Keyshawn's take<< a must read for all on this board
- Thread starter Scratchtown
- Start date
Dr. Strangelove
All-Conference
You don't lose to Illinois and expect an even keeled fan base.
We're supposed to expect everything to be dandy after one of the worst losses Nebraska has ever had? After Mike Riley is more or less validating the concerns of those critical of his hire?
No, you don't get patience from the fan base when we reach a new low.
We're supposed to expect everything to be dandy after one of the worst losses Nebraska has ever had? After Mike Riley is more or less validating the concerns of those critical of his hire?
No, you don't get patience from the fan base when we reach a new low.
BigRedBuster
International Man of Mystery
You really rank the loss to Illinois as "one of the worst losses Nebraska has ever had"?
LOL
StPaulHusker
Banned
Jeremy
Starter
All I hear is 'the 90's are over,' and 'we'll never be that good again,' and 'accept your place as an also ran in a weak division,' or 'these aren't your daddy's Huskers.'
Well guess what.
WE KNOW
But at some point the football program has to get over the hump, right? Because we've barely sniffed relevance for the last 14 years, and every time we did, we peed down our leg. It had NOTHING to do with the fans. You can lay it at the feet of the guys making decisions about who is choosing coaches, who is coaching, their recruiting, and the details of their programs.
WE'VE shown up, EVERY game, and cheered, like we're expected to. Nebraska lost in a half-empty stadium in Champaign that had 10,000 Husker fans in it, as well has the mostly-empty stadium in Miami. But not ours. It's FULL, no matter what. So go ahead and blame the fans, but in the end, it all comes down to whoever is pulling the strings up top.
Well guess what.
WE KNOW
But at some point the football program has to get over the hump, right? Because we've barely sniffed relevance for the last 14 years, and every time we did, we peed down our leg. It had NOTHING to do with the fans. You can lay it at the feet of the guys making decisions about who is choosing coaches, who is coaching, their recruiting, and the details of their programs.
WE'VE shown up, EVERY game, and cheered, like we're expected to. Nebraska lost in a half-empty stadium in Champaign that had 10,000 Husker fans in it, as well has the mostly-empty stadium in Miami. But not ours. It's FULL, no matter what. So go ahead and blame the fans, but in the end, it all comes down to whoever is pulling the strings up top.
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74Hunter
Banned
Not trying to be a jerk, but I'd love to see which ones you feel are worse.
Yeah, it's fresh in our minds, but this one seems pretty bad.
StPaulHusker
Banned
Iowa St in 1992
Arizona St in 1996
Colorado in 2001
Penn State in 2002
Southern Miss in 2004
Kansas in 2005
Kansas in 2007
Texas Tech and Iowa State in 2009
Oklahoma, Texas, and Washington in 2010
The 3 conference losses in 2011
UCLA and the CCG in 2012
UCLA, Minnesota, and Iowa in 2013
Wisconsin and Minnesota in 2014
Of course these are just my opinions of worse games over the last 20 years. And each one has it's own merit to it.
74Hunter
Banned
StPaulHusker
Banned
I think you can agree with me on most of them. Just embrace it and wrap it around you like a warm blanket.
74Hunter
Banned
The deal is, I'm not sure yet if Illinois is really that bad.
But the way we just literally invented a way to lose this game is something else.
Not saying that any of those losses you listed were good, tho. They all sucked.
junior4949
All-American
I can go along with the Iowa State game in 92' and even the Iowa State game a few years back when they strolled into Lincoln with their backup QB and RB to beat us after we committed like seven turnovers. The one bowl game where we played Miami and they shut us out was bad. I realize Miami was a good team, but we played like we didn't even belong on the same field as them. The Texas Tech drubbing we took in 04' was also another horrendous loss.
GBRedneck
Banned
Obviously it's pretty subjective. But it was certainly one of the very worst I can recall. I don't reremember ever giving away a game in such blatant fashion. And against a B1G bottom dweller? Pathetic.
StPaulHusker
Banned
Blackshirt_Revival
Four-Star Recruit
This article, for me, epitomizes so much of what is wrong with Nebraska football today.
But not because of what Keyshawn said, but because so many are suddenly depicting Keyshawn as some sort of Nebraska Cornhusker football authority.
And why? Because he played many years in the NFL? Because he is now an NFL analyst on ESPN?
Certainly these factors contribute, but none are the real reason why. The reason why is because he 'has' something we want, and that something is his son and maybe a few of his friends playing for the Cornhuskers.
Look, I'm sure the kid is great. I'm sure all of those friends he has are great, too. They will soon discover there is heavy pressure at every school that is passionate about football and being successful (let alone if/when they get to the NFL). You could make the argument that we 'need' or are 'hurting for' kids like his son and his friends to play for us worse than other schools are right now. Fair enough. This leads me to my main point:
Nebraska's biggest problem, if you ask me, hasn't been the issue of 'need' or 'want'. Nebraska's biggest problem for well over 10 years has been the issue of HAVE.
Nebraska is such a unique place among the college football landscape. Almost a veritable 'football oasis' in the middle of the plains--a state of 1.8 million that consistently fills up its stadium of 90,000+.
Think about that for a minute. A fanbase that cares so much about its team and is so hungry to succeed and see them be successful, that even when our teams haven't been so great, we have consistently filled up a stadium that big relative to our population and cheered those teams on and supported them. Nebraska is so synonymous with college football and with its football team, this is almost always the first thing that gets brought up or mentioned to me in small talk when I meet people from other places.
But Nebraska has completely ignored and shunned what it has in regards to local talent and fostering that talent, making it the backbone of our team, and building the team along with its identity from it. You start at your bedrock. You start with your foundation. Before you worry about the 'want' or the 'need', you must start with the HAVE and do everything in your power to foster it, grow it, nurture it. Nebraska has neglected it and stomped all over it.
Keyshawn's kid is surely a great athlete, but being conservative, I'm willing to bet there are at least 5 Nebraska small town white boys and at least as many brothers in Omaha/Boys Town this year who would beat him in the 100m dash and would give a kidney to play for the Huskers. But they are ignored. They don't have enough stars next to their names. Football competition is not as intense or as encouraged or as electric as it was in the 90s or early 00s here, and certainly not compared to Texas, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Florida, most states down south. I'm not saying we were ever 'as good' as the best from these states, but I am saying relative to population, Nebraska used to be as intense about football at the high school level as anywhere. What happened? What happened was these kids aren't brought in, they aren't developed. There is no correlation with or to their state's college program any longer or vice versa. These kids end up moving on to DII or NAIA, if they end up playing football after high school at all.
In 1995, Roughly 80% of Nebraska roster was composed of kids from within a 500 mile radius of Lincoln. On the 1997 team, I believe 10 of the 11 offensive starters were from the state of Nebraska.
One could argue that we did try continuing this tradition under Frank, and floundered. I would contend Frank had the right idea about nurturing what he had, he just did not have the mind to maximize this or translate it into the success or results we wanted. He couldn't adapt.
But here we are today, trying to copycat all of the other schools and do what they do, playing the role of grovelers to 17 year old kids, utilizing offensive strategies which are unremarkable, schemes that don't match us, saying we need the 'athletes' to stay competitive.
This is all total garbage.
My fiancee is originally from Romania, a country that does not have the population base or the financial advantages of many of the countries in Western Europe or of Russia. However, they are extremely proud of their athletes in Pan-European and International competitions, and they do very well relative to their population. Romanians are known for being amazing at gymnastics and being formidable rugby, soccer, and tennis players, in addition to excelling at judo, among other sports. They never once would think of making excuses such as "oh, but that country has more athletes than we do" or "oh this country is bigger" or "oh we need to get some of Germany's athletes to come here." They know what they have is what they have, and you better bet they will maximize and foster their talent and do what it takes to make them the best they can be and to succeed at whatever particular sport we are discussing.
Don't get me wrong. I know we need athletes and we do need to recruit. I know Osborne brought in great players from Florida, New Jersey, Texas, California, etc. But that recruiting should be done to supplement what we 'have' with what we 'need' to get to what we all 'want'. Once again, it all starts with what you have.
That's what Osborne understood better than anyone. That is truly what made Nebraska special and unique. And I am here to tell you, Nebraska won't be anything special or unique again until we get staff and administration in place that understand and appreciate this and do everything in their power to nourish, utilize, and maximize what we do have as our foundation.
But not because of what Keyshawn said, but because so many are suddenly depicting Keyshawn as some sort of Nebraska Cornhusker football authority.
And why? Because he played many years in the NFL? Because he is now an NFL analyst on ESPN?
Certainly these factors contribute, but none are the real reason why. The reason why is because he 'has' something we want, and that something is his son and maybe a few of his friends playing for the Cornhuskers.
Look, I'm sure the kid is great. I'm sure all of those friends he has are great, too. They will soon discover there is heavy pressure at every school that is passionate about football and being successful (let alone if/when they get to the NFL). You could make the argument that we 'need' or are 'hurting for' kids like his son and his friends to play for us worse than other schools are right now. Fair enough. This leads me to my main point:
Nebraska's biggest problem, if you ask me, hasn't been the issue of 'need' or 'want'. Nebraska's biggest problem for well over 10 years has been the issue of HAVE.
Nebraska is such a unique place among the college football landscape. Almost a veritable 'football oasis' in the middle of the plains--a state of 1.8 million that consistently fills up its stadium of 90,000+.
Think about that for a minute. A fanbase that cares so much about its team and is so hungry to succeed and see them be successful, that even when our teams haven't been so great, we have consistently filled up a stadium that big relative to our population and cheered those teams on and supported them. Nebraska is so synonymous with college football and with its football team, this is almost always the first thing that gets brought up or mentioned to me in small talk when I meet people from other places.
But Nebraska has completely ignored and shunned what it has in regards to local talent and fostering that talent, making it the backbone of our team, and building the team along with its identity from it. You start at your bedrock. You start with your foundation. Before you worry about the 'want' or the 'need', you must start with the HAVE and do everything in your power to foster it, grow it, nurture it. Nebraska has neglected it and stomped all over it.
Keyshawn's kid is surely a great athlete, but being conservative, I'm willing to bet there are at least 5 Nebraska small town white boys and at least as many brothers in Omaha/Boys Town this year who would beat him in the 100m dash and would give a kidney to play for the Huskers. But they are ignored. They don't have enough stars next to their names. Football competition is not as intense or as encouraged or as electric as it was in the 90s or early 00s here, and certainly not compared to Texas, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Florida, most states down south. I'm not saying we were ever 'as good' as the best from these states, but I am saying relative to population, Nebraska used to be as intense about football at the high school level as anywhere. What happened? What happened was these kids aren't brought in, they aren't developed. There is no correlation with or to their state's college program any longer or vice versa. These kids end up moving on to DII or NAIA, if they end up playing football after high school at all.
In 1995, Roughly 80% of Nebraska roster was composed of kids from within a 500 mile radius of Lincoln. On the 1997 team, I believe 10 of the 11 offensive starters were from the state of Nebraska.
One could argue that we did try continuing this tradition under Frank, and floundered. I would contend Frank had the right idea about nurturing what he had, he just did not have the mind to maximize this or translate it into the success or results we wanted. He couldn't adapt.
But here we are today, trying to copycat all of the other schools and do what they do, playing the role of grovelers to 17 year old kids, utilizing offensive strategies which are unremarkable, schemes that don't match us, saying we need the 'athletes' to stay competitive.
This is all total garbage.
My fiancee is originally from Romania, a country that does not have the population base or the financial advantages of many of the countries in Western Europe or of Russia. However, they are extremely proud of their athletes in Pan-European and International competitions, and they do very well relative to their population. Romanians are known for being amazing at gymnastics and being formidable rugby, soccer, and tennis players, in addition to excelling at judo, among other sports. They never once would think of making excuses such as "oh, but that country has more athletes than we do" or "oh this country is bigger" or "oh we need to get some of Germany's athletes to come here." They know what they have is what they have, and you better bet they will maximize and foster their talent and do what it takes to make them the best they can be and to succeed at whatever particular sport we are discussing.
Don't get me wrong. I know we need athletes and we do need to recruit. I know Osborne brought in great players from Florida, New Jersey, Texas, California, etc. But that recruiting should be done to supplement what we 'have' with what we 'need' to get to what we all 'want'. Once again, it all starts with what you have.
That's what Osborne understood better than anyone. That is truly what made Nebraska special and unique. And I am here to tell you, Nebraska won't be anything special or unique again until we get staff and administration in place that understand and appreciate this and do everything in their power to nourish, utilize, and maximize what we do have as our foundation.
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SilkBleedsHuskers
Three-Star Recruit
As much as it pains me to lose to Illinois, I dont think that was one of the worst loses in nebraska history by any stretch. Yeah maybe Illinois isnt that good, but we beat ourselves, coaches and players alike. I think thats fixable for being game 5 of a new era in Nebraska football.