Bo's Blowouts - analyzing the worst of the losses

[True2tRA]

A defensive coordinator is as good as his talent. Charlie McBride was considered one of the best in the business after the mid-90's, but who's job was being heavily scrutinized the decade before that.

 

Tidbit about McBride from an article I read.....

 

 

"McBride still has no idea why Osborne contacted him, though he thinks Kush might have recommended him. “I need to ask Tom some time,” said McBride.

Though he wasn’t looking to leave Wisconsin, he was willing to listen to Osborne.

His wife, Debbie, will verify this, according to McBride. On the day after Thanksgiving in 1976, they watched the Nebraska-Oklahoma game on television. The Sooners won 20-17, throwing only two passes (both producing big plays) and scoring with 38 seconds left. But that isn’t the point.

“I said to Debbie, ‘I’d like to work for that guy (Osborne) someday,’ ” he said.

So Osborne found a willing candidate. After the initial interview, “Tom, of course, took me to a high-class restaurant (in Miami), Denney’s,” McBride said. The deal was sealed there.

McBride replaced Kiffin as defensive line coach, and Lance Van Zandt - who came from Kansas - replaced Powers as secondary coach. Van Zandt also became the defensive coordinator.

He left Nebraska following the 1980 season to coach the secondary for the New Orleans Saints, under coach Bum Phillips. Though McBride called the defenses in 1981, he didn’t have the coordinator’s title until 1982. “Tom didn’t want coordinators,” said McBride said. “Tom didn’t like titles, period.”

But someone had to be in charge. And McBride was in charge of Nebraska’s defense for the next 18 seasons, staying on for two seasons to facilitate the transition from Osborne to Frank Solich.

The Blackshirts ranked in the top 10 nationally in total defense in 11 of those seasons and in scoring defense 10 times. His final defense in 1999 ranked fourth in total defense (252.3), sixth in rushing defense (77.1), second in passing defense (175.2) and third in scoring defense (12.5)."

 

Boy, some of you come down on people for saying Bo isn't good enough? Wow!? Top ten in scoring defense 11 of McBride's 18 years as DC. Top ten scoring defense ten times in 18 seasons. So which decade was it he struggled so mightily? His final defense in 1999 was fourth in total defense and third in scoring defense in the country.

 

Enough of this crap people. I hate the fact that we drag McBrides name into an argument to try to prove a point. The loyalty to Bo almost totally outshines the loyalty to Nebraska at that point and you just sound like a damn phony. McBride is a legend and his defenses were my favorite defenses I've ever watched in my lifetime. He consistently represented Blackshirt football and his teams played with passion.

 

If McBrides job was scrutinized heavily as you say, then those fans are the ones with the problem. Forget today's fans. If today's fans held Bo and his DC's to that kind of standard, Bo and his DC's would be far more heavily scrutinized than they have ever been.

 

Why do some of you have such a hard time admitting that Bo's defenses haven't quite lived up to expectations and just leave it at that instead of dragging McBrides name into it or blaming the players.

 

Would you go out on a limb right now and tell me this......can we all agree Bo's current defense has plenty, PLENTY of talent on it? I say most everyone can acknowledge that. So we can expect Bo to field a highly rated defense no? What kind of rating would be acceptable at seasons end given the amount of talent we have? Also, what will the excuse be if he doesn't do so?

 

I see no reason, with the talent and the youth f that talent, that Bo should never field a defense that resembles the poor play and statistical failures of what we've seen the last 3 seasons. Is that reasonable? I feel it is.

[True2tRA]

Well, for starters, it's results-based. Those 'winning schools' have less loses, especially embarrassing losses, to pinpoint. If that weren't the case, maybe you'd hear the same criticisms Harbaugh is getting -- tuning out their crazy yelling coach, for example.

 

Bo's defensive coordinator rep is also pretty well-cemented. So when teams of all different calibers and talent levels are either moving the ball freely or just steamrolling through the Blackshirts, the thoughts that come to mind aren't "There's a defensive coaching deficiency here" or "Gosh, Nebraska just doesn't have the talent to match up to....Minnesota? Iowa? Wisconsin?"

 

Finally, the style of play Nebraska has been known for recently has to be mistake-prone, tight, Jekyll-and-Hyde. The roller coaster seems to be reflective of the coach's own emotional roller coaster. Belichick gets heated, he's gruff with the media, but both he and the Patriots are famously and emphatically even-keel, both in message and in result. And not being able to play loose, that's an easy line to draw from the reactions we've seen from several players to getting chewed out on the sidelines -- something that's not wrong for a coach to do, but whether he's being effective at it or not is another story.

 

I really feel it takes some mental gymnastics to get back to the point of saying, "I have total faith in Bo's demeanor as it pertains to gamedays and the NU brand", but then, I can't fault any Nebraska fan for feeling predisposed to that direction.

 

I can't fault anybody for not having faith in Bo Pelini's ability to get it done at Nebraska and represent Nebraska in a positive light either. He certainly hasn't done well in either category; although he is doing his best to change the latter.

 

But here's where I was trying to direct the discussion. We see Jim Harbaugh and Bill Belichick and Nick Saban and other notably hot headed yet successful coaches get into their players, the media, and the officials. How are these coaches able to do that and still achieve high levels of success, yet Bo Pelini does the same thing and Nebraska flounders? Basically, what are the distinguishing factors between these coaches?

 

Experience?

[zoogs]

@B3XII: Ah, I see. Well, hot-headed is a really broad term. You could apply it to probably a very large number of coaches, many of whom will have different styles and personalities completely.

 

It could be as simple as those other guys helm better programs - coaching, players, bag men, whatever - and as a result are exposed to fewer opportunities to melt down. Or maybe it's that as heated as they get, they remain more consistently focused on moving forward, and don't let the fan/media heat get to them as much. The latter's probably what I'd go with. Alabama loses 2 games to top teams and Saban takes that as a call for major changes. I think it's admirable that Bo is so fiercely protective of his players, but I think he'd get better results if he simply pointed to the chatter and said, "Hey, that's what happens when we don't win championships. This isn't nearly good enough." Instead of, and this is a quote:

 

My record, our record since I've been here, speaks for itself. (...) You choose not to think so, that's your prerogative. All I know is myself, this staff, the people who have been associated with this program since I've been here can look themselves in the mirror and feel good about what they've done. (http://espn.go.com/c...t-fire-go-ahead)

 

Look, .700 is honestly pretty good on average. It could have been a lot worse. I don't want our guys to hang their heads or get berated for not winning enough trophies. But I do think a defensive posture and attitude (which I think we absolutely did see in recent years) is stifling for any team that wants to really get to the top -- which I am sure is more important to the players, coaches, and administration than it is to me.

[TheSker]

Simple Polo.......winning 70% of your games with no off the field issues is the opposite of a terminable offense.

[It'sNotAFakeID]

@B3XII: Ah, I see. Well, hot-headed is a really broad term. You could apply it to probably a very large number of coaches, many of whom will have different styles and personalities completely.

 

It could be as simple as those other guys helm better programs - coaching, players, bag men, whatever - and as a result are exposed to fewer opportunities to melt down. Or maybe it's that as heated as they get, they remain more consistently focused on moving forward, and don't let the fan/media heat get to them as much. The latter's probably what I'd go with. Alabama loses 2 games to top teams and Saban takes that as a call for major changes. I think it's admirable that Bo is so fiercely protective of his players, but I think he'd get better results if he simply pointed to the chatter and said, "Hey, that's what happens when we don't win championships. This isn't nearly good enough." Instead of, and this is a quote:

 

My record, our record since I've been here, speaks for itself. (...) You choose not to think so, that's your prerogative. All I know is myself, this staff, the people who have been associated with this program since I've been here can look themselves in the mirror and feel good about what they've done. (http://espn.go.com/c...t-fire-go-ahead)

 

Look, .700 is honestly pretty good on average. It could have been a lot worse. I don't want our guys to hang their heads or get berated for not winning enough trophies. But I do think a defensive posture and attitude (which I think we absolutely did see in recent years) is stifling for any team that wants to really get to the top -- which I am sure is more important to the players, coaches, and administration than it is to me.

 

I think the aspect surrounding all of this talk that sucks is the fact that we don't know what goes on behind closed doors. I don't think there is an empirical study linking coaching personalities to success on the field. And we could look towards a like situation--perhaps the manager-employee relationship and look how a manager's personality effects employee performance, but at the end of the day--and ignoring the whole unionization push--how similar is that relationship to the one shared by head coach and players?

 

There are numerous relationships at work on a college football team: the relationship between head coach and players, the relationship between head coach and assistant coaches, the relationship of assistant coaches amongst themselves, the relationship of assistant coaches to the players, and the relationship of the players amongst themselves. I wonder how those differ on a team by team basis.

[zoogs]

Heh, yeah. Not everything in the world can be quantified, or distilled into a scientific study. That's maddening to me sometimes, but hey. Even the numbers-driven sports talk in the end typically comes down to armchair chatter. That's part of what makes sports talk what it is, though. We all have our different takes but nobody really knows or can even be proved right or wrong.

[NUpolo8]

Simple Polo.......winning 70% of your games with no off the field issues is the opposite of a terminable offense.

 

Too bad it's the 30% that he loses....they always seem to be the important ones.

 

And no off the field issues? Hysterically false.

[True2tRA]

Oh, I must be on his ignore list. Lots of questions. No answers. I'd accept answers to any of those questions from anybody who is a Bo jock rider.

[True2tRA]

Heh, yeah. Not everything in the world can be quantified, or distilled into a scientific study. That's maddening to me sometimes, but hey. Even the numbers-driven sports talk in the end typically comes down to armchair chatter. That's part of what makes sports talk what it is, though. We all have our different takes but nobody really knows or can even be proved right or wrong.

 

The truth eventually comes out though. Usually years down the road. Interesting thing was, the truth about that 2012 Conference Championship game came out sooner than later. Here's where the numbers don't lie. Wisconsin ran for 539 yards that night. Melvin Gordon had 217, Montee Ball had 201, and James White added another 109 to that tally. The most rushing yards EVER ALLOWED BY A NEBRASKA FOOTBALL TEAM. Then you hear about the complete lack of leadership, accountabiltiy, and quite frankly lack of respect for not only the Husker program, but lack of respect for themselves.

 

Pretty easy to quantify in my book.

[True2tRA]

I know it's been hashed and rehashed, but damn, it makes you wonder why Nebraska athletic department and Nebraska fans are so willing to accept and make excuses for these things when there is no excuse. There's no reason Nebraska defenses should be allowing some of the historically worst defensive performances ever. NO REASON. Take that, and then consider that it is all happening under the leadership of a guy who was specifically hired to BRING BACK THE BLACKSHIRT TRADITON.

 

Bring back some integrity and some pride to this program. Guys who are doing the right things all the time is Bo's preaching point right? Sure as hell doesn't sound like that's happening. Accountabilty? Where is it? If its the players, then they don't belong on the field week after week as they continue to show their lack of dedication. Develop some damn depth so if Joe Blow starts thinking he's bigger than the team, if he wants to completely blow his assignment all e time, especially in a Championship game, then yank his ass off that field and throw another guy into the fire. We'd rather have a good kid out there learning and developing than some selfish asshoel continue to get rep after rep all because you feel like he's the best you can do.

[It'sNotAFakeID]

I know it's been hashed and rehashed, but damn, it makes you wonder why Nebraska athletic department and Nebraska fans are so willing to accept and make excuses for these things when there is no excuse. There's no reason Nebraska defenses should be allowing some of the historically worst defensive performances ever. NO REASON. Take that, and then consider that it is all happening under the leadership of a guy who was specifically hired to BRING BACK THE BLACKSHIRT TRADITON.

 

Bring back some integrity and some pride to this program. Guys who are doing the right things all the time is Bo's preaching point right? Sure as hell doesn't sound like that's happening. Accountabilty? Where is it? If its the players, then they don't belong on the field week after week as they continue to show their lack of dedication. Develop some damn depth so if Joe Blow starts thinking he's bigger than the team, if he wants to completely blow his assignment all e time, especially in a Championship game, then yank his ass off that field and throw another guy into the fire. We'd rather have a good kid out there learning and developing than some selfish asshoel continue to get rep after rep all because you feel like he's the best you can do.

 

I think you're confusing dedication with performance. Those two aren't mutually exclusive.

 

Nevertheless, I agree with the general gist of your post.

 

Nebraska needs a vision. I'm sure it has one.

 

Nebraska needs the means necessary to accomplish that vision. While I'm sure we have all the means necessary, I don't think they're being coordinated in a way that functions. Again, where that problem lies is anyone's best guess.

[True2tRA]

I know it's been hashed and rehashed, but damn, it makes you wonder why Nebraska athletic department and Nebraska fans are so willing to accept and make excuses for these things when there is no excuse. There's no reason Nebraska defenses should be allowing some of the historically worst defensive performances ever. NO REASON. Take that, and then consider that it is all happening under the leadership of a guy who was specifically hired to BRING BACK THE BLACKSHIRT TRADITON.

 

Bring back some integrity and some pride to this program. Guys who are doing the right things all the time is Bo's preaching point right? Sure as hell doesn't sound like that's happening. Accountabilty? Where is it? If its the players, then they don't belong on the field week after week as they continue to show their lack of dedication. Develop some damn depth so if Joe Blow starts thinking he's bigger than the team, if he wants to completely blow his assignment all e time, especially in a Championship game, then yank his ass off that field and throw another guy into the fire. We'd rather have a good kid out there learning and developing than some selfish asshoel continue to get rep after rep all because you feel like he's the best you can do.

 

I think you're confusing dedication with performance. Those two aren't mutually exclusive.

 

 

I guess I just wish we had both. We've seen what the combination of talent, with a commitment to excellence can produce.

 

Maybe I ask too much.

[It'sNotAFakeID]

I know it's been hashed and rehashed, but damn, it makes you wonder why Nebraska athletic department and Nebraska fans are so willing to accept and make excuses for these things when there is no excuse. There's no reason Nebraska defenses should be allowing some of the historically worst defensive performances ever. NO REASON. Take that, and then consider that it is all happening under the leadership of a guy who was specifically hired to BRING BACK THE BLACKSHIRT TRADITON.

 

Bring back some integrity and some pride to this program. Guys who are doing the right things all the time is Bo's preaching point right? Sure as hell doesn't sound like that's happening. Accountabilty? Where is it? If its the players, then they don't belong on the field week after week as they continue to show their lack of dedication. Develop some damn depth so if Joe Blow starts thinking he's bigger than the team, if he wants to completely blow his assignment all e time, especially in a Championship game, then yank his ass off that field and throw another guy into the fire. We'd rather have a good kid out there learning and developing than some selfish asshoel continue to get rep after rep all because you feel like he's the best you can do.

 

I think you're confusing dedication with performance. Those two aren't mutually exclusive.

 

 

I guess I just wish we had both. We've seen what the combination of talent, with a commitment to excellence can produce.

 

Maybe I ask too much.

 

It's definitely not too much to ask: no team is going to win a national title without both performance and dedication. Performance can certainly be boosted by dedication, or dedication can be boosted by good performance. I wish we had both; but I think we have a lot more dedication than most people would think.

[True2tRA]

I know it's been hashed and rehashed, but damn, it makes you wonder why Nebraska athletic department and Nebraska fans are so willing to accept and make excuses for these things when there is no excuse. There's no reason Nebraska defenses should be allowing some of the historically worst defensive performances ever. NO REASON. Take that, and then consider that it is all happening under the leadership of a guy who was specifically hired to BRING BACK THE BLACKSHIRT TRADITON.

 

Bring back some integrity and some pride to this program. Guys who are doing the right things all the time is Bo's preaching point right? Sure as hell doesn't sound like that's happening. Accountabilty? Where is it? If its the players, then they don't belong on the field week after week as they continue to show their lack of dedication. Develop some damn depth so if Joe Blow starts thinking he's bigger than the team, if he wants to completely blow his assignment all e time, especially in a Championship game, then yank his ass off that field and throw another guy into the fire. We'd rather have a good kid out there learning and developing than some selfish asshoel continue to get rep after rep all because you feel like he's the best you can do.

 

I think you're confusing dedication with performance. Those two aren't mutually exclusive.

 

 

I guess I just wish we had both. We've seen what the combination of talent, with a commitment to excellence can produce.

 

Maybe I ask too much.

 

It's definitely not too much to ask: no team is going to win a national title without both performance and dedication. Performance can certainly be boosted by dedication, or dedication can be boosted by good performance. I wish we had both; but I think we have a lot more dedication than most people would think.

 

Yea, it's really hard to judge this current group of guys because they really haven't had a lot,of time to make an impression. I thought about halfway throu the season last year, we really saw a group of guys that were playing hard. It wouldn't be fair to judge them based on the guys in the past. I have high hopes for this group.

[Redux]

HOLY CRAP DID THE SEASON BEGIN AND I MISSED IT!? I didn't realize the 2014 season was underway and we were sucking this bad on defense!!

 

Oh? Whats that? You say the 2014 campaign doesn't start until this Fall? Ohhhhh, so at this point we're just ASSUMING the defense is going to suck and miss tackles and be out of formation and not get turnovers and not play disciplined and no play with focus, heart and ferociousness.