Toe

@In the Deed the Glory I get it, you're frustrated with the performance of the football team. And so, like a 2-year-old when it's tantrum time, you want to lash out at something. And the sellout streak is what you've chosen to throw your tantrum at. But the problem is, ENDING THE SELLOUT STREAK ISN'T GOING TO DO A GODDAMN THING TO IMPROVE THE PERFORMANCE OF THE FOOTBALL TEAM. The little tantrums of 'fans' like you and @Cdog923 over this are about as helpful as those of a 2-year-old. I seriously can't believe I have to explain this s#!t...

@In the Deed the Glory I mean, does anybody care about the Nebraska football team outside of its fan base? By your logic, we should let that die too? Seriously, the arguments in this thread in favor of killing the sellout streak are some of the dumbest things I've ever read on this board.

@Cdog923

I mean.... *glances in the direction of his wall of text on the first page*

@Cdog923 You're excused.

@MyBloodIsRed16 Banks probably has the most upside, but IDK if he's gonna be able to put it all together, at least for this year.

They suck when you don't have a mid to deep passing game that defenses have to respect...

@BIG ERN Yant seems like a reasonably capable back overall, but I see him as more of a goal line guy than anything. But like I said before, I think it's gonna come down to who's healthy more than anything, so who knows. Stepp is the only one who has seen much high-level action - we don't have a whole lot to go on, here. @J-MAGIC DING DING DING DING!

We have some people around here like @Cdog923 who are really big fans of the whole "The beatings shall continue until morale improves!" style of management. It's just like the people who think that cutting the funding of under-performing schools is the best way to get them to improve.

@MyBloodIsRed16 Yes, but which?

I was just saying in a PM, I think some are trying to rush that more than it really needs to be. Remember that last time around, A&M and Missouri joined the SEC a year after we left the Big 12. OU and Texas might be a done deal, but that doesn't mean all the other dominoes are gonna fall in the next two months.

Did he say anything about RG? Seems that's the only spot that's still up for grabs.

<insert conspiracy theories about Missouri's AD trying to get in the way of OU & UT getting into the SEC and being forced to resign>

I think you might be mis-remembering some things? Their plan was to move to the Pac, not B1G, and it was Texas, not, A&M, that scuttled it because the Pac wouldn't let them have their own network.

Plaid terrible, eh?

You're welcome.

Scheme will only get you so far. At some point, it's not about the Xs & Os, it's about the Jimmies & Joes.

The AAU seems to be more of a Mensa-like Mutual Admiration Society than anything. Perlman mentioned that being a part of the Big Ten Academic Aliance (formerly the CIC) had much more direct, concrete benefits for UNL than the AAU did. The only thing the AAU really did for us was, well, help us get into the Big Ten.

Most of the problem has been getting the roster right. Frost's best offense at Nebraska was in his first year. That year, the offense was Martinez (Frost recruit), Spielman and Ozigbo (Riley recruits), and the rest of the offense (notably the line) was mostly made of Bo's recruits in their senior year. In the second year, the line took a huge nosedive when Bo's guys graduated and we were stuck with Riley's guys. Washington should have been our featured RB the last two years, and he showed plenty of flash, but he was kicked off the team. (And from the sound of things, the stuff he went to court over wasn't his only character issue.) The other problem is that Stanley Morgan graduated, and the best replacement we could come up with was Kanawai Noa, who didn't exactly wow anyone while he was here. Spielman and Wandale were both solid WRs, but they were both natural slot receivers, not guys who were speedy deep threats. In year three, the line was... mediocre? Approaching average? Which was actually a significant step up from 'dismal'. But the receiver problem got ugly following Spielman's departure. We were stuck with guys like Kade Warner, a former walk-on who played in all eight games, started in half of them, but only contributed 40 yards the entire season. And he was a team captain! If that doesn't shine an enormous spotlight on where the problem was, I don't know what does. And the RB situation may have been even worse. Our starter was Mills, who would probably make a great fullback, but not a great RB in this system. He had two great games, and that's about all he'll be remembered for. And our other RB was, uhh... a wide receiver. So what happened? Most (not all) of the things that some blame Martinez (and by extension Verduzco) for are really due to deficiencies in the guys around him. The line has shown improvement, and I think we'll be reasonably OK there going forward. (O-lines take longer to develop and gel as a unit than any other position.) It's still the WRs and RBs that stand out to me. The RB situation last year was alarming to me. Like I know there were some injuries and covid issues to deal with, but Held couldn't get anyone ready to play besides Mills? If we hadn't been stuck playing Wan'dale at RB, he'd probably still be here right now. I said in another thread, right now Held looks about like Keith Williams to me: lots of recruiting hype, but no production to show for it. The WRs have seen absolutely disgusting attrition. Tyjon Lindsey, Jaevon McQuitty, and Keyshawn Johnson Jr were all 4* WRs in Riley's last class who bailed with little to no production. The WRs in Frost's first few classes haven't fared any better. Jaron Woodyard, Darien Chase, Demariyon Houston, Jamie Nance, Marcus Flemming - all guys who were 4* WR recruits or damn near it who have bailed. Wan'dale was our highest-rated recruit in some time, but without any other decent WRs it was easy for opposing defenses to key on him. And of course, now he's gone. That's no less than nine potential star WRs who should be playing for us right now, but aren't. NINE! Imagine that depth chart! But instead we've been stuck with leftovers. And people wonder why our passing game has looked like dog s#!t at times. Hint: it ain't because of Martinez, it ain't because of Verduzco, it ain't because we run too many bubble screens, and it ain't because Frost needs to adjust his offense for the Big Ten. I'd really, really like to know what went so horribly wrong in the receivers room. One practice report I saw said we were barely even practicing deep passes last year because the coaches knew we didn't have the players for it. (This spring was supposedly very different.) Dumping Walters in favor of Lubbick didn't really fix the problem. Considering that, I think it's fair to assign at least some of the blame to Frost. (I also largely blame him for the Illinois and Minnesota games last year - there's just no excuse.) But simply pointing the finger at Frost doesn't explain why attrition has been so much worse at WR than elsewhere - he's the head coach of the whole team, not just the receivers. So what now? We've pulled in quite a few transfers at WR and RB, for obvious reasons. Will it help? RBs are probably the biggest mystery on the team heading into this season. We've got a group full of guys with lots of potential... and lots of injury history. It's probably not a question of who's the best RB on the team, but rather who can stay healthy. I would expect to see several different starters throughout the year, and an 'RB by committee' approach. It looks like the starting WRs will be Manning, Toure, and Martin. I think that should be a pretty solid starting group. Manning in particular looks exactly like the kind of deep threat we've been desperately missing the last two years. But I'm worried about him staying healthy, and the other starters for that matter, because I feel like we don't have the kind of depth that we really need behind them. I've been wavering between seriously concerned and cautiously optimistic about the offense heading into this season. I feel like the potential is there for this to be an excellent offense. But I also think the margin of error is razor thin...

Is Fox's 51% ownership of BTN up for sale? If so, that's news to me.

Why? They have no one to blame but themselves for rolling over and going along with whatever Texas wanted for years. And now Texas has decided they don't need them anymore, and you think they deserve sympathy? They made their bed, now they lie in it. Let's not forget that literally the only reason the Big 12 has existed for the past decade is because they're the only ones dumb enough to let Texas have their own network. They tried to do that with the Pac, and the Pac was like "Haha, f#&% no!" Now Texas has decided that they can live without the Longhorn Network, and the utterly predictable has finally happened, just a little later than expected.

Would suck being stuck bearing the a larger travel burden than most if we raid the Pac, but probably what it will come down to.