ActualCornHusker

14 minutes ago, Mavric said:

Last week Smothers graded out as a 65.8 according to PFF.  Purdy was 27.9.

 

This week Smothers graded out as a 79.4.  Purdy was 38.1.

 

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

25 minutes ago, Mavric said:

 

I agree.

 

Just based on their own resume, I think Leipold and Klieman would be my top choices.  But it sounds like Klieman is unlikely to leave.  Leipold has done an amazing job everywhere he's been.  And maybe he'd even keep the guys I listed above as well.  I would not have any issue if he is the choice.

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.

1 minute ago, Husker03 said:

He says he wants to be physical in the trenches. We aren’t. But. He says it. Just like the previous 4 failed coaches here. It’s a great talking point. 

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

1 hour ago, Mavric said:

Mickey is fine as an assistant.

 

But he can't even tell Whipple to play the QB Mickey wants him to play.

 

Not the answer.

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.

16 minutes ago, corncraze said:

Those 90s teams had lots of blue chip recruits too though - Frazier, Green, Wistrom… Let’s not forget we had classes ranked as high as 5th and 6th (Allen Wallace’s rankings) in the nation in the mid-90s.

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.

6 hours ago, ColoradoHusk said:

You would make Mickey one of the highest paid assistant coaches in college football and give him a 300% raise?

Absolutely.

3 hours ago, skeener said:

Trev would be lucky to get Monken.  I can't believe the people who still think there's room to be picky.  Seem to have forgotten what happened after Solich was canned.  Everyone thought top coaches would be lining up for the job - throwing around names like Bill Parcels and Steve Mariucci - and then a guy named Houston Nutt said no thanks.  As weeks went by, losing committed recruits, ended up with a desperation hire in Callahan.   You should be thankful if it ends up Monken.

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

2 minutes ago, runningblind said:

It wouldn't be a current coach if announced today. That means Lane is out.

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... 

41 minutes ago, Guy Chamberlin said:

 

Huh? Those are exactly the games Nebraska won during the Scott Frost era. Two bottom tier Big 10 wins and a couple non-con patsies. 

 

In 2020 we beat a slightly better Rutgers team with a considerably better performance. 

 

This is what I mean by people who so badly want Mickey to succeed that they start making things up. 

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

1 minute ago, ColoradoHusk said:

I don't follow you on this point.  This is based on pure guessing and speculation, and not facts.  Looking at the results from 2019-21, Frost did relatively well against the dregs of the Big Ten.  In 2019, NU beat Maryland while losing to Indiana (which ended up 8-5 on the season).  In 2020, NU beat Rutgers and Penn State in cross-over games.  In 2021, NU didn't play any weaker teams from the Big Ten East, as NU had Ohio State, Michigan State, and Michigan as cross-over games.

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.

8 minutes ago, ColoradoHusk said:

This is one of the best posts I have seen regarding the Joseph candidacy for the full-time Head Coach.  Well said.

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.

3 minutes ago, 308_Husker said:

Mickey is clearly working his a$$ off for this program.

 

To be honest, I really don't even think he's in over his head. I just don't think he's got enough guys on the OL to be as successful as he'd want. Blame the guy who was here for the last 5 years, who had a chance to coach this porous OL. There will be mistakes that he makes during games, but I have confidence he will learn from them and he has already managed a few games very well regarding clock management.

 

He checks the box on every organizational quality I'd want in a HC. He's great with the players and they love him. He clearly has a plan where he wants to go with this program. He's not coaching the team like a guy who will be gone in a few games.

 

I loved that Sports Illustrated article. Mickey, from everything that I've seen and read, has a lot of integrity and grit. Every parent would feel comfortable sending their son to play with Mickey. He embodies everything that I'd want to see as a Nebraska Head Coach. He's getting valuable experience this season and I'm willing to give him a few years to see what he can do. 

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

3 hours ago, Hilltop said:

What message does that send to the current roster?

 

We have quite a few high 3 star and 4 star players wearing the uniform.  I would like to assume they are capable, just lacking in some development.  Shouldn't the message be we need time instead?

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.

3 hours ago, Cornfed said:

1 or 5 plz

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.

19 minutes ago, husker009 said:

Even if you’re not a fan of Bo, it is absurd to compare him with Mickey in terms of qualifications. Bo had at least proven that he could coach defense at a high level. He was the DC at NU, OU, and LSU before getting hired as NU’s HC. Mickey’s resume isn’t anything like that.

I had no idea that this was your opinion

8 minutes ago, mwj98 said:

We aren't talking QB's here, we are talking head coaches. Sark was a mess as USC, gets another shot at Washington....fails, then gets picked up by Bama.....and then gets the biggest job out there... Texas. You have got to be kidding me. Kiffin, fired as the raiders head coach.....walks out of Tennessee and lands the Ole Miss job. You want me to keep going? All I am saying is give him a shot instead of hiring retreads. If race doesn't play into it, why do we have the Rooney rule? get your head out of the sand. Nebraska isn't ready for it unfortunately. Folks in western Nebraska (another members post) definitely not ready. But to sit here and say "race crap" is exactly the problem. There will always be excuses "he doesn't have the experience". Smh. How is Dabo working out? I keep seeing these coaches get chance after chance. Look at the SEC. Who was the last black coach in the SEC (football), Ill help you out, rhymes with broom.  Again, you can play for em, recruit em and win titles. But meh, not a head coach. You need more experience. You just proved my point. 

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.

6 minutes ago, lo country said:

Prior to being the HC, neither would Dabo's......That's the thing with hiring a new HC.  You find a diamond in the rough and you get Dabo.  Or TO.  You hire the "next star" and you might get Frost. 

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.

19 hours ago, Jeremy said:

EXACTLY. Can we just STOP with the race crap? If Mickey had a modicum of success as a college head coach before this year, it wouldn't even be a debate right now. He would be the guy. The lack of experience is the ONLY thing holding him back. I don't know if many people have been on campus lately, but UNL is absolutely a progressive, dare I say liberal place. Trev doesn't care about race, and there are VERY few other people that do. 

 

Personally, I'm coming around to Mickey, purely because of his tenacious recruiting, and what these recruits are saying about him. They're saying things that no one ever said about Frost, or Pelini for that matter. Coleman said that Mickey is the only reason he chose UNL. I have to think there are others like him. We haven't had that kind of recruiting edge in a long time, and we can't afford to lose it now.

 

Mickey is the guy.

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

8 minutes ago, Stumpy1 said:

Lincoln Riley

Kirby Smart

 

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