Simple and Clear

[Husker_x]

I think most of us are at the same place after watching last night's game.

 

When Bo was hired I said that whatever happens, come hell or high water, he deserves five years to get things turned around. That was the level of the mess he inherited. A dispirited team seemingly devoid of talent, or at least developed talent. The 'defense', if you could even call it that, had reached the depth-beneath-bad that we usually reserve for describing military massacres. An outside agent had latched onto the program like a virus and sapped everything that was good and special right about it. Something needed to be done. But the news was good. Osborne came back and hired a firebrand coach known for putting monster defensive units on the field season after season, program after program, including our own.

 

Year one he did the best he could with what he had. Nine wins. A bowl win. Momentum. Big Suh breathed life back into the D and we found our way onto the Conference Championship stage two years running. The O continued to sputter but there's always some excuse--injuries, bad coordinators, bad bounces, whatever. Didn't really matter; the D would hold if nothing else. We'd get lucky eventually. However mediocre we looked at times, things seemed to be trending upward. Then last season happened. Does it bear repeating? No, but things got awfully quiet. Even while we wanted to buy in, every sane person had doubts.

 

Well, here we are. Year five. Think about that a second. If you hold out your hand with all your fingers extended, you'll have a visual representation of how many years this coach has had to build a program worth something. Many a coach has gone from rags to riches in less time. What has Bo Pelini achieved? What sort of team has he built now that he has a roster filled with 'his guys'?

 

Well. . .to call last night's performance 'Cosgrovian' would be an insult, at least to Cosgrove. I can't remember a specific game that was as statistically poor as we saw last night. Save your indignation--there may be an example, but the "who crapped their pants more?" conversation is missing the point. What troubles me (and should trouble everyone) was that there were striking thematic similarities between 07 and today. Confused play. Glassy eyes on the sideline. Tension. Dread. Sluggishness. Cluelessness, really. I watch football enough to identify defensive teams that play with fire and confidence and certainty. Ours? Don't make me laugh. Half the time they look like they're trying to dig a fox hole just quick enough to take cover before the shelling starts.

 

I have a hard time blaming the players, though. Looking at our D-line from a purely physical standpoint fills me with a sense of pity rather than anger or frustration. The ease with which UCLA dissected Bo's defense--and here again I only use the word because I dont' know what else to call it--at every level should briskly eradicate any and all wet dreams anyone has about this program being anywhere in the vicinity of the ballpark of close to a national championship. In year five Pelini looks to me like his defense. Clueless.

 

Make no mistake, this is not a fire Pelini thread. I don't want him booted. I hope he can eek out nine wins and continue to build, because that's probably the best solution with our current situation. This is just one guy posting what might already be glaringly obvious: we are in for a hell of a long season. I think the question at the end will be does a 6-7 win coach deserve another season or not? I'll wait for the bowl game, assuming there is one, to worry about it. I can only say for my part that I think our program is in deep, deep doodoo.

 

The difference now is that I think we're all at the same place. That is, we've run out of people to blame. Can't blame the players. Pelini recruited them. Can't blame the position coaches. Pelini hired them. Can't blame the toddler coordinators. Pelini promoted them.

 

That just leaves one person.

[Enhance]

I think there's an interesting mix right now. I don't think the problem is coaching on the defense - Pelini has proven time and again he knows what he's doing. This means it's a talent issue - we just don't have the guys to do it. But Rome was a four star recruit, Steinkuhler a five star offensive linemen, Ankrah is often praised for his toughness and athleticism, and I distinctly remember thinking Meredith was going to be a good player after watching him sack the quarterback in our 300th sellout. It doesn't make sense that these guys would be talent-less, yet watching them defend yesterday, pop warner becomes an accurate adjective.

[The Spirit of Bob Devaney]

I think most of us are at the same place after watching last night's game.

 

When Bo was hired I said that whatever happens, come hell or high water, he deserves five years to get things turned around. That was the level of the mess he inherited. A dispirited team seemingly devoid of talent, or at least developed talent. The 'defense', if you could even call it that, had reached the depth-beneath-bad that we usually reserve for describing military massacres. An outside agent had latched onto the program like a virus and sapped everything that was good and special right about it. Something needed to be done. But the news was good. Osborne came back and hired a firebrand coach known for putting monster defensive units on the field season after season, program after program, including our own.

 

Year one he did the best he could with what he had. Nine wins. A bowl win. Momentum. Big Suh breathed life back into the D and we found our way onto the Conference Championship stage two years running. The O continued to sputter but there's always some excuse--injuries, bad coordinators, bad bounces, whatever. Didn't really matter; the D would hold if nothing else. We'd get lucky eventually. However mediocre we looked at times, things seemed to be trending upward. Then last season happened. Does it bear repeating? No, but things got awfully quiet. Even while we wanted to buy in, every sane person had doubts.

 

Well, here we are. Year five. Think about that a second. If you hold out your hand with all your fingers extended, you'll have a visual representation of how many years this coach has had to build a program worth something. Many a coach has gone from rags to riches in less time. What has Bo Pelini achieved? What sort of team has he built now that he has a roster filled with 'his guys'?

 

Well. . .to call last night's performance 'Cosgrovian' would be an insult, at least to Cosgrove. I can't remember a specific game that was as statistically poor as we saw last night. Save your indignation--there may be an example, but the "who crapped their pants more?" conversation is missing the point. What troubles me (and should trouble everyone) was that there were striking thematic similarities between 07 and today. Confused play. Glassy eyes on the sideline. Tension. Dread. Sluggishness. Cluelessness, really. I watch football enough to identify defensive teams that play with fire and confidence and certainty. Ours? Don't make me laugh. Half the time they look like they're trying to dig a fox hole just quick enough to take cover before the shelling starts.

 

I have a hard time blaming the players, though. Looking at our D-line from a purely physical standpoint fills me with a sense of pity rather than anger or frustration. The ease with which UCLA dissected Bo's defense--and here again I only use the word because I dont' know what else to call it--at every level should briskly eradicate any and all wet dreams anyone has about this program being anywhere in the vicinity of the ballpark of close to a national championship. In year five Pelini looks to me like his defense. Clueless.

 

Make no mistake, this is not a fire Pelini thread. I don't want him booted. I hope he can eek out nine wins and continue to build, because that's probably the best solution with our current situation. This is just one guy posting what might already be glaringly obvious: we are in for a hell of a long season. I think the question at the end will be does a 6-7 win coach deserve another season or not? I'll wait for the bowl game, assuming there is one, to worry about it. I can only say for my part that I think our program is in deep, deep doodoo.

 

The difference now is that I think we're all at the same place. That is, we've run out of people to blame. Can't blame the players. Pelini recruited them. Can't blame the position coaches. Pelini hired them. Can't blame the toddler coordinators. Pelini promoted them.

 

That just leaves one person.

 

+1

[Hayseed]

We have a good coach at work on the D line but he couldn't work on them last year because he was working for someone else. Let's give him a chance. We're gonna need some serious recruiting victories on that side of the ball....the O side just needs to pull it's head out and keep its composure.

[California Husker]

I think most of us are at the same place after watching last night's game.

 

When Bo was hired I said that whatever happens, come hell or high water, he deserves five years to get things turned around. That was the level of the mess he inherited. A dispirited team seemingly devoid of talent, or at least developed talent. The 'defense', if you could even call it that, had reached the depth-beneath-bad that we usually reserve for describing military massacres. An outside agent had latched onto the program like a virus and sapped everything that was good and special right about it. Something needed to be done. But the news was good. Osborne came back and hired a firebrand coach known for putting monster defensive units on the field season after season, program after program, including our own.

 

Year one he did the best he could with what he had. Nine wins. A bowl win. Momentum. Big Suh breathed life back into the D and we found our way onto the Conference Championship stage two years running. The O continued to sputter but there's always some excuse--injuries, bad coordinators, bad bounces, whatever. Didn't really matter; the D would hold if nothing else. We'd get lucky eventually. However mediocre we looked at times, things seemed to be trending upward. Then last season happened. Does it bear repeating? No, but things got awfully quiet. Even while we wanted to buy in, every sane person had doubts.

 

Well, here we are. Year five. Think about that a second. If you hold out your hand with all your fingers extended, you'll have a visual representation of how many years this coach has had to build a program worth something. Many a coach has gone from rags to riches in less time. What has Bo Pelini achieved? What sort of team has he built now that he has a roster filled with 'his guys'?

 

Well. . .to call last night's performance 'Cosgrovian' would be an insult, at least to Cosgrove. I can't remember a specific game that was as statistically poor as we saw last night. Save your indignation--there may be an example, but the "who crapped their pants more?" conversation is missing the point. What troubles me (and should trouble everyone) was that there were striking thematic similarities between 07 and today. Confused play. Glassy eyes on the sideline. Tension. Dread. Sluggishness. Cluelessness, really. I watch football enough to identify defensive teams that play with fire and confidence and certainty. Ours? Don't make me laugh. Half the time they look like they're trying to dig a fox hole just quick enough to take cover before the shelling starts.

 

I have a hard time blaming the players, though. Looking at our D-line from a purely physical standpoint fills me with a sense of pity rather than anger or frustration. The ease with which UCLA dissected Bo's defense--and here again I only use the word because I dont' know what else to call it--at every level should briskly eradicate any and all wet dreams anyone has about this program being anywhere in the vicinity of the ballpark of close to a national championship. In year five Pelini looks to me like his defense. Clueless.

 

Make no mistake, this is not a fire Pelini thread. I don't want him booted. I hope he can eek out nine wins and continue to build, because that's probably the best solution with our current situation. This is just one guy posting what might already be glaringly obvious: we are in for a hell of a long season. I think the question at the end will be does a 6-7 win coach deserve another season or not? I'll wait for the bowl game, assuming there is one, to worry about it. I can only say for my part that I think our program is in deep, deep doodoo.

 

The difference now is that I think we're all at the same place. That is, we've run out of people to blame. Can't blame the players. Pelini recruited them. Can't blame the position coaches. Pelini hired them. Can't blame the toddler coordinators. Pelini promoted them.

 

That just leaves one person.

+1

 

And, I am amazed u-cla didn't score 63 instead of 36...we were THAT bad....

[strigori]

If you're not calling for a firing, I'm not sure what other option there is. We know Bo is to proud/stubborn/whatever to fire assistants. He has yet to fire one, sure some left, but only after he found them another job, and replaced them with guys who's qualifications are suspect.

 

I will also make this correlation. As Bo's sideline demeanor has mellowed, so has the defense. Bo looked a lot like Callahan did on the sidelines in 2007. Not the firebrand who stalked the sidelines the first three years. I think there may well be a connection there.

[talaricohusker]

If you're not calling for a firing, I'm not sure what other option there is. We know Bo is to proud/stubborn/whatever to fire assistants. He has yet to fire one, sure some left, but only after he found them another job, and replaced them with guys who's qualifications are suspect.

 

I will also make this correlation. As Bo's sideline demeanor has mellowed, so has the defense. Bo looked a lot like Callahan did on the sidelines in 2007. Not the firebrand who stalked the sidelines the first three years. I think there may well be a connection there.

 

Yeah its called the Harvy Perlmen factor

[Igetbored216]

Great post and I definitely agree.

 

In addition, there is a trend that is becoming apparent. I posted this in another thread, but I will post it here too:

 

1) Coaches and players say how great they are in the preseason, including specific things that were done in the off season that has "obviously" helped the team (this year, we were told that all the work with the SEALS coupled with all the senior leadership totally transformed the team).

 

2) The team has one or two good games in the non-conference, but some games have alot of question marks (this season, it was the d-line after the first game...now it's probably the d-line and inability to tackle anyone).

 

3) Bo states that it was a "lack of execution" and the "other team just made more plays". I didn't actually watch the post-season presser, because honestly I have no interest in what he has to say anymore, but I'm sure he cited both.

 

4) Some basic fundamentals of football are always lacking (last few years it was committing so many penalties, fumbles, etc....this year, it looks like pursuit angles and tackling are atrocious).

 

5) The Huskers look real good against what is thought to be a really good team (last year, it was against Mich St).

 

6) The Huskers get blown out in at least one game (last year, it was Mich & Wisconsin).

 

7) The Huskers lose a game they have no business losing (UCLA, Northwestern, Iowa St).

 

8) Lack of depth, execution, how "young" the team is, and injuries are used to rationalize the losses.

 

9) The Huskers go to a meaningless bowl game that they usually win (although, the last two years they have lost), which pumps more confidence in all the fans and that Bo and company finally "get it" and obviously next year will be that special year.

 

10) Repeat

This is the basic pattern that has really been established in the last three years and it can be used as a script for this year too. Firing Pelini probably woudn't be a good idea at this juncture; I really have no interest in starting over again. However, I guess I'm not really sure what can be done other than recruiting more athletic players and doing a better job of coaching them up. This season is going to be a loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong one.