True2tRA

That's the easiest thing to say. How does a coach go about doing this? Please explain. I'm trying to get a grasp on this mindset. So they're being coached not to execute? Or are they not executing because these coaches have not been doing their jobs for the last ten months? So when a player isn't executing, you bench him and put in another player that you've seen in practice executes possibly even worse? Or how does that work? Is that fair to the overall team, or does that not matter?

I don't pay attention to star rankings. Could give a sh#t less. Four or five shiny stars beside your name doesn't make you a good football player at this level. It makes you a good football player in high school. Nebraska has plenty of four star examples on the roster right now that either haven't taken a single snap of football at this level, or haven't had any impact when they've been in there. Did we look more talented than Purdue to you guys? I didn't see it. Maybe here or there at a couple spots. Westerkamp seems to be the most obvious. Every play I saw for the most part it looked like we had a player position to make a play and just didn't make the play on defense. Our defensive backs clearly can't play in a system like this. Does that mean Banker should scrap it, or should we try to get some better DB's? I don't know how that will play out. Lot's of plays where linebackers over ran plays, got lost or out of position, and just plain didn't make the play. I think Young and Banderas are pretty talented guys, Newby too, but where is it? How is it paying off and where are they showing it? You gotta make plays kids. Can talk about Langsdorf and the offense all game. Scored 29 points in the fourth Quarter correct? It appeared to me when we executed, we seemed to do well. When we didn't execute, it didn't go well. Funny how that works....... Ozigbo needs to carry the ball. He is talented. I like how Fyfe is able to get the simple completions to our backfield players. We need more of that. Fyfe is simply not an accurate passer of the football. Nor is Tommy consistently...... Five turnovers, tough to win games. Again, defense is ugly, but I challenge you to find me the plays where the guys were not in position to make the play. For any one instance you can find, I can find ten of them where the player did something wrong or didn't make the play. Not all on the players, though, I know that's not the popular thing to say. So fire some people! Hooray! That ought to fix it.

Has anybody heard a reason as to why Tommy did not go with his team?

If the QB throws on target and the WR catches the ball at a 63% or better completion percentage, with few interceptions, I believe the complaints about the passing game or lack of commitment to the running game would fade away. In other words, we wouldn't be complaining if it were working. So then we say, if the passing game isn't working, then why do we continue to do it. When I look at the run game, it doesn't appear to be much better. We Husker fans tend to want to go in the direction of the run game and would rather watch that fail than see a failing passing game over and over. That's fine, but we should all acknowledge that neither is exactly pretty to watch. We can't sit here and pretend Langsdorf is pulling a Beck and going away from what's working. Not a lot appears to be working at a consistently high level. We used to have the benefit of being able to hand it to Ameer and watch him create something nearly every time he touched it. Well I'd say it's pretty obvious the drop off at RB when Ameer left. If it's due to a lack of commitment to either particular area, I don't know, I'm not at practice. We have all these talent discussions around here and talk about all these "metrics" and measurements to show how much better we are than everyone else. You'd think it would be obvious on Saturdays when watching the team. I continue to look around the field trying to find where we are so much more physically dominant. Where are we making plays over these lesser talented teams?

If we can't get Tom Herman or Pat Narduzzi, I'm jumping on the Scott Frost train with you. Influenced by Walsh, Osborne, Parcells, Belichick, Snyder, Chip Kelly and Gruden...the only way you can improve that list is if he was somehow coached by Vince Lombardi as well. Said this in another thread. Watching the Cougars tonight dismantle Vandy and the announcers were talking about Herman being a hot commodity for some of the openings. They listed several to include: USC Carolina Gamecocks Miami Maryland and a few others. What got me was they said that Herman wouldn't be a good fit at USC. His "style" didn't fit their culture. Same with the Gamecocks. Said he would be a better fit at Maryland, but then he was a Texas and Ohio guy. Said Fuentes would be a good fit or Smart form Bama (Carolina). They then said maybe Herman to Miami as the would need a "splash hire". My point being, they specifically said just like kids look to schools that "fit", universities also look to find coaches who meet their culture/scheme and should be "splash hires" for those listed above. NU did neither. Riley does not fit the culture of NU nor was it a splash hire. Hope the next choice gets it right....... The guys mentioned above "get the culture" of NU and would be splash hires. You may not like the hire but Riley is a great fit for the culture of NU, or atleast what it "should" be. It definitely wasn't a splash hire. That loss to Purdue was horrible. When you turn the ball over 5 times, you're gonna lose football games. That's just how it works. This has been a tough season as a fan, and been maybe one of the toughest ever for the Coach of Nebraska. All the things that could go wrong are going wrong. That game yesterday was the perfect storm and Purdue caught Nebraska right in the middle of it. So go ahead, fire the coach. That word "fire" seems to be the only answer half of you have for anything. We will live and learn here and if we choose to fire another coach, I'm betting we continue to learn the hard way. I agree that we can't exactly fire him after one year, but it's disheartening that Riley hasn't had any answers after every week. I would be okay with an average W-L record if we didn't lose to really average teams like Wisconsin and Northwestern and really bad teams like Purdue and Illinois. I would also feel better about the future if it looked like the players were improving each week, but they aren't. I have zero faith that Riley will be able to turn it around in the years to come, but I also don't think we can fire him. Eichorst went out and got his guy and now unfortunately we are stuck with him and his inept staff. If I didn't know the background of Riley, I would never have been able to guess that he has been doing this for 30+ years. I completely agree with every point you made. The lack of answers and lack of improvement is just hugely disappointing. The Purdue and Illinois losses both are the ones that stand out to me as well. I don't know that Riley can get things fixed, and if he can it may not be quickly enough. I just don't think we can turn around and fire a guy this quickly. There's still that part of me that see players put in the position to succeed and are just not executing or making plays. I think we are missing some key players at some key positions, especially QB. We still appear to be a team that, with a little bit more consistency in our execution, is able to compete with or beat every single team we've played this season. So then we have the lack of execution conversation, and isn't that a conversation we've been having for a very, very long time? So when I see Mike Riley's team not executing this season, and I know this team has been inconsistent as hell for the last five years, I have to ask why I or anyone would totally blame these coaches for not being able to turn this into an execution oriented team in 10 months. I think they deserve more time and maybe a few more consistent players on their roster to see how things go. Of course, who cares what I think. Fire them and move on to someone else. I have no particular loyalty. I do like these guys and coach Riley in particular though. I think he knows what needs to be done. He just may not be able to get it done and I'm willing to bet the next guy will struggle as well.

If we can't get Tom Herman or Pat Narduzzi, I'm jumping on the Scott Frost train with you. Influenced by Walsh, Osborne, Parcells, Belichick, Snyder, Chip Kelly and Gruden...the only way you can improve that list is if he was somehow coached by Vince Lombardi as well. Said this in another thread. Watching the Cougars tonight dismantle Vandy and the announcers were talking about Herman being a hot commodity for some of the openings. They listed several to include: USC Carolina Gamecocks Miami Maryland and a few others. What got me was they said that Herman wouldn't be a good fit at USC. His "style" didn't fit their culture. Same with the Gamecocks. Said he would be a better fit at Maryland, but then he was a Texas and Ohio guy. Said Fuentes would be a good fit or Smart form Bama (Carolina). They then said maybe Herman to Miami as the would need a "splash hire". My point being, they specifically said just like kids look to schools that "fit", universities also look to find coaches who meet their culture/scheme and should be "splash hires" for those listed above. NU did neither. Riley does not fit the culture of NU nor was it a splash hire. Hope the next choice gets it right....... The guys mentioned above "get the culture" of NU and would be splash hires. You may not like the hire but Riley is a great fit for the culture of NU, or atleast what it "should" be. It definitely wasn't a splash hire. That loss to Purdue was horrible. When you turn the ball over 5 times, you're gonna lose football games. That's just how it works. This has been a tough season as a fan, and been maybe one of the toughest ever for the Coach of Nebraska. All the things that could go wrong are going wrong. That game yesterday was the perfect storm and Purdue caught Nebraska right in the middle of it. So go ahead, fire the coach. That word "fire" seems to be the only answer half of you have for anything. We will live and learn here and if we choose to fire another coach, I'm betting we continue to learn the hard way.

TOMMY DIDN'T TRAVEL WITH THE TEAM!??? FIRE RILEY!

I wish Jack could've been a part of something much bigger and better here. I hope the effort he has put in still has an effect that ends up being a part of that bigger and better future. If someone just learns from guys like Gangwish, in their effort and leadership, maybe it's the spark to ignite the fire in this program again. We need all we can get right now and in the darkest times, it's hard to be the light, Gangwish gets massive respect in my book for being that guy. Somewhere down the road, I hope Gangwish at least finds it rewarding in another way if he can look back and say that he did everything he could to keep this ship pointed in the right direction. Take pride in that, and if any of the young guys on this team even care to notice that, maybe they can learn from it and continue that pride.

This is something Bo Pelini would say... And then True would lambast him for it. Haha! Yep you guys are right and it is funny. Key difference here though and I know most of you won't get it or even care to read this, but the big difference is that I supported Bo for about the first 5 years. Hell, f#*k that, I even supported Bo in his final year when he swore he had seen the light and some changes were coming. 7 years in, we watched the same team do the same stuff in the same schemes. If you can't respect the difference there, then piss off and quit talking to me. I do see the difference. Except, we're doing the same things, and worse. If it was bad for Bo, it has to be bad for Riley too. Not sure how much to put on Coach Riley and his staff yet. Watching the games, the players are there, they are in position to succeed. They are not executing and they are not making plays. Too many experts here throwing the coaches under the bus and not even talking about the players. A defensive back watches the WR catch the ball and then misses the tackle, and tha'ts the coaches fault? Ryker throws a pick on a horrible pass and the first and following comments here are about Langsdorf? Gimme a break guys, these players are really doing a poor job this year. Period. It's all about how much ownership you think Riley and his staff have in this team and right now, I seriously question how much this is "their team". Coaches need to put the players in position to succeed. Purdue has the worst rush D in the B1G, and we abandoned the run. Our secondary has been torched by every QB we've faced, Banker says "oh, we can make adjustments" and we continue to put them on islands and put them in position to fail. It's not just the fans questioning what's going on. It's former players and analysts across the country. As a leader/manager/boss it is YOUR JOB to put people under you in the best position possible to succeed. Even if you don't have a team of rock stars, you do what you can. Nebraska isn't doing that. The fact that Ozigbo didn't have a carry is disappointing. Still this is far from laying it "all" on the coaches. Oh, I agree it's not "all" on the coaches. Ozigbo did play though and got a couple carries and a catch. No idea where Wilbon is. They raved about him all last year. I want Wilbon out there big time. Not sure what happened there, but it has been the most frustrating thing to watch us try to kick start a run game without our best RB. Wilbon is our best RB. Ozigbo, not far behind. You don't get the impression that this isn't "all" on the coaches when you read you and some of your buddies comments.

This is something Bo Pelini would say... And then True would lambast him for it. Haha! Yep you guys are right and it is funny. Key difference here though and I know most of you won't get it or even care to read this, but the big difference is that I supported Bo for about the first 5 years. Hell, f#*k that, I even supported Bo in his final year when he swore he had seen the light and some changes were coming. 7 years in, we watched the same team do the same stuff in the same schemes. If you can't respect the difference there, then piss off and quit talking to me. I do see the difference. Except, we're doing the same things, and worse. If it was bad for Bo, it has to be bad for Riley too. Not sure how much to put on Coach Riley and his staff yet. Watching the games, the players are there, they are in position to succeed. They are not executing and they are not making plays. Too many experts here throwing the coaches under the bus and not even talking about the players. A defensive back watches the WR catch the ball and then misses the tackle, and tha'ts the coaches fault? Ryker throws a pick on a horrible pass and the first and following comments here are about Langsdorf? Gimme a break guys, these players are really doing a poor job this year. Period. It's all about how much ownership you think Riley and his staff have in this team and right now, I seriously question how much this is "their team". Coaches need to put the players in position to succeed. Purdue has the worst rush D in the B1G, and we abandoned the run. Our secondary has been torched by every QB we've faced, Banker says "oh, we can make adjustments" and we continue to put them on islands and put them in position to fail. It's not just the fans questioning what's going on. It's former players and analysts across the country. As a leader/manager/boss it is YOUR JOB to put people under you in the best position possible to succeed. Even if you don't have a team of rock stars, you do what you can. Nebraska isn't doing that. This +1000, and why folks like True just don't get it. Frankly, if Riley were a CEO, he would have already been fired, his tenure has been that abysmal so far. This +10000000000000000000 What's wrong with that guy? What a dumbass......... (added more zeroes for effect)

This is something Bo Pelini would say...And then True would lambast him for it. Haha! Yep you guys are right and it is funny. Key difference here though and I know most of you won't get it or even care to read this, but the big difference is that I supported Bo for about the first 5 years. Hell, f#*k that, I even supported Bo in his final year when he swore he had seen the light and some changes were coming. 7 years in, we watched the same team do the same stuff in the same schemes. If you can't respect the difference there, then piss off and quit talking to me. The fact that you can't find any blame on the coaches acceptable in possibly the worst season in Nebraska history is laughable. I mean, Jesus our play calling is like some 12 year old playing Madden for the first time. I think a blind person pointing randomly at a playbook could call a better game. But no, you're right this is all Bo's and the players fault. Riley is completely f'ing blameless. I never said that, but if it helps you to feel better, then I'll carry that weight.

This is something Bo Pelini would say... And then True would lambast him for it. Haha! Yep you guys are right and it is funny. Key difference here though and I know most of you won't get it or even care to read this, but the big difference is that I supported Bo for about the first 5 years. Hell, f#*k that, I even supported Bo in his final year when he swore he had seen the light and some changes were coming. 7 years in, we watched the same team do the same stuff in the same schemes. If you can't respect the difference there, then piss off and quit talking to me. I do see the difference. Except, we're doing the same things, and worse. If it was bad for Bo, it has to be bad for Riley too. Not sure how much to put on Coach Riley and his staff yet. Watching the games, the players are there, they are in position to succeed. They are not executing and they are not making plays. Too many experts here throwing the coaches under the bus and not even talking about the players. A defensive back watches the WR catch the ball and then misses the tackle, and tha'ts the coaches fault? Ryker throws a pick on a horrible pass and the first and following comments here are about Langsdorf? Gimme a break guys, these players are really doing a poor job this year. Period. It's all about how much ownership you think Riley and his staff have in this team and right now, I seriously question how much this is "their team". Coaches need to put the players in position to succeed. Purdue has the worst rush D in the B1G, and we abandoned the run. Our secondary has been torched by every QB we've faced, Banker says "oh, we can make adjustments" and we continue to put them on islands and put them in position to fail. It's not just the fans questioning what's going on. It's former players and analysts across the country. As a leader/manager/boss it is YOUR JOB to put people under you in the best position possible to succeed. Even if you don't have a team of rock stars, you do what you can. Nebraska isn't doing that. The fact that Ozigbo didn't have a carry is disappointing. Still this is far from laying it "all" on the coaches.

PURE CLASS by Gangwish. Well done young man. RESPECT. Well done Gangwish.

This is something Bo Pelini would say... And then True would lambast him for it. Haha! Yep you guys are right and it is funny. Key difference here though and I know most of you won't get it or even care to read this, but the big difference is that I supported Bo for about the first 5 years. Hell, f#*k that, I even supported Bo in his final year when he swore he had seen the light and some changes were coming. 7 years in, we watched the same team do the same stuff in the same schemes. If you can't respect the difference there, then piss off and quit talking to me. I do see the difference. Except, we're doing the same things, and worse. If it was bad for Bo, it has to be bad for Riley too. Not sure how much to put on Coach Riley and his staff yet. Watching the games, the players are there, they are in position to succeed. They are not executing and they are not making plays. Too many experts here throwing the coaches under the bus and not even talking about the players. A defensive back watches the WR catch the ball and then misses the tackle, and tha'ts the coaches fault? Ryker throws a pick on a horrible pass and the first and following comments here are about Langsdorf? Gimme a break guys, these players are really doing a poor job this year. Period. It's all about how much ownership you think Riley and his staff have in this team and right now, I seriously question how much this is "their team".

This is something Bo Pelini would say... And then True would lambast him for it. Haha! Yep you guys are right and it is funny. Key difference here though and I know most of you won't get it or even care to read this, but the big difference is that I supported Bo for about the first 5 years. Hell, f#*k that, I even supported Bo in his final year when he swore he had seen the light and some changes were coming. 7 years in, we watched the same team do the same stuff in the same schemes. If you can't respect the difference there, then piss off and quit talking to me.

I can't take it anymore. Does anyone posting here have clue? If you throw a pass way behind the receiver, bad things happen. It doesn't mean you are cursed, it means you can't throw accurately, which is a function of coaching, talent, effort, and practice. Good lord right!? It's either bad coaching or we're cursed!? Where the hell do you people just realize that if we just execute, things usually go our way! If we don't have the players to execute, then we need to get them and we can hardly hold Riley and his staff accountable for not having the guys capable of executing right now. How the hell could that be their fault? We've been inconsistent for years now! It is all mental right now. Players are culpable for their actions and mindset. Coaches are too. Charlie Strong came into a distinct but equally toxic atmosphere in Texas. He started the change in culture during the off-season by making the team accountable for their actions (lots of players dismissed). The play suffered from the talent loss, so mid-season, Charlie has incorporated more power football. It is a lot easier to buy in as a player when you know there are consequences to your actions (Team comes first) and that you will have an opportunity to run the ball down the opponents throat on Saturdays. Accountability + Power Football, that is the recipe for a strong football culture. Yeah, and that is where I find the coaches responsible and if you've read my comments on this board, you've seen it. I get in these discussions here with stupid people and I find myself defending the coaches constantly with the on field stuff, but this accountability and personnel area of the team is one are I am baffled by the decisions. I totally agree with your Charlie Strong reference and this catering to the athlete mentality needs to disappear here as well. These guys need an awakening, but how will they ever wake up if they don't feel like their position on the team is ever in jeapordy. I totally get it. Then you have to put yourself in the shoes of the coach. If you're a coach, you're responsibility is to put the best product you can on the field. So if there is such a drastic drop off to that next level then you're in a tough spot. Do you allow the team as a whole to suffer and fail because you've put an even worse player in the game? I mean, we have to remember, these decisions affect everyone. Not just the player that doesn't seem to give a crap. The whole team suffers. I think we are indeed in a rebuild mode and I think there needs to be some cleansing of this program.

Come on man. No one here is against the team. You seem to blame them and give the staff a pass. Come on man, no one here is against the coaches, you seem to blame them and give the staff a pass. I keep the balance. I'll tell you when it's one or the other or both. Players have been in position to win this game and have made too many mistakes and not made enough plays to cover them up. Really...so when has it been on the coaches? The Illinois game. No doubt about it. The rest of the games have been a little bit of both. This one and last week was mostly all players. The tone of the game and mindset of the team is set in the off-season and Sunday-Friday in practice. That is on the coaches to build their culture. 10 months is plenty of time to establish a strong culture. Listen to how Harbaugh did it through tough practices, high expectation, and accountability in the same amount of time Riley has been at Nebraska. The players choose to quit on this team, but the coaches allow them. As a coach, you have to know this. I really think this was a unique situation Riley walked into. I don't think this was a place anybody was going to walk into and just "change the culture". There's some stuff ingrained pretty deeply here. Combine that with the gut wrenching losses to start the season, and I think it went the wrong way quickly. You might be right. I can understand their situation, but I just can not give the coaches a pass. I'm not totally giving them a pass, I'm just willing to give them a little time to get it fixed. You don't hire coaches and fire them 10-11 months later. Not in my opinion anyway.

Come on man. No one here is against the team. You seem to blame them and give the staff a pass. Come on man, no one here is against the coaches, you seem to blame them and give the staff a pass. I keep the balance. I'll tell you when it's one or the other or both. Players have been in position to win this game and have made too many mistakes and not made enough plays to cover them up. Really...so when has it been on the coaches? The Illinois game. No doubt about it. The rest of the games have been a little bit of both. This one and last week was mostly all players. The tone of the game and mindset of the team is set in the off-season and Sunday-Friday in practice. That is on the coaches to build their culture. 10 months is plenty of time to establish a strong culture. Listen to how Harbaugh did it through tough practices, high expectation, and accountability in the same amount of time Riley has been at Nebraska. The players choose to quit on this team, but the coaches allow them. As a coach, you have to know this. This discussion of it's the players fault VS it's the coaches fault needs to stop. They are on the same damn team. You win as a team, you lose as a team. Thanks_Tom RR has it exactly right. This team, it's mentality, it's mindset, it's identity is built in the offseason and in how they go about practices during the week. That is on the coaches. Have the coaches made some good play calls or had the players in positions to make plays, but just didn't execute? YES! This season's outcome, both it's positives & negatives falls on both parties. You didn't read what I said. This teams mentality is not owned by Riley or his staff. It's just not. Maybe in some situations coaches are able to come over and infect the team with their mentality, but this situation was truly unique in my opinion. Bo Pelini was a different kind of coach, he instilled a very negative us against the world mentality, and the players really bought into a negative approach to things. Again, I don't think Riley has been able to get a hold of this team's mentality yet, and I don't blame him. It's evident when you see some of the actions of our players too, it's really not debatable that there are some lingering attitude issues.

I can't take it anymore. Does anyone posting here have clue? If you throw a pass way behind the receiver, bad things happen. It doesn't mean you are cursed, it means you can't throw accurately, which is a function of coaching, talent, effort, and practice. Good lord right!? It's either bad coaching or we're cursed!? Where the hell do you people just realize that if we just execute, things usually go our way! If we don't have the players to execute, then we need to get them and we can hardly hold Riley and his staff accountable for not having the guys capable of executing right now. How the hell could that be their fault? We've been inconsistent for years now!

Come on man. No one here is against the team. You seem to blame them and give the staff a pass. Come on man, no one here is against the coaches, you seem to blame them and give the staff a pass. I keep the balance. I'll tell you when it's one or the other or both. Players have been in position to win this game and have made too many mistakes and not made enough plays to cover them up. Really...so when has it been on the coaches? The Illinois game. No doubt about it. The rest of the games have been a little bit of both. This one and last week was mostly all players. The tone of the game and mindset of the team is set in the off-season and Sunday-Friday in practice. That is on the coaches to build their culture. 10 months is plenty of time to establish a strong culture. Listen to how Harbaugh did it through tough practices, high expectation, and accountability in the same amount of time Riley has been at Nebraska. The players choose to quit on this team, but the coaches allow them. As a coach, you have to know this. I really think this was a unique situation Riley walked into. I don't think this was a place anybody was going to walk into and just "change the culture". There's some stuff ingrained pretty deeply here. Combine that with the gut wrenching losses to start the season, and I think it went the wrong way quickly.

You didn't use this argument the last few years, what gives? Seven years of watching the players be out of position, running the same "pass first" defensive scheme. I tend to expect some changes when things are going the exact same way for seven years. Year one, new staff, they have the right philosphy and players have been in position to make plays. Tackling has improved. We are still just insanely inconsistent. It's easily there for the taking if the players just step up. It's not nearly as often you see the defenders not in position to make the play.

Come on man. No one here is against the team. You seem to blame them and give the staff a pass. Come on man, no one here is against the coaches, you seem to blame them and give the staff a pass. I keep the balance. I'll tell you when it's one or the other or both. Players have been in position to win this game and have made too many mistakes and not made enough plays to cover them up. Really...so when has it been on the coaches? The Illinois game. No doubt about it. The rest of the games have been a little bit of both. This one and last week was mostly all players.

Rip the damn ball Bando!