Enhance

I appreciate everyone's commentary and feedback about Fickell and Rhule, however I think there are some better threads to have that conversation instead of this one.

The Suh narrative seems a tad revisionist. As a redshirt sophomore ('07), he had 34 tackles, 6 TFL's and a sack. It's not spectacular but I think he'd shown something more than 'nothing.'

I didn't end up hearing this particular quote at the presser today.

This is undoubtedly my biggest question mark about Wisconsin moving forward, too. How does Fickell maintain the tradition and culture of 'Wisconsin football' while also staying true to the principles and philosophies that have made him successful? Where's the breaking point that will mean success or failure? I think that's the risk you take when you hire 'outside the family,' so to speak. It also doesn't help that Wisconsin has a bit of a simmering situation on their hands. I don't necessarily think it will boil over. Most of the fan base appears to be pleased with the Fickell hire. But, there are a lot of players, recruits, and fans who have expressed frustration at the process and Jim Leonhard not being hired.

Kind of found it.

Did anybody catch the quote about offense? IIRC he said something about wanting to run a more 'traditional' offense but then talked about how he's not beholden to any one style. Said at Temple they ran a lot of I formation, but then spread it out more at Baylor because of the WR talent they had.

Looks like So. Car.'s offense this past season was 77th in total offense and 64th in 3rd down conversion pct, but they really gelled in recent weeks putting 60+ up on Tennessee and 31 on Clemson.

I saw this today, too. The reaction in Wisconsin has been... not great. Pretty mixed. I've seen a lot of current/former players disgusted at how the AD handled this situation. Which, ultimately, IDK how much it's going to matter. What's done is done. Transfers and decommits are inevitable just about any time there's a coaching change. But things are not rosy is Wisky land today.

I understand your point. I just wouldn't worry too much about it. You referenced earlier the A&M DL coach, who is Elijah Robinson... a guy Rhule hired to work for him at Temple and then one year at Baylor. So, he may not be a 'Carolina' guy, but he'd definitely fall into the 'buddy' system. All any of us can do is trust that Rhule puts the guys in place that he thinks gives them the best opportunity to win. I said the same thing with Frost in 2017. Obviously, that strategy didn't work out, but we also don't know if it would've gone any differently had he tried to comprise a staff of fewer UCF assistants.

Yes his success churning players into the NFL is commendable, particularly in his short time at Baylor. He also had quite a few of his recruits drafted in 2020 (the year after he left). Rhule is definitely getting a lot of pub as a 'developer,' but I think there are a lot of reasons to like his recruiting potential. His composite average ranking at Baylor was 32 over three seasons, and he also had a number of other accomplishments while at Baylor including flipping a couple of four stars from Arkansas and Florida to Baylor. And remember, this was all while having to sit in parents' living rooms and convince people to come to Baylor in the midst of all their turmoil. I have also seen multiple reports in recent days that his connections to Texas recruiting remain strong and he is highly respected/thought of in that state. So, time will tell, but I think he's certainly capable of averaging recruiting rankings in the Top 25 range. That, in tandem with a good development program, should win you the west. And then the sky is the limit from there. I don't think anybody should discount recruiting potential at a place like Nebraska, particularly with the NIL opportunities.

All coaches hire their 'buddies' aka coaches they have a relationship with and have worked with before, so I generally advise people against worrying about this too much. I would particularly advise against extrapolating what Frost did with his UCF staff towards other coaches hiring people they've worked with before. It's not necessarily predictive of success or failure. Besides, if he hires people who helped him win 10+ games at Temple and 10+ games at Baylor, I would look at that as an objectively good decision.

Damn how embarrassing. Imagine hiring Matt Rhule after lengthy discussions and analysis with a professional search firm, collegiate/NFL coaches, and incredibly knowledgeable people in the industry, when you instead could've just listened to Scott Shanle and HuskerPumper01 on Huskerboard! OPE

Pretty bold move for Wisconsin, if it pans out. Fickell is against the grain of what Wisconsin has done for the last few decades, and he would probably demand a pretty hefty salary outside of what Wisconsin would traditionally be comfortable paying. Anybody who thinks Nebraska got played by hiring Rhule over Fickell is being incredibly superficial in their analysis. There are a lot of reasons to like Fickell and Rhule as college football coaches, and no coach is ever going to have full, unanimous support. As I said in the Rhule thread, that's why we play the games. Let's see what happens on Saturdays. Nebraska fans love to win the offseason championship and that hasn't done much for them in the last two decades.

For veracity, UCF was left out of the 2017 playoff. I don't think they ever made it into the Top 10 of the CFP rankings that year.

That's why we play the games . Plenty of coaches who did well in the G5 pooped their big boy pants when they made it to the Power 5. Everybody thought Scott Frost was going to dominate the Big 10 West. We should all know better by now - offseason championships don't mean jack in the Big 10.