brophog

I worry about next year when next week is no longer important.

They've gotten really accustomed to losing. You could see that in the recent press conference.

A 6.5 point underdog this weekend and you're number 2. Doesn't sound funny at all.

South Carolina

Northwestern is a massive surprise. No doubt getting a lot of credit still for the Stanford win. But does the committee realize they're actually getting out scored in games against FBS opponents this year? One note on the Big 12 and scheduling that needs to be stated: they play a true round robin, which accounts for one less non-conference game. A team like Alabama, whose higher ranked despite a loss, schedules one p5 team and then fillers (much like Nebraska and others do). Baylor actually has the same ratio of p5 to fillers, and TCU has a higher than average ratio. TCU doesn't have much of an argument at this point, and I really don't have a problem with Baylor being out of the top 4 considering their schedule is so massively backloaded. But, if we're at a similar decision at the end of the season, the above should be considered.

As always, the question is how much time. That is far from an obvious answer. Let's look at a non coaching, non football example. Daniel Murphy of the Mets. If you looked at him, in the moment, at 3 separate points the past few month (prior to the postseason, after his monstrous nlds/cs, and after the World Series that saw a bad bat and costly fielding) you may come up with 3 very different valuations to his worth. This happens all of the time in professional sports where the guy you think your not/signing is a picture reflective of different points in time. That's why sometimes a guy is let go only to have a great season somewhere else, or sometimes re-signed for big money that future performances don't reflect. As hard as it is to get this timing right with players, whom have a direct influence, imagine how hard it is with coaches whom have an indirect influence. It's harder to evaluate, but you still must evaluate and decide if the job being done is moving towards your stated goals.

Kenny doesn't really say anything about the current program, he simply isn't discounting possibilities. "I don't know", "maybe", "might".... What he does state are his relationships with his coaches. He's not attempting to pretend to know these players relationships to their coaches. He's not telling these players how to do things, he describes what he did as a player. It's a great interview, particularly because Kenny looks at the general case (such as his description of fans) rather than attempting to isolate to an artificial specific case. He's very careful with his words.

But how many beer kegs have there been sold?

No he wasn't SE inherited him. I am with Mr. Chamberlain NU has top 30 talent right now. Injuries have hurt no doubt, but that doesn't excuse losses to Purdue and Illinois. CM I disagree that this is a terrible schedule. BYU is going to win 9 and maybe 10 games this year, Whisky sit at 6-2 with its 2 losses to Alabama and Iowa. NW is 6-2 with wins over Stanford and Duke. S. Miss is actually 6-3 right now I think and could win out. Plus we still have to play Iowa and MSU. Coming into the season the schedule looked fairly easy, but NU has played some good teams so far. Not a extremely tough schedule but better than a lot of teams. This schedule is tougher than last years by far. Generally good teams can atleast break the top 50 in total offense. Except none of our opponents can, save for Southern Miss. Put it another way, if these are all such good teams, where are their good victories? Northwestern has some good wins, but they're balanced by some greatly lopsided losses (and all you need to do is put the tape on to see that is not a good football team). Neither BYU nor Wisconsin has a win against a current top 25 team. Iowa currently doesn't, though Pitt and/or Wisconsin could slide into the rankings. How then can you have a schedule of good teams if they're not ranked, they don't beat ranked teams, and all of them have weak offenses? I'm truly baffled how anyone can say this is a schedule of good teams with any kind of honesty.

It's making me hungry.

Luckily they're usually wrong.

In some respects the worst thing to happen would be defeating Sparty and Iowa. I know some think that impossible, but those two teams are no where near as good as their record. Nebraska is fully capable of beating both. Do that and opinions change radically, given perception of those teams. Sometimes it takes a few years to realize certain wins didn't mean much. A big win or two can often buy a coach a sizable amount of time, and often it's just a mirage. When to fire someone is really hard to tell. History is of little use. There are loads of coaches that had a bad year or two and then went on having bad years. Conversely there are coaches that took a while to reach whatever goal someone presented to them (bowl for some, maybe championship for others). Personally, especially in this case, I'm more of a leopard don't change his spots kind of person, but then again that's why I wouldn't have made this hire. Someone did and they need to evaluate it by the same terms they supposedly did when they made the hire.

The NFL doesn't like most college offenses because of the difficult time transitioning many positions. It was never a very good argument in the past, but it's really not a very good argument now. You run your program the way you need to run it to make it work. You don't run it to satisfy the needs of somebody else.

Link Most teams pass more when they are losing. To get a complete picture, the rushing attempts need cross referenced to score. He sorta did that with the quarter breakdown, but it needs to go further to get a complete picture.

It could be argued we've fallen past 2007 October Callahan levels. Every team played that October finished with a winning season, and at least a .500 conference record. Missouri and Texas both finished with 10 wins or more. Yes, the margins were far higher but the opposing offenses were far, far superior. Only Texas A&M finished outside the top 11 in total offense of the four teams played. The best offense we played this October is a power rushing team that can't run the ball. Wisconsin is 54th, Minnesota 89th, Purdue 104th, Illinois 105th, Northwestern 119th. Big ten offenses are positively wretched this year and we still can't stop them. (To put this season's failures into even more perspective, by current rankings the only offense we'll have played all year that ranks higher than 52nd will have been Southern Miss.)

Don't forget the Nebraska board staple: we don't run the ball enough.

That's the thing, we aren't going to fire Mike Riley in season one. No matter how bad the results. If we did, there is no way we'd be able to attract a decent coach. Lincoln would be toxic. People keep saying that, but no one provides any evidence.

But what happens if we get stomped but the fans stay for the leftover Valentinos?

Then by that argument, what is happening when he's the upset victim?

He's really showing a commitment to get better with that insight. Is, "sh#t happens", the new, "we didn't execute"? It means "Purdue did a better job of watching the Northwestern tape than I did"

That article is why Vegas has so many tall buildings. Never use the word 'can' in this context. It makes you look stupid. Anybody can win simply because the game exists. It may just not be probable.

I'll get right to work banning the five week October.

You seem surprised. Yeah I am. I figured they'd be at least 10 It's how the lines have opened on us all year. Sometimes we've even opened as favorite to see us drop to dog status. Plus Sparty is overrated, especially by analytical measurements.

That was just my tummy.

Impressive or not, a win is a win. I guess his 3 wins over Les Miles aren't impressive either. You keep saying he hasn't done anything impressive lately. In the past decade, how about three division titles, six bowl victories (including a BCS bowl), four top ten finishes, two top five finishes, five double-digit win seasons... you want me to continue?[/size] I know my opinion is an unpopular one. But I'm sticking with it.[/size] Has there ever been a coach with a comparable resume that was fired from that school and then made the next school as good or better?