What Phase of the Game Must Improve = Successful Season

[Fru]

1 hour ago, Red Five said:

 

Or the very next week vs Wisconsin.  Janovich runs 50 yards for a TD giving us a 1 point lead with 3:30 to go.  Defense then allows Joel Stave to drive down the field, but Wisky misses a 35 yard FG with 1:30 to go.  We get ball back, but Wisconsin has all 3 TOs.  We run up the middle 3 times and punt to them with 1:00 to go.  Stave takes Wisky down the field again and this time they hit the FG as time expires to win.

About a year ago I was going down a YouTube rabbit hole of Neb games and I stumbled upon that 2015 Wis game. I remember that we lost but for the life of me I couldn’t remember how. I watched the end of that game and genuinely got sick to my stomach. Just absolutely staggering the way this program has found ways to lose games. 

[thexyz]

Rushing offense needs to improve. In particular, it has to improve in critical junctures. While I think that there will be improvement, the offensive line play will determine how successful we are there. We've got a ways to go there. Special teams needs to generate field position for the offense as well. The kicking game should be good. 

 

Envision Sims throwing lots of quick short and intermediate darts to receivers, backs and tight ends spreading the field quite a bit. A bit too reliant on the passing game yet. Lack of continuity has been a limiting factor for us. In time we'll finally have an identity. 

 

What will likely improve most in my estimation is passing defense.Coach White will have his group ready and disciplined. There will likely be significant improvement in the area of penalties, too.

 

For the most part, I think that the defense again will carry the team this season. It'll take longer for the offense to come around. We have speed though those players lack experience at present. Much better special teams play would be a welcome surprise and help considerably. 

 

 

[BigRedBuster]

Actually I just thought about this since fall camp is starting. 
 

The #1 thing that needs to improve is…practice. 

[commando]

the mind game must improve.   these guys have the talent but they have always lacked the confidence to win the close games

[Mavric]

21 minutes ago, BigRedBuster said:

Actually I just thought about this since fall camp is starting. 
 

The #1 thing that needs to improve is…practice. 

[thexyz]

1 hour ago, commando said:

the mind game must improve.   these guys have the talent but they have always lacked the confidence to win the close games

 

Very much so. We hear words or phrases mentioned like "Grit", "Grind" and "Mental Toughness"... There's a level of understanding of what those term are though oftentimes it's quite shallow. But what do they really mean...Where is the experience of truly knowing their meaning?

 

Mental toughness is sacrificing and working hard and then having it all destroyed in a matter of minutes then instead of being beaten or giving in, pulling yourself and your teammates up and responding to the adversity effectively. Things like that. Feeling the pain and getting back to work anyway because there are no other options (if you want to be successful with your endeavor). Going through the fire and coming out stronger and resilient as a consequence because, you decided to and defeating thoughts not getting the best of you. You're in the business of getting in your opponents heads and not being rattled. 

 

Grit is getting dirty, sweaty, bloody, cold, whatever uncomfortable thing it is, and not being distracted or deterred by it. Someone delivers a blow. It stings then you respond anyway. Success isn't always necessarily fun. It is, however, satisfying. It's cyclical. Not linear. Keep moving. The only constant in life is change. Embrace it. Accept the challenges. All of them. There will be many. 

 

I've heard people talking about grinding at work or the gym. It's laughable. Someone might think grinding is dinking around wasting time looking at phones, gossiping and yakking about insignificant things that take away from achieving goals. Work is being done sure, but where's the real commitment... Maybe "grinding" is defined as working hard but fun things being more important. That doesn't work. Look in the mirror into your eyes and take ownership for what you want to do and how you can contribute. It might piss some people off. Perhaps you'll have fewer "friends" that weren't really supportive of you anyway. 

 

I don't think that they necessarily lack confidence (although that can be a contributing factor). It's more about competencies. Being mentally competent. With that competence comes actual real confidence not just saying things to oneself that are encouraging, positive thinking. We've seen lots of positive thinkers that achieve little. Mental toughness would include agility. Abilities of adjusting and willingness to adapt. It's not some fixed point. 

 

And what if you do finally succeed...Does it get easier? No! It gets HARDER. Some people are afraid of that too. The better one gets, the harder things are and the more competent you are physically and mentally. With competence comes authentic confidence. Swagger doesn't come from a uniform or what ones star ratings are. It's what one does in the uniform directed by disciplines and self control. Not what's happening around you or to you. Don't beat yourself or your team up for error. Just be accountable and make every effort to execute at your highest level and keep on elevating it, burning brighter. 

 

We haven't been achieving nowhere near our potential. A big part of that is the mental game. Physical and mental talent combined complementing each other and, those around us. 

[thexyz]

1 hour ago, BigRedBuster said:

Actually I just thought about this since fall camp is starting. 
 

The #1 thing that needs to improve is…practice. 

 

Lots of scenarios over and over and over again. Forgetting, remembering, forgetting less and less. Familiarity then knowing. All the pieces working together as effectively as possible. Constant and continuous improvement! 

[84HuskerLaw]

The single biggest area of improvement needed is, imo, the game play.  Play even harder, play even smarter, play every snap as though it’s for the championship.  Cause it is.  Last season the trend line was up but there were about 10% of the snaps where the effort, the focus, the intensity, the tough physical play just lapsed.  
 

Some of this was fatigue (mental and or physical),  at least partially due to a lack of depth at too many positions.  Lapses occurred cause too many guys were tired and didn’t get breaks thru rotations.  Backups weren’t prepared or coaches didn’t believe so.  
 

Depth has been shored up across nearly every group. Quality depth to boot.  Using four game duration saving redshirts, the coaches can build depth and experience without big drop off in performances.  

[brophog]

7 hours ago, M.A. said:

For the most part, I think that the defense again will carry the team this season. It'll take longer for the offense to come around.

 

Even though long term I'm much more excited about the defense, in the short term my thinking is this goes the other way.

 

It's not really a complicated defense, but to maximize it you do need athleticism and versatility. We brought in some good pieces to aid there, but the new guys aren't bringing much experience with them. It's a high risk, high reward style of play and even in this first year i think it'll be exciting to watch, but mistakes will be costly.

 

Meanwhile, the offense gained a tremendous amount of experience at QB, Center, and a Possession WR. I'm not saying either side 'carries' the defense, necessarily, but I think it gets up to speed quicker in Year 1 before the defense makes a tremendous leap in Year 2.

[thexyz]

4 hours ago, brophog said:

 

Even though long term I'm much more excited about the defense, in the short term my thinking is this goes the other way.

 

It's not really a complicated defense, but to maximize it you do need athleticism and versatility. We brought in some good pieces to aid there, but the new guys aren't bringing much experience with them. It's a high risk, high reward style of play and even in this first year i think it'll be exciting to watch, but mistakes will be costly.

 

Meanwhile, the offense gained a tremendous amount of experience at QB, Center, and a Possession WR. I'm not saying either side 'carries' the defense, necessarily, but I think it gets up to speed quicker in Year 1 before the defense makes a tremendous leap in Year 2.

Am encouraged with the addition of Sims. Excited to see what he does. Perhaps I’m underestimating the offensive group and they execute at a higher level.

[TGHusker]

11 hours ago, Mavric said:

Perfect practice makes for perfection.

 

Under Frost:  Practice poorly and blundering boldly. 

[Guy Chamberlin]

Mental. Winning culture. 

[brophog]

13 hours ago, M.A. said:

Perhaps I’m underestimating the offensive group and they execute at a higher level.

 

We all may be doing so and for a very good reason. There are a lot of pieces of this offense that just haven't been that productive. However, there is a lot of potential in this offense, it certainly not without talent.

 

I just think offenses tend to have an easier time transitioning that defenses because they have more control of things. Defenses often need a few pieces to shore up their weaknesses because the opposing offenses can attack their weaknesses. On the flipside, there are many productive offenses with significant weaknesses that still do quite well because they can choose to find other ways of moving the ball.

 

13 hours ago, M.A. said:

Am encouraged with the addition of Sims.

 

Me too. What we saw in the spring and what we heard at B10 media days match: a QB that is maturing into a team leader. I'm very excited to see him play.

[The Dude]

We've been so unremarkable in everything for so long it's difficult to boil it down to one thing.

 

Coach seems like the kind of guy to show up to practices on time, and sober.  That's a start.  Hopefully everything else starts to fall in to place and we can at least pull off a mediocre season.

[runningblind]

26 minutes ago, The Dude said:

Coach seems like the kind of guy to show up to practices on time, and sober.  

This made me laugh.  It boggles my mind still how big of a joke Frost was, and by association us, for the last 5 years.