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LaunchCode

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Posts posted by LaunchCode

  1. Every Monday morning you could tell when our HS assistant football coaches pulled into the school parking lot by the sound of empty beer cans rattling around in the back of their truck as they drover over the parking lot speed bumps.

     

    A big rattle meant they went home Friday not happy and we were going to be doing some "extra" running that night.  A really really big rattle meant they went home Friday night ready to party and no extra running at Monday's practice.  

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  2. Starting a season with two road games against good (maybe better than good) Power 5 opponents is not an ideal way for a new staff to blastoff.

     

    Defense is playing with some fire and intensity.  A for effort and really what more can we ask for (reasonably)  other than a high level effort?

     

    8 sacks is a solar type bright spot and something to build off of

     

    Averaged 5.4 Yrds per carry

     

    Managed 341 yards offense in spite 4 turnovers. It seems there's a positive lesson here if not for the "in spite" of part what might the total have been.

     

    Winning means so much because it's not easy.  

     

     

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  3. 29 minutes ago, Undone said:


    What’s an example of this on the Riley era? He started out 5-7 and then went 8-4. Then he showed just terrible his player development and preparation was by going 4-8.

     

    I’m curious what this looked like in the Frost era, also (even though you didn’t specifically mention that).

     

    Frost had full support from Osborne and everyone else. 

    I will try to answer and then I am ready to look to the future and not backwards.   

     

    As I recall things, the fanbase was fairly divided by the Riley hire from day one.  Partly because he wasn't flashy enough, or they weren't convinced by his prior record, etc... and others were not happy Bo was let go and took it out on the new guy.    The same could be said for the locker room.  It was filled with a lot of players who felt betrayed the coach who recruited them had been fired and were not ready/willing to embrace the next coach and maybe no matter who the new coach was.  I can understand those who felt that way even if it didn't help their own cause.  The most disconcerting thing to me was, the discovery there was tinkering by people in the AD with recruiting, and assistant fires/hires. 

     

    My point being, there were a lot of people pulling in different directions for different reasons.  Some may have even been deliberately working to undermine success.

     

    You're right, I didn't mention Frost, but my take would be this.  Even though I think he carried huge support coming in and had a generous amount of latitude, I'm not sure he actually appreciated how much latitude he had and felt some self imposed pressure to do things a certain way, due to history/tradition,. and trying to that didn't necessarily suit his strengths or that of his assistants and players.  It may have also distracted him early on from doing things his own way at the risk of turning over the apple cart. This is conjecture on my part and based on my reading of his body language, statements, and press conferences along with how things played out on hte field. 

     

     

  4. Maybe the silver lining in wake of the SF era will be, the unrealistic expectation things will and should  turnaround overnight have been buried, peed on, and buried again. 

     

    The most important thing Rhule mentioned a couple times during the unveiling yesterday, paraphrasing: if you want to see something fail have a bunch of people standing around watching and criticizing the few doing the work.  If you want to see something succeed have every single person from fans, boosters, coaches, students, athletes, and people inside the AD all pulling in the same direction even when they may not agree with some of the details. 

     

    That hit the nail on the head as I see one of our biggest obstacles to progress.  It was painfully apparent during the MR era.  A lot of people pulling the wrong direction.  Look where that got us.  Let's all grab ahold of the rope and pull together without questioning the direction the man in charge says we need to go.  

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  5. Looking at Pac 12 QB picture, I don't know what if any eligibility remains or what that even means anymore but Cal and UCLA had senior QBs and Oregon a grad transfer.  Everyone else looks to have a returning starter for next season with the two exceptions below.

     

    UW has a new coach and a young 5 star QB already on roster and the Freson State QB is following his coach, so not a likely landing spot.

     

    USC, new coach with an injured veteran and young highly rated, out of hs, QB on roster.  Might he want another option?   

     

    If he goes to Pac 12, UCLA seems like the most likely landing spot . 

  6. 1 minute ago, Lorewarn said:

     

     

    "Here" doesn't have the OL, receiving corps, and coaching that OU does.

     

    Martinez outperformed Rattler when we went to Norman this year, while Rattler had the benefit of the best quarterback whisperer on the entire planet. I wouldn't mind if we take him, but he's not who you think he is.

    You make several good points and I agree no single player/coach is going to be a magic fix, but you do build talent one player at a time and I'm not seeing much in the pipeline currently so if the TP can prove more productive than the recruiting trail, then I'm for giving it a good all out effort.  Got to start somewhere and honestly at this point, landing a "name" provides the fans with some hope in the near term.  It may prove to be false hope in the long run, but we are in the buy some time mode as far as I'm concerned.

  7. Spencler Raddler won 9 games as a freshman on 28 td' passes to 7 int's.  Can you imagine those numbers here?  Why wouldn't we go after him if he's shopping around? 

     

    At our current pace it will take 3 seasons to win 9 games, and our TD to INT ratio at nearly 1 : 1 is a big part of why that is.  So not understanding the "we don't want him" posts in this thread.  That's like a guy saying he doesn't want a backyard bbq'd, fresh pure beef, hand pressed, one inch thick burger with all the best toppings around while he's choking down a dry, foil wrapped heat lamp burger from a truck stop.  

     

     

     

     

  8. Who are we picking up from transfer portal? 

     

    Since we play OU next year, maybe Spencler Raddler would consider us and a chance to go beat Williams/OU?  Not sure what happened between last year and this year, but the freshman version of Raddler was good enough to earn hiesman front runner hype going into this season.   

  9. 3 minutes ago, The Dude said:

     

    The two things that made me think "whoa that's kinda crazy" is Coach O getting fired and Mel Tucker getting that preposterous contract.

     

    Has anyone ever gotten fired that quickly after winning a national championship?  I know that last 2 years were bad but sheesh.

    I think Gene Chizik was fired a couple seasons after Auburn won the national championship.    

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  10. On 11/27/2021 at 4:42 PM, Nebhawk said:

    Just watched Minnesota beat Wisky.  Those two teams aren't going anywhere soon.  They play power football, and do not beat themselves.  Iowa does not beat itself.  Northwestern will be better next season.  Do we see Illinois being better?  Indiana won't suck as bad next season.  Having a hard time finding 6 wins with our current system and coach.  Purdue will not be any worse, could be better.  Saying all this again because I just don't see how we compete like we did this year.  We won't lose games next season by one score or single digits.   This team mentally won't handle it like this team did.  Fools gold. 

     

    Yes to bolded part.

     

    Illinois went 4-3 in final seven games of season and notched 2 road wins over ranked Penn State and Minnesota.  They started season with a win over Frost's Huskers.

     

    In one season Bielma improved the win total, most major O and D stats, and won road games vs top 25 teams in gritty and gutty performances. He's a first year coach at ILLINOIS!!!  Ill-a-freak'n-noy beat us again with a first year coach. 

     

    Bielma did a very impressive job this season and his team showed some unusual mental toughness under a new coach to go 7, 8, 9 OT"s on the road vs a ranked team and come out on top.  To see that kind of a win in a coaches first season, suggests he figured out rather quickly which buttons needed pressing and pressed them at all the right times.  I see Illini under Bielma only growing more difficult to beat.  Where/what can be pointed to anywhere to suggest we are making up ground? 

     

    .  

     

     

  11. 8 minutes ago, TGHusker said:

    Please elaborate.  What should Frost have done differently?   He obviously did not bring back the I formation or a 5-4 defense or the old triple option as he ran as a QB.  I'm sure he was focusing on winning with every game.  So how did he cave?  I see very little of his present offense ( except the new way of using a WR in the t option) or defense that resembles the past.  I see him trying to run his style of ball but (1) Misjudging the conference  (2) Misjudging the type of players needed to be successful in the conference.  These mistakes have been a hindrance to his success.  And related to # 2 is the lack of development in the key areas of QB (back up QBs), RB, and OL.  

    Not much to elaborate on the particular point you zeroed in on.  It was me being generous to Frost by providing a small excuse to him.  There is plenty of circumstantial evidence over his tenure however to suggest at least some of his time and energy has gone towards connecting to the past rather than expending that energy on building the here, now, and future.  

  12. Maybe some folks are starting to finally get it.  The past is the past.  Enjoy it for what it was, but it's long past time we stop trying to revive it by looking for anyone who was somehow tied to it.  We seem to keep wanting to rebuild on a foundation that has long deteriorated and that's not a structure capable of handling adversity.  

     

    The truth seems to be this for many, the top priority isn't actually winning even though they say and think that's what they want.  If that were true then things like this should not matter to them:

         Where the coach is from

         What system he must implement 

         An arbitrary 500 mile recruiting radius (coaches need to be free to recruit to their strengths. personal connections, and relationships not some imaginary line on a map)

         Ties to past success

         On offensive identity that "looks like the old Nebraska"

         etc..........

     

    If you really want to win, at some point you throw all that other sentimental stuff out the window and you do what is necessary NOW in this day and age and under the current rules and competition level to win.   Frosts biggest mistake was caving into those who yearn for the past to return,  Had he instead focused on just winning and not winning a certain way to please those folks, maybe we wouldn't have ended up with a less successful coach than the last one.  

     

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  13. 2 hours ago, BigRedBuster said:

    Linemen tend to take a couple years in a system to develop as the unit you describe.  They also usually need time in the strength program to gain strength and size to be really good. 
     

    So, it’s impossible to critique fully Frost’s O line recruiting and development just yet. 
     

    The room needed a major upgrade when he arrived. The vast majority of his recruits are either freshmen or sophomores.  
     

    Example, imagine if Jurgens was allowed to develop In the system a couple years before starting at center. You would have never seen his first two years of bad snaps.  Fan’s opinion of him would be very different after seeing him just this year. 

    I'm not going to fault anyone for having a positive outlook or try to talk them out of it.  I hope your view point proves to be the correct one over time. 

     

    Sports are supposed to provide enrichment and enjoyment to fans lives, not be a point of ongoing misery, agony, and hopelessness.  In the grand scheme of things (knock on wood) it can only get better from here right, so I'll try to soak in some of your positive vibes, relax, and hope for a better tomorrow!  

  14. 45 minutes ago, BigRedBuster said:

    Let me ask this.  How long would you expect recruits to be in a program as an incoming O line high school recruit before they can make a major impact on the production of the O line?

    Good question, and tough to answer with certainty because it's my view lines play and develop best as units not a collection of individuals. Any good D is going to expose and attack where they think the weakest/least experienced link in your line is.    

     

    This gets to part of my thought process in recruiting, have we recruited in a manner which allows for development of a unit versus a piecemeal approach that's a constant revolving door of players?  Obviously players come and go in college so how is this being accounted for in recruiting of Olinemen?  Is factoring in both natural and unnatural attrition being properly addressed so our stockpile of depth and continuity as units is developing as it should? I'm in serious doubt of this.

     

    What do you think?       

  15. 10 minutes ago, BigRedBuster said:

    Wait....I thought you were questioning recruiting.  Now it's development and coaching?

     

    I'm so confused.

    Wasn't a question, was a statement.   I was stating my opinion contrary to others views in this thread,  I'm not seeing an improvement in OL recruitment. 

     

    Others responded in disagreement, so I asked, if the Oline recruiting has improved as much as they suggest, where's the proof.  So far the only "proof" offered is, well a bunch of young guys started late in the season therefore OL recruiting must be amazing.    Maybe you buy that reasoning, but not a convincing for me therefore calling other factors such as development and coaching into question.

  16. 14 minutes ago, Hedley Lamarr said:

    So that stat alone leads you to believe our OL recruiting and development etc are worse based off of a single stat around sacks allowed in the B1G? Who was our starting OL in 2016? Our OL took a dump over the Riley years in terms of depth and any kind of stocking of the cupboards. 

    The short answer to your question is no.  If I'm being honest, it's the constant losing, dumb mistakes, repeat turnovers and player defections that has me questioning development and coaching.

     

    The sacks allowed stat comes to my mind only because when I think of the SF era,  a video loop pops up in my head of the opponents defense taking the ball away from A.M. in the backfield.  Our 22 fumbles (in 8 games) is an improvement over last years total 27.  The bad news is, there was actually a per game increase this year.  

  17. 3 hours ago, Hedley Lamarr said:

    it has got so bad that at the end of the year we had Riley recruited Sr Oline transfer because they were getting beat out by Freshmen. Oh how terrible our Oline recruitment has been. 

     

    It's fairly common for players recruited to fit one system/style of offense to not fit what a new coach/system is looking for.  A major reason why constant coaching, scheme, and system changes is a self inflected guaranteed setback for most programs.

     

    If as some are suggesting the hog recruiting/talent is so much better now, then it would lead one to conclude the play calling/system and development are worse. 

     

    2016 we were #1 in BIG for sacks allowed.  Since 2017 we average 9th.  Stats are for losers however and that's our most glaring stat as of late, the L column.  

  18. On 1/28/2021 at 8:29 PM, Mavric said:

     

    Somewhat.  But that's because he left us crap to work with (other than Jaimes) so it takes awhile to get it back to where it should be.

    "Awhile" is understatement.  O'line recruiting has gotten worse last few years.  Not same, not better, worse and downright abysmal this year.  At this rate 2033 could be promising.  

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  19. 10 hours ago, Scarlet said:

    I agree.  I watched the Iowa game again and we're not getting beat physically at the line like we were in the Riley days or Frost's first year..   

     

    That's the first step to improvement.  Clean up the mental errors in both the Iowa and NW games and nobody here is calling for Frost's head.  This game is such a fine line. Now that the physical disparities have been addressed I'm hopeful we're getting closer to the next step.  

    We won 15 games and held 10 teams to under 100 yards rushing in Rileys' first two seasons.  Glad you see us as being more physical on defense because I'm not seeing it and it's sure not translating over to the stats column where just last week we gave up 285 yards rushing to Illini.  TO illinois!!!  I will suggest my eyes told me there was high effort vs Iowa so that's good to see.

     

    Had Banker not been forced out giving some continuity going into Rileys' third season I suspect the defense would have progressed forwards a great deal that year and not gone backwards like they did under what's his face Iowa boy.  

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  20. On 11/9/2019 at 8:56 PM, N is for nowledge said:

    When nick gates, our 4 star, three yr starter at lt and best oline prospect for next level in yrs goes to the draft and benches 225 less times than I did out of HS I think it’s fair to say the weight program had gone to hell and let’s say “optional”

    This seems to be a common narrative aimed at Riley however I found some interesting info that pours cold water on it.  For example the NFL combine bench record was broken in 2017 by an Oregon State player Riley recruited and coached. 

     

    Let that sink in a bit, a Riley player set the NFL combine bench press record. 

     

      

  21. Oregon State in total offense ranked dead last in Pacific 12 prior to Smith arriving.  Two seasons later they're 4th in conference in total offense and scoring offense.  We've dropped from 7th in Riley's last lame duck season to 9th two years later in scoring offense.  Personally I would like to see where our offense would be right now under Riley and with all the players that he recruited.

     

    Gary Anderson left Oregon state near the bottom of nearly every statistical category.  So how has Smith turned them around so quickly?  Why are they scoring so many points and winning on the road?  They won at cu last year, we couldn't beat cu at home last year or on the road this year after they entirely changed staffs and systems.  I still think had we supported MR we would be in a much stronger place right now.  But we didn't, so instead of complaining about coaching in a last minute road WIN at Purdue, we're defending choaching in a loss to Purdue.  

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