Husker in WI

Surprisingly we didn't in 2015, unless you count the 55-45 loss to Purdue which would be fair. The other losses were by 5 points or less. But yeah, feels like every year we've had at least one complete meltdown. And if you do count Purdue that year (it was pretty bad), it's gotta be 2010.

I don't know that I buy that we're still losing because we're "mentally soft." Last year and under Riley, absolutely - players stopped playing hard and gave up. They didn't give up against Colorado, they were still playing hard. They absolutely need to develop the killer instinct, and maybe a sports psychologist could help with that. But I think it comes with experience, and this team is still new to even having the opportunity to step on an opponent's throat. This is different than most of the issues last year, with the exception of the NW game. Let's give them more than 2 chances to put teams away before we insist they are mentally "soft."

Right, that is a little weird. I think some has to do with the absolute disaster that Frost took over for, but it's hard to argue Maryland was less of a dumpster fire. In their case I do think it helps that they were already building towards a similar scheme instead of switching from pro-style to spread. But it almost seems like Frost is making it too complicated - he wants his offense to have an answer for everything, and I think it will in time. But particularly in college football, sometimes you've just got to let the players make plays. Also FWIW while I think Maryland is better than I expected, but they're not going to keep running over (or past?) people quite like this. They play Penn State, Michigan, and Ohio State before we get them - I don't think they'll be flying this high in late November.

Or as the coaches phrased it, the lack of overall depth and talent leaves us with a small margin for error. That includes game management errors.

I don't disagree, but do yourself a favor and watch some McFarland highlights. He is fun to watch, especially when he was tearing up Texas.

I mean I'm an optimist and all, but I don't know how you spin recruiting a club soccer player as an emergency kicker as a positive. They're not the first staff to try finding specialists already on campus, it doesn't usually work. Maybe it does this time and I guess credit the staff for leaving no stone unturned, but I don't think it's as novel an idea as they're making it seem. It's been tried plenty, we just don't hear much about it because it rarely works.

I mean I'm not arguing that he played particularly well in the second half, but there's a lot of blame to go around. Unless a guy completely blows an assignment on the TD itself or a potential drive-ending play that leads to a TD, I just don't see how he (or any specific player) are the one to blame.

I know, I think somebody mentioned setting it up to autocorrect Remington to Rimington whether that's possible or not. Guess I didn't think about phones doing it the other way around, which is probably the case more often than not. Bothers me more than it should, but it is probably autocorrect.

Pretty bold considering he wasn't even on the field when they scored it. I realize you might be taking about missed tackles earlier, but he was far from the only guy missing tackles.

I mean it's better than "their practices must be a blood bath!" and "you can see the strain!" Or the coach claiming "I've done an excellent job in all areas" after a losing season. Absolutely frustrating, but I've heard worse things.

Jurgens has a year of S&C and doesn't have to try and block Chase Young and AJ Epenesa. I would say there are more lumps to be had at the Tackle position. Also where are we at on the board autocorrecting Remington? I think people talk about Rimington more than shotguns.

I've gotta say, this "Walters is secretly calling the plays!" conspiracy is one of my favorite fanbase reactions ever. Even good playcallers are off sometimes, and I didn't have much of an issue with the playcalling after watching some of the game again. Bad execution can make a good playcall look terrible.

Ironically he's played the best of the 3 - although for Noa it sounds like some of it may be not getting him the ball.

Also this: Game situation is different sure, but you don't really know how he'll react until he's in the situation.

Yeah you're right, he didn't come up as far as I thought. I do think Dismuke would have gotten an illegal contact penalty had he hit the receiver, but given the outcome of the play I'd take that. If he just ignores the receiver, he either gets the sack or the receiver gets a block in the back if he's actually trying to block him. Covering the guy solves everything, but without a slight hesitation by the blitzer I think it's a Safety.

From what I can tell his man was the TE, so when the TE blocked he came up on a blitz. Don't think it was premature - he actually probably gets a safety if he doesn't hesitate thinking Nixon was going to crack block him. I don't know what he's coached to do there, but either hitting Nixon or flying through based on his read would've changed the play. Neither of those absolve Taylor-Britt of his coverage responsibility though.

I think you may be taking this suggestion a little more seriously than anyone else in the thread.

He could have stayed back, but the route was really good too. Looks like he's coming in to block the other Safety, so Taylor-Britt creeps up to fill the gap. By the time the receiver cuts back up field it's too late - but I think it was Taylor-Britt or Bootle who mentioned knowing the situation, teams like to take shots and you've gotta stay home. Super tough play, but when you're lined up 8 yards off the ball "he was just faster" doesn't fly. Taylor-Britt recovered well, and it's a good lesson in situational football.

Games they won - you can be a little more critical in a win, and I think Frost was after USA. But you start calling out individuals or position groups after a loss and it seems like you're just blaming the players. Frost generally has a list of things he doesn't think we did well enough, I just don't get the need for him to be more specific with it than he is. There is a time and a place to publicly call players out like he did with Jackson last year, but it does no one any good to consistently throw players under the bus.

https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/page/CFB150teams/the-150-greatest-teams-college-football-150-year-history Different than the fan voted ones a few years back, but similar results. A little surprised there wasn't more love for Clemson last year, and I'm always surprised when '71 beats out '95 - but I'm probably biased because I only saw one of those teams.

Where else would gameday go? It's a good matchup, Iowa is only favored by 2 at the moment. Bonus points for rivalry, even if it's one not many people care about. This would have been in Syracuse if they didn't get demolished by Maryland, and might have been at UCF if Stanford didn't get crushed by USC. It's not a bad choice in a pretty weak lineup of games.

Has anyone actually heard a coach go into extensive detail about what is going wrong and how they'll fix it? The comments from this staff are no different than most. I don't think it's really possible to tell when it's coach speak hiding the fact they have no clue versus knowing exactly what they need to fix. I trust this staff will get it turned around, but even if you don't I don't know what you expect. There is zero benefit to them walking us through their plan to fix things, it will either happen or it won't. But criticizing their comments for being too generic is ridiculous, coaches are always generic in interviews.

Yeah I don't really have anything against Iowa State. Be nice if they knocked off Iowa, Iowa actually annoys me.

I mean it's not exactly a star-studded group of competitors for that title. How about we give Frost more than 14 games before deciding Pelini is a better coach?

Must have thought the edge defender was in his throwing lane? But yeah, I remember that one - he's open enough that you float that around the edge guy if you need to.