84HuskerLaw

This team just does NOT have a killer instinct. They get a team on the ropes and let them up. Ugly.

This team is just like one long serious cardiac attack! What the heck is the deal. We just can't run some basic plays in rhythmn. We never execute three plays correctly in a row do we? We shoot ourselves in the foot at least once every 4 plays. Sometimes twice. Gees!

Careful on this drive. No turnovers. Get a couple first downs before you get pass silly again!

Minnesota gonna set school records with passing again! Ugly.

We just don't cover anybody it sounds like.

Sad play calls. How can the coaches not 'feel' the obvious situation. You get a little momentum and you cram it in there! 2nd and 5 in three down territory you RUN, RUN and RUN! Man! This is so hard to keep defending these guys. Please LORD! Help them to see the light!

Very tough start. Not good. We are already in trouble guys. Ugly.

Very possible we'd still be winning 9 plus every year. I believe we would have won at least 5 more national titles as well or more! in 18 seasons, at least 5. I think we might have won 5 more in the following 8 years as we were almost unstoppable. A dynasty no doubt!

I can, IMO there are 2 sure fire coaches Sabin and Meyer, and neither of them is coming to Nebraska. Again, my point. Fans seem frustrated that UNL doesn't simply hire a coach guaranteed to return Nebraska to glory, presumably money being no object. As if it's that simple. The problem is we didn't even try. We hired a coach with a losing record, who never won anything in many years of coaching college football. When we hired Riley, every Nebraska fan had to google him. At least make an effort to get a proven winner. And if you do hire a mediocre coach, force him to hire top notch assistants. Very sad effort by our AD. I guess I don't understand why it is so hard for some of you to believe that SE had Mike Riley in mind when he fired Pelini. I didn't have to google him I was very aware of who he was. If he would have been hired in 2007 when he was actually a real hot commodity everyone would have known him. MR was an out of the box hire for sure and was not my first choice, but I didn't think he was a bad choice. When I say Sabin and Meyer are sure fire coaches I don't mean they will come into Nebraska and win 11 games their first year. I mean those are really the only two that I think could probably guarantee top 10 recruiting classes just on their name alone. No one else is going to be able to do that. I didn't see a single poster on this board mention Mike Riley. That means he wasn't even in the top five choices of many knowledgeable fans. I also think rebuilding a top program is stressful and time consuming; something that is better suited for a younger coach. This was one of my major complaints about sweater vest. I just said he was an out of the box hire. I said he I knew who he was, I didn't say he was in my top 5 coaches to hire. I figured he was a lifer at OSU after being there so long. Again just because he was on your top 5 you scribbled on a cocktail napkin doesn't mean he wasn't at the top of SE board. That is my point. Most of us didn't want an out of the box hire. Getting rid of Bo brought us Christmas morning. We were anxiously unwrapping our big present hoping it was a top tier, proven winner. Knowing this was unlikely, we were hoping for the next best option; a proven mid-major winner, or an up and comer with a history of ferocious defenses or powerful running games. Instead, we open the big present, and it was a box of socks and underwear (an out-of-the box hire). So we all sigh, and go onto the smaller boxes - the assistant coaches. Now we are certain we can lure great assistants here, and at least one expressed interested in the DC job. But when we open the smaller boxes we get pajamas, shirts, pants, and a couple lumps of coal. We were completely stoned this Christmas. i would quite agree, a program like ours sure deserved a high quality coach with some real credentials to go along with him......that pretty new girl you were dreaming about, well you got the chubby little bitch next door, who picks her damn nose at dinner! Now that is just totally uncalled for there. Mike R is not that bad. Come on people! Let's just try to offer constructive suggestions about how to make the team and the coaching it is getting better! We are not likely to have a HC or assistant coaching change before the end of November certainly. If riley is not the coach here next, it will be because he offered his resignation and that offer was accepted.

Yes, no magic bullet really but three or four great players in key positions would turn our 2-4 record into at least 5-1 and maybe 6-0. A great place kicker alone might be worth 2 more wins this year so far. 4-2 would look much better than 2-4. Special teams have enough talent if we get DPE returning the ball with some good blocking and strategy moves. Tommy A has enough arm and legs to win games but is not a great player. But we are recruiting some guys with good pedigree and HS stats that suggest ability to get us much more results. We need two GREAT running backs. Maybe Stevenson has talent but we haven't seen him at all. Not yet really in shape. He burned redshirt so time to see him carry the ball at least a dozen times. We need two stud LBs and two stud rush ends. Two more DBs also needed. I believe 3 wide outs is god's plenty as we have lots of talent and WRs are a dime a dozen out there in this type of offense. It is easy to recruit decent speed, average size receivers. Lots of 6-1 180 pound guys who can run 4.6. Of course, O linemen are always target. Never have too many of those big guys.

9-4 is NOT acceptable as a ceiling. We rightfully expect more. We want to compete for national titles. Big Ten divisions champs should be a minimum by year 3 for Riley. Title by year 5 and a play off birth within seven years. Sadly we are that far down that I think it will take seven years to get us back in the top 8 nationally. But we certainly should not have more than one awful season. This year, we better see the foundation being built. Many more snaps to the freshment and sophomores. All should LETTER and play at least 80 shaps in live games UNLESS redshirting. We must build experience if nothing else this year!

The offense has to have a big day or the season is over as a practical matter. this is CRUNCH time. As I have said several times, if we lose today, the seniors are DONE playing in my view. Play the young guys with a reasonable chance of being good in the coming years. 4th string juniors stay on the 4th string. I think we have a reasonable chance to win today but if we don't sustain drives and score at least 21 in the first half, we are in deep trouble. Minnesota is very mediocre on offense but have a decent running game and if we don't play hard EVERY play all four quarters, we will lose again. The offense has to avoid major penalties and turnovers. If we give them the ball in our territory, we will lose. This is one area where I feel we have played at a winning level is in offensive turnover. We need to keep turnovers to less than 2 and today, one or none!

Sorry but us old dudes who have been Huskers since 1965 know better. Frank is the one who put us in this death spiral. Mistakes have been made dating back to Frank's designation (he was never 'hired' and didn't even interview or apply - he was appointed the minute BEFORE Tom retired). Tom was a great footbally coach but he was not such a great Athletic Director and certainly appears he was so good at picking Husker Head Coaches. Neither Frank or Bo were good choices. Callahan, Riley and Tom were all "X & O's" guys. Bo and Frank were not so much - basically assistants/position level coaches. In my opinion. Tom was a born leader - a military general type. Bo was a drill sergent and Frank, maybe a luetenant. Callahan perhaps a Colonel. Riley maybe a Major.

It is too late in the season to blow a redshirt on any player that has a real chance to be especially good. We will need EVERY snap of talent in the next 4 years that every player we have can provide. Our cupboard is not bare but it is mostly empty. Finding enough starters next year and the year after will be very very difficult. I believe we need to be playing all the younger players and benching the seniors IF we don't win this week end in MINNE. Going 2-5 at that point means a bowl is almost impossible. Without a bowl, no extra practices. Time to play the younger guys and build experience. This year is LOST as far as any championships, or play offs or etc. A low tier bowl is doubtful if we lose. Next year begins on Sunday if we lose Saturday in my opinion. Seniors have had their chances for 4 or 5 years and at this point, can't do anything to help build for the future but give playing time to our youth.

Ha ha! Last week when Langsdorf tried to be creative with a QB bootleg which went awry Husker fans almost strung him up at the nearest cottonwood. This week he calls three established running plays and Husker fans are again eyeing that cottonwood. It's so freaking stupid it makes me want to literally smack the dumb f'ers that do this. These coaches have no chance of pleasing these people, not a chance. It's not anything to do with what happens on the field. They've got their mind made up already, they probably already had their minds made up in December when their beloved BoBo got canned and they pledged allegiance that they would hate whoever replaced him, as a display of respect and jock-riding love for their beloved nostril flaring jackass. A lot of peoples' opinions on play calling has to do with the results. At Illinois, if Tommy leads Ozigbo on that pass and he makes the first down off of it, people would have been praising the guts of Riley and Langsdorf. Against Wisconsin, if the blocking were more favorable and Cross/Jano punch the ball for a first down, everyone would have praised them then as well. It all depends on results, and when the results aren't favorable, all the armchair coaches emerge with the "If I was coach, we'd have..." garbage. While there is truth in what you say as it is always easy to be the QB the Monday morning after, there are still basic fundamentals involved in 'play calling'. Calling plays is somewhat art as much as science really. But, you still have to use good judgement based on ALL the facts and circumstances of the game as then existing. Each and every play of a football game is like the next move in a chess game. Frank solich was a checkers player attempting to play chess. Against other checkers players, Frank often did OK. Callahan was a clear chess player but he liked to use his knights and Queen and wasted his pawns often to no apparent advantage. Osborne was extremely careful and played the games almost the same way every time with basic strategies that all who watched recognized. He never cared for finesse - he overwhelmed with brute force. Riley appears more like Callahan than Osborne but time will tell. I remain hopeful that Riley is a wise old fox and will see the wisdom of using more power over finesse. The passing game of the 'west coast offense' style is too much of a playground or backyard football strategy. It won't work in college, at the highest levels of success on a steady basis because you don't have the time to teach the players before their college playing time is over. The time clock starts ticking the day the arrive on campus after a couple brief years in high school football. There will be dam few HS age recruits ready to play Riley football at a high level. It will take a couple years to learn it and another year on the field to become 'seasoned' in it. By then you have a senior year as a highly proficient player and the team performs at a high enough level to win most of the games. Then the cycle repeats itself. It works in pro ball because players are already the best of the best from college and can be ready to go and play for 6 or 8 years at a winning level. And in pro ball, 8-4 is great. Going undefeated is the college football measure of greatness! It is almost unheard of to even consider it in the pros.

What are you talking about, JJHusker1? This IS EXACTLY the kind of in depth analysis we go through all the time. Tongue almost through cheek.

^^This. This is the crux of the problem right here. Too many recruiting whiffs and attrition over the past several years. Exactly. The problem isn't that Nebraska's two-deep is 22% walk-ons. All other things being equal, you'd love to have walk-ons beating out legitimate scholarship athletes. Our walk-ons, by and large, "get" Nebraska football and work their asses off. The problem is when those walk-ons aren't beating out a full complement of scholarship athletes, but filling roster holes because of a large amount of attrition. 2011: Of 20 scholarship players signed, 11 are gone already gone. These would be RS Seniors. 2012: Of 17 scholarship players signed, 7 are already gone. These would be Seniors & RS Juniors. 2013: Of 25 scholarship players signed, 10 are already gone. These would be Juniors & RS Sophomores. 2014: Of 24 scholarship players signed, 6 are already gone. These would be Sophomores & RS Freshmen. 2015: Of 21 scholarship players signed, 1 is already gone. These are Freshmen. These recruiting classes weren't the greatest to begin with, and in many cases it has not been the lesser-regarded players leaving early or never showing up to campus, but the more highly-regarded ones. Is there anyway to recompute the class rating/ranking to the recruiting classes of the players who are still here now? That is, what would the class rank be without the ones who are no longer with the team or are NOT in the three deep chart at least. Does anyone on the board know how the ratings or rankings are computed based on points, etc. If they could take the 5 most recent Husker classes and calculate what the original rating / points were less the players not on the depth chart now from each class. I don't know how the figure all this but surely somebody on here does. Maybe it is a matter of taking the points total less the points awarded to each player signed. I think a walk on class of say 15 guys ought to be counted as at least equal to 3 - 3.5 star rated players. In Nebraska's case, obviously our walk ons seem to be above the normal in talent as we are seeing more playing productivity. I would think maybe even value them as 4 3.5 star equivalents. ???? Anybody know how this might be done?

Ha ha! Last week when Langsdorf tried to be creative with a QB bootleg which went awry Husker fans almost strung him up at the nearest cottonwood. This week he calls three established running plays and Husker fans are again eyeing that cottonwood. And this week there are still those that don't know/understand why each scenario was wrong! Exactly! There are still a bunch of folks who seem to think the two weeks' scenarios are the same on some tactical or play calling level! they are polar opposites and we did exactly the wrong thing both weeks. We threw when we should have run and we ran when we should have thrown or at least tried to find a play which could get a first down in a relatively high percentage of the times we ran it. We ran the right plays the wrong weeks as somebody said! LOL

I think where a lot of the concern is why aren't the more talented, recruited kids aren't "getting it" or "playing hard" or have the "want-to". That's what I was getting at. As to your other comment. Janovich, Weber, and Gangwish are all good football players too. Yeah they have want to, but all football players should have that. That's the name of the game. If Jano, Weber, and Gangwish had three or four stars beside their name, we would'nt even talk about the "want to" factor as part of their equation. I do think the part about being a Nebraska kid and understanding what we are about around here is important. There's a certain edge there, but I would think all of these guys would adapt that edge at this level. So again, instead of questiong the walk-ons who are out there and kicking ass or if we have "too many", I'm more worried about the three and four star guys we have out there that don't seem to put it all on the line, or the guys that aren't even getting out there at all that had those shiny stars beside their names in high school. Those are the guys that are the issue here. The point is that walk ons today have more heart and want to than the highly recruited kids from all over. Most (not all) highly recruited kids from all over the country are not gowing up as 'born Huskers' who can't wait to get to Lincoln and try to make the team. We are recruiting them and many of the kids we recruit are choosing between NU and many other programs. The difference is that many of the other programs that we are recruiting against are NOT ELITES. They are middle of the road (ranking in the middle 50 of the programs generally. Thus, if we are the 'best' program and therefore the kid's choice but they are high 2 and 3 stars and a handful of 4 star rated recruits, we are getting kids that are not much better than the very best of the area 'walk on' type recruits. It should not be surprising that many walk ons with Husker hearts beat out recruited 3 star recruits from Illinois, Arizona or California for example that simply chose Nebraska because we had the best facilities between NU, Toledo, Ohio U, NC State, Georgia Tech, Colorado, Oklahoma A&M, Houston, Rice and etc. We are the best program they have a chance to go to that offers a scholarship but it is not like they grew and dreamed of playing for Big Red North.

I think if you are a confident coach, the Nebraska job would be a great choice. Yes, it is tough and fans are relentless and expect outstanding performance. The coach needs to adjust their mindset as the Head Coach is the most famous person in the State and cities of Lincoln and Omaha. You will certainly be much more familiar to people than the governorn or Mayor. In many places, the Head Coach would not readily be recognized if he walked down the street. In fact, I live in Minneapolis, I doubt the U of M head coach would be recognized by one in ten if asked specifically. In Nebraska, 50% of the public would likely recognize the Coach. There might be 10% of the folks who would know some of the asistant coaches. This is different and for many it is not a comfortable thing. Nebraska fans care more than almost any other school's fans - the interest is more intense and focused. Fans are more knowledgeable and those who aren't think they are so it will always be a coach that has to answer the hard questions. This makes the job tougher. But also, in my view, more desirable. Nebraska has not been a place to go if you want to move up to the NFL level - it is a long term deal. In my opinion, Bo NEVER intended to stay in Lincoln and was really NEVER a Husker at heart. Had his luck been better, he would have jumped at the chance to go to the NFL or back to his home turf of Ohio or vacinity. He would have wanted a big city team.

Utah has been a power for quite a while depending on how one views things. They have been good for a couple of decades. In 08', they were the only team to go undefeated that year and probably should have at least had a share of the NC. They've benefitted from some pretty darn good coaching. Baylor and TCU are located in the state of Texas. With football recruits galore, it's actually quite amazing they weren't good a long time ago. All I can say about Michigan State is they have one heck of a football coach. It's the only explanation I have for them. Of the four you mention, I'd bet that Utah and Michigan State over the past five years haven't ranked very high in terms of recruiting. This kind of negates your recruiting statement. The average rating per rivals over the past five years has Nebraska@24, Utah@43.4, and Michigan State@31.2. They aren't exactly getting elite talent either. They just have great coaches. I'm not sure Nebraska was even a very desirable job 20 years ago. When TO retired, the search was basically Frank Solich or Bob Stoops. Nothing against Stoops, but he wasn't some proven head coach with an outstanding resume then. Rather, his resume looked pretty comparable to Bo Pelini's who most on here from time to time have said was in way over his head. TO pulled rank and got Frank the job. We didn't exactly have top candidates banging down the door then. The same limitations we're faced with today are the same they were back then. Even if we offer the largest salary in college football, we're not going to retain a coach. If a coach is worth giving this large sum of money, he'll bolt for the first job at a more desirable place offering similar money. We literally will become nothing more than a coaching carousel if we start paying coaches record breaking salaries. I just have to disagree with much of this really. Nebraska was in fact THE job or certainly one of the top 3 or 4 jobs in the country in 1997. This can't be debated. When TO retired, there was NO search whatsoever. Tom announced his retirement and the hire of Frank in the same 30 minute press conference! Today, the Nebraska job is one of the twenty best in the country although it is also one of the toughest in the country. It will be that way for the foreseeable, UNLESS we as fans are willing to come to accept mediocre and or losing seasons on a regular basis.

I agree that there is a certain amount of truth in these remarks but I would suggest that Money and a 'name' school gets a great coach and a great coach at a 'name' school gets great recruits and the result is winning football. Obviously, a school like Baylor, which was literally everybody's 'homecoming' game about 15 or 20 years ago, made the turn around. About the time that Baylor hired former Husker coach Kevin Steele and Tommy Frazier is when the turn around began. They did not start winning but they began the process of recruiting better and being competitive. Devaney did it differently. He came to a good footbally school and was a good but relatively unknown coach. But recruiting was much different at that time. School was cheap so kids went to play football mostly just for the fun of it. Devaney was a fun guy and no doubt knew how to talk to the kid and the parents and convince them to come for fun of it. Tom Osborne was a NOT a 'name' coach but he was an excellent X and Os coach with a good manner and intelligent way who became HC of a big name school with lots of money to back him up and every advantage immaginable for recruiting. It was a different era then and Nebraska took football to a whole new level of seriousness. It became a business and Nebraska went 'pro'. Many schools did not come close to the level and Nebraska was one of a handful that created the 'program' mentality - an entire system, not just a sports team and so on. We had new and innovative ideas on training and development of football players - some used the word 'football factory' to describe Nebraska and about a dozen other places. This kept us as an "A List" program where any and all great players would give careful consideration when a Husker coach called upon them in recruiting. Then Nebraska became 'THE" program and THE school of first choice to almost every recruit across the country by the late '90s. We could literally recruiting almost ANY player we wanted. At one point, I remeber Osborne introducing a recruiting class on signing day by saying "We idenitified the top 100 players in the Nation and listed them and drew a line there and said we weren't taking anyone who was not on that list - taking 23 of the top 100 players in the entire country. Unheard of I would suggest in recruiting - nobody does that! Now, unfortunately Frank failed to keep up the good work and blew it. By the time Frank was fired, we were not recruiting any of the top 100 let alone all from that pool. Now, the ravages of time have taken the toll. Nebraska is NO LONGER a top 20 school in the minds of most recruits. Now, we are lucky if we can sign a class of 22 from the top 900 players and the nation likely only has about 3000 true D-1 caliber kids a year. Those are divided among a couple hundred schools so you do the math. There are not enough players nationwide to fill up all the scholarships available. .

The Texas loss in the Big 12 title game was what drove NU to the Big Ten in many ways. Although Tom always gave 'other' reasons, that was the one for the fans which said, dump the Big 12 and get away from the conference that Texas runs for the benefit of Texas. As far as losses that 'hurt' down deep because we have to admit we are not as good as we want to be, that game probably does not rank in the top 40. The 2001 CU loss and of course the Rose Bowl in which the Huskers were so soundly pounded by Miami both were the watershed games which signaled the death spiral that Frank Solich has created by failing to recruit properly. The decline of the empire unquestionably began then. By time Frank was fired, a bunch more painful losses happened under Frank. We almost had a losing season by 2002 as I recall, finishing 7-7 with a lucky win in the Shreveport Bowl. I think you can rank some of Frank's losses higher. The only reason some people have forgotten those is that many fans were really unaware, even after Frank was fired, of how bad things really were in terms of talent decline. Callahan really hurt his image with many fans on the awful Texas Tech blow out by continuing to have his prized QB throw about 6 interceptions and let the Raiders run up the score. The more they scored, the madder Callahan got and more he continued to throw those interceptions. It was like Callhan deliberately ran up the score on himself - self inflicted disaster. Not sure if he thought he was punishing the team, the fans, the school, or what? Pelini's worst loss was the Kansas State beat down where he threatened Bill Snyder with a physcial beating after the game. His first horrible embarrassment to the University and the team. Amazingly, he was later hired by TO despite this misbehavior which I found surprising. But Tom became very forgiving in his last few years (e.g. Lawrence Phillips, etc.). These losses this year, so far, have been very very disappointing although not as surprising as some of the really bad ones cited. Frankly, no matter how much they may say it, almost all reasonable fans who are realistic and paying attention, know where NU is on the national rankings standings. We are not the superior team we once were and most know any game is going to be a big challenge and if we don't have a little good luck and play our best, we can likely lose. No big surprises lately.

I suggest many on Huskerboard plant the seeds of Bo for Coach Anywhere ! If he gets hired there, perhaps it will save DONU a couple million in pay checks. No doubt we are paying his salary to be in Youngstown but that is home for him. I don't see him ever leaving so long as they dont fire him sooner. His temper will eventually get him fired of course but it will be a while, assuming he can win some games. Now, not sure whether he will be a winner. His name will soon diminish from "ex Husker HC to Youngstown AHowel". then again, maybe with so little pressure he will do better.

This is my feeling too. Again, I blame the offense and its failure to maintain possession of the ball and use time clock and of course score a few more points too. Quick possession by our offense is a big contributor to our defensive struggles. You give any opponent enough time and tries and they'll find some way to gain yards. Our scoring defense is statistically better than pass D of course. Our run defense is not yet great by any means but is good enough to have won all of our games thus far. Being realistic, we have not played any really good or great teams but have played some average or above average teams. If we had made defensive stops on a couple of drives each game instead of giving up a field goal or TD, and had maintained a couple offensive possessions for another first down or two, we would be 4-2 or even 5-1 now. Still would not be a real good or great team, but the season would not be a disaster and recruiting would be still going well IMO. Now, the real worry is the risk to holding on to our best recruits who have committed thus far and finding about 6 more 3 or 4 star guys in key spots. The really need to be difference makes though (4 or even a 5 superstar guy or two..