Glass half empty or half full?

[brophog]

I'm neither.

 

I never wanted Riley in the first place. The goal of this hire is to get a guy that can get over the 9 win hump and win championships. That's really hard to do, way harder to do consistently than most will realize. It takes a special coach, and that's not Riley.

 

On the other hand, he's not a bad coach. He's better than we've seen. We just didn't hire a guy to improve on five wins. It's a bad fit. Not all coaches are a great fit for all situations.

 

I think a lot of fans probably feel similarly. It's where I feel a lot of the increased frustration this year is coming from.

[krc1995]

Well as much as it sucks, it is better for me than 70-31 or 59-24. In the end though, yes losses are losses

Right now these close losses are almost worse. When we were getting blown by 30 or 40 you never had to watch the second half. Now you have to watch the entire game.

[HuskerPowerVA]

It is not just the coaching on the field. If anyone thinks the talent coming into Lincoln is competitive enough to live up to our expectations you better be ingesting more than alcohol to feel better.

[HuskerPowerVA]

I'm neither.

 

I never wanted Riley in the first place. The goal of this hire is to get a guy that can get over the 9 win hump and win championships. That's really hard to do, way harder to do consistently than most will realize. It takes a special coach, and that's not Riley.

 

On the other hand, he's not a bad coach. He's better than we've seen. We just didn't hire a guy to improve on five wins. It's a bad fit. Not all coaches are a great fit for all situations.

 

I think a lot of fans probably feel similarly. It's where I feel a lot of the increased frustration this year is coming from.

I agree completely.

[CheeseHusker]

Half empty. More like mostly empty.

 

We haven't event played the hard part of the schedule yet. Looking at probably eight losses.

[TheMeanFarmer]

I would say the glass is REALLY big and the water is somewhere between the mouth and nose of HCMR and staff.

[4skers89]

Half full. I didn't get to watch the game so my perspective is different. Maybe if I had watched the game I'd be upset with some coaching decisions or player performance. From a bigger picture view of things I was happy to see we didn't get blown out by a team that has had our number lately. Going into the game I thought there was a real possibility that our offense would get shut down and our defense would get thrown on for 35+ points. Neither happened. Illini played Iowa tough, NW blown out by Michigan, Iowa barely beat Wiscy, Minny.. we're all average to below average teams. It's unfortunate that our record isn't better but if we aren't getting blown out and players giving up in a game knowing they'll still achieve 9 wins on the season, I consider it progress.

 

I'm not thrilled with the coaching staff but I would never call for them to be fired - yet. It causes too many problems. Most importantly is that it might give the players the idea that it's not their fault for losing since their coaches suck. That is not the message I want sent to the players. It would be more like "listen to the coaches and get better!" What if they aren't convinced of their new coaches? I don't want them to have any excuses to not earn their scholarships. If there are coaching problems they will form a pattern over time and a change will be made. One thing we are starting to see is inability to win close games but that is with the current set of players. After the first blowout by Wisconsin did we know definitely that Bo's defensive scheme was a problem or that he was unwilling to change it or the players he recruited were the problem but demand Bo be fired? Maybe by some but it didn't happen. Some time is required to know if Riley and his staff aren't going to get it done. Meanwhile, I'm PO'd at our current record but I'm patient.

[grandpasknee]

I'm neither.

 

I never wanted Riley in the first place. The goal of this hire is to get a guy that can get over the 9 win hump and win championships. That's really hard to do, way harder to do consistently than most will realize. It takes a special coach, and that's not Riley.

 

On the other hand, he's not a bad coach. He's better than we've seen. We just didn't hire a guy to improve on five wins. It's a bad fit. Not all coaches are a great fit for all situations.

 

I think a lot of fans probably feel similarly. It's where I feel a lot of the increased frustration this year is coming from.

Is that your goal, or a publicly stated goal of the U and the athletic department? I guess I missed that official announcement.

 

In a world where only a few hundred people know the true mental, emotional and psychological state of the football program (not me for sure) and only half of those really know as much as they think they do, I like to give a bit of leeway. Obviously Bo had his way, which perhaps a slim majority, but a majority of people thought was not in line with "the Nebraska way" when it came to character. But this program has been housed in a state of mental decay and disarray for close to 15 years. I suspect that disarray is far more the stumbling block than either x's and o's or jimmys and joes. Give the Riley staff a year to implement their football philosophy, without fretting over the obvious fact that this group of players, regardless of athletic ability are not suited to his schemes. More importantly, give him the benefit of doubt and time to deal with righting the mental ship of the program.

 

Then you can fire him and SE and dump things back into the dark abyss again. :-)

[74Hunter]

It looks like 1/3 full to me.

 

But who knows, with this staff a close loss is pretty much a win. Best we can hope for.

[Saunders]

[NowledgeableFan]

Well as much as it sucks, it is better for me than 70-31 or 59-24. In the end though, yes losses are losses

Those are what subpar programs say - A loss is a loss is a loss............ Hope our program

doesn't care if we lose... as long as we come up close.... My hope now is that we keep our

recruits and make a bowl game..... I don't like lowering our expectations.... We use to have

higher standards..... GBR

[huskerfan92]

Says he'll use a system to play to the team's strengths, doesn't. When asked about the 3rd down troubles the answers are always "Couldn't pass effectively". Doesn't see the trend in our losses....it's pretty simple the defense completely folds in the 4th quarter. Uses the "couldn't get consistent runs" excuse for not running the ball more. Look what Wisconsin did, they started off not running consistently but after wearing out our defense they were able to get bigger chunks. That's the whole point of running the football, and it's what Nebraska used to do when we were a top flight program. You run the ball down the other team's throats until they are dog tired and just give up.

 

All hope I've had for this staff is gone. The Oregon St. fans warned us about how stubborn Riley and his staff is, so why should we expect anything to change? We don't lose all these games at the last second because of "luck" we lose them because the games are managed terribly.

[brophog]

Is that your goal, or a publicly stated goal of the U and the athletic department? I guess I missed that official announcement.

 

 

You somehow missed the "championship caliber, games that matter" speech?

[gossamorharpy]

All of you need to take a step back, chill the hell out, and realize Riley and Co r playing with a whole team they did not recruit. Bo was a horrible recruiter who's best players were often JUCO transfers. This team is full of good but not great players. Could our record be better with a few plays that could have gone our way? Sure. But we have no difference makers on both sides of the ball and many underestimate just how much we relied on Ameer last year for offense.

 

We all knew this was going to be a tough year. While this is worse than most thought, to mark a coach as a failure after 6 games without a single recruiting class of his own is foolish at best.

[huskerfan92]

All of you need to take a step back, chill the hell out, and realize Riley and Co r playing with a whole team they did not recruit. Bo was a horrible recruiter who's best players were often JUCO transfers. This team is full of good but not great players. Could our record be better with a few plays that could have gone our way? Sure. But we have no difference makers on both sides of the ball and many underestimate just how much we relied on Ameer last year for offense.

 

We all knew this was going to be a tough year. While this is worse than most thought, to mark a coach as a failure after 6 games without a single recruiting class of his own is foolish at best.

 

Goodness these losses have nothing to do with the talent. These coaches are making the same gaffes they made in their Oregon St. days. What you're seeing is what you're going to get. Tough year is an understatement we are 2-4 and our best win this season is a single digit victory against Southern Miss