I think fans expect unrealistic results

[Goal-line]

Not one sane person would have picked nu to win a national title. Most preseason picked us to go 8-?/9-?....so what's the fuss about? We have a young team and young staff and can't recruit sec top atheletes at every position every year. It took the great Tom osborne 20 years to get it just right to win. People need to settle down. Did I expect to win them all?....yep...will we win them all?...nope. Be patient and let coaches be coaches. It's obvious certain things need addressing but its not as doom and gloom as it seems. Firing all your coaches for going 9-4 is exactly what set nu back a decade. We don't have the ability to recruit and bounce right back from a program overhaul in a year or two. It is a 5-10 year upward battle to build a program back up. People forget nebraska is not a tourist destination. Kids don't come here easily. Can't wait for next year! GBR

The fuss is about the reason you play the game,----------- to win! Getting beat in a hard fought battle and the score is 20-17 vs getting pummeled 45-10 with lack luster effort, inferior talent and coaching, are two different animals.

 

October 1 Nebraska vs Wisconsin Nebraska 17 Wisconsin 48

November 19 Nebraska vs Michigan Nebraska 17 Michigan 45

January 2 Nebraska vs South Carolina Nebraska 13 South Carolina 30

 

Winning all the games is a tough assignment, but it also the goal. If you go out on the field expecting to win 8-9 wins, that is what you will achieve. The goal is to win them all. Any goal less than that is not acceptable to an athlete or program that is a legitimate national contender.

 

It makes it a lot easier to pay $450 for a season ticket if you have an high quality undefeated team vs a 9-4 team of perpetual mediocrity. Winning is the only goal, the only option!

[bdubb75]

I don't think wanting 10+ wins year in, year out for a team that is historically one of the leaders in terms of wins and athletes is having unrealistic expectations. On a side note, the time is now in the Big 10. With Hoke doing well at Michigan and Urban coming to OSU, things are going to be shifting back to the OSU/Mich Big 10 days (in my opinion). I don't think we are lacking talent but maybe overall player development and identity. We had so many games this year where it was feast or famine on offense. I think we need more consistency across the board (beat Michigan St one week then be a 17 point favorite over a sub .500 team like Northwestern at home and lose and be exposed on defense) and we need to be able to bounce back from being down.

[Foppa]

Not one sane person would have picked nu to win a national title. Most preseason picked us to go 8-?/9-?....so what's the fuss about? We have a young team and young staff and can't recruit sec top atheletes at every position every year. It took the great Tom osborne 20 years to get it just right to win. People need to settle down. Did I expect to win them all?....yep...will we win them all?...nope. Be patient and let coaches be coaches. It's obvious certain things need addressing but its not as doom and gloom as it seems. Firing all your coaches for going 9-4 is exactly what set nu back a decade. We don't have the ability to recruit and bounce right back from a program overhaul in a year or two. It is a 5-10 year upward battle to build a program back up. People forget nebraska is not a tourist destination. Kids don't come here easily. Can't wait for next year! GBR

 

Not that it should matter what the idiots at ESPN think, or anyone else in the media for that matter...but if you watched the preseason shows, most picked Nebraska winning every game but Wisconsin, then winning the B1G against Wisconsin. I think most NU fans knew it wouldn't go down like that, but it only fuels the fire, doesn't it?

[clyde_40]

We all want Nebraska to win every game and not get blown out but it's part of football. The competition of college football is way higher than it used to be. It used to come down to two teams with a shot at the National Championship but anymore there's always somebody that "should of had their chance". We're talking about a coach who just finished up his 4th year of being a head coach period. He has a lot of learning to do it's a fact of life. Most coaches start with a head coaching gig at some pud school from the Sun Belt or MAC. Sadly Bo was thrown into one of the most storied college football programs in the nation. He's not perfect and I can't honestly say if he's going to be a great head coach too early to tell. I think we're getting better and better talent just their young players. We're also talking about a first year offensive coordinator. I liked what I saw from Beck. There's things I wish he would of done differently like throw to the TE's rather than the WR's because Cotton and Reed have the sure hands on the team but bottom line the offense looked the best it has since the first year Bo was here.

[It'sNotAFakeID]

Not one sane person would have picked nu to win a national title. Most preseason picked us to go 8-?/9-?....so what's the fuss about? We have a young team and young staff and can't recruit sec top atheletes at every position every year. It took the great Tom osborne 20 years to get it just right to win. People need to settle down. Did I expect to win them all?....yep...will we win them all?...nope. Be patient and let coaches be coaches. It's obvious certain things need addressing but its not as doom and gloom as it seems. Firing all your coaches for going 9-4 is exactly what set nu back a decade. We don't have the ability to recruit and bounce right back from a program overhaul in a year or two. It is a 5-10 year upward battle to build a program back up. People forget nebraska is not a tourist destination. Kids don't come here easily. Can't wait for next year! GBR

The fuss is about the reason you play the game,----------- to win! Getting beat in a hard fought battle and the score is 20-17 vs getting pummeled 45-10 with lack luster effort, inferior talent and coaching, are two different animals.

 

October 1 Nebraska vs Wisconsin Nebraska 17 Wisconsin 48

November 19 Nebraska vs Michigan Nebraska 17 Michigan 45

January 2 Nebraska vs South Carolina Nebraska 13 South Carolina 30

 

Winning all the games is a tough assignment, but it also the goal. If you go out on the field expecting to win 8-9 wins, that is what you will achieve. The goal is to win them all. Any goal less than that is not acceptable to an athlete or program that is a legitimate national contender.

 

It makes it a lot easier to pay $450 for a season ticket if you have an high quality undefeated team vs a 9-4 team of perpetual mediocrity. Winning is the only goal, the only option!

 

And certainly the players and coaches set out each season with the goal of winning them all. It would be stupid to set the bar at 9 wins and say, let's just get 9. And it's more of a game to game thing to: take everything one game at a time, win that one, fix what went wrong, and move on to the next. If you lose, fix what went wrong and move on to the next. There's nothing anyone can do about the losses except try to improve and get back to winning.

[It'sNotAFakeID]

Not one sane person would have picked nu to win a national title. Most preseason picked us to go 8-?/9-?....so what's the fuss about? We have a young team and young staff and can't recruit sec top atheletes at every position every year. It took the great Tom osborne 20 years to get it just right to win. People need to settle down. Did I expect to win them all?....yep...will we win them all?...nope. Be patient and let coaches be coaches. It's obvious certain things need addressing but its not as doom and gloom as it seems. Firing all your coaches for going 9-4 is exactly what set nu back a decade. We don't have the ability to recruit and bounce right back from a program overhaul in a year or two. It is a 5-10 year upward battle to build a program back up. People forget nebraska is not a tourist destination. Kids don't come here easily. Can't wait for next year! GBR

 

Not that it should matter what the idiots at ESPN think, or anyone else in the media for that matter...but if you watched the preseason shows, most picked Nebraska winning every game but Wisconsin, then winning the B1G against Wisconsin. I think most NU fans knew it wouldn't go down like that, but it only fuels the fire, doesn't it?

 

I don't think anyone anticipated Michigan to have the season they had. Both those games [@ Wisconsin and @ Michigan] were really tough outs. And those really should've been the only two losses on our schedule. I'd say the only loss that makes me go huh is Northwestern.

[Joe_5700]

Not one sane person would have picked nu to win a national title. Most preseason picked us to go 8-?/9-?....so what's the fuss about? We have a young team and young staff and can't recruit sec top atheletes at every position every year. It took the great Tom osborne 20 years to get it just right to win. People need to settle down. Did I expect to win them all?....yep...will we win them all?...nope. Be patient and let coaches be coaches. It's obvious certain things need addressing but its not as doom and gloom as it seems. Firing all your coaches for going 9-4 is exactly what set nu back a decade. We don't have the ability to recruit and bounce right back from a program overhaul in a year or two. It is a 5-10 year upward battle to build a program back up. People forget nebraska is not a tourist destination. Kids don't come here easily. Can't wait for next year! GBR

TO wasn't making millions either. It's different today. We pay these coaches a ton of money to win NOW, not in 3 or 4 or 20 years. Why can't we recruit SEC type players? LSU, and Bama keep reloading, OU stays in the hunt every year, and so should we. Bo needs to step his game up before we start losing all of our recruits to Ohio St., Michigan and Wisconsin. Also, if it's a 5-10 year upward battle then what happened to Turner Gill at KU. They too want to compete and win NOW, not in 10 years.

How quickly people forget... Is 8-5 considered being in the hunt?

 

2009 Season / 8-5 Overall / 5-3 Big 12 Date Score Location Att. 09/05/09

L

(20) BYU 14, (3) Oklahoma 13 Arlington, Texas 75,437 09/12/09

W

(13) Oklahoma 64, Idaho State 0 Norman 84,749 09/19/09

W

(12) Oklahoma 45, Tulsa 0 Norman 84,803 10/03/09

L

(17) Miami 21, (8) Oklahoma 20 Miami, Fla. 61,790 10/10/09

W

(19) Oklahoma 33, Baylor 7 Norman 84,478 10/17/09

L

(3) Texas 16, (20) Oklahoma 13 Dallas, Texas 96,009 10/24/09

W

(25) Oklahoma 35, (24) Kansas 13 Lawrence, Kan. 51,104 10/31/09

W

(22) Oklahoma 42, Kansas State 30 Norman 84,021 11/07/09

L

Nebraska 10, (20) Oklahoma 3 Lincoln, Neb. 86,115 11/14/09

W

Oklahoma 65, Texas A&M 10 Norman 85,013 11/21/09

L

Texas Tech 41, Oklahoma 13 Lubbock, Texas 50,479 11/28/09

W

Oklahoma 27, (11) Okla. State 0 Norman 85,606 12/31/09

W

Oklahoma 31, (19) Stanford 27 El Paso, Texas (Sun Bowl) 53,713

[Stickney]

 

There is indeed a HUGE difference in losing big via mistakes and turnovers and getting steamrolled up & down the field all day (or until garbage time) Clownahan style. Obviously they're both bad news but one is potentially fixable and the other isn't.

 

 

Any ideas on how to fix-it?

 

Nope. Well, having an identity on offense would help a lot but it doesn't look like that's in the works at all. "Balance" has taken over Husker Nation (do everything but excel at nothing). Heck, I don't know.

 

Maybe you have an idea?

 

 

I know the old adage Defense wins championships, and that is true, to a certain degree, but football is a two sided coin and I have not been impressed with Bo's management of the Offense. As you said, identity would be nice.

 

 

What made the Blackshirts so dominant in the 90s was half their skill and half the fact that the offense kept them off the field and gave them leads.

 

 

Bo's offensive mantra is so conservative, so "play not to lose", that I think it manifests in an offense that lacks swagger and killer instinct (and then has a hard time overcoming adversity -- things just snowball).

 

 

In Beck's defense, I will say that players missed FAR to many big play opportunities (drops, missed blocks, missed throws, missed wide open receivers).

 

 

But, as you said, "heck, I don't know." And I concur with that.

[Foppa]

Not one sane person would have picked nu to win a national title. Most preseason picked us to go 8-?/9-?....so what's the fuss about? We have a young team and young staff and can't recruit sec top atheletes at every position every year. It took the great Tom osborne 20 years to get it just right to win. People need to settle down. Did I expect to win them all?....yep...will we win them all?...nope. Be patient and let coaches be coaches. It's obvious certain things need addressing but its not as doom and gloom as it seems. Firing all your coaches for going 9-4 is exactly what set nu back a decade. We don't have the ability to recruit and bounce right back from a program overhaul in a year or two. It is a 5-10 year upward battle to build a program back up. People forget nebraska is not a tourist destination. Kids don't come here easily. Can't wait for next year! GBR

The fuss is about the reason you play the game,----------- to win! Getting beat in a hard fought battle and the score is 20-17 vs getting pummeled 45-10 with lack luster effort, inferior talent and coaching, are two different animals.

 

October 1 Nebraska vs Wisconsin Nebraska 17 Wisconsin 48

November 19 Nebraska vs Michigan Nebraska 17 Michigan 45

January 2 Nebraska vs South Carolina Nebraska 13 South Carolina 30

 

Winning all the games is a tough assignment, but it also the goal. If you go out on the field expecting to win 8-9 wins, that is what you will achieve. The goal is to win them all. Any goal less than that is not acceptable to an athlete or program that is a legitimate national contender.

 

It makes it a lot easier to pay $450 for a season ticket if you have an high quality undefeated team vs a 9-4 team of perpetual mediocrity. Winning is the only goal, the only option!

 

And certainly the players and coaches set out each season with the goal of winning them all. It would be stupid to set the bar at 9 wins and say, let's just get 9. And it's more of a game to game thing to: take everything one game at a time, win that one, fix what went wrong, and move on to the next. If you lose, fix what went wrong and move on to the next. There's nothing anyone can do about the losses except try to improve and get back to winning.

 

But unfortunately, it seems that pouting starts taking over once a loss or two takes place. Here's a suggestion: Instead of preaching National Championships and shoving Conference championships down the players' and fans' throats, and have your players saying it's 'national championship or bust' and then leave them with nothing once it doesn't happen, teach the kids the fundamentals, play some good, mostly error-free football, and win or lose, I bet things play out on the field a hell of a lot better than what can only be perceived as a pipe dream at this point.

[It'sNotAFakeID]

Not one sane person would have picked nu to win a national title. Most preseason picked us to go 8-?/9-?....so what's the fuss about? We have a young team and young staff and can't recruit sec top atheletes at every position every year. It took the great Tom osborne 20 years to get it just right to win. People need to settle down. Did I expect to win them all?....yep...will we win them all?...nope. Be patient and let coaches be coaches. It's obvious certain things need addressing but its not as doom and gloom as it seems. Firing all your coaches for going 9-4 is exactly what set nu back a decade. We don't have the ability to recruit and bounce right back from a program overhaul in a year or two. It is a 5-10 year upward battle to build a program back up. People forget nebraska is not a tourist destination. Kids don't come here easily. Can't wait for next year! GBR

The fuss is about the reason you play the game,----------- to win! Getting beat in a hard fought battle and the score is 20-17 vs getting pummeled 45-10 with lack luster effort, inferior talent and coaching, are two different animals.

 

October 1 Nebraska vs Wisconsin Nebraska 17 Wisconsin 48

November 19 Nebraska vs Michigan Nebraska 17 Michigan 45

January 2 Nebraska vs South Carolina Nebraska 13 South Carolina 30

 

Winning all the games is a tough assignment, but it also the goal. If you go out on the field expecting to win 8-9 wins, that is what you will achieve. The goal is to win them all. Any goal less than that is not acceptable to an athlete or program that is a legitimate national contender.

 

It makes it a lot easier to pay $450 for a season ticket if you have an high quality undefeated team vs a 9-4 team of perpetual mediocrity. Winning is the only goal, the only option!

 

And certainly the players and coaches set out each season with the goal of winning them all. It would be stupid to set the bar at 9 wins and say, let's just get 9. And it's more of a game to game thing to: take everything one game at a time, win that one, fix what went wrong, and move on to the next. If you lose, fix what went wrong and move on to the next. There's nothing anyone can do about the losses except try to improve and get back to winning.

 

But unfortunately, it seems that pouting starts taking over once a loss or two takes place. Here's a suggestion: Instead of preaching National Championships and shoving Conference championships down the players' and fans' throats, and have your players saying it's 'national championship or bust' and then leave them with nothing once it doesn't happen, teach the kids the fundamentals, play some good, mostly error-free football, and win or lose, I bet things play out on the field a hell of a lot better than what can only be perceived as a pipe dream at this point.

 

I think you may have misunderstood what I said, or was trying to say.

 

I don't think the coaches go out with the MNC or bust mentality--I'm sure wins and losses mean very little to coaches. What should be the focal point of all coaching staffs in not the tangible goals such as a conference championship or a national championship or 10 wins or 11 wins, but rather the intangible things such as fundamentals and discipline--those things all need to be in place to win.

 

After losses, look at what went wrong and fix it. After wins, look what went wrong, and fix it.

 

The thing here and I believe you said it yourself, is that the CCs and the MNCs shouldn't be the goal. It should only be the result of a much smaller, but much more important goal.

[TommyT1988]

I lol at our fans too. This year and next have to be a couple of the hardest schedules in school history too. Yet, we will play the blame game on everything and everyone. Relax. Enjoy the new conference. I promise a great year in 2013.