tmfr15

It's the mistakes that bother me. We out gained Purdue, but we got in our way enough times that they built a lead and won the game. Colorado, Troy, Northwestern, Ohio State... I could go on. There were dumb plays in each that just KILLED us. Even in the last game, against the Hawks, Nebraska had a complete blown coverage on the TE on 4th down. How does that guy get so wide open? We let him run to a spot and then turn and catch the ball beyond the sticks. No bump coverage, no coverage underneath. Zip. Nothing. Those things were not forced on us. We shot ourselves in the foot. So in response to would we have beaten Purdue in the tail end of the season. Maybe. But we still would have made a lot of mistakes, so I am not super confident. Football is tough when you have expectations. It's tough in all sports to a certain degree. But you wait eight months to see your team. And then you find out they still aren't going to be any good. It just rips your heart right out.

Like most people on this board, my expectations for Nebraska football are pretty high this year.... sometimes maybe too high, i.e. conference championship and playoff bid. Still, it would seem that the direction of this this team is way up from a year ago. A solid bowl game bid, 10-win season, Big Ten West Division title.... those all seem reasonable. That was until I watched the Purdue game. Nebraska was just really bad in that Purdue game. We had flashes of good but so many dumb mistakes and breakdowns. Can we fix it all in one calendar year? And then you look at how Purdue finished. They went 6-6 and then got beat 63-14 by Auburn in the Music City Bowl. Auburn was ahead 42-7 with 8+ minutes left until half. It felt like Auburn could have scored 100. What I saw against Purdue was a theme of last year. There's good, but then there's, "What the heck are you doing?" Like A-Mart's backwards pass to JD against the Bucks. Why? Just Why? I love the Huskers and I am ready for a breakout season. So I want to believe great things are about to happen. But I also have a bit of pause in my enthusiasm after Purdue. Anybody empathize?

When I look at expectations, competing toward the top of the league, both regular season and tournament, should be a given. This league is fairly weak. Missing the tourney is really not good at all. To win a Regional, it's close to a necessity to host. A few of those sprinkled in over eight years ... 2 or 3 ...is not too much to ask for. Winning a super is hard but we would all like to get to the CWS and win a game or two. We believed in that under Dave. It's almost a complete fantasy at this point. Given Erstad returning, I would not believe in our chances to improve over this year. Not saying we couldn't, but past results say no. I believed Erstad was the man for this job based on his baseball knowledge and his having been coached by Mike Scioscia. That's diminished after year eight.

-- Worse winning percentage than Anderson -- We missed the Big 10 tourney last year -- Big 10 was supposed to be an "easy" conference filled with northern teams that didn't take baseball seriously -- We missed the postseason (Regionals) 4 times... equal to number of times we made it -- Never hosted a Regional. -- 2-8 in Regional play -- Never made it to Super Regional -- No CWS -- Most important... Was unlikely to ever change our circumstances That about covers it for me

Oh... Timmy Miles. What could have been, my friend. What could have been.

Hoping for a nice little run in this tournament. Those last four games, Iowa and the three at the tourney, were fun to watch.

Why can't we get a Big 10 vs. Big 12 match up in a bowl? Or do we have one already? I just would like to see Nebraska have a chance to take on Oklahoma in a bowl game. I am so over the $EC.

Fair points and ones that I am well aware of... I just figured that an examination of the program from inside the program might provide a fresh perspective that I am never going to be privileged to see. Here's hoping that such an examination is undertaken by the leadership of the athletic department and that the resulting decisions put the program in position for a sustainable and satisfying success rate.

As Nebraska limps down the stretch, due to injuries and negative momentum, Husker fans are getting ready to hear the words, "Tim Miles has been fired." And while that's understandable at every level, it occurs to me that Nebraska should stop and determine why this didn't work out. Did the University of Nebraska support Tim in all of the ways that it could? What's the difference between Tim's struggles and Doc's struggles? I get we want to fire Tim Miles because of how this season went.... horrid.... when it was felt that this was the year for the Huskers to make a positive push. But if you don't know what you did wrong in the past, then you can't get the next hire right either. And if you truly want this basketball program to succeed, and an analysis of the facts indicates that the University of Nebraska could do more to help Miles, then don't fire him, support him. And when you do come out with a statement of support for the guy, be clear as to why and what you are going to do going forward.

I don't hate Iowa, because there is no reason to hate Iowa.... In basketball, if Iowa was in position to burst our bubble and keep us out of the dance, then the game Sunday would mean something and would invoke an emotional response. It won't because there is no bubble to break. We are so far off the bubble that, at this point, UNK has about the same chance as we do in terms of making the dance. In football, Iowa didn't win anything by beating Nebraska. Yes, an Iowa team that wasn't going to the conference champ game beat a Nebraska team that had no shot. And yet Iowa celebrated as if they had won something. That's just sad for Iowa. They're satisfied with almost nothing. Now, if there was a scenario where Nebraska went unbeaten in conference play and took on an Iowa team that had one conference loss, then, well that would suck. And if Iowa not only beat Nebraska but then went on to dominate in the conference championship game while DONU limped off to some bowl for an uninspiring matchup against an also-ran team, we would all hate it. IMHO, you develop hate for schools that prevent your school front rising up and doing something great. Those schools end up holding the trophy that you wanted. Iowa isn't going after trophies anytime soon.

My formula is as follows. We need to recruit, in a balanced fashion, eight star level players, four star guys on the recruiting service, per year. Over a five year cycle, including a redshift year, you would have 40 star level guys on the roster. Assume an attrition of 50 percent. Now you have 20. With a balance of defense and offense, that is 10 per side. Now four players on each side are not contributing because they're redshift guys or redshirt freshmen. Six stars. The remainder of the starters and the extent of the depth chart is filled through the development of three star guys and walk on guys. This can work and it can work to a healthy extent against the top teams in the East. Win the conference in a year where the schedule sets up well with a manageable cross over slate and you are in the playoffs. That playoff hurts us because it's easier to get one upset than it is two. But if the bracket breaks right, why not us?

The conference championship game acts as a national eliminator and yet teams are selected for the conference title game based on league record only. It's sad when Northwestern 8-4 has the best conference record and would have even got to Indy based on an overall of 8-4, but nothing chaps my rear more than seeing conference title game representation determined by a head-to-head win when overall decides the outcome. For instance, if Northwestern had one conference loss this year, but three out of conference losses and played Wisconsin, which had one conference loss and was perfect out of conference, and then took the lead in the division with four overall losses compared to two overall losses for the Wisconsin team.

Nebraska is in prime position to rise now. Take an inventory of the league. In the West, Wisky, terrible year; Iowa is Iowa; Purdue, replaces QB; Northwestern replaces QB. In the East, Ohio State replaces coach; Michigan is coming off a soul crushing loss to its rival; Michigan State is not very good; and Penn State replaces QB. It's our time to rise!

Mixed emotions like many of the people who have posted. Zac is a great guy. Cleveland is a horrible job. When would this move happen anyway? I mean, I start by assuming that Cleveland waits until the end of the year and then decides if it wants to keep the interim guy with a modified or same staff of coaches or if they want to hire a new coach and start over. Then again, this is Cleveland. They might hire a Coach In Waiting and have him stand directly behind the interim guy, reminding him between plays that he won't be the coach in two years, only to have the interim guy fire back with, "That's Ok, you won't be the coach in two years either."

Excellent points. That kind of answered my original question.

Also ... Attrition is a definite factor and we can't anticipate that with any certainty

It does effect the conversation a lot with recruiting when you break it down to position groups. And I can see where it would be ok for larger classes as long as they perform well. Then again, if you have to take big classes frequently, the risk/bust factor for the class goes up.

I guess the only consideration is roster development when opposed to over signing. And by that, I mean you want to create a system where you have guys come onto campus, learn and then play instead of expecting every player to hit Lincoln and appear on the two-deep tomorrow. I totally get what everyone is saying about the importance of this class of players in turning things around. But to have a big group of guys in one year creates the situation that Moiraine refers to where you are picky some years and lose out on talented guys and then not picky some years and pick up guys that aren't as good. It also forces guys into the line up quicker, which might in turn stunt their development. We all knew that Scott would need time to turn this around. If he needed to recruit in a balanced fashion and have walk on players bridge the gap in creating depth for practices and games, I would be OK with that. We would not get it turned around as quick, but when we did, it might be better long term. Only super duper talented studs would be playing significantly in those first two to three years of eligibility. The rest of the guys could develop as a red shirt and then as frosh and start giving us a little bit as soph then major work as junior and senior players.

Just a couple questions here about over signing and it's effect on roster management and player development. Over the years, I have heard more than one Husker head coach talk about creating a balance of players with fairly equal representation, freshman through seniors. When you over sign and create a big class comprised of mostly freshmen with a few jucos, don't you upset the balance? Obviously, only a certain number of the freshmen will develop into regulars in the line up and stars. If you have bigger classes instead of balance, guys can't wait their turn because a good percentage of the guys they're competing with share their eligibility status. Wouldn't this make people frustrated enough to transfer and then you feel the need to over sign again and again and again? I didn't know if past coaches were unwilling to over sign because of the negative effect they believed it would have on the team or if they were just unable to do.it and using roster balance to excuse this deficiency as an HC. Thoughts?

All I mean to say is that he was big time at a smaller high school in Nebraska. Does it translate to big success at D1 football, we'll see. Tim Tebow was an absolute beast in college football but that probably means little when you judge his NFL results. Failure at the next level doesn't negate the previous success at the lower level. And success at a lower level doesn't guarantee anything at the next level.

Vederal was a beast, albeit in Class C1 of Nebraska high school football at Wahoo Neumann.

I think they are okay with it because we've lost 20 non senior players. Twenty. Ouch.

Vederal needs to be the immediate No. 2 man. If he gets a chance to play, we should get him in there. If he is a solid No. 2 guy that just makes the depth chart a lot more secure.

I think I heard an audible CLICK sound. Maybe they just got it. And we are going to get better from here. Seems weird to say, but I left the stadium feeling like garbage and then I heard Scott talk after the game. And then I heard today's presser. And now I hear this. I am feeling a little better. It's homer to no end to feel good at 0-4, but, strange as it is to say this, I feel better right now than I did after last year's win over Purdue. Go figure.

Cover against Wisky? Nope. If this team was going to wake up or turn the corner, it would have done that by now. The Huskers are in real danger of going 1-11.