tmfr15

We win. We cover. But we don’t score 30. We score in the 50s. I feel it. The defense is going to score.a couple times. AM to ST a couple times. AM on a run play. A couple RB TDS. Maybe AM to Austin Allen for six. This is our get right game. This is where it begins to turn We broke a tendency when we expanded that 14-3 lead against Buffalo. We broke a tendency when we came out and competed well in the second half against OU. We had Michigan State on the ropes. More evidence of the change that’s coming. We didn’t finish. I get it. Until we do, the movie stays the same. Why not now? This is our time. We are going to win the first of a four game streak to clinch bowl eligibility and set up great games against solid opponents in the last three games. I was stunned last week. Devastated really. And then I realized that we are standing in front of a major opportunity here , not just for this year but for the seasons to come. Maybe it’s wishful thinking. But I have seen enough to believe we can do it.

Frost lost to an Illinois team that lost to UTSA… the Road Runners for crying out loud … and then to Virginia, by four TDs. And Illinois was coached by a first year coach and led by a transfer QB, the back up who no doubt had few if any practice reps and who left Rutgers because he couldn’t beat out Noah Vederal, who left here because Scott didn’t feel he had what it took to beat out AM. How soft is the schedule going to be next year? Methinks It would have to be powder puff soft to inspire any sort of confidence

Man ... that Buffalo win was fun. We were up in the second half and the defense closed it for us. There was never a doubt in my mind through the fourth quarter that we were going to win. And that's a big deal. It hasn't happened a lot under Frost. And now the bad news, the road ahead looks as rough as it could be. Oklahoma, Michigan State, Michigan. Ohio State, Wisconsin and Iowa. All losses. Just those losses has us at 5-7. Minnesota is on the road. And Northwestern gives us fits. Purdue. Certainly we can beat them. But a split of Minny and NW makes us 4-8. And Frost gets the door. Good news though. And I really do believe this. Nebraska is going to hire a coach with experience who is a builder of programs. Not going to be flashy. Not going to be a big deal on the national scene. But we will see improvement right away. Eight or nine wins in 2022. Calling it now.

I am feeling the Riley Skers game at home against Ark State as an idea for how this one plays out. Late drama, but DONU pulls through.

Just looking at the attendance and then comparing it to games from 2019, it seems that the Fordham game drew a few thousand less than what the average was, even when you look back at South Alabama. The sellout streak will continue or it won't. But fans are going to have to be ready to put up with bad football, at least for the rest of this season, and then we will see for next year. If Scott stays on as HC. And if we have another set of players leave the program as we have in years one, two and three. And if AM comes back next fall, which he could do. Then the team will have another bad year. And the streak will most definitely come to an end. More important, the voids in the stands will become more noticeable. I feel like this doesn't have to be an issue. If Nebraska would just play physical and cut out the dumb mistakes, we automatically become an eight to nine win team. For whatever reason, Scott doesn't want to do it. Maybe we should have known the day he got rid of the FB position. Still..... we can get to eight or nine wins if we want to get there. And an eight or nine win team at Nebraska would have the sell out streak continue on.

I am seeking a lot of win Win WIN and that sounds good, but it is impossible for me to believe it without seeing it first. Watched last year's game with these guys a few weeks ago and then watched the Minnesota game, against a team that had played very little due to COVID issues, and we still lost. The Illinois game was super depressing. Just bad football. And, yet, the Illini had a bad year and ditched the coach. Remember when a dominant win over Nebraska would have given a struggling coach a little bit of life, maybe add a year to his tenure. That's a thing of the past. I watched the Wrap last night, and the boys were saying Scott's crew would win three in front of Oklahoma and three on the other side. I look at it and say, "Well, we are going to beat Fordham, and, aside from that, I have no idea." It would absolutely suck to lose this game, week zero and we lost before most teams have left their locker room for the first time. YUCK. Still, it's hard for me to shake the feeling. A 10 point loss with the difference coming in the fourth quarter would not be a surprise to me.

The Urban quote referenced by knapplc is something to think about for sure. It's not about why you fire a coach as much as it is about how you do the firing and what you do next. For the health of the program, you should fire a coach when there is definite cause to do so. And you should have a plan as to where you are going to go and who you are going to hire next before you pull the trigger (at least in most cases, unless your coach is Jerry Sandusky or something like that). When Frank was fired, the thing happened because of where the program might be going, to mediocracy, instead of what was happening, nine win seasons. Those 9 and 10 win seasons aren't all bad. And then we didn't even have an idea of where we were going next. Bad move on both. When T.O. took over, Bill was done. And the team gave up because everyone knew it. Not ideal. He wasn't the greatest coach, but he was put in an almost impossible situation when T.O. walked in as AD. When Bo got the gate, we are pretty sure it was because SE didn't like him, and not because of what was going on in terms of wins and losses. Maybe the sideline Bo was the sticking point for SE, but he fired a winning coach and then didn't have a plan to move forward at all. Mike Riley, like Bo, was a dead man walking as soon as Moos was hired. The writing was on the wall there. Not ideal. Hard to coach and get wins when the program is pretty much decided you are gone just a few games into the season. Now Scott. In many cases, he would already be gone. Two years, Nine wins. And this was after we were told that we wanted a program where nine wins in a single year would not be good enough to some folks. And so you try to take his money on the way out. That's worse that Frank. Worse than Bill. Worse than Bo. Worse than Mike. All those guys were supposed to be not good enough, but at least the program paid their salary on the way out. A risk is undertaken with these things. You hire a guy who you think will succeed. He might. He might not. But it's a gamble. An educated gamble in a lot of cases, but still a gamble. if Scott doesn't start winning and gets the door, he should get the money he was contracted to receive. Pulling some bull behind the scenes is just rotten. And if guys like Urban were turned off by the nine win thing, they'll definitely be turned off by this thing.

There are none of us, or very few anyway, who are happy with the way the games have played out since Scott came back home. This had all the marks of a return to football legitimacy for Nebraska and by a favorite son. Tom Osborne filled that bill too. TO delivered wins and Scott hasn't done that yet. We all hope that this is Scott's Oklahoma moment. Remember the stories of people wanting TO out because he couldn't beat Oklahoma. Well, Scott has had a mishap with Oklahoma too. Hopefully, Scott will do what TO did and will turn this around and get us winning a lot of games again. Then we can all forget this.. But if this season goes bad, and we get the feeling that the UofN is deliberately undermining Scott and trying to get rid of him without paying the man the money they promised in the contract, then forget about Nebraska ever being good again, at least not for a very long time. You can't stab your own guy in the back like that. It just can't happen. People said no one would come here because of what we did to Frank. A few said something of the kind with Bo's firing. Nine wins aren't good enough? And then coaches wouldn't want the pressure. Coaches live for and under pressure, so long as the admin has their back. If that's not the case, Nebraska won't attract anyone to coach this program. Bank on that.

It's definitely "Show Me First" in terms of the hype train. I can't buy it... at all. Kind of sad when you think that, going into a season, I used to say, "If everything breaks right and we get some bounces, we could go unbeaten in the regular season." To...... Now, I am saying, "We need some things to break our way or we aren't going bowling for the fifth straight year."

I don’t really have an answer to the financial side. It’s more about preservation of Big and PAC. And I understand that might not be the best motivation. Oklahoma is leaving it’s in state rival behind for greener pastures $$$$. Money driven decisions for conference changes do make the ultimate sense, but maybe that’s not a prime mover for the PAC or the Big. What sense do the additions of Colorado and Utah make or Rugers and Maryland for that matter.

With conference realignment changing the face of college football and threatening tradition, the Big and PAC should be proactive. How about a merger of the two leagues for a 32 team super conference? The Big and PAC could be the names of the two divisions. The Big could add Kansas and Iowa State. The PAC could add KState, Oklahoma State, Boise and BYU. Scheduling would involve 10 conference games and two out of league games to allow for teams to play group of five or FCS teams in order to fill out home slates. The 10 conference games would seek tradition as first priority. Ohio State would play Michigan every year. The old Big 8 teams would clash. Traditional Big 10 matches and Iowa Vs Iowa State would be considered. The division winners could be based on rating from the college football playoff and would meet for the Rose Bowl trophy at Pasadena. So no more playoff interruptions or changes of Rose Bowl matches between Big and PAC winners. Teams that didn’t make it to the title game could still be selected at large for the playoffs or go to a bowl (provided those still exist. If the bowls were ended in favor of some super playoff in the future, the Big and PAC will still have effectively saved the Rose Bowl tradition.

In looking at the schedule, I have constructed about every kind of record in my head from 8-4 all the way down to just two or three wins. It's hard not to do that because we are so inconsistent and we have so many question marks on the skill positions on offense, up to and including the QB. If Illinois beats us in the opener, it could get really, really bad. That first game could not be more critical as a tone-setter. We lose that one and we are going to be 2-2 or 1-3 after Oklahoma. If we lose to Ill., I would not be confident, even in a win over Buffalo.

Nebraska should do very well this year. Scott's 4th year. We've had a full and normal offseason. Adrian's basically a senior. Lots of positives to point to, but it's all so unproven. You have to do it. We've talked this to death. Nebraska is without excuse if it is non-competitive in the division this year. You could write a book on this division... and the title would have to be "How the West was WEAK." Wisky is the best and they are not competitive against the Bucks.

I think we spend too much time talking about the system when we should be simply focused on the results. One team can ride with different skill sets at quarterback and different plans on offense at any time. The main motivation to play a quarterback is that he leads, wins and is clutch. Alabama is a case in point on this. Look at Tua Tagovailoa and Jalen Hurts. Very similar ways of playing. Mobile, electric play makers in the run game, etc. Then take a look at Mack Jones as compared to AJ McCarron. Very similar. Pro style. Sit in the pocket and deliver. Play action passing and that sort of thing. All the QBs mentioned did well for the same coach. The system was changed to fit the QBs because those guys could deliver.

There is a world where 2-10 seems like a real possibility for this program. Illinois beat us up last year. Oklahoma and then Michigan State, also on the road. Northwestern is a home game, but give us fits every year. And then the last six.... we could go 0-for-6 and not be real surprised. Some days, I am glad we aren't anywhere near fall yet. It's just too depressing to think about it.

It's hard to say right now. But we will know for sure four games into the schedule. If we are 3-1 after four, I think we get to six or seven. Anything less than that and we are in for another bowl-less Christmas.

I heard on the radio someone claim that we were second in FBS for one score losses. I don't know if that was just this year or all of the Frost years. That sounds positive because it would seem that small corrections would make a big difference very quickly.

DATE: Friday, Dec. 27, 2002; TIME: 3:30 p.m. Central The Independence Bowl pitting 7-6 Nebraska and 6-6 Ole Miss. Huskers lost. 7-7. I thought the Huskers couldn't possibly get worse. Who is going to get in the time machine to go break the news to 2002 me that the $hit show isn't even getting going yet?

Colorado and Nebraska's struggles dating back to Frank are pretty closely tied. That 2001 game was the first time I had ever seen my Husker team on the wrong end of a bad beating. Miami repeated that in the Rose Bowl, but that might have been one of the best teams ever. So it was the Colorado loss that stung. We've had our moments since, the kick and the pick being a big one. Then Frost took over. Colorado edged us in 2018. They rallied past us in 2019. That's not what gets me mad. Close games. We're breaking in new coaches and trying to restock the roster. But Scott needs more time...the rebuild is big... Blah blah blah Colorado doesn't have our tradition, or support. Or facilities. They pay their HC poorly and his assistants don't make much and don't have job security. Their school just doesn't love football. Fair weather fans. And their recruiting is bad. They've had three coaches in three years. How is it that they're 2-0 against Scott and 3-0 this year? They beat San Diego State today. Big deal. But they beat Stanford, which beat Cal this week. I don't know what to make of this. It just bothers me Anyone else feel the same way?

If I were to give advice to Coach Frost, which would be pretty rich considering my non existent coaching resume, I would ask him to make this program HIS program. Hire an OC and DC who will enact the Frost vision for football, not their own. It was the reason I had a problem with getting rid of the OC last year. Was he running a bad system or not running the system Scott had laid out. If he was running his own offense, then Why? We hired Scott for HIS offense. From now on make sure that the offense is the Frost offense as directed by Lubik. And the Frost defense as directed by Chin. Lastly, Scott should be heavily involved in the special teams. Have help, I get that, but since the players, 80-90 percent of them, cut their teeth in coverage and protection packages, the coach should establish relationships with each guy there and let them know how Nebraska football is going to work. He would get the best athlete and position evaluations first hand for the guys who are going to make up the core of the roster. And HC involvement also gives automatic importance to the fine details that become the difference between wins and losses. Knowing the kick abilities for punt, place kick, kick off and onside kick makes it easier to make critical decisions down the stretch run of games. It would also provide a chance to evaluate the versatility of the specialist groups for any tricks or fakes or special kicks . I know we're all frustrated here. There's no easy answers. Scott is here for the immediate future and all we can do is hope that whatever change, scheme wise, needs to be made is indeed made.

We've seen 28 games of the Frost era and most aren't pleased. Like the county as a whole, Nebraska fans are roughly split about whether or not Scott is the right man for the job. So as entertainment for those of us who believe he is the man and as encouragement for those who don't, let's hear some stories about how you feel Scott turns this around from where we are now to a place of national prominence. How long will it take, who will be the coordinators, and are any of the major playmakers for the he rise on Nebraska's roster now?

I am a give it to the starter type person. The original idea was to use the jersey for practice contrast so coaches could track the starters easily and manage the reps and what not. When the team got good and the defense was excellent, people started talking about the Blackshirt tradition. Those shirts were hard to get, not because of some long standing code of honor associated with handing out the shirts, but because the depth chart was thick with super starts. You wanted on the field, you had to wade through that to get there and if you became a starter, it was a very big deal. I say it comes down to the start by a guy who has WON the job and owns that spot exclusively. If you are on the depth chart as Joe Somebody --OR-- Rob Average, then neither guy gets it. You have to WIN the job outright. Let's keep recruiting. Let's keep training. Let's keep developing. At some point, the quality of the depth chart will mean that the Blackshirt name has meaning as the defense will be able to stand with some of the best ever to have played at DONU.

I-form and Power Option always seem like the answer, because, at one time, they were the answer. But none of these players were recruited with that system in mind. Nobody would know how to run it. And, even after you got past the learning curve, you have to have a TON of reps to get the rhythm and flow down so that the QB is pulling, keeping and pitching at the right times and places on the field to have it work out. Frost's first year as QB was spent, at least to a decently high degree, figuring out the option distribution and mastering the flow and rhythm. We were far beyond any learning curve with the offense and yet Frost's adjustment was not easy as a first year starter. How long would it take Adrian or Luke to do it? The rest of the season? And a big chunk of next? I am thinking so.

Turn the corner? Get us early or else? Or else what? More crappy play? I made a thread calling this our super bowl because I felt we needed to come out today and play well, if not dominate, in all phases, and gain the confidence for Penn State next week. We didn't and now we're looking down the barrel of 2-5 or worse. This coaching question is something we haven't got right since Tom hung it up. We showed no patience with Frank and fired him before we had a real plan and settled for Bill. Tom came in as AD and without a real national search went with his first instinct in Bo. Eichorst didn't like Bo but had no plan and so we settled for Mike Mike was awful. We didn't do a national search and went with our first instinct...Scott. Until we do a deep dive and find a formula and hire the man who will make that formula happen, we are screwed. This no plan or hire the first person you can think of BS has ended in disaster after disaster.

I would love to get back in that conference again. Those quick drives to Ames and Lawrence and Manhattan. Very nice. And I would love another shot at Texas. They had our number a bit. They benefited from luck during a big part of that. It would be nice to get back in the league and hang a half a hundred on them and exercise the demons a bit. These are my thoughts every time I see this thread.