Enhance

I couldn't agree more. I stand by the opinion that this team is a decent coach (doesn't even have to be great) and one (at most two) recruiting cycles away from being divisional contenders. Obviously easier said than done, but with how college football is structured these days, you can go from being a bed wetter to a contender in very short order. It's absolutely achievable and Nebraska has more resources than a lot of other programs that have found ways to pull it off.

That's nuts. Very few people in that age bracket can properly operate a motor vehicle or correctly remember to take their daily vitamins/medications, let alone function as a public representative.

Personally, no. Even in the off chance one or both of those happen, it's a bit too little too late in the process. We're approximately 18 days out from a likely announcement and I imagine (or, hope) Trev is in the final stages of negotiations. I think it is unrealistic to tell a preferred candidate "hey, give us a couple more weeks to see if our interim pans out." By that point, his preferred candidate could decide to take another opportunity that's more solidified. Plus, imagine telling a candidate to hang on, MJ loses the rest of these games, AND the candidate got impatient and bailed. That would be an absolute dumpster fire.

It's certainly possible he could make a non-active coach hiring announcement before the regular season ends, but he also might still choose to wait until after the Iowa game in order to minimize the distraction. On one hand, it isn't necessarily fair to Mickey and the players to formally put the final nail in the coffin of the season by announcing a new coach this early. They still have their pride to fight for without needing the distraction of a new head coaching hire. On the other hand, most people have written this season off and don't expect MJ to be the guy, so the question is being asked - "why wait?" I don't know if there's a right or wrong answer there. I see pros and cons to both.

For you, yes. Incredibly difficult. Insurmountable, really. Nay, impossible.

No

I'm going to assume this is mostly tongue in cheek, but Nebraska isn't any more cursed than the Cubs were. Nothing magical happened to break the Cubs World Series drought. They hired a smart leader, that leader put smart people in place, they started spending more cash, they brought in championship caliber talent, and now the curse is an afterthought... because there never was one. It's hard to win in college/professional sports. There are a lot of smart people and talented athletes. And yeah, sometimes, franchises/administrations make a lot of choices that don't pan out. Sometimes, you just have to do the best with what you've got and hope it works. I think a lot of Nebraska administrators have done what they thought was best and it ended up not being the right path. Doesn't mean the program is cursed. It just means they have to be better.

Yeah the list is quite small. I think a lot of fans would be abrasive towards a coordinator hire at this point, but BOB would probably be the most acceptable of all the names I've heard thrown around. It could also be open to interpretation a little bit, meaning there are some guys out there with HC experience but it may not be from the FBS or P5 level. I personally think when Trev talked about prior HC experience he was probably thinking FBS at a minimum, preferably P5, but that's just speculation on my end.

There's probably a fair amount of truth to that. Basically, hire a guy that excites everyone, or hire the guy that people have some comfortability with. That said, I think MJ has played his way out of serious contention. I have not come across a lot of people who are openly pining for him anymore. It's a lot of the same voices and same names (either here or on social media) that are pushing for MJ. I for one think he would be an underwhelming hire at this point, based on what I've seen. Personally, I've long been hoping for a hire that inspires confidence more than anything else. I don't necessarily need the 'splash' element. I don't need to be wowed. I just want a guy that seems to own most elements of what it takes to win and win at a high level.

Trev very well may hire a first time HC. He has previously stated prior HC experience is not a requirement for the job, although it would certainly be valuable. It's also more likely that MJ is gone next season if he's not the next HC. That's just how these things normally work.

There's nothing wrong with having unflattering opinions of Nebraska - they've earned those. I am, however, frustrated with the whiny, defeatist attitude of "we're not going to get anybody," "no coach with a bright future is going to come here," etc. If that's how some people feel then perhaps they should write to Trev and ask him to close up shop on the football program. If it's that hopeless, then why bother.

You guys... In today's college football, it can take ONE recruiting cycle to make you a bowl contender. Two to be a divisional contender. And this is in an industry full of egos and personalities on top of a potentially massive salary. This sky is falling, 'woe is Nebraska' mentality is a bit silly.

Don't worry about what other people are saying or doing. That's our job, not yours. Like I said, it's time to drop it, do what you were asked, and please move along. This is the last time you will be asked.

While I respect and appreciate your defense of Mickey, everybody knows this isn't his team or his staff and that the odds are stacked against him. It's a tough hand to be dealt, but that's the hand interim's get. And most of them know (or, should know) that they don't have room for excuses. They have to show results with what they've got. This team isn't doing that. Nobody expected a miracle from MJ, just improvement. It's obviously not fair to him to judge him without his staff and at least one recruiting cycle, but this is also his audition, and that audition isn't going great.

His point was simple - you can share your opinion without taking shots at people on this board. Doesn't matter if you were singling out an individual or not. It's time to move on. Seems like you're trying to find a home on this graph and that would be a poor choice.

Nobody here is special enough that their thoughts on the head coaching search deserve their own thread.

I've seen this take pop up a few times now and I have to admit that I don't understand it. Why is it that people assigning positive value to prior HC experience is 'laughable?' Trev Alberts has said he thinks prior head coaching experience would be "wonderful" in Nebraska's next head coach, even if it's not an absolute requirement. Of all the qualifiers and KPI's people are looking at in Nebraska's next HC, prior HC experience is perhaps the least laughable one. Nothing is definitive in this whole process

There’s no need to copy and paste the same post in separate threads, particularly when no one is actively talking about MJ in this one right now.

If I were to grasp at some straws, the biggest reason I could think to delay an MJ announcement (if that was the already agreed upon action) would be to convince the fan base of due diligence, which would be a bit snake-like and nearly unbelievable. Because frankly, I think fan reception would be quite poor overall if you effectively end the whole process 60-70% of the way through the season by hiring an interim who is 2-3 and has no HC experience prior to this season. But like I said, that's straw grasping on my end. The more likely scenario is that there is no decision yet (or, it's not MJ) and Trev is conducting a full and thorough search and weighing every available opportunity to do what he feels is best for the program.

I mean, I envy Mitch. I come here and read your lot's "if and maybe" drivel every day for free. People seek out his "ifs and maybes" and he gets PAID for it.

I just started The Rings of Power this past weekend and have about one episode to go. I'm a bit surprised by the all the criticism it received from LotR fans. There are definitely some gripes I have with it (primarily that it, at times, does cash on its namesake as opposed to trying to tell a better story) but overall I think it's interesting. Visually, it's quite impressive, as well. I like a lot of the world designs they've put into it.

Although I think it's unlikely ASU would name MJ as their next head coach, I don't necessarily think it's BS that his name is being thrown in the gauntlet there. ASU is kind of a middling football program in an unstable conference, and as Sean's article correctly points out, they're also being investigated for recruiting violations. ASU isn't exactly in a strong position at the bargaining table which means they're unlikely to attract one of the bigger available coaches. And now here's this guy at Nebraska that's well-respected, a good coach, has great recruiting skills, and is actively getting some head coaching experience under his belt. It's not at all weird to me why MJ might be getting some interest elsewhere.

You're going to have to explain that leap of logic. My line of thinking is that boosters and administrators would support the best guy for the job across several relevant KPI's, and not just "leaning" towards coaches (like MJ) that happened to be former players, which is what your post indicated.

Unless I misunderstood your post, you said that boosters and administrative folks "will still lean" towards hiring former Husker players as coaches, specifically in reference to MJ. If this was true from a booster and administrative perspective, I would proffer that line of thinking as unintelligent and misguided, particularly after the Frost experiment.

Although I feel fairly confident UM is not in the running, I don't think a lack of an announcement at this point is necessarily an indictment of that, and for a couple of reasons. First, I genuinely believe Trev wanted to give MJ every opportunity available to see what he could do with this season as interim. If you announce UM or really any coach during the regular season (even at this point) you're basically sending the message that this year is officially an outlier and subservient to the future vision. Second, I think UM is doing a lot of CFB analysis and TV work right now; announcing him at this point would effectively make it a talking point with him on every show from here out. I doubt Urban would want that.