Guy Chamberlin

That's kind of the sad ass vibe you get from sports media anymore. It's all a big hype machine. If hype was all that matters, then Riley has already failed, Ohio State isn't the current national champion, and the Big Ten West cant compete with the SEC. All three are bullsh#t. I'm glad it's all settled on the field between the coaches and the players and not on message boards or by cocky bastards in suits on tv sets. Eh, it's just the vibe of guys talking about sports in the off-season. If speculation, name-calling and cocky bastards are off the table, we better shut this board down. I don't see anyone in the national sports media suggesting Riley has already failed. Most are pretty upbeat about the hire, which was unexpected in all quarters. I see the national sports media heaping praise on Ohio State, elevating Urban Meyer above even Nick Saban, and generally admitting that the prognosticators -- including themselves -- had the season wrong. Paul Finebaum himself told the SEC nation they'd been whipped fair and square. By a third string quarterback. The "myth" of SEC dominance was based on a pretty good run and a pretty deep conference. No one is denying it ultimately gets settled on the field. That's why they play the games, and why Pat Forde ends his piece with "we'll see." Did anyone suggest Ohio State wasn't the current national champion? Honestly don't know what media you guys are consuming. I think it's a sadder-ass vibe when Nebraska fans go to extreme lengths to find perceived slights from some monolithic national entity. And sports without hype? What would that even look like? You're having a very hard time with the context of the conversation. There was no hype around Ohio St. They hardly made it into the playoff. Even after the playoff, many questioned enter they belonged. Hard point to argue now. After the fact. I'm not wasting my time explaining the lack of hype around the Big Ten West or how the discussion changed after the Bowl games. If you missed all that, you weren't paying attention. My point about Riley isn't sailing over your head either, but you just seem to have fun trying to create some sort of argument with me lately. This will be the last argument you invite me into that I attend. There isn't a lot of hype around the Riley hire, not comparatively. Thus, the whole context of this conversation and the two comments you quoted for some reason. There's far more hype surrounding other coaching hires. Which is why I agreed with the point that winners and losers can't be determined until the games are played. You get a sense from some articles, ESPN analysts, message board posters and other media that some of these situations like we've discussed here ^ have already been determined. As if we know who the winners and losers are. We don't know anything yet. We didnt know Ohio St. was the best team in the country. We didn't know a few Big Ten West teams could compete with the mighty SEC. We don't know that hiring Mike Riley makes us a winner or a loser. Which is why the game is played. Whatever, chief. There is another point of view, perfectly valid and supported by lots of evidence to the contrary. I gave you some. You didn't refute it. I'm not sure how you define "hype", but the story of Ohio State squeezing into the last playoff position, jumping a higer rated team that had just won a blowout, then proceeding to defeat Alabama and Oregon and spurring a complete reevalution of conference perceptions was THE story of college football. I honestly can't find an example of a legitimate sports journalist who did not hand full credit and admiration to Ohio State and Urban Meyer. I don't see anyone pretending that it's all decided before the games are played. I do see strong opinions about what "might" happen and don't see any way around that if we are to continue to talk about football before the games are played. Mike Riley had his hype during the brief window of his announcement. Then it was on to speculating about other coaches as their hires came around. Harbaugh was a bigger story. There's no slight in that. I'm not trying to pick arguments with you, True. You're just making some bold blanket statements lately that invite contradiction. Believe me, it's no picnic defending Tim Beck and ESPN on HuskerBoard. I'm just doing God's work.

Well, I think there is some debate about the best way for this to go about. One idea would be to have an amendment. Our last president was as I recall a fan of an amendment to the opposite effect. Another possibility is to challenge laws as unconstitutional, which hopefully the Supreme Court holds up (there was a case two summers ago, right?) In any case, those two things weren't somehow missing from the Constitution, but ultimately that's what they had to do (and may yet, in this case). As carl points out, between our Constitution and Bill of Rights, I don't know how any scenario disenfranchising women or permitting slaves was ever considered lawful. So it goes here. Which is one of the main things that made me really start questioning if I wanted to have anything to do with the Republican party. What I realized is that they are too stupid to realize what the constitution is for. It's for protecting the freedom of the people from the government and other groups of people. It's not there to allow the government or a majority to limit the freedom of people. When I read the intelligent discourse on what is ostensibly a board for Nebraska sports fans, I'm surprised and disappointed by how the state ends up voting. If Republicans were pragmatists and long-term thinkers, as conservatives should be, I might vote for them. They're not, and I don't.

That's kind of the sad ass vibe you get from sports media anymore. It's all a big hype machine. If hype was all that matters, then Riley has already failed, Ohio State isn't the current national champion, and the Big Ten West cant compete with the SEC. All three are bullsh#t. I'm glad it's all settled on the field between the coaches and the players and not on message boards or by cocky bastards in suits on tv sets. Eh, it's just the vibe of guys talking about sports in the off-season. If speculation, name-calling and cocky bastards are off the table, we better shut this board down. I don't see anyone in the national sports media suggesting Riley has already failed. Most are pretty upbeat about the hire, which was unexpected in all quarters. I see the national sports media heaping praise on Ohio State, elevating Urban Meyer above even Nick Saban, and generally admitting that the prognosticators -- including themselves -- had the season wrong. Paul Finebaum himself told the SEC nation they'd been whipped fair and square. By a third string quarterback. The "myth" of SEC dominance was based on a pretty good run and a pretty deep conference. No one is denying it ultimately gets settled on the field. That's why they play the games, and why Pat Forde ends his piece with "we'll see." Did anyone suggest Ohio State wasn't the current national champion? Honestly don't know what media you guys are consuming. I think it's a sadder-ass vibe when Nebraska fans go to extreme lengths to find perceived slights from some monolithic national entity. And sports without hype? What would that even look like?

So you agree with Pat Forde.

How dare he question the hire of a coach without a winning history. What a tool indeed. Really, every guy who questions Nebraska isn't a tool or out to bait us for clicks or anything else. Reality is this hire was a bit of a gamble. Pat Forde is free to point that out. A couple things. 1- I called him a tool based on the examples I listed, not simply because he didn't get down on all fours and blow Riley. 2- I called him a tool because he is one. The comment was based on a body of work condemning virtually anything Nebraska does, gloating over anything SEC related, and the fact that he is a Mizzou grad. Pat Forde doesn't condemn virtually anything Nebraska does. Your example is neither condemning nor unusual among CFB analysts. Forde may be a tool. I don't know him personally. But he often writes articles like the one below, and is rarely worse than the slightly more skeptical Husker fan here on HuskerBoard. Why Nebraska's surprise firing of Bo Pelini is good for the Big Ten By Pat FordeNovember 30, 2014 2:10 PMYahoo Sports If I’m Jim Delany, I like the move Nebraska made Sunday to fire Bo Pelini. Not because a man losing his job is something to celebrate. Not because Pelini deserves any piling on. Those are not reasons for the Big Ten commissioner to approve of Nebraska’s somewhat surprising move. The reason to like it is because it signals that one of the most traditionally successful schools in the conference is serious about getting back to winning championships and being a top-10 football program. And the Big Ten needs all the help it can get in that area. This is a league that has gotten comfortable being mediocre while raking in piles of Big Ten Network loot. It has allowed its facilities and coaching talent to fall behind other conferences. And that has translated to the athletic talent as well Those things show up in the recruiting rankings, where Ohio State was the only Big Ten program to have a Rivals.com Top 20 signing class last February, and only three Big Ten schools were in the Top 30 (the Buckeyes, Michigan State and Penn State). And the Big Ten needs all the help it can get in that area. The league has fallen behind, which is why there is a very real chance it will be the one Power Five conference left out of the first College Football Playoff. It needs more than just one or two programs daring to be great; it needs an SEC-like glut of them. In Delany’s grand expansion plan, Nebraska was to be part of that glut. Whereas Rutgers and Maryland were added to the conference this year for demographics and profiteering, the addition of the Cornhuskers in 2011 was designed to specifically boost the Big Ten’s football power. It hasn’t happened. Pelini had a pretty good seven-year run at Nebraska – good enough to keep his job in perpetuity at many schools. He’s won nine or 10 games every season and had a winning record in conference play every season. He kept the Cornhuskers a slight cut above the Big Ten’s sprawling and uninspiring middle class. But this is Nebraska, a place that basically lived in the national top 10 from the early 1960s to the early part of the 21st century. Nebraska was the most consistent winner going, humming along forever under Bob Devaney and then Tom Osborne. And then things got rocky, and the search for greatness has been on ever since. It’s been on long enough, in fact, that some Cornhuskers fans almost forgot what it looked like. Which is why Pelini’s pretty goodness was good enough for several years – it was better than the Bill Callahan Era, and nobody wanted to go back to those days. But since arriving in the Big Ten, the Bo Plateau – nine or 10 wins and four losses – began to get old. The program that took up residence in the top 10 and was a regular in major bowl games hasn’t finished ranked higher than 14th under Pelini and hasn’t played in a brand-name bowl. Despite being positioned in a division opposite league heavy Ohio State, Nebraska couldn’t win a Big Ten title. And now it has been shuffled down further in what is not exactly a murderer’s row of competition. Pelini was 1-3 against Wisconsin, with all three losses of the humiliating variety: a 31-point beating in 2011; the emasculation in the 2012 Big Ten championship game, where the favored Cornhuskers gave up 70 points; and Melvin Gordon’s 408-yard performance this month in a 59-24 pounding. Nebraska isn’t just a step behind the Badgers at this point in the Big Ten West; it is a giant leap behind. Then there is Minnesota. The Gophers don’t recruit on the same level as the Cornhuskers, don’t have the same facilities and don’t have the same fan support – but they have Nebraska’s number. Minnesota beat Nebraska in Minneapolis last year and in Lincoln this year, eliminating the Huskers from Big Ten West title contention Nov. 22. Failing to keep pace with Ohio State and Michigan State is one thing. But failing to be competitive with Wisconsin and being bypassed by Minnesota are not what Nebraska football aspires to be. Of course, the aspirations must be realistic – and this is where it could get tricky. Because there are plenty of people out there who doubt whether the old Nebraska model for success can still work in the modern recruiting landscape. Plucking select skill players from the coasts or the South to build around in-state linemen and an armada of walk-ons worked splendidly for Osborne. It’s less feasible today. Which means athletic director Shawn Eichorst must make a home-run hire capable of recruiting outside Nebraska’s local area and coaching up the talent to a championship level. That person may not be easy to find – but the belief here is that if Eichorst is making the difficult decision to fire a nine-win coach, it’s because he’s confident he can get an 11-win successor. If he whiffs and ends up with a seven-win guy, well, the school can shop for a new AD in a few years, too. But the good news for the Big Ten is that the Pelini firing shows that Nebraska wants to get back into the championship business. That’s why the school was poached from the Big 12 to begin with. And if a rich-but-underachieving league is going to progress from good to great, it needs the Cornhuskers to be part of that movement.

They didn't see Ohio State winning the National Championship either. They didn't see fewer than 3 teams from the SEC making the playoffs, too. They have told us constantly for years that the SEC is going to dominate for ever because nobody can even come close to competing with them. Some ESPN analysts are SEC enablers and say this sort of thing. Some ESPN analysts say the exact opposite. ESPN is made up of guys who are hired to argue about sports. They don't speak with one voice. It's actually bad for business. As others have amusingly chronicled, there are plenty of Alabama fans who think ESPN has it in for them. For that matter, the Big 10 Network spent most of the season arguing that the conference wasn't THAT far behind the SEC (and the Pac 12. And the Big 12), but rarely if ever suggested the BIG was equal or superior to the SEC. Just that the conference deserved a slot in the first NC final four, based mostly on tradition. Forget ESPN altogether: there was hardly a sports journalist anywhere who didn't portray this as dark times for the venerable Big 10 and good times for a deep, deep SEC. Then the games were played and the proof was on the field. No matter what an idiot or two said otherwise, ESPN had no trouble reporting the story.

I'm very upbeat about the Riley hire, but can't blame a non-Husker analyst for putting this in the ? category. It's fair. Of course you could conclude "we'll see" about everyone on the list.

I saw a mentally improved team in the Holiday Bowl, so I'm thinking the worst damage healed rather quickly.

Wait. My last answer wasn't long and specific enough? Do I need to to say "Tim Beck will bring his intimate knowledge of the diamond formation and Little Debbie Snack Cakes for each player?

Tim Beck clearly called some plays you did not care for, but he led an offense that averaged 37 points and 450 yards with middling talent on the offensive line and a still evolving quarterback, who did indeed get better, especially in that last game where Tim Beck revamped the offensive playcalling in the only game he ever coached without Bo Pelini over his shoulder. Given mercurial and oft-injured semi-dual threat quarterbacks during his entire tenure, and substandard oft-injured offensive lines, Tim Beck managed a run-first offense that often ranked in the Top 20, along with a generally improving passing game, to give Nebraska a balanced attack that earned the respect of most opposing Defensive Coordinators if not the Sunday Morning second-guessers on HuskerBoard, who always knew the offensive play call that totally would have fooled a professional DC. Nebraska's historically bad defense often forced the offense to play out of a hole, and as often as they faltered, the offense also staged some pretty dramatic comebacks. In the last two seasons Tim Beck had one of the best defenses in the country -- Michigan State -- on its heels. Turnovers, penalties and mental meltdowns were a problem on every side of the ball. Hard to pin that on an OC. Ameer Abdullah's talents may appear obvious now, but no other major conference team wanted him as a featured running back. Under Tim Beck's offense he became the #2 career rusher in Nebraska's long, storied history. Rex Burkhead also flourished in an offense tailored to his skills. That the same criticism leveled at Tim Beck was previously leveled at Shawn Watson suggests there was some fan scapegoating going on that didn't line up with the real problems and expectations on this team. Anyone watching the Oregon/Ohio State NC game would see a gameplan that could have been drawn up by Beck or Watson, executed by better athletes who were motivated by a head coach who knows how to keep his players calm and confident. Every team Nebraska wants to be will periodically throw the ball on first down, or on 3rd and 2. Every one runs an offense that would be criticized as multiple, and plays that would be dubbed "too cute" according to the criteria of this board. Was that trick play where Peirson-El throws a touchdown to Tommy Armstong fun? I thought so. I sure enjoy watching it embedded in every post of yours. I'm willing to give Tim Beck the same credit and blame I'd give any other OC on a 9 - 4 team with the #12 Scoring Offense, supported by the #59 Scoring Defense being micromanaged by a Head Coach on perennial Death Watch. So let me throw it back to you.....what would ANY coach being hired at Ohio State be expected to teach the players, and what's on their resume that's so clearly better than Tim Beck?

You're right. You'd have to be a moron to come in there and change things. Beck's imprint will be very minor IMO. Beck is there to get an education. What exactly is he going to teach? I'll wait for your answer to that. Please, don't be vague. You'd also have to be a moron to pay a guy $550K so you can give him an education and get nothing in return. So......... Again I ask. Again. What does he bring to the table? What is Beck going to teach the Ohio St. Offense? Really basic question. Really. You've dodged it once now Guy Chamberlain. As for you Teachercd, I'm not sure if you're talking to me or not, but I literally said the opposite. Urban Meyer knows exactly what he's doing. He's already a coaching legend in my books. So again. Again. I ask. What does Beck bring to the table? What will Beck do for that offense? I'm trying not to be a prick (it's my nature). I'd love to hear what both of your answers are. Your so adamant about this yet, I see no response to the question. Why? True, the ball is not in my court on this. So I'm not dodging anything. Tim Beck will bring to the table his coaching experience, and impart it to the Ohio State offense under the watchful eye of Urban Meyer and others. Just like any other coach Urban Meyer could have hired, but didn't. Tim Beck will not be imparting his coaching experience under the watchful eye of Bo Pelini. Maybe that means something. Maybe not. But at some point you gotta consider the possibility that Urban Meyer knows more about football coaching than you do.

Four turnovers doesn't equate to a brilliantly played and executed game. Urban Meyer might agree with you, but few others. Given that those four turnovers barely threw Ohio State off rhythm suggests they were even better than the final score. Against a heavily favored team. If you don't give them "brilliant" at least give them "dominant." It was pretty impressive.

You're right. You'd have to be a moron to come in there and change things. Beck's imprint will be very minor IMO. Beck is there to get an education. What exactly is he going to teach? I'll wait for your answer to that. Please, don't be vague. You'd also have to be a moron to pay a guy $550K so you can give him an education and get nothing in return.

Didn't like Barry's advice re "this is how we do the run game here" Didn't like to hobnob and partake in adult beverage consumption with boosters, which Barry does like Didn't like the recruit limitations he had due to entrance requirements Heard a few more that I don't recall. The Oregon State job almost surely came with a salary cut and a different set of recruiting limitations. So wow.....that must have been an unpleasant situation at Wisconsin. I don't think you have to partake as heavily in adult beverages at Corvallis as you do Madison. Speaking of which, doesn't it look like Mike Riley might enjoy himself The Chronic?

I don't think there's much argument that Tim Beck was overpaid here. 525K is still good coin in my book.

It may only matter to a handful of players and parents, but the University of Michigan has a considerably higher reputation for academic excellence and career networking.

This would be a great place for a Beaver joke, but I'm too busy right now.

Sort of on topic: Has anyone heard a good explanation of why Gary Andersen left Wisconsin for Oregon State?

Maybe it's time to move on, but I don't feel like it. I'm imagining Bo Pelini recruiting for a University he has little loyalty to, for administrators he can't stand, in a city that he can't wait to leave, all according to his own testimony dating back at least to 2011. It couldn't have been good for business.

I'm still not convinced Bo Pelini's team beats Minnesota 7 times out of 10.

You be pretty crazy to walk into OSU right now wanting to change anything. Meyer may not be endorsing any or all playcalls, but he is endorsing Tim Beck as a football coach.

You couldn't really argue if TCU had been picked over Ohio State. That means the #5 team could well have been the best team. I also think this Nebraska team could have gone out there and lost to Ohio State 42 - 20, an to Oregon 59 - 20, so hey, we're right up there with Florida State and uhm....Oregon. Right? So you'll always have healthy arguments, which is fine. I'm good with the four team playoff. Keeps a little more integrity to the 12 game regular season, which is what makes college football unique.

Watching Cardale Jones, it looked to me that he played to the same gameplan as Tommy Armstrong. Just better. A serious QB competition between Armstrong and Stanton can only help.

If you watch much football, you'll notice many if not most successful OCs calling pass plays on 3rd and 2. Sometimes two passes in a row. I'm thinking of Scott Frost less than 24 hours ago. Of course sometimes the same OC chooses to run the ball. Sometimes that works, but sometimes the runner gets stuffed because the defense saw it coming. You have seen that happen, haven't you? Even Marshawn Lynch behind Seattle's offensive line wasn't a given on 3rd and 1 last Sunday. It's adorable how Nebraska fans think victory is as simple as just "ramming it forward" every time. You covered all of us with that ludicrous generalization. Yeah. I know. I'm speaking mostly to the folks who wildly contradict themselves with what what they think Beck shoulda called, what he did call and what the guy they wish was OC would have called. I think a majority of Beck critics want to go back to a smashmouth game from Nebraska's glory days, but they don't accurately recall what went into that offense, including the support of a smashmouth defense, the single biggest component this team is missing. Tim Beck and Shawn Watson enabled the rushing careers of Roy Helu, Rex Burkhead and Ameer Abdullah, three of the best in Nebraska history. They did not abandon the run. Reading post-game criticism on this board, it often appeared that the definition of "getting too cute" and "out-thinking himself" was simply Beck calling a forward pass. In that case, pretty much every OC in the NCAA is too cute. Beck typically called a 5:3 run pass ratio over his Nebraska career. Some folks choose to remember the pass play on 3rd and 2 that didn't work. They don't remember the pass play that did work. Or the running play on 3rd and 2 that got stuffed. There's often a savvy DC on the other side of the ball, too. I may be wrong, but it often appeared that the criticism aimed at both Watson and Beck was a deflection from Bo Pelini. At least for some posters. We had problems, and some of them were offensive problems, but rarely was it the play-calling, imo. That was actually a pretty fun offense to watch. If you didn't like Beck's playcalling, get ready for more frustration because most OCs will call similar games. If we get a stout offensive line, better QB decision-making and defensive support you probably won't notice. I guess I and many others take issue with not putting the ball in your best players hands (and one of the top players in all of CFB) when you have two plays to get 3 yards when the game is on the line. That alone is a fireable offense. Do you think Urban Meyer is gonna allow either of those plays TB decided to call at the end of the USC game? I doubt it. I would have given the ball to Ameer Abdullah. So would a lot of people. That's why most defenses would have been keying on Ameer Abdullah. If USC hadn't already held one of the top players in CFB to less than 3 yards on most of his carries, it would have been an easier call. Still a questionable call, but not an indefensible call. Betting that Pierson-El could beat a defender to the sideline off the same play fake you've been running all game isn't reckless. Pierson-El cut inside. Didn't work. The other plays that got us 42 points, including a clutch two-point conversion, worked. I wished we'd won the Holiday Bowl, too. More to the point, do you think Urban Meyer is gonna hire a coach at Ohio State who deserved to be fired from Nebraska? Do you think LSU would hire a guy to coordinate their defense after being fired for doing the same thing at Clemson? Who knows? I wish the San Francisco 49ers hadn't fired Jim Harbaugh myself.

If you watch much football, you'll notice many if not most successful OCs calling pass plays on 3rd and 2. Sometimes two passes in a row. I'm thinking of Scott Frost less than 24 hours ago. Of course sometimes the same OC chooses to run the ball. Sometimes that works, but sometimes the runner gets stuffed because the defense saw it coming. You have seen that happen, haven't you? Even Marshawn Lynch behind Seattle's offensive line wasn't a given on 3rd and 1 last Sunday. It's adorable how Nebraska fans think victory is as simple as just "ramming it forward" every time. You covered all of us with that ludicrous generalization. Yeah. I know. I'm speaking mostly to the folks who wildly contradict themselves with what what they think Beck shoulda called, what he did call and what the guy they wish was OC would have called. I think a majority of Beck critics want to go back to a smashmouth game from Nebraska's glory days, but they don't accurately recall what went into that offense, including the support of a smashmouth defense, the single biggest component this team is missing. Tim Beck and Shawn Watson enabled the rushing careers of Roy Helu, Rex Burkhead and Ameer Abdullah, three of the best in Nebraska history. They did not abandon the run. Reading post-game criticism on this board, it often appeared that the definition of "getting too cute" and "out-thinking himself" was simply Beck calling a forward pass. In that case, pretty much every OC in the NCAA is too cute. Beck typically called a 5:3 run pass ratio over his Nebraska career. Some folks choose to remember the pass play on 3rd and 2 that didn't work. They don't remember the pass play that did work. Or the running play on 3rd and 2 that got stuffed. There's often a savvy DC on the other side of the ball, too. I may be wrong, but it often appeared that the criticism aimed at both Watson and Beck was a deflection from Bo Pelini. At least for some posters. We had problems, and some of them were offensive problems, but rarely was it the play-calling, imo. That was actually a pretty fun offense to watch. If you didn't like Beck's playcalling, get ready for more frustration because most OCs will call similar games. If we get a stout offensive line, better QB decision-making and defensive support you probably won't notice. I guess I and many others take issue with not putting the ball in your best players hands (and one of the top players in all of CFB) when you have two plays to get 3 yards when the game is on the line. That alone is a fireable offense. Do you think Urban Meyer is gonna allow either of those plays TB decided to call at the end of the USC game? I doubt it. I would have given the ball to Ameer Abdullah. So would a lot of people. That's why most defenses would have been keying on Ameer Abdullah. If USC hadn't already held one of the top players in CFB to less than 3 yards on most of his carries, it would have been an easier call. Still a questionable call, but not an indefensible call. Betting that Pierson-El could beat a defender to the sideline off the same play fake you've been running all game isn't reckless. Pierson-El cut inside. Didn't work. The other plays that got us 42 points, including a clutch two-point conversion, worked. I wished we'd won the Holiday Bowl, too. More to the point, do you think Urban Meyer is gonna hire a coach at Ohio State who deserved to be fired from Nebraska?