Danimal

Unless we have a surprising turnaround to this season that, IMO, is what's happening. Frost had the opportunity to make changes like Dabo did after struggling in his first three seasons and stubbornly stood pat. Now it's too late for that, have a fourth losing season and the CFB world writes-off Frost as a bust. Good assistants won't jump on a sinking ship. Recruiting will dry-up. Ticket-sales and donations will dry-up, monetarily you take as big or bigger hit than paying the buy-out. Keep losing and the plug needs to be pulled. Trev should be researching and getting a list together of potential replacements, then if we are doing poorly you make back-channel contacts with the list to figure-out who we can get so we aren't trying to figure crap out come season's end.

Footage leaked from their meeting:

Agree about throwing to the right guy. Don't throw a damn swing-pass to a guy that can't make people miss. Also, NO MORE BACKWARDS PASSES, that crap is a turnover or lost yards just waiting to happen.

1. Return of the vertical passing game. We need some quick-strike ability and the whole O works better when the defense has to protect the whole field. 2. Improved ST's. Real efforts have finally been made to improve our woeful ST's. Time to see results. 3. Cut way down on drive-killing errors- turnovers and dumb penalties.

Not saying I'm confident about this one by any stretch, after the past three years count me in the "will believe it when I see it" club, but some pluses to consider: Illinois will be in their first game of new schemes on both sides of the ball. They will likely have some hiccups. If we aren't more in-synch than they are it's going to be a very long season. Folks look at Bret at Wiscy and underestimate how much Barry was still impacting that program. There is a reason they've stayed good with two coaches that struggled after leaving Wiscy and another that was nothing special coaching Pitt. This team didn't come to play Illinois last season. They were coming-off the PSU win and had beaten Illinois the past two seasons, they were heavy favorites, took the game for granted. Should be more motivated and focused this game. Last season had a ridiculous amount of turnovers even by our standards and the one that started the game really set the tone. Doubt we'll be turnover-free but for piss-sakes we shouldn't have five. Our ST's have been largely garbage the past three seasons. We're finally putting the necessary time into them and have two guys with P5 ST's experience handling them. Busch is an upgrade on Rutledge and Dawson is an upgrade on the "by committee" approach where nobody took ownership. Could make a real difference this season. We are obviously unproven but we should have more firepower on O this time around. We have a big, talented wr group that should provide the return of a vertical passing game, which would not only give us back quick-strike ability but also loosen-up defenses so the rest of the O works better. I think we have a talented, eclectic group at rb that will be an upgrade overall over last season where we had an often-hampered Mills, a small moonlighting wr, and guys that are now buried on the depthchart. The last game against against Illinois was hands-down the D's worst of the season. They played better after that and most starters are back. As Reimers said they were embarrassed and are looking for payback. Plus we added a few pieces that could well help.

We offered a kid from the other side of the planet a schollie to punt. I would hope he has a leg. Ya Prystup has been pretty meh and we have to quit losing the field position battle. That battle is what ST's freak Bill Snyder called "hidden yards". Doesn't show-up on the stat sheet but obviously the shorter you have to drive and the longer they have to drive the better. A few cheap scores per season wouldn't hurt either. Hopefully between Dawson and Busch we can get our ST's fixed.

IMO beating a name opponent in PSU and facing an opponent they beat the last two seasons made the team cocky. They just didn't come to play Illinois and got pushed around the field because of it. Given that debacle, that it's the season opener, and that it's a must-win situation there is no excuse for not hitting on all cylinders this time around.

The only way I want it to end is if we're having yet another losing season and the powers-that-be still need a push to see that change is necessary.

Frustrated Nebraska fans finally having something to crow about: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AXTQeSGJjGM

This is quite true, but it can be argued that it's telling how many defensive players wanted to came back. The defense was also the side pushing for a bowl game. I'm not sold on Chin quite yet but I do think he's growing into the job and we have more buy-in on the defensive side than the offensive.

We better, Frost is another losing season away from being written-off as a bust by the college football world. If that happens it becomes all the harder to turn things around. Recruiting will dry-up, no good assistant would want to come here, and player confidence in the regime will dip. There is no excuse for not being more in-synch than an Illinois team in their very first game of new schemes and we be should be plenty motivated for them this year. A decently coached team starts 3-0. From OU on it obviously gets much tougher but we damn well should be able to manage three wins out of the last nine games.

Cerni and Meyer both came here established as having big legs and Culp can obviously hit fieldgoals. We should boot the ball well. Question is can we fix our crappy return and coverage teams? I'm tired of yelling "NOOOOOO YOU IDIOT!" every time we try to return a kick.

Looking back now I think the best thing for Frost would have been the '17 season not going perfectly, they won several that could have gone either way. Maybe if they took a couple L's Frost would have grown as a coach more and his perspective on some things would be different.

If Lubick leaves there is even more reason to replace Mario with a qb-coach/OC. One of those is much easier to find than an experienced wr-coach/OC, and it's not like Mario is very good anyway. I'd try to hire Helfrich. Could look for a wr-coach that is good with ST's.

Ya, P5 coordinators in good standing don't normally go looking for a FCS job. Only way I can see this is if he just wants to live in Montana and be away from the pressure of a major program

I've always thought we should have rolled with the Maneating Mastodons.

Hiring a ST's analyst is perfectly fine but if Frost has a ST's analyst running the show again I have to question where his priorities lie and it will make it hard to give much benefit of the doubt come next December.

Scoring defense numbers were affected by our garbage ST's, turnovers, and struggling offense. We were ranked considerably better in yards per play, a stat less affected by those outside factors.

Held is a balls-to-the-wall recruiter but I'm not so sure he's a P5 coach. Maybe Ron Brown can "happen by" practice a lot and provide some "counseling" sessions for our rb's

I don't see Luke as a qb but if he wants to stay at qb then you leave him there, unless you have a transfer coming-in anyway. Qb's take a considerable beating here, we can use the depth. Maybe after another season at qb goes nowhere then he will be ready to change positions.

Herman obviously didn't win as much as hoped-for but it's not like he didn't win. He will be a HC again, soon if he doesn't want to just kick-back and live off his buyout for a while. I'd rather have a guy more likely to stay a while. IMO we should be trying like hell to replace Mario with Helfrich.

Agree you can't remotely compare the two when Saban wins big and Saban has shown repeatedly that he will make the tough calls to staff optimally. If Frost loses for five seasons he shouldn't get a sixth, a fifth season is being VERY patient. Frost really needs to fix things NOW, the more we lose the more our window of opportunity(to turn this around) closes. After four losing seasons he would be considered a bust by the CFB world. Prospective coaches, prospective players, and fans will lose interest/belief in this regime.