Huckleberry Muhammad

The Mountain West beckons.

I don't know why they care. But they do. Of course it's bigger numbers in pro sports, which is my point about where this is likely going.

I was intrigued a little bit by hearing it coming around to that.. until I heard Ernie Chambers talking it up. Now I'm against it for the simple reason that anything he talks up must be.. never mind. Anyway, one of my concerns about it is the "money to entitled playing time" dynamic. It'll be harder to discipline or even make the best choices for high paid players, same as in the NFL and NBA. Harder.. not impossible, but it becomes part of the coaches job now. I don't like that at all.

And it wasn't just hype. There was analysis and quotes from people outside the conference and of course the Frost hype. Frost ran into the weight room and found people sitting around, some smoking, some lifting half the weight he could lift. He saw a culture of non-discipline and it ran deep. Now we're seeing the game results and what he's up against. Timing out that class over 4 or5 years won't completely fix it because it's not just those guys leaving, it's what they're leaving behind. I fear for the program for a bit longer than that.

"Also, it's a different discipline for the offensive linemen, who need to be as quick as they are strong with so many pulling plays." Yes. And also we noticed over the T.O. years that when the option failed it was often due to the opposing DC finally sending down a read that would plug up the play at either of the probable lanes created by that good O-line. Then it was time for something else, perhaps a screen or draw play or even a nice long pass.. all of which the O-line in those days were very capable of facilitating. And that's my big gripe about this team: Not very much at all in a range of those varying talents, let alone speed and toughness. Martinez can't operate with confidence from play to play, at least not for a whole quarter, let alone for the whole game. I've heard him criticized for many things, but quarterbacks that are nearly always expecting to get hit are not going to play to whatever abilities they have.

I believe he's acquired that wisdom, and a lot more, from his whole career in football, not just since he because uber-successful at Alabama.

Nebraska most certainly has, at times, recruited "crap players." As far as the O-line we have now goes, I am not expert so I cannot label any of them with that particular label. Nick Saban used to say that there's a good football player somewhere in every recruit. Implying that it's up to the coaches to see where, how, and when to play them to bring out that good football player. I'm convinced that Frost is most certainly dealing with some players who have had bad habits for a long time, some of them. Riley seems to have had a lacadazical attitude toward the whole program. Perhaps it is not too far off to blame him for what we're seeing now.

"Now that's a Big Ten team." Etc.. those are all the words heard around our section last night about OSU. There was a guy in his 60s from Ohio right next to me on my left. As the game plodded on and the stadium grew less and less loud with the "Go Big Red" and "Husker Power" cheers, he pointed out a few things about our team upon being asked for his opinion: "No O-line to speak of." "Martinez needs a big hole to run through, collapses in small creases, can't see down field very well for open receivers, panics, poise comes and goes." He was not nasty about it; we were all having conversation and his views were welcome, and of course spot on. "Your co-ordinators over there call in bad plays.. they defeat the offense's momentum." "Untrained Special Teams all around." This is stuff we talk about in here and put our Red spin on because we want more wins. We're not going to get very many wins with a team and coaching staff like this. We need recruits who are like those guys who pummeled us at will yesterday. Can we get them?

Unfortunately: OSU 56 NU 24 Passing yardage 243 Rushing yardage 151 GO BIG RED!! MAKE ME WRONG!!

After so many years of losing leads and games I'm trying to learn that being ahead in the game is where we're going to stay and winning is going to be the renewed expectation. At the game last night there were groans and "oh no here we go again" just about every time NIU made a play offence or defence. But that score. And no TDs by them. Hey!

Then where are the elite, proven coaches? It's not about only money. We don't have the "magnet" of an Alabama or a Michigan because Nebraska's style of championship football is long gone. They won't come here to revive Nebraska football culture.. why would they? Hopefully Frost succeeds.

"Is Nebraska in trouble?" Well, we got rid of the 10, 9, and 8 wins per season coaches. Got a "real nice guy" named Riley who gave is 6 then 4. Now "it's different," Husker nation says, because we have (trumpets, drum roll) SCOTT FROST, and he understands, he KNOWS (remember "Bo Knows?"). Anyway, the old friends in our area of the stadium, section 19 a few dozen rows up, are a great mix of rabid fans yelling at each play, analysts who freaking know the history of every damned starter on the team O and D, and some like me whose hopes have been gradually dashed and turned into what feels like an insight: Nebraska's heydays are over, and were here at a time when college football was different than it is now. We're not Ohio State or Michigan with huge population bases and (most importantly) with a magnet that draws proven head coaches with championship resumes. No matter the money we can gather, Nebraska is not a desirable place for those elite ones. So we do our best with the Callahans, Pelinis, Rileys... and ... well, I love Scott's history here, too and I hope he develops into one of those elite. Nuff said.

So.. Game Day won't be here then?

There's another Husker site?

I'm not so sure it matters how clever/good the plays are that get called. It's the same guys. A play that surprises the other team's D now and then becomes old hat by the 3rd quarter.

Re-read the rest of that sentence, amigo (copy/pasted here for your convenience and reading pleasure ): I think it is acquired through great coaching, training, and winning more and more and then it begins to come into play as a portion of the whole program.

Yes, I agree, there is a mindset and it has to be there in most of the team and all of the coaches. I'm not so sure it can be taught; I don't know. I think it is acquired through great coaching, training, and winning more and more and then it begins to come into play as a portion of the whole program. I think you're right about it being lost now. It was gradual. But yes, it's gone.

Did any of them have a thirty year run, through two amazing coaches (of different styles but quite successful in their own right) of dominance? After all, that is what this angst we all feel is really about at the core. Those programs you list have no such legacy to live up to.

I would rather we lived through Solich's changes, and he was going through adjustments. If he'd failed after another cycle of 4 years then I'd have been surprised. I think his methods and knowledge and recruiting would have had us much better than now. But every time I express that I hear a certain female voice (my wife) remind me of the AD thing. So... yeah Bo should have stayed and perhaps things could have worked out personality wise. I don't know. Curse? Okay.

First THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE, MARINE! Now, yes, my hope is that the technical talk about it between the coaches and players will change to another kind of talk.. the kind of talk that has players willing to give 100% for the entire game.. one game at a time.

Was the locker room at half time filled with Husker players and coaches who felt like they'd gotten the job done, and that the Buffs were easy-peasy? We know that the Buffs locker room was nothing like that. We can tell by how they came out and how they played the next two quarters.

Faith is pretending. Not with regard to religion, of course; then it's an important connection. But with regard to sports teams faith is a pretence. Sometimes it pans out and we have our faith validated. Sometimes it doesn't pan out and we cling to the faith. But either way it's just pretending that everything is okay. Doing that now, pretending that everything is okay, is patently absurd and demeaning to our sensibilities. Everything is not okay. There is something deeply wrong with the Nebraska football program and has been for a long long time.

Well, as to the topic title, if we are who we want to be then we're an elite college program on the mend after two decades of several coaches failing. Just recently eight straight road losses going back to 2017. Zero points in OT in five years. We've analysed and debated just about every single loss as they occurred over those twenty years. We've hoped this and that would happen with this or that new coach, with this or that "great" quarterback, with this or that freaking Athletic Director. We keep making changes in staff to make it happen. We wait for the current class to wash out over time so the new coach can instil his program/culture/schemes fresh so that he can "right the ship." And the years go by. Could it be that "who we are" is really what we were? We've gone so long losing now that college football itself has changed since we were last winners. Recruiting to Nebraska is not easy now and was a bit easier then.. but the whole NCAA culture has itself changed.

Yes. Sadly, yes. The doormat of the PAC 12 was better at playing the whole game. More passionate. Better coached. <---- and that is very sad.

Our head coach often appears bewildered by poor play on our part. He seems to be used to a different sort of Husker attitude throughout the entire game. My guess is that when he came here he expected to be able to turn the tide on that attitude thing rather quickly, just by his presence (I admit to thinking/hoping/expecting the same thing). Remember the opposing teams's comments in the old days? "They don't care if you know what they're doing, what the next play is. They just pound it out for what they need." We don't see that very often on offence or defence for a whole game.