Bleacher Report: Five things standing in the way of a Nebraska Conference Title

[RedDenver]

1. Ohio St

Mich St

Wisconsin

Minnesota

Iowa

[junior4949]

This talent thing is getting a little overblown. Go back to the 1994 season. We played CU who I think most outside of Nebraska would say was more talented than us. They had seven players that year selected in the first three rounds of the NFL draft. However, we easily handled them. We also played a very talented Miami team for the NC. Miami arguably had more talent than we did, yet we beat them. Talent can only take you so far. Then, it's up to coaching and how well the team meshes or plays together.

 

Ohio State is more talented than we are. However, they are not more talented than Alabama. Yet, they beat Bama. We don't have to be more talented than Ohio State to beat them. We just have to make fewer mistakes and play better ball than they do.

[NUance]

A Reliable Place-Kicker

 

This is #3? WTF?? We've had a pretty good run of kickers the past few years. Sure, last year there was a bit of a dropoff. But Brown has has plenty of leg, and as fine a kicking lineage as you could ask for.

 

I just don't think our kickers/punters are a deficit of our team. Bleacher Report. /shakes head

[jmfb]

This talent thing is getting a little overblown. Go back to the 1994 season. We played CU who I think most outside of Nebraska would say was more talented than us. They had seven players that year selected in the first three rounds of the NFL draft. However, we easily handled them. We also played a very talented Miami team for the NC. Miami arguably had more talent than we did, yet we beat them. Talent can only take you so far. Then, it's up to coaching and how well the team meshes or plays together.

 

Ohio State is more talented than we are. However, they are not more talented than Alabama. Yet, they beat Bama. We don't have to be more talented than Ohio State to beat them. We just have to make fewer mistakes and play better ball than they do.

NU was in the same universe talent wise- college football talent with Miami and CU

Those games weren't huge mismatches by any stretch

 

We aren't when it comes to OSU in 2015. When your third team QB is Cardale Jones and you have thoroughbreds at every position- we aren't in the same Universe

While Mike Riley and his staff may be good coaches, they aren't Tom OSborne, Milt Tenopir and Charlie McBride

Regardless of how anyone feels about Urban Meyer, he has won big at every stop and has won multiple National Titles, he is the real deal

NU is a LONG way away right now

Beating Minnesota, Iowa and Northwestern consistently and competing with Wisconsin comes first before we even start thinking about beating OSU under Meyer

[Mavric]

So is Nebraska also not in the same universe as Virginia Tech, Penn State and Minnesota or is the universe just not as big as you'd like to make it seem?

[I AM FOOT FOOT]

Nebraska can beat any team on any given gameday. sh#t happens every week during the season that shouldnt

[True2tRA]

 

This talent thing is getting a little overblown. Go back to the 1994 season. We played CU who I think most outside of Nebraska would say was more talented than us. They had seven players that year selected in the first three rounds of the NFL draft. However, we easily handled them. We also played a very talented Miami team for the NC. Miami arguably had more talent than we did, yet we beat them. Talent can only take you so far. Then, it's up to coaching and how well the team meshes or plays together.

 

Ohio State is more talented than we are. However, they are not more talented than Alabama. Yet, they beat Bama. We don't have to be more talented than Ohio State to beat them. We just have to make fewer mistakes and play better ball than they do.

 

NU was in the same universe talent wise- college football talent with Miami and CU

Those games weren't huge mismatches by any stretch

 

We aren't when it comes to OSU in 2015. When your third team QB is Cardale Jones and you have thoroughbreds at every position- we aren't in the same Universe

While Mike Riley and his staff may be good coaches, they aren't Tom OSborne, Milt Tenopir and Charlie McBride

Regardless of how anyone feels about Urban Meyer, he has won big at every stop and has won multiple National Titles, he is the real deal

NU is a LONG way away right now

Beating Minnesota, Iowa and Northwestern consistently and competing with Wisconsin comes first before we even start thinking about beating OSU under Meyer

You both make valid points but both of your points, as different as they may be, both come back to the same thing.

 

Coaching.

 

Nebraska was up there talent-wise with every single team they played, inluding that Colorado and Miami team you mention. Miami may have been a bit more talented, but what we lacked in talent, we overcame with coaching.

 

Here we are in 2015 and I still think we are right up there in talent with even Ohio St. We out talent Minnesota, Iowa, and even Wisconsin, where we have lacked is coaching.

 

Until now. Riley has displayed an ability to out-coach some highly talented teams and coaches. Now Riley has a talented team at his disposal. I don't know how quickly it all comes together, but I do expect it to happen under these coaches.

[The Dude]

Just like Virginia Tech did, and Minnesota and Penn State almost did, we could pull one out of our asses and beat Ohio State. Hopefully it happens in Indianapolis.

 

Being the better team virtually every time we take the field like Ohio State has since Urb's been there? I don't think we're anywhere close close to competing at that level.

[True2tRA]

 

A Reliable Place-Kicker

This is #3? WTF?? We've had a pretty good run of kickers the past few years. Sure, last year there was a bit of a dropoff. But Brown has has plenty of leg, and as fine a kicking lineage as you could ask for.

 

I just don't think our kickers/punters are a deficit of our team. Bleacher Report. /shakes head

Now I'm not saying Drew Brown is bad kicker, and Foltz is obviously a stud, but never underestimate the value of Alex Henery. A great kicker/punter has a larger effect on the outcome of games than many people ever want to acknowledge. Especially guys like Henery who could boot the long field goal and was a master of punting the ball inside the opponents ten yard line. Field position is HUGE in this game. It's even BIGGER when you are a defensive-minded team with a limited offense.

 

Bo Pelini owes some of his success directly to Alex Henery.

[The Dude]

I think Alex Henery certainly has to be in the conversation for best college kicker ever. I still can't believe how his pro career turned out.

[jmfb]

So is Nebraska also not in the same universe as Virginia Tech, Penn State and Minnesota or is the universe just not as big as you'd like to make it seem?

OSU early had some injuries and was trying to figure out who they would be without Braxton Miller, they figured it out. Look at the championship game and playoffs when they hit their stride. And they are getting better and deeper.

OSU has lost just 3 games in the last 3 years

With Meyer at the helm- one of the top 3 coaches in the country AND him being one of the top 3-4 recruiters in the country in talent rich Ohio- OSU can be like the Nebraska 93-97 dynasty when we blew out pretty much everyone that was less talented than us.

Meyer has a very effective recruiting machine set up and plans on doing a bunch of very well attended satellite camps, they are great at it

 

NU right now is in the same ballpark as Minnesota, Penn State and Iowa, a step behind Wisconsin. The goal for now is to consistently beat those we have better talent than, which wasn't done under Pelini and find a way to steal a win or two away from some that we are within striking distance of like a Wisconsin. Things, NU hasn't been able to do of late, in fact it took some very lucky ball bounces to make some of those wins happen. To think we will be able to compete. let alone beat OSU in at least the next few years is a longshot at best.

 

I like Riley and hope he can help us get more competitive- but a guy like Meyer has won every place even teams with no players and no facilities, Bowling Green, Utah, then turned around a floundering Florida and went what 37-3 at a scandal riden Ohio State. Meyer is the proven commodity he's on his home turf a skip and a hop from Ashtabulah and he knows SEC country like the back of his hand.

[Mavric]

So Nebraska is is the same ballpark as Minnesota (who lost to tOSU by 7) and Penn State (who lost by 3 in double OT). So apparently tOSU's universe is somewhere less than three points.

 

And those games were in October and November so they were well past the "figuring out who they would be without Braxton Miller" by then.

[NebraskaShellback]

Bleacher report is a joke, period.

[jmfb]

So Nebraska is is the same ballpark as Minnesota (who lost to tOSU by 7) and Penn State (who lost by 3 in double OT). So apparently tOSU's universe is somewhere less than three points.

 

And those games were in October and November so they were well past the "figuring out who they would be without Braxton Miller" by then.

Lets see where OSU is in year 4 of the Meyer reign

They've lost just 3 games in 3 years and have filled their stables with top ranked recruiting classes

We saw who they can be when they blew out the second best team in the conference by more than 50, then took it to Oregon and Bama

NU isn't in that type of conversation- unless OSU pulls a Nebraska against Iowa State type deal- the longest of longshots

Would love to see it happen, but they are at a whole different level now

[Dr. Strangelove]

 

 

This talent thing is getting a little overblown. Go back to the 1994 season. We played CU who I think most outside of Nebraska would say was more talented than us. They had seven players that year selected in the first three rounds of the NFL draft. However, we easily handled them. We also played a very talented Miami team for the NC. Miami arguably had more talent than we did, yet we beat them. Talent can only take you so far. Then, it's up to coaching and how well the team meshes or plays together.

 

Ohio State is more talented than we are. However, they are not more talented than Alabama. Yet, they beat Bama. We don't have to be more talented than Ohio State to beat them. We just have to make fewer mistakes and play better ball than they do.

NU was in the same universe talent wise- college football talent with Miami and CU

Those games weren't huge mismatches by any stretch

 

We aren't when it comes to OSU in 2015. When your third team QB is Cardale Jones and you have thoroughbreds at every position- we aren't in the same Universe

While Mike Riley and his staff may be good coaches, they aren't Tom OSborne, Milt Tenopir and Charlie McBride

Regardless of how anyone feels about Urban Meyer, he has won big at every stop and has won multiple National Titles, he is the real deal

NU is a LONG way away right now

Beating Minnesota, Iowa and Northwestern consistently and competing with Wisconsin comes first before we even start thinking about beating OSU under Meyer

You both make valid points but both of your points, as different as they may be, both come back to the same thing.

 

Coaching.

 

Nebraska was up there talent-wise with every single team they played, inluding that Colorado and Miami team you mention. Miami may have been a bit more talented, but what we lacked in talent, we overcame with coaching.

 

Here we are in 2015 and I still think we are right up there in talent with even Ohio St. We out talent Minnesota, Iowa, and even Wisconsin, where we have lacked is coaching.

 

Until now. Riley has displayed an ability to out-coach some highly talented teams and coaches. Now Riley has a talented team at his disposal. I don't know how quickly it all comes together, but I do expect it to happen under these coaches.

 

Not even close to being true.

 

Coaching is why we lost to teams like Minnesota. Why we were in dogfights with Iowa and Northwestern. The reason we get trampled by UCLA, Ohio State, Wisconsin, etc. was both talent and coaching. Ohio State, Alabama, Florida State, etc. are quite a bit above Nebraska based on talent.