toll. Especially when you are losing to teams who are struggling. Miami got blown out big time down 42-0 at half!!!!

I didn't want to predict this but I did and it still makes me sick. This is the worst loss of the year. In Lincoln, to a team that lost badly the past couple weeks. You just have to shake your head in wonder? How can we be this poor! We couldn't run three times in a row and get a first down against Northwestern after running 75 snaps against their defense through three quarters. No excuses. Just no heart! Players have to dig down and play harder. They played harder than we did. You can't defend this really. No excuses. No excuses.

Hope not but you never know how many more times we can keep the effort. Defense is dead - no excuses. Losing going away. they are dominating us. 4th quarter they will get 250 or 300 yards on us. Sickening.

That kills it. No time left even if they just run three kneel downs. smart. then kick the field goal.

Do or die. 3 & out against a crappy offense. No excuses here.

Statistically NW is beating us handlily. Outscoring us with half the number of plays needed.

Pathetic. Our defense is lost.

Losing the special teams again! They are going to win going away. Sickening.

Nevermind. No way our defense is 'gassed'. We have only defended about 35 plays the entire game. No excuses. We should be dominating at the line of scrimmage now. they can't throw and we are making them into another great passing team. It is absolutely amazing. We can play good defense for three quarters but when the game is tight and the fourth quarter startes, our coaches and kids just freeze up! Why? total lack of confidence?

As expected. These guys just don't want to win!

Dam punt return game sucks. You got to catch the dam ball at a minimum Costing us big time all season. We have a couple decent returns but have given at least 350 yards of critical field position on just not catching the punts and letting them roll way down field. Stupid. If if weren't for field goals, we'd be losing special teams by double digits.

No excuses on this defense. Still, gave up a full field length drive in a few plays. Absolutely awful