MoneyBall

Janovich had 11 total carries, 6 of them were on the "last drive" of the game for NU, when NU was trying to run out the clock. Jano gained 30 yards on those 6 carries and he had 2 carries that resulted in first downs. That means he only had 5 carries in the first 55 minutes of the game. Is that too many carries? Now, Jano only had 13 yards on those 5 carries, with is not a great YPC. But, that's what you get sometimes with the fullback. I guarantee you, with all the hype surrounding Jano's performance in the Southern Miss game, Illinois was keying on him every time he was on the field...and our coaching staff should have taken that into account...we wasted a few plays on Jano last Sat. And yes, when you consider that Jano is a fullback and look at his total number of carries relative to the number of carries our tailbacks got in that game, he got the ball too many times against Illinois. Don't get me wrong, Jano's a baller, but it shows me that MR and staff don't understand how to manage the running game. My point is that Jano didn't get "too many carries", and if he did it was maybe one or two times in the 2nd or 3rd quarter. NU needed Janovich on that last drive, that is when he got the majority of his carries, and he delivered. Moneyball, I am not a huge fan of Riley and Langsdorf at this point, but you nitpicking over one or two "too many carries" to the fullback is a little rich. Lots of "little mistakes" add up to losses.

Personally, I see Iowa as a more natural rival than the Badgers (since we share a border & many fans), and they will probably beat the pulp out of us this year (worse than Wisconsin will). I've never heard of a Husker fan who thinks Iowa is our rival..................... Seems to me that it's a budding rival...the last few match-ups with them have been exciting to say the least.

Janovich had 11 total carries, 6 of them were on the "last drive" of the game for NU, when NU was trying to run out the clock. Jano gained 30 yards on those 6 carries and he had 2 carries that resulted in first downs. That means he only had 5 carries in the first 55 minutes of the game. Is that too many carries? Now, Jano only had 13 yards on those 5 carries, with is not a great YPC. But, that's what you get sometimes with the fullback. I guarantee you, with all the hype surrounding Jano's performance in the Southern Miss game, Illinois was keying on him every time he was on the field...and our coaching staff should have taken that into account...we wasted a few plays on Jano last Sat. Were the 6 carries that Jano had on the last drive wasted? I don't think so. I think he and Ozigbo were the best options in that situation. There may have been one or two plays earlier in the game where I was wondering why Janovich was getting the ball, but it wasn't like he carried 15 times in the first 3 quarters. Also, with Jano's performance against So Miss, he deserved to get a few carries against Illinois. See my additional comments (edit) above.

Janovich had 11 total carries, 6 of them were on the "last drive" of the game for NU, when NU was trying to run out the clock. Jano gained 30 yards on those 6 carries and he had 2 carries that resulted in first downs. That means he only had 5 carries in the first 55 minutes of the game. Is that too many carries? Now, Jano only had 13 yards on those 5 carries, with is not a great YPC. But, that's what you get sometimes with the fullback. I guarantee you, with all the hype surrounding Jano's performance in the Southern Miss game, Illinois was keying on him every time he was on the field...and our coaching staff should have taken that into account...we wasted a few plays on Jano last Sat. And yes, when you consider that Jano is a fullback and look at his total number of carries relative to the number of carries our tailbacks got in that game, he got the ball too many times against Illinois. Don't get me wrong, Jano's a baller, but it shows me that MR and staff don't understand how to manage the running game.

Exactly what I said to a group of guys talking about the game yesterday. Shows me that MR is so unsure of how to win that he figures he'll at least try to keep the fans happy by handing-off to Jano as much as possible, even when we all knew he shouldn't get the ball in some of those situations, especially the sweep play...it was a pathetic attempt at pandering to the fan-base. I don't care who gets the ball as long as we win, and that is the only thing that will keep everyone happy.

Personally, I see Iowa as a more natural rival than the Badgers (since we share a border & many fans), and they will probably beat the pulp out of us this year (worse than Wisconsin will).

IF we file em all... we need to start with Harvey Pearlman; under his watch the program/school has taken some major hits. He is the one who keeps hiring bad AD's (except Tom who he hired to fix the Callahan mess, problem is Tom probably wont come back to an even worse Riley mess) and lets not forget NU got kicked out of a prestigious academic program on his watch. we're the only Big Ten School not a member. in fact, that membership was a requirement to join the big ten. here is the really big problem, who would take the NU gig knowing we regularly fire winning coaches? Bo's behavior aside, he was 9-3 for 7 years. most of us would take that in a minute. Agreed.

Yeah...we already had that Head Coach, and that staff...and the university fired them because Bo pissed the wrong people off and they only won 9-10 games per season.

I hear you, but MR has been a Head Coach for something like 30 years and has never done anything consistently substantial at this level; whereas Fitz is clearly a young up-and-comer who has arguably already accomplished as much at 40 years old as Riley has his whole career. Riley was a bad hire...the wrong hire for here.

That's interesting. Pat Fitzgerald has his program in a good place, has long been a respected coach, but went through a tumultuous and lousy season last year. Evidently, not enough to stop you from wanting to see him hired here. Good to know you didn't give up on him through the 5-7. Fitzgerald's last two seasons were damaged greatly due to locker room divisions over the players who were suing to unionize. Fitz is only 40 years old and is very well respected by players and his coaching peers in the Big 10...if Northwestern wins their next three games (Michigan, Iowa, & Nebraska), they likely will be playing Ohio State for the Big 10 crown and a playoff birth...Fitz is earning $2.5 million now and NW has never been able to recruit solid talent (ballers don't go to NW when they have other options). Fitz is the type of Head Coach I stupidly assumed SE and HP would be pursuing after they fired Bo.

If Scott Frost wasn't a former Husker almost no one would be talking about him on this board. I don't see what substantiates him as a sincere head coaching candidate at Nebraska other than he "knows the program." His résumé is good enough to get a head coaching spot at a mid-to-lower tier football program at best and that's impossible to debate. If any of you really want a coach that can take Nebraska to level the fans clearly want then Scott Frost is probably not the right answer as he is a massive gamble. Riley is a massive gamble, take a number. An unproven coordinator with zero head coaching experience is a substantially bigger gamble than Mike Riley no matter how you slice it. That's a ridiculous and foolish response. The original point still stands, as well - if he hadn't gone to Nebraska, almost no one would be talking about him here. Agreed. I'd much rather see us pursue someone like Pat Fitzgerald - he'd be an excellent fit to lead our program.

I say yes, and Fyfe would be my top choice. TA is too inconsistent in the passing game, against a conference full of teams that "know" defense.

Really??? If he loses 4 games he is going to be fired in his second year??? That would mean we are back to winning 9-10 games which most are predicting will be a decent improvement over this year where we have already lost 3. So....you really think that Riley is going to be fired after his second year while showing an improvement? "back to winning 9-10 games"...LMFAO...You mean like we were under Bo? Are you expecting NCs next year or bust? 9-10 wins could have us in the CCG and maybe we win that game. Are you saying that if we don't win an NC then FIRE RILEY!!!!!??? Are we going to fire every coach that doesn't win a championship within 2 years? I believe we will go 3-9 or 4-8 this year and due to the inevitable uproar from the fanbase, both the A.D and Riley will be fired in mid-December (this year). I wonder if TO has one more stint in him to sit in the A.D. chair until HP retires...I'll bet he would if he was asked...all that guy knows is give, give, give (he should have been our governor years ago too).

That's what I call a sobering fact. Wow...they fu**ed up big-time by firing Bo...it just cannot be denied when you consider all aspects, including monetary.

It's amazing, isn't it? We aren't even halfway through the season and the smell of desperation and ineptitude reeks. Well, many of us here were born and raised in the Midwest...we know bullsh*t when we smell it, and we know when it's time to clean out the barn!

Pat Fitzgerald-How is his coaching resume any different than Riley's? Mark Richt-Won't leave the SEC until he is fired Bret Bielema-The SEC coach that lost to Toledo? Bob Stoops-Not leaving Oklahoma until he is fired Tom Herman-Interesting pick. Not a lot of a body of work to go off of. You have got to be joking? Fitzgerald is nothing like Riley - that dude coaches with passion, he's a smart football coach on both sides of the ball, and nobody disputes that he gets tremendous results out of the least talented roster in the Big 10...year after year! If we were fortunate enough to get Fitz, it would be an absolute boon to the Program! Fitzgerald has had 4 losing seasons at Northwestern out of 9. And as far as "getting the most out of lesser players", couldn't the same be said about Riley at Oregon St compared to the rest of the PAC 12 I'm not saying he would be bad. Just wondering how he's different. Fitz has less talent on his roster than Riley had at Oregon State (just look it up) and Fitz wins in the Big 10...plays the spoiler often. He's only 40 years old and they have started out 5-0 this year. Fitz would be an excellent hire if we could sell him on NU.

Pat Fitzgerald-How is his coaching resume any different than Riley's? Mark Richt-Won't leave the SEC until he is fired Bret Bielema-The SEC coach that lost to Toledo? Bob Stoops-Not leaving Oklahoma until he is fired Tom Herman-Interesting pick. Not a lot of a body of work to go off of. You have got to be joking? Fitzgerald is nothing like Riley - that dude coaches with passion, he's a smart football coach on both sides of the ball, and nobody disputes that he gets tremendous results out of the least talented roster in the Big 10...year after year! If we were fortunate enough to get Fitz, it would be an absolute boon to the Program! Edit: Looks like Fitz earns $2.5 million per year and possibly has a $2.5 million buyout clause (some weird loan-structure thing). Fitz's record as Northwestern's Head Coach is 65-53 (they are 5-0 so far this year) which is an incredible accomplishment if you knew the talent he's had to work with over the past 9 years. We should buy-out his $2.5 million pay-back and pay the guy $5 million first year. He's only 40 years old, so it's possible we could get 20-25 years out of him.

Welcome to our community - the more the merrier!

And here it is. The Oregon St. expectations are officially here. Yep.

I like this board for news.

Coach Joe Philbin would be an excellent choice.

This thread is more about hiring someone specific, but they'd have to create the job opening first. Philbin's approach to coaching and his experience would be a great fit for us (if you're not familiar with him, go do some research...solid coach who got stuck in a bad job in Miami).

http://www.chatsports.com/miami-dolphins/a/report-dolphins-preparing-fire-head-coach-joe-philbin-22889 Well??? Philbin would be an excellent fit in Lincoln (IMHO).

Agree. We win this game and it's one we can feel good about for sure. Can't wash away the suck of last weekend, but we could sure make a statement about who we are and what we're about if we choose to go into this game and take this farkin win. This is one of those statement games. It sure is!