BigPeterJ

Yea we kinda jumped from the FPI duscussion, to a discussion on how we would like to be portrayed in the media. Id like to be portayed as a program with an aura in the long run. But for this season , and maybe for a couple more, I just think it would be nice to fly under the radar. I might get my wish, as FINALLY people are starting to think Nebraska will never be back and Scott wont get them back. Which is great, cause that is when we strike, and thats when our redemption story gets taken to a new level. If they dont know its coming, our opponents wont be as prepared for it, and by the time they try to stop this Frost machine from taking their recruits and whooping their a$$...it will be too late. Gotta start happening over the next 2 years though, or it will be too late for us also. There is this small window with the perfect time to strike, and it is when the guys who are currently too good for us, overlook us, and before we are so overlooked by everyone that we cant get enough recruits to climb back to the top. These next 2 years are that window. Weve done perfect at setting our opponents up for the shocker. But if Frost can't start striking now (next 2 years), i think Frost won't ever get it done here at Nebraska. And i think if Frost fails, Nebraska football will probably never get to the level we want (top 10 with occasional playoff births). If Frost fails i think our new CEILING is Iowa/Wisconsin level). We need to improve quite a bit this year , and give em the shocker in 21', which i believe we will if we show solid improvement this year.

I thought alot of his struggles were due to all the expectations/pressure...but maybe your right. He struggled equally in tight games in the 2nd half as he did early in games or in games that weren't as close. And you make a decent point about his first year. Wether it was pressure related or not, my gut at this point just feels better about Luke than Adrian.

This is true. As much as some of us claim hate on ESPN etc, (and that Gameday against OSU did seem like a setup), but we have been one of the most OVERRATED programs in the past 20 years. We consistently get rated preseason top 25, and have done nothing to earn it. The blame does not fall on the media in our case. It falls on us. Just do SOMETHING for once. Who have we beaten , even in one single game in the past 18 years! An over-rated Michigan State? Is that it....in 18 freakin years?? Nebraska fans desperately want something to cheer for. We want some hope...we honestly haven't been given any by our beloved team. Everyone beats a good team every now and then, even Illinois, yet we haven't. Part of that is due to our overrated prestige...noone overlooks us, like they do an Illinois or a Maryland. Yet we have been not much better than anyone. It would be nice to beat a top 15 team for once.

There is always hope to start the season. Especially with a coach that we can be excited about. I am more worried about the early games than the late ones. If we start 6-1 or 7-0 , we can steal 1 or 2 against Minnesota or Wisconsin. I am worried we could lose to Purdue, and maybe Cincinnati or even a team like SDSU. IF we lose 2 or 3 of our first 7 , it could be the end of Frost, and the end of Nebraska football really. We will lose all recruiting momentum. The thing that worries me is Frost knows this and has got to be feeling the pressure in those opening games. And with how tight Frost got against Colorado last year, in a game with far less pressure than the Purdue game will have this year, i just hope he doesn't get tight and in return, the team and QB also getting tight in respone to their leader. Luke has always done well in pressure situations, and i just feel like he would thrive in that pressure, where as Adrian has seemed to really struggle under pressure. I hope Adrian is a new man next year, but from what I've seen, i can't help but picture him choking against Purdue, and that game may define the season.

Agree. Purdue will be a decent team too. Glad we got that one at home. But biggest opening game we may have had EVER. I hope the pressure doesn't cause us to play tight though

I'd say for once it would be nice to fly under the radar. I do think we will be (for once) better than our fans expect at this point. But we will miss Daniels on our DL. These FPI are calculating returning production + new player expectations. We didn't lose much at all, of our statistical production from last year , which is why we rank so high in this. But Daniels made a huge difference, even if it doesn't show up in the stats, especially with our defense and how DL in this scheme aren't gonna pile up stats.

I want to add, when it comes to positions where just ONE player can make the biggest difference, their can be a huge difference depending on position. One great DB isn't gonna change a team, one great OL isn't gonna change a team, as those positions are more about the sum of their parts. If your gonna get a 5-star stud, where you would want him is either QB or RB, or on the DL/pass rusher, and in a close 2nd, at the Linebacker position. Safety is somewhere between the most impactful and least impactful for potential difference just one guy can make. But say Corcoran turns out to be the best OL in the country (theoretical argument here), it doesn't really matter if the guy to his left and the guy to his right are pushovers. 1 OL can't block 5 guys nomatter how good he is. At the same time take a Suh for ex. , even if your other DL aren't very good, if it takes 2/3 guys to block Suh, someone is gonna get through very quickly. Also, Darrion Daniels is no Suh, but even take him off our team last year and we might have won 2 games.

I disagree. In all seriousness, I would take Suh (as everyone would) and there are alot to choose from as #2 but maybe Lavonte David. One O-Lineman doesn't make much difference as your OL is only as good as its weakest link in a sense, and our entire offense doesn't have any glaring holes. The only offensive player i would consider would be a great QB, but we seem to have some decent QBs already, and we dont really have a stellar ALL-AROUND QB in our history. We have had some great RB-type QBs , (Tommie etc.), but what would improve our current team the most would be a couple dominant defensive players. Unlike on the OL, just 1 dominant defensive lineman/end can make a huge difference. Where i disagree is when you say 2 dominant players wouldn't make much difference. 2 DOMINANT players like Suh can turn an average defense into a very good one. We don't know what next year will bring but the typical concensus is somewhere around 7-5 or 6-6. If you added Suh and David to our team, i bet 6-6/7-5 turns into about 10-2. Thats the difference between being outside the top 25 to being in the top 10 with our schedule. I will say this, adding Suh and David (or any other 2) wouldn't make us as good as the OSU or Clemson types, but there is not much difference between teams ranked between 6-35. (Last year for example, 2 difference makers added and the only games we lose are OSU, Minnesota, and possibly still Wisconsin) we would have been top 25. Even just adding Suh may have done that.

I already started sipping in some koolaid. Just looking at the bright side of things for Christian.

And Nebraska won 5 championships dude.

Andy Janovich and Richard Likmore

I hear your frustrations. I get your points. They are valid. But i think your going too far off of that end. If Frost has a losing season this year i will be more with you on this. Where im coming from is that i looked at our roster in depth, and noticed we had very little talent last year. Despite our recruiting classes typically being ranked around 25, with attrition, we really lacked talent. Also the culture was messed up, and we had no continuity. Combine those 3 issues, and Frost really had a much tougher turn-around than people realized. I truly believe we will be better this year, and be really good in 2021. But he does have to prove it. I would be willing to bet you that next year we make a bowl, and in 21' finish in the top 25. Edit: I was right there with you until i looked at our roster more in depth. (Looking at what we had vs. what we will have). We are all frustrated, and i can get liquored up with the best of em' so dont challenge me with your brash posts haha...i will happily quote this post and put it in the face of my haters in 18 months...but we are gonna be good...next year better than expected, 2021 we win the big west. Where i agree with you is that we have been as bad if a crash as anyone in CFB. From best dynasty in the country, to not making a legit bowl in 4 years. We ARE the laughing stock of cfb...no doubt. Truth is we needed the humbling. Its good for us. You think our fans are bad now, we were spoiled like Bama not long ago. We will appreciate our success when it happens again.

Being a worse football team, doesn't exactly equate to being a worse program. The most recent 5 years doesn't define a program. Nebraska still recruits better than MSU, despite Nebraska being in its worst stretch of history, and MSU being in their best. I agree Nebraska isn't the best place to be a head coach, possibly not even in the top 25..but MSU has a lower ceiling imo. If you weigh only recent success as your indicator of a program than i could see your point

NU isn't as good of a job as it was 20 years ago, but it is still a better job than MSU. MSU does pay good and cares about football, but other than that everything is working against MSU at this point. They have no history or tradition like we have, and although there is more talent in their neck of the woods, they have to compete with 3 blue-blood schools for that local talent, they aren't even the top program in their own state. Not to mention all the scandal possibility. We are not the program we were in the 90's , but we also aren't the program we have been the last 3 or 4 years.

Yea a guy who's own Son is on the team, and who loves Nebraska, protesting the current coach at the time.....surprising to hear that, it must have been really bad. If Christian didn't have that injury, his last year of football would have been on a weak Nebraska team...now he has an opportunity to be part of a potentially solid team, and who knows, maybe he really has worked his butt off and has improved enough to have a shot at the NFL...bigger surprises have happened.

I guess i just didn't realize how high the market rate was. When we hired Frost for 5million/year i thought that must be in the top 10-15 nationally for who, at the time, was the hottest young coach in the country. But i just learned today that Purdue pays their coach more than Nebraska, and that 5million/year is actually pretty average for a power 5 head coach. We only paid Riley like 2million right? Coach salaries have skyrocketed in the last 10 years.

Tucker has to feel great about that contract. Been a HC for 1 year and he is now making more money than most professional athletes.

Where did you hear he said no? I believe you, it actually makes a lot of sense just confirming.

I can see why he left. What has this guy done to earn that kind of contract? He makes more than Frost, and his assistants will make more than Frost's. For that much money, Tucker was the best they could do??

I see where your coming from. Look i see both sides to this. Bo has some problems, at the same time not everything about him is bad. I see him as an average OVERALL coach. I think he is a great DC, but not a good HC. Guess what i am saying is im not against you, i just am not with you either. I think what your missing is that noone here is really saying Bo is great etc, they are saying he is not as bad as you are portraying him to be. Very flawed individual, but has some good qualities. I think many of us who don't exactly cast stones at Bo can relate to this. I mean everyone is flawed, people like Bo just dont care enough to try to hide it.

To be fair it looked like a terrible call, although the video glitches right at the moment the ball is about to reach the receiver. But from the looks of it, it was a terrible call in the biggest moment of the season for Youngstown. I really dont see a problem with what Bo did, although i didnt hear the exact words Bo used. If Frost reacted that same way in that situation, we would be backing Frost for his passion and sticking up for his team. I'm not saying i would want Bo as my head coach, but it has nothing to do with his sideline demeanor, for me anyway. This argument never ends...some like him, some dont, as with any head coach. Bo is what he is. He is a bit of a maniac, and doesn't always do the right thing........he is also a passionate guy that fights for his team, and as Tom Osborne said, Bo is himself, what you see is what you get. Which some people, like Tom, happen to respect as it is not as common as you would think.

That is really unfair to Mel, atleast the last one. When he made that call, he had no way of knowing he would be offered the MSU job in a few days.

Yea i just dont think MSU is a very good job. There isn't alot of history there at all, they are 2nd fiddle in their own state, and have 3 blue-bloods in their division that most recruits will choose over them, it is about as cold as it gets, they have a potential scandal brewing, etc. I'm not so sure it isn't one of the worst P5 jobs at the moment.

Maybe he didn't expect that big of a salary to be offered, but otherwise should have just not commented. I guess he beat out Bielema?

I know you cant judge Rahmir based on a handful of snaps as a true freshman, but he didnt look that fast to me. I just didnt get the sense that you sometimes get with freshman , where your like this kid has it. Wandale has it, his speed looks just as impressive against College competition, as high school. Johnson looked like a guy that was fast for high school, but now is on a level where everyone is fast. Idk, maybe i need to go back and watch his plays. Edit: Just went back and watched his drive against Maryland, which is really the only time i recall Johnson getting many snaps. He had about 8 plays on 1 drive to look at. My takeaway: He wasn't bad in any way so I'm not saying he wont turn out to be a very good back. Some of my pessimism had to do with the game at hand. I recall most of husker fans on here were very excited with how we played against Maryland, and i wasn't. The score had more to do with how bad Maryland played, and how all the breaks went our way. I remember saying we will see how "real" this improvement was when we play Iowa. So i was already in a pessimistic mood compared to the rest of this board, and many werr excited about Johnson, and i kinda felt the need to pump the brakes there also. After rewatching his drive, he is by no means slow, but for his size, he just wasn't on the level of a Wandale. Again this is way too small of a sample size. He did however, look like a "smart" back for a freshman. He read the field well, and was patient to see the holes and the best way to go. He looked like he had great instincts, and was somewhat fast. But just not on a level i would call "impressive" speed. Which when you are as small as he is, you need impressive speed to be a difference maker.