ActualCornHusker

Reading into Mickey's comments in the postgame, my guess is that Purdy is a better practice QB than Smothers. That's great and all, but I'll take the guy that maybe doesn't practice great who turns it up and does a good job when the game starts

I liked the idea of Leipold when Frost was first fired, and I like it even more every week that goes by. Even the games they've lost have stamps of great coaching. That's what we need.

We were in the 1st quarter. Then Whipple decided to stop running the ball consistently. Awful.

I was hopeful that Mickey would be the guy, but today probably put the idea of him getting the job to bed. Not because of the loss in general, more in how it happened.

For sure. But you can also look at the 97 team, specifically on offense. What was it, 9 or 10 of the 11 starters were all from Nebraska. It does help to have an Ahman Green right in your back door in Omaha but still... Use the local recruits as your core, and build with talented players from around the country

All this talk about needing to run away from the 90s... I'd rather we lean into the 90s and actually do the things that made that era successful: develop talent, lock down local recruiting, coach fundamentals & toughness, etc. The head coach just has to demand a higher standard from his players, his staff, and himself than we've seen for sure in the last 2 regimes.

Absolutely.

I'd rather we just hire Mickey if Monken is the best external option we have to choose from...

Oh just stop it.

I actually think that's not true. The typical norms of this type of thing are shifting quickly with the accelerated timelines of signing day and transfer portal.

Ole Miss is on a bye this week...

2019: lost close games to Indiana and Purdue, both teams were not good teams 2020: got pounded by an Illinois team that was really not very good 2021: again lost to a bad Illinois team No, Nebraska did not consistently beat basement dwelling teams during Frost's tenure

I'm talking about close games that required halftime adjustments and late game plays to win. Indiana and Rutgers were both 1 score games late in the 4th. Indiana game was put away by an insurance score. Rutgers was a late TD to take the lead, a couple key stops by the defense, and a drive by the offense that drained the clock.

The most damaging part of Mickey's audition thus far IMO has been his support for Whipple abandoning the run and chucking it around. But IMO the increased physicality in practice and the fortitude it took to can Chins mid year are definitely huge positives. I also think the increased detail, structure, discipline, and top-down motivation from Mickey are vast improvements. People can poo-poo the Indiana and Rutgers wins if they'd like, but those are not games this team typically wins over the past 3+ years, so I give Mickey a ton of credit for those wins.

I'm 100% right there with you, but I don't think we can lose out and give the job to him. He's gotta win at least 2 probably

If you listen to the context, it wasn't in reference to the current players. The reporter from SI said it was a comment made during a recruiting meeting when Mickey asked if one recruit an assistant was talking about is a day one starter, and then said "We need f-ing players" Kirby Smart, Jimbo Fischer, Nick Saban, etc. I'm sure all make the same exact comments. If a player takes offense to that comment, you can be sure the coach was talking about you. Because the good players on the team should appreciate that the coach wants to improve the roster around them so they can win. And besides, this was during a coaching staff meeting, not the coach standing at the podium saying this to the press... Like with most situations, I think people approach things with far too much emotion.

I'd honestly be pretty excited about any one of those except for O'Brien (who I'd also approve of but he wouldn't be at the top of my list)

I don't know what our ceiling would be under Mickey in the long run as a team, but I've seen enough to feel confident that his basement is pretty high. We probably have to win a minimum of 2 of these last 5 for Mickey to get the job, but I really hope it happens for a variety of reasons: -MJ has already put a stronger emphasis on recruiting in state kids than has been done probably since Frank and I expect that to continue if he's the guy -he's proven that he's a grinder like Trev said he's looking for -it's difficult to tell from public statements a lot of times, but all signs point to the fact that the players really like and respect him -MJ is an elite recruiter and would demand that from his staff -of any coach hire, the amount of attrition would probably be the least if Mickey is retained There's a lot of reasons, and him being a former player who deeply cares about Nebraska is just a bonus IMO. I think his personality traits are everything that we all wished Frost was going to be.

I think you could give Mickey $5mil a year with some nice incentives, then a gigantic pool of money to hire the best assistants that he can find. But I'll maintain that Mickey probably needs to win at least 2 of the final 5 games to be considered for the job, and due to time restraints probably needs to win 1 of these next 2 games which will be no easy task given the turd sandwich he was handed.

I had no idea that this was your opinion

I think the point is this: you don't hire MJ because he's black. That's a recipe for disaster. You hire MJ if he's the right leader for your program.

Exactly. You have to look at qualities that you want in a head coach, many of which Trev outlined after he fired Frost. Then body of work, and Mickey will have had 9 games (8 technically, I think we can give him a mulligan on Oklahoma) to get a feel for how he'll handle the job.

I wanna see Mickey be the guy too. The biggest concerns I have that could be easily answered: -What does he want from each side of the ball long term? Offensively, it's concerning that we have basically abandoned the run game since he took the reigns. Is that him just allowing Whipple to do what he wants? Does he sign off on that plan? I know we have one of the worst O lines in the history of college football, but I don't think it's controversial to say that especially in this conference, you HAVE TO run the ball effectively to compete for championships. Defensively, where would he take that? Would he hire Busch as the permanent DC or does he go hire a proven big time DC? It's hard to tell what Busch's defense would look like 2-3 years from now. If Mickey answers those things the right away, I think Mickey would be at the top of my list. But he probably needs to win at least 2 of the remaining games. If he wins 3, I think he should be a lock for the gig given the mess that he took over.

Depending what we see the rest of the season, HCMJ might be the elite recruiter we need. He just needs the assistant salary pool to go get the best recruiters and developers that he can find

Dabo Swinney Mario Cristobal Bill O'Brien Jimbo Fisher Steve Sarkisian Most of the successful head coaches were assistants at successful schools (Mickey - LSU) before jumping into head coaching gigs. It helps to have that experience, but Mickey is already doing really good things that are helping this team win games that they would have lost previously. So I'm excited to see if he can continue to improve this team that he took over when it was a complete and utter disaster