Huskerzoo

@zoogs

I'm not 100% sure I agree. I think there were many criticisms of Riley when he was hired. One of them being he was bringing a bunch of assistant coaches that were his buddies. It seems he figured that out. Riley has always come across as more of a big picture guy instead of a super hands on person like Bo was. I think this to an extent is why he's so flummoxed about what's going on. In the big picture, things should be going the right direction. The moves have seemed to be pretty good, but the details just aren't playing out in the way we might predict. In theory we have a higher talent level in our starters than we have for awhile. In theory, we have the right players for the system. Yet, something is going wrong. 

From a management perspective, you look at your mid-level managers (the assistants) to assess why the product isn't right. My (uneducated) impression is this.

1. Too many mistakes were made at the initial onboarding. Riley has enough connections we should've been putting together an A list roster from the get go. It's absurd that it's taken us this long. With that said, the hires we have made have promise for the most part I think. If this translates to reality or not I'm not sure. However, I think Williams, Williams, Bray and co are pretty solid. I think Bob has potential. I want to see what happens through the season. My field demands you need a minimum of 3 data points to make a read of a situation. When one datapoint (NIU) isn't like the others, you have to collect more information. 

2. I think this team is better in practice than on the field. I think the team has some issues with performance anxiety or something. It sucks, but I don't think that's something that's easy to evaluate in scouting and it's hard to pull the plug on a guy who kills it in practice but can't execute on the field. 

3. I think our depth right now is not good. I think we have good talent in our starters, but beyond that the team is full of journeymen and/or potential. Yes, Riley should have his guys by this point, but his guys are rSO or Jrs. While it's no longer rare to see true Fr make impacts. It's certainly still more rare than rJrs and rSr making a difference. I think you could easily make the case that 3 of our 5 best players were injured against NIU. Granted 2 of them were on D and I think our D played a good game (not amazing, but good). I still stand by my belief that our team is not deep enough to lose our starters. 

4. I think change starts at the very top. SE has had a disappointing career across the board sans volleyball. I don't think there's any reason that our basketball team should be this bad given the resources we put in. I think our baseball team continues to underachieve. I also think that SE is not objective when it comes to HCMR. Unlike HCMR who seems to be doing his best to adapt (firing those who need to be fired) which makes me want to give him more of a chance (as all you can do is adapt when the situation calls for it). I think that SE has shown nothing but rigidity. I think that unless we salvage this season somehow, SE needs to go. Our new AD can come in and really assess the state of the program and determine if HCMR is inept or not. However, in the meantime, I say keep firing coaches who can't do their job. It's not like we're firing guys after 1 year. Cav has not done anything to show that he can perform with college students. Davis has questionable recruiting at best in my opinion. Unfortunately, Nebraska is a program where there cannot be squeeky wheels. We don't have talent base to have guys who cannot coach and recruit. Further, we don't have an established system where we can find the right guy and plug him in ala Wisconsin. This is a program that seems to need everything to go right and it's just not right now. The question is: is this coaching regime the people fixing up the old fastback mustang and we're just dealing with the trial and error process that goes into repairing something amazing? or is this a situation where we're a dude trying to get the childhood he never had, so he bought a nice old car that he has no clue how to drive? 

At the end of the day, I want to make sure that we're doing everything we can to salvage the nice car. I do think there's going to be a lot of trial and error though. And it sucks. If you've ever attempted something like that, it's painful. It makes you want to quit and just trash the thing. That doesn't mean the cars bad, it just means you've got more work to do and you might need to change some parts. Eventually you'll know when you've got to sell and cut your losses, but it's hard to know exactly when that is. Right now though, I think we just need a new alternator. 

Zoo--great post. 

I'd also like to add that someone needs to tell Riley to hit up JuCo players and FCS kids to fill gaps in our depth.

We have plenty of both types of programs in the immediate vicinity, yet we're not giving them any attention. Most of these kids honestly aren't going to be world-beaters, but many will have some modicum of talent and can fill glaring roster holes. Plus, for some kids, it's a second chance at the big time, and they're going to work their ass off as a result--those kids are positive contagions for a program trying to establish a good work-ethic.  

I completely agree Vector. I have a bit of a guess that this might be a somewhat high risk high reward game that's being played and has been from the get go. 

I kind of wonder if this was a known long term rebuild aimed at 2019. Every move seems to be compromising the short term to "ensure" the long term. Now it might be backfiring because they didn't understand how bad it could get. It feels like the long game though, mainly in terms of changing culture. I think they want to have the players be theirs for as long as possible to have the "right" guys. 

I was pretty squarely in the fire Bo crowd. I don't know if HCMR was the right hire, but I thought bo had created a toxic environment. This trying to do things the right way seems to be priority number 1, even over winning. I think that could pay off long term...if the staff can make it to the long term. I have started to wonder if giving KJJ a second chance was more a favor to Keyshawn than Keyshawn being the super dad. 

It's a bit conspiracy theory, but I think there's something that happened with the football program that led to a we gotta change this no-matter what situation. To that end, JUCO guys are interesting because they usually messed up pretty big at some point. We've shown almost no willingness to go after them. I think I remember 2 guys. I would love if we could get some help from those ranks though.