BoNeyard

Just now, Huskerfollower4life said:

https://www.si.com/college/stanford/football/looking-back-at-the-time-larry-scott-opted-to-not-add-texas-and-oklahoma-to-the-pac-12 This is the reason why the PAC-12 fell apart.

Terrible leadership may have been the reason the PAC-12 fell apart, but regardless the future and fate of college football is now in the hands of TV networks and that is worrisome.

Not a bad idea at all. I like the idea of having a mini playoff within conference with winner and potentially second place getting invites to the College Football Playoffs. The possible good thing from these mega conferences is if they put more emphasis on conference games again. Your playoff starts week 1 in conference, lose more than 2 and you have zero shot at making the playoffs.

18 minutes ago, brophog said:

 

I wouldn't argue that at all. What makes this round of realignment unique is it was not initiated by a conference attempting to become stronger. This round was initiated because the networks are mostly tapped out of funds and the PAC was therefore struggling to put together a competitive media deal. Ultimately that led to member institutions leaving for better situations.

 

The really worrying thing here is what the financial landscape looks going forward as media distribution networks change. Nobody is really sure at the moment what the future holds as cable declines and streaming attempts to fill the gap. Financially, everyone is getting tapped out as they all spend money they don't really have to secure anchors that they think will make theconsumer choose them over their competitors.

 

This is very different from any previous era. In the broadcast era, the consumer had access to any of the 3 broadcast networks they were capable of receiving. In the cable era, the consumer paid one cost to the cable company and didn't really care if the networks carried by that provider were competing with one another. In the streaming era, everything is ala carte and the consumer must choose which services they will subscribe.

Good points. Right now members of the Big Ten are loaded with cash thanks to their media partnership, but that well could run dry by the next media rights deal. Who knows what things look like when that time comes around. I trust in Nebraska's leaders, but the future of this program and therefore the state, given the economic reliance on Nebraska football, are in their hands. I hope they manage the budget appropriately and set the university up for success or at least stability when that next round of media rights comes around.

2 minutes ago, runningblind said:

I get the sentiment, and agree TV money could start to dry up/be reduced, but no one is getting kicked out of conferences.  You'll have lawsuits galore, and that would be way too messy. 

 

I could see completely new leagues for football only some day after a full break from the NCAA, and schools not being included then, but I give it about a 2% chance a school gets kicked out of a conference as things are constructed now.

Maybe this is what it all morphs into and maybe that is 15 years down the road, but I can see FOX and ESPN creating a AFC/NFC type of league, SEC and some ACC teams for the AFC and the West coast teams and Big Ten/Big 12 teams to create a NFC. Only the best and strongest programs make the cut. You mentioned this could happen after a break from the NCAA, well the NCAA base has never been this unstable. With NIL, the transfer portal, the concerns of all these Olympic sports taking a back seat to football, it just seems like the future is very gloom within the NCAA. Honestly I think if it was really up to the NCAA they wouldn't have allowed a conference to just disappear. 

It may not be long before the money and the networks start to throw around the idea that football does break away and have their own entity.

College Football is changing rapidly and although today things may seem stable, I don't trust it. The networks are calling the shots and it is very concerning for the future of college football. This round of realignment and media deals completely wiped out a athletic conference that has been around for 100+ years. No one is safe and that includes Nebraska. We got lucky back when we join the Big Ten, our brand was very strong, we had history and not only were we playing competitive football, the Nebraska fans were an attractive market for the Big Ten. But the last 10 years we have been mediocre to down right bad. 

My concern is the next round of media rights and discussions may see non-competitive programs and teams being kicked out of conferences. I get when Rutgers and Maryland joined it was to gobble up the TV markets as that was seen as a big deal, but I think what ESPN and FOX are going to be wanting in the next round is simply competitive games every single Saturday. They want people glued to their TV's all day Saturday, similar to how the NFL runs Sunday's. I think these networks will realize that they'd rather have Michigan vs USC and Ohio State vs Penn State type of games then Ohio State vs Maryland or having to air Purdue vs Northwestern. 

I could see the Big Ten getting rid of teams like Maryland, Rutgers, maybe even Indiana and Purdue to make room for teams like Clemson, FSU and Miami. With geography, traditions and rivalries out the window, the Big Ten/FOX could be looking to make Saturday's as jam packed as possible with top winning programs knowing college football fans from all over are going to tune in and watch, instead of focusing on getting the New Jersey TV market for an awful Rutgers program. 

If Nebraska doesn't start winning and becoming competitive, I worry when that TV deal comes back up and that is the philosophy of the networks, that Nebraska may not qualify for a spot at the table. At this time we will be nearing 20 years of irrelevancy on the big stage and our small market sized state suddenly doesn't have all that much to offer. Do we travel well? Heck yes we do, Nebraska fans are the sole reason we likely got into the Big Ten originally and certainly has been the only reason this program continues to hold a big name brand, but with less and less emphasis on ticket sales, and the uncertainty of if the new generation of Nebraska fans will be as loyal as the previous generation, man I don't know if we become that attractive. 

It's worrisome times, I don't trust any of it, and the only way to make sure we remain worthy of qualifications to a big time conference is to win. I love college football, but these are some ugly times.

Doesn't Wisconsin have difficulty in recruiting due to academic standards, etc? I don't think Wisconsin has ever had an amazing recruiting class, even back when Brett was there and winning like Wisconsin was, I think they hovered around the 30's-40's in recruiting. Wisconsin has always been about developing what they had. 

1 minute ago, gobiggergoredder said:

Seems like he knew what he was doing when he picked a staff at Temple and Baylor.

That is why I said I trust Rhule. But also I am keeping myself cautiously optimistic moving forward.

-Bill Callahan on paper should've been a great hire, NFL experienced coach, recruited talent, but he refused to let Cosgrove go.

-Mike Riley should've been successful here, he put together Rose Bowl contending teams at Oregon State, "Did so much with so little, imagine what he can do with Nebraska resources", had over 40 years of coaching experience, brings in a coaching staff full of experience in both college and NFL, many of which developed 2 stars and 3 stars at Oregon State.

-Frost inherits a rebuild at UCF and in his second year goes undefeated, comes back home to where he grew up and played and absolutely was the worst coach we have had in our lifetimes. 

1 minute ago, Mavric said:

 

The chances that we hire assistants that we've heard of that have no previous connection to Nebraska is very small.  The guys that perhaps people have heard of - coordinators from Georgia, Alabama, Ohio State, etc. - aren't coming here for a lateral move.  

 

So the odds of getting a "Wow" hire for any assistant are basically zero.

When we hired Rhule I thought a "Wow" hire would have been Joe Brady, until I read somewhere that Rhule actually fired Brady and it seemed like the firing and the relationship between Rhule and Brady was not that great. I get no firing is good, but from what I've read it didn't come across as an understanding of business move.

I am going to trust Rhule but so far none of these hires has been a wow. All seem like grinders who work hard and I am welcoming of that, but a lot of their history has them at places that aren't top tier programs, so are their names not big because of the places they've worked? Or are they working at those places and haven't gotten top tier program jobs for a reason? I don't know and I am just waiting to see. I've invested a ton of emotion and intrigue over the years with the hiring of these positions and I am exhausted and what I have taken from all those years of investment is you just never know. These could be the best group of coaches we have had since Osborne's crew, or they could be like Mike Riley's group which did so much with so little elsewhere, but come here and do nothing. 

I'll still stand by that I think we have hired the most qualified and established head coach since who knows when.

Not enough offensive linemen are entering the portal.

The new DC must be from the NFL. If it were from the college ranks it likely would've been announced after the games this weekend and if they were currently unemployed my guess is we would have already heard about them. Since other Panther coaches who were currently employed by the Panthers were announced either the DC job is too big for him to just up and leave so they are waiting on the announcement or the coach is from another NFL team that currently has meaningful games left. 

Coach O

Could be amazing, could be like the last 8 offensive coordinators we've had. One thing I've learned from the Frost disaster is we don't know how any coach is going to do until the games are played.

I was saying Joe Brady as OC, but then unbeknownst to me, I read where Rhule fired Brady as his OC at Carolina. So I don't think he hires Brady as OC? Although maybe it was said between the two to be strictly a business decision and Brady understood that, but reading the article that I read it sounded like it wasn't the greatest of exits.

Hope he keeps MJ, but would understand if either MJ goes on to better things. 

Rhule has the potential to be the best hire Nebraska has made since Osborne retired. He goes up against Solich, Callahan, Pelini, Riley and Frost. He seems to have the experience we need and maybe the most successful long term compared to those listed. Of course he could end up being like the rest, but I have this feeling that he will get after it, put in the work and actually build something at Nebraska. 

Also, maybe some find his paycheck from the Panthers as a reason he may not be all into this job, but I find it the exact opposite. Him wanting to coach this upcoming season means he wants to coach. He very well could sit around and do nothing for the rest of his life collecting a paycheck from the Panthers, but he chose to come and coach at Nebraska. He didn't have to if he didn't want to. 

Furthermore, adding to Rhule wanting to come to Nebraska, there is a different feel of him being hired and coming to Nebraska than Frost. I've posted about this before, but I always felt like when Frost came to Nebraska he wasn't really into coming here. I think he was genuinely torn between staying at UCF and coming back home. Maybe Frost saw the pending doom of his return, but I always wondered if he wanted to come here or if he felt obligated he had to come here. I remember hearing he was the coach and the press conference was a day or two away and feeling worried that he would have second thoughts and back out before the official signing. Rhule I feel like wants to be here, again, otherwise he could just sit at home and collect NFL money. 

You take that for consideration along with his videos out there at coaching conferences and listen to what he has to say and the guy I think genuinely loves coaching. I think he genuinely enjoys developing players and being competitive and growing a program. He's a true coach. I am excited to see what he can do in Lincoln as I think we will look back and say he was the best hire since Osborne retired.

The best thing about the game today is it means we are hours to days away from an announcement on the next head coach.

10 hours ago, Husker816 said:

Disagree he was never a good coach. He got lucky that year he went 13-0 his defense sucked but was opportunistic.  He had the benefit of have better athletes than most teams in his conference. That wasn't the case in the B1G. He didn't have the coaches that could develope the talent nor make the proper adjustments

Even when you have better athletes most games you don't get lucky for 13 straight games. There was something there within his scheming or coaching talent that did not translate or come with him to Lincoln. 

9 minutes ago, gobiggergoredder said:

You can literally say anything and add “source”.  It’s meaningless.  It’s made mainstream news unwatchable.

The source could literally be themselves conjuring up the idea in their head because no one questions who the source is and knows no one will give up their “source” and it seems to be this professional understanding.

Iowa is going to line up under center and run, run, run, run, run, play action bootleg, run, run, they’ll even tell us where they are running and still mow us over.

Defensively they’ll dominate the line and we won’t be able to run. Thompson will be notified at halftime that his health insurance will no longer cover him as long as he chooses to play behind the Nebraska offensive line.

My guess is it won’t be anyone any of us really thought of. Which means it could be a great surprise or another Mike Riley moment.

Give me Coach O. Joe Brady as OC and try to rebuild that 2019 LSU staff.

6 minutes ago, Guy Chamberlin said:

At the time I truly believed that had the Akron game gone off as scheduled, it would have been a very different 2018 season.

 

Now I'm thinking.....maybe not so much. 

I still think that had the Akron game been played it would have been a very different era for Frost. Hell, I still think had that game been played he could very well still be here today and we are talking about beating Iowa to seal a Big Ten West division title. 

That day was the football God's entering this Earth and preventing what was to be. 

I don't blame Joseph for the way this season has gone and our losing streak, but the Wisconsin game was a bad look. It felt like the same old, same old. Of course there is some interest in wondering what he could do with more time, better assistants, a recruiting class, as he has done a good job of keeping the players competing and still fighting for something (Except for the offensive line). I just think if he gets announced as head coach it won't be all that exciting because these past 2 months have felt like the same old thing on repeat, even though he largely is trying to hold together scraps.

Unfortunately my guess is Trev had struck out a few times already on who to hire and we end up with Joseph as head coach. I was indifferent on Joseph being named the head coach and would have been happily content with seeing what he could build at Nebraska with his recruiting and coaching hires, but then the Wisconsin game happened and I felt like there were crucial moments in that game that could be blamed on the coaching staff and the lack of preparation in coaching the players. Also the continued beat down the offensive line takes on a weekly and annual basis was just too much for me. I know the offensive line isn't Joseph's fault, but I guess I expected at this point to just call a timeout and kick the entire unit off the field and take a microphone and announce the firing of the offensive line coach. 

With all that said, I still am holding out hope that Alberts surprises us all and makes a huge splash hire, but I have this feeling that we beat Iowa on Friday and from the celebration of beating Iowa and finishing the season at 4-8 he will announce Joseph as head coach Friday night. 

2018 Colorado @ Nebraska One Hour - YouTube

Watched the first 7:22 of this video and continually asked myself, "Why didn't this work out?" The first drive ends in a fumble, but before that every single play was positive yardage. Even the fumbled play got the first down. But it also made me think of the next head coach and I just don't see, unless it's a mega name, any coach coming in and generating that amount of buzz and excitement that we all experienced in 2018. Why and how I stumbled upon this video today? I don't know. Wish I hadn't because it took me back to the days of having high hopes and excitement for Nebraska football. 

I also stopped watching at the 10:11 mark as I knew what direction the next 4 years went.

3 minutes ago, Red Silk Smoking Jacket said:

 

 

Trev said earlier this week that he's opening the checkbook for staff. I believe he said something like "we'll have the largest budget in the country for staff" or something like that. Maybe that means he's keeping Mickey and he'll buy him enough support to make up for his lack of experience...or maybe it means he's going for the grand slam hire as that would most certainly be a stipulation for any of them to want to come to Nebraska.

I like either of these paths.