Hans Gruber

Here's a statistical comparison between the two teams. Nebraska has played had six games, while UCF has played just four due to the hurricane. This doesn't explain or encapsulate everything, but it gives us a decent measuring stick. (National rankings in parentheses) Total offense per game: Nebraska 384.3 (85); UCF 533.3 (8) Rushing offense: Nebraska 148.5 (79); UCF 222.3 (25) Passing offense: Nebraska 235.8 (63); UCF 311.0 (18) Passing efficiency: Nebraska 120.08 (96); UCF 196.81 (2) Scoring offense: Nebraska 27.8 (77); UCF 47.5 (1) Total defense: Nebraska 355.8 (43); 329.8 (27) Rushing defense: Nebraska 147.0 (61); UCF 91.0 (9) Passing yards allowed: Nebraska 208.8 (47); UCF 238.8 (88) Pass efficiency defense: Nebraska 126.00 (67); UCF 111.09 (27) Scoring defense: Nebraska 26.7 (73); UCF 15.8 (11) Turnover margin: Nebraska -0.50 (T-92); UCF 2.00 (2) Nebraska stats: http://stats.ncaa.org/teams/113591?utf8=✓&year_id=113591&sport_id=66645&commit=Submit&org_sport_name=&org_id= UCF stats: http://stats.ncaa.org/teams/113543

I completely agree with this.

I understand what you're saying, but I'm not sure it will be that big of a deal. I think changing the culture is easier for a team that's losing because they want to be better. It's harder for a team that's winning to change culture because they think the old way works. Riley struggled with changing the culture because Nebraska was winning 9 or 10 games every year before he was hired. If Nebraska goes 6-6 or worse this year and fires Riley, then the new head coach can use this cliched but generally accurate speech. "We're going to do things my way. My way works. Look what I've done. Your way didn't work. That's why you stunk last year. If you don't like things my way, then there's the door."

I feel confident in saying that if he finishes with a losing record, then he'll get fired. Not a hot take. Two losing seasons in three years gets you fired at most Power Five schools.

I agree with your point in general, except on screens to a running back. We've seen Nebraska try to throw screens since Riley arrived in 2015 and most have been disasters. There's no point in running screens to a back when they only work about eight percent of the time.

I forgot that Nebraska was the only school with big-money boosters.

No confidence the program will get fixed? Does it help knowing that essentially everyone that screwed things up since the early 2000s has been fired or retired? Harvey and Eichirst are gone. Pederson isn't making decisions. Whether you liked Osborne as an AD or not, he isn't making decisions either. Nebraska may be in a better spot now than they've had in a while.

After a 9-win season and a bowl loss to an SEC school, Nebraska felt confident for the next season because of a pocket-passing transfer quarterback. Sure they lost a lot of guys from the year before, but they'd finally have the right guy at quarterback. The head coach recently got an extension. Nebraska starts losing and their recruiting rankings don't add up to the product that fans see on the field. The AD gets fired before the midway point of the season. Nebraska fans clamor for a former quarterback to come back and be the next head coach. It's not completely the same, but there are a lot of similarities.

It's not a tough sell if Riley goes 5-7 or worse this year. There are 64 Power Five schools, plus Notre Dame and BYU. At least half of them would fire their head coach if he had two losing seasons in the first three years. Certainly not all of them. Some schools like Kansas and Rutgers are in terrible situations. Nebraska wasn't in a terrible situation. Hire the right AD. Then he (or she) can hire the right head coach.

The loss to Wisconsin doesn't guarantee anything. However, a 21-point loss at home probably shoved a great deal of people that were on the fence into the get-a-new-head-coach category. Personally, I think Riley would keep his job at 8-4, but that looks like a Herculean task now. I fully expect Ohio State to throttle Nebraska next week. This season is eerily similar to 2007.

Ditka farts on the hurricane, then wrestles it to the ground and chokes it out. Ditka wins 20-13.

That would be the way to do it.

To be fair, part of the reason Nebraska hasn't been this big of a home underdog is due to circumstance. The 2007 team had a pretty weak home slate, other than USC. The 2004 team played Oklahoma on the road. They would have been huge dogs at home. All that said, I thought Nebraska would have been around an eight point dog this weekend. Clearly they are worse than that according to the eyes of Las Vegas.

My thoughts are probably similar to many others. I don't have any problem with a b******* in theory. If I felt confident that 80 percent of the stadium would be in black, then I'd be all for it. The problem is that too many people won't get the memo. Not all, but many fans are in their 60s or 70s and don't use social media or post on message boards. To get something like this to work, meaning the whole stadium as opposed to just the student section, it needs to be planned out months ahead of time. The university has to be involved and sending notes to season ticket holders that the game will be a b*******. They also need people at the doors of the stadium giving out free black shirts to the people that are wearing different colors. Or maybe they just need 90,000 black shirts placed on every seat in the whole stadium.

I did it with Wisconsin, so I'll do it again with Oregon. (Note that with Wisconsin I just went eight years back as opposed to 10 years here). In the last 10 seasons, Oregon has won 10 games or more games seven times, and won fewer than nine games just once. The Ducks have won four conference titles and played in two national title games. Oregon has finished in the top 10 six times in the last decade and finished the season ranked in nine of 10 years. To be fair, Oregon did go 4-8 last year. They look to be significantly better this year (although their starting QB is currently injured). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Oregon_Ducks_football_seasons I would clearly take Oregon's last decade over Nebraska's last decade. Also, I would take the last decade of Oregon football over any decade of Nebraska football except the 70s, 80s or 90s. I'm obviously not trading those three decades.

It's a good point. The AAC is clearly not a Power 5 conference. It's probably the best of the Group of 5 conferences though. UCF will only play 11 regular season games because of the hurricanes. Finishing 9-2, 10-1 or better in the AAC is still impressive. Will UCF lose to USF? Maybe. The Bulls haven't looked like world beaters so far though. At this point, that game looks like it will probably decide who wins the east division of the AAC.

Also worth noting that UCF's three opponents (FIU, Maryland and Memphis) are undefeated against the other teams they've played. That'll almost certainly change soon, Maryland plays Ohio State this weekend, but those three teams have looked good so far when they play anyone but UCF.

In the last eight seasons, Wisconsin has won 10 or more games six times. They've won three conference titles and played for two more. They've finished the season ranked in seven of those eight seasons and finished in the top 10 three times. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Wisconsin_Badgers_football_seasons You wouldn't take that for Nebraska over the next eight years? .

Haha. Good stuff. This was my favorite paragraph. I especially liked the bit on Langsdorf. To the OP: I think UCF would beat Nebraska like 38-20.

True. I don't think he even has to go undefeated though. I think most fans would be ecstatic if UCF was 10-2 and then Frost left for Lincoln.

Scott Frost. Breaker of undefeated seasons.

Prior to today my thought process was that Frost shouldn't be the top guy on Nebraska's list, but he should make the short list. If the top two or three guys say no, then go get Frost. I may be changing my mind. Memphis isn't fantastic, but they were undefeated coming into today. They're a solid team from probably the best Group of Five conference. And Frost and co. just beat the $#*+ out of them. Im not going to rehash all the reasons I like Frost, but today and beating Maryland last week make me like him even more.

I don't know if Nebraska is going to a bowl game this year or not. I don't know if Mike Riley is the right person to be the head coach at Nebraska or not. I don't know who the next full-time athletic director will be, or who it should be. I don't know if the expectations that Nebraska fans have are too high or too low. I do know that it was nice to get a solid win over a conference foe, especially on the road. It's been a while since Nebraska needed a pair of wins as badly as it needed wins over both Rutgers and Illinois these last two games. It's nice that the Huskers earned a pair of wins, regardless of whatever happens going forward.

Hope you guys have backup plans after getting canned. I guess I can go back to being a world-class thief.

If that's the case though, why would they hire a search firm to find the new AD? I get that Nebraska is raking in all of that Big 10 money now, but that seems like a waste of money if you already know who you're going to hire.