Magnus

I don't

I read somewhere that Shawn Eichorst ordered the trophy be destroyed because Mrs. Riley was allergic to it.

DON'T FORGET THIS SHOP CLASS FAILURE What is this poop! When Penn State joined the B1G in 1993, Delany or some other scheduling wizard decided the Nittany Lions needed a "end of the regular season rivalry game." So one was manufactured with Michigan State. Michigan State followed by Penn State are the nation's oldest land-grant universities, therefore you get the "Land Grant Trophy." In 1955 on the 100th year anniversary of the founding of the land grant system, Michigan State and Penn State were commemorated on a U.S. postage stamp honoring the "First of the Land-Grant Colleges". These two universities were the first ever universities to be placed on a U.S. postage stamp, which frankly would be a better looking trophy.

How about in Ann Arbor, 3 years ago this week? This seemed like "a game that mattered." http://www.espn.com/college-football/boxscore?gameId=333130130 Nebraska 17, Michigan 13 Nebraska mounted a late fourth quarter drive to win 17–13, tying the all-time series with Michigan at 4–4–1. The loss snaps a 19-game home winning streak under coach Brady Hoke at Michigan Stadium. The Huskers scored the first 10 points of the game in the first quarter, then Michigan scored the next 13 before Nebraska would come back with the game-winning touchdown with just over two minutes left in the game. The Huskers outgained the Wolverines in total offense 273 yards to 175 while holding Michigan to minus-21 yards rushing in the contest. Tommy Armstrong was 11-of-19 for 139 yards with a TD, Ameer Abdullah had 27 carries for 105 yards with one rushing and one receiving TD and Quincy Enunwa had 7 catches for 69 yards to lead the Huskers offensively. Defensively, Randy Gregory came up with three sacks of Michigan QB Devin Gardner to lead a Blackshirt defense that produced seven sacks on the day.

Of course he's a better fit. It's his alma mater. All coaches fit at their alma mater. Doesn't always mean they're good, obviously (look at Neuheisel and UCLA), but Harbaugh is up on the level with Saban and Urban. He has the ability to turn teams around overnight, something that not even Saban could do. I mean, he gave USC their first loss at the Coliseum in 6 years back in 2007. Riley is obviously not the kind to turn teams around at the flick of a switch, which is why we need to be patient before we call for his firing. We are 7-2, no way he will be fired after this year. Neither will Banker unless his defense is as bad as last night. Langsdorf and Read could be shown the door and I'd be fine with that. A good HC fires his incompetent coordinators, and we need to see if HCMR can do that first. Who hired the incompetent coordinators? Banker has been with MR for many years, MR should know his capabilities by now. I don't think Banker was Riley's first choice for DC when he came to Nebraska. IIRC, when Banker and Bray were the first announced for the defensive staff, neither were designated as coordinators. I think Riley was probably still looking for someone else for DC. When nothing panned out, Banker was the default.

Is this similar to the injury suffered by Shavon Shields? IIRC, he was out for almost 3 weeks.

You have to approach it from Eichorst's perspective -- the only streak for which he has direct responsibility is the sellout streak. In that case, Mike Riley really was the best option for Eichorst. Some fans felt alienated by Pelini, so Eichorst hired Mr. Nice Guy to soothe the egos of the "greatest fans in college football" and the local media. 100% agree. Riley wasn't hired to return NU to the promised land. No one hires a .500 career coach and thinks he is the guy with the skills to get us there. He was hired as the anti-Bo. The yin to his yang. Someone to change the public and national perception. Winning, well winning a lot, was and is a perc. I'm sure SE didn't hire him hoping or wanting him to lose. Hired knowing he would be good enough to probably get us to a bowl every year, soothe feelings and move on when his contract expired. Riley might be the guy. His staff might be good, but using the scientific "eye ball" test that is praised for its accuracy on this board, I'd say no to some of them.... Time will tell if my gut feeling and I suppose a lot of people's gut feelings are proven right and Frost ends up here. I'm not saying he's the guy to take us back by any means, we honestly have no clue. But the reason folks didn't want him was because he was a coordinator with no head coaching experience like Bo was. So Scott goes to UCF and gets the experience, this job opens in a few years or whatever and he has his shot to coach at his college. I get that a lot of fans pine for Scott Frost, but when has Frost ever shown any interest in coming back to Lincoln? He was booed as a player, had some blame placed on him in the Lawrence Phillips/Kate McEwen incident -- not to mention NU wasn't even his first choice out of Wood River -- he transferred back when he couldn't beat out Steve Stenstrom at Stanford QB. Does anyone honestly think Tom Osborne would advise Frost to take a HC job at Nebraska? I don't. He's seen what happened to Solich and Pelini. If Frost is successful, he will have better coaching options with a less entitled demanding fan base.

OK -- here's a hypothetical: Suppose Nebraska wins out the regular season, and Minnesota upsets Wisconsin on 11/28 in Madison. How many Husker fans show up in Indianapolis? That will tell you if fans have "given up."

You have to approach it from Eichorst's perspective -- the only streak for which he has direct responsibility is the sellout streak. In that case, Mike Riley really was the best option for Eichorst. Some fans felt alienated by Pelini, so Eichorst hired Mr. Nice Guy to soothe the egos of the "greatest fans in college football" and the local media.

NU will continue to "gamble" when it comes to any new coaching hire. There is no anchor to the Devaney/Osborne era, the AD and fan base have driven them all off.

My concern is that this fan base never gets past its sense of entitlement and continues to fail to enjoy what they have.

For all of Pelini's and Riley's faults, neither has killed a student videographer.

Under NCAA investigation.

Recruiting isn't just about acquisition of physically talented players. Recruiting involves matching your program's values and style with kids who are both talented, and importantly, have room to become even more talented in 2-3 years with proper training and coaching. That's harder to do. Plus, you have to recruit guys who fit that profile who want to be at your school for the right reasons. Recruits who demand promises of immediate playing time, who expect to go "three and done" and hit "da league," or rack up big stats regardless of whether that style results in wins, aren't ever going to make Nebraska great. One of those players? Fine. Two? Then it better be a serious need. More than that per class? That's not what will make NU good long-term. In fact, it will diminish the advantages NU does have -- Nebraska's advantage has always been its local character and tradition.

Other schools can find practice time to develop more than just five starting 5 offensive linemen -- Riley's lifetime buddy Cavanaugh can't. Other schools don't hire gym teacher buddy D-line coaching hacks, who then run off their best D tackles and don't recruit replacements -- Riley hired Hank Hughes. John Parrella will do a good job on both accounts but he should have been hired before Hank Hughes.

There's an even bigger gap in coaching between Michigan and NU, than a talent gap. Don Brown is one of the best defensive minds in football. NU fans refuse to acknowledge that coaching matters; the knee jerk reaction is ALWAYS BLAME THE PLAYERS. There was not a 59 point talent gap last night. NU treated the Wisconsin loss like a moral victory and thought everything would be fine against Ohio State. The coaches didn't have the team ready to play tonight. There are deficiencies on both lines, but they aren't as bad as we showed. BOTTOM LINE -- The team didn't show up mentally, and Nebraska has problems since the 1999 season with this.

Do Penn State, Wisconsin and Northwestern have more talent depth than Ohio State? Their games against the Buckeyes were all competitive. At some point, you have to consider coaching.

No that was Sarpy County.

Are completely unacceptable at Nebraska. Blowouts were unacceptable under Pelini and Callahan. Riley needs to be put on notice immediately by Eichorst.

Nebraska's past is dead in terms of being an anchor for any future success. The culture did not die with Solich, it mostly died with Callahan but not completely. Pelini was doing a pretty good job restoring it, but then Perlman finally killed it off once and for all via Eichorst and then Riley. That doesn't mean there aren't things still worth supporting.

They should be repossessed after the game.

I wonder how much Ohio State pays their special teams coordinator to come up with ideas such as placing kickoffs just inside the left corner of the endzone?

In other games in progress, Oregon currently losing to USC 45-13 midway through the 4th.

It just sucks to know at halftime the chances of winning are nil. I just hope NU can keep it respectable.

Same here...I think we have the talent. Now the staff though.........at least the coordinatorsI think the opposite. Why do you think we have the talent ? Is that what you think is on display tonight? Two equally talented teams with one just being severely out coached ? We have more talent than Wisconsin and Northwestern, and they didn't get murdered like this. This.