ESPN: Is Nebraska making progress or starting over? Answer will come soon enough

[REDFANATIC]

Who else was looking forward to watching Miami at Arkansas St. for a measuring stick. Can't believe they cancelled the game.

[MichiganDad3]

3 minutes ago, REDFANATIC said:

Who else was looking forward to watching Miami at Arkansas St. for a measuring stick. Can't believe they cancelled the game.

I was thinking the same thing. It would have given a good indication of how good our offense is, and how bad our defense is.

[BoNeyard]

I think this weekend will determine what direction we are headed. Regardless that Oregon just came off a 77-21 win over an FCS opponent and Nebraska's defense looked like garbage vs Arkansas State, at the end of the day Nebraska returns some experienced players and Oregon is coming off a 4-8 season, has a new coach, and is starting a lot of true Freshman. I think people are buying into the first week by both teams a little too much, especially with the spread moving up to Oregon -14.

 

So with that said, if Nebraska lays an egg in this game and gets blown out, then I think there is valid concern for panic and a terrible season is ahead of us., which will undoubtedly lead to people questioning what direction this program is heading. if Nebraska comes out and plays hard and loses a close game, then people will credit it to referring back to each teams week 1 performances and Oregon will sky rocket with expectations and Nebraska will be hoping to gather 7-8 wins with people looking forward to next season. If Nebraska wins, which I think should still be the expectation, then people forget about week 1 and start to discuss the possibility of Nebraska winning the B1G West as they should be unbeaten going into the Wisconsin game.

[Hunter94]

20 minutes ago, BoneyardHusker said:

I think this weekend will determine what direction we are headed. Regardless that Oregon just came off a 77-21 win over an FCS opponent and Nebraska's defense looked like garbage vs Arkansas State, at the end of the day Nebraska returns some experienced players and Oregon is coming off a 4-8 season, has a new coach, and is starting a lot of true Freshman. I think people are buying into the first week by both teams a little too much, especially with the spread moving up to Oregon -14.

 

So with that said, if Nebraska lays an egg in this game and gets blown out, then I think there is valid concern for panic and a terrible season is ahead of us., which will undoubtedly lead to people questioning what direction this program is heading. if Nebraska comes out and plays hard and loses a close game, then people will credit it to referring back to each teams week 1 performances and Oregon will sky rocket with expectations and Nebraska will be hoping to gather 7-8 wins with people looking forward to next season. If Nebraska wins, which I think should still be the expectation, then people forget about week 1 and start to discuss the possibility of Nebraska winning the B1G West as they should be unbeaten going into the Wisconsin game.

this is a game i expect us to lose.........by 14-21 points.  it won't define the season, but it will be a long one with .500 being the result.

[marko polo]

6 hours ago, junior4949 said:

 

I'm not sure I really understand this post especially when you consider where we came from.  In two of the three previous years to TO becoming the head coach, we won the NC.  It wasn't until TO's ninth season that we even won our first outright conference title.  We haven't even allowed a coach nine seasons since TO retired.  Has anyone ever considered that this might very well be why it has been so long since we won our last conference title?  Ushering in a new coach and AD every 4-7 years isn't going to yield any conference titles.  Heck, we could even pay the highest salary out there and it won't necessarily mean conference titles (Michigan probably doesn't win the B1G this year). 

 

To some degree, we already have enough disadvantages when it comes to recruiting.  We don't need to compound those disadvantages by constantly firing and replacing coaches.  Why would any top notch kid want to come into that environment when they have no idea whether the guy recruiting them will even be there when their time is up?   

 

 

he shared the conference title in 75 and 78

we can't even win our division much less the conference

[marko polo]

3 hours ago, MichiganDad3 said:

The difference with TO is that his teams were good. Below are the final rankings for the Huskers (AP & UPI). TO finished in the top 10 in at least one poll every year. I would be happy if we were consistently in the top 20, but consistently un-ranked in not acceptable.

 

1973 - 7th & 11th
1974 - 9th & 8th
1975 - 9th & 9th
1976 - 9th & 7th
1977 - 12th & 10th
1978 - 8th & 8th
1979 - 9th & 7th
1980 - 7th & 7th

Yep that is the part people conveniently leave out.

[Hayseed]

Good article. This is our team. We'll see what we have on Saturday.

[Landlord]

Hiring Mike Riley was incredibly out of the box.

[junior4949]

16 hours ago, MichiganDad3 said:

The difference with TO is that his teams were good. Below are the final rankings for the Huskers (AP & UPI). TO finished in the top 10 in at least one poll every year. I would be happy if we were consistently in the top 20, but consistently un-ranked in not acceptable.

 

1973 - 7th & 11th
1974 - 9th & 8th
1975 - 9th & 9th
1976 - 9th & 7th
1977 - 12th & 10th
1978 - 8th & 8th
1979 - 9th & 7th
1980 - 7th & 7th

 

Do those rankings look "good" when compared to being #1 two of the three years before he became the coach?  TO is just lucky to have been involved in football when he was.  In today's day and age, he never would have made it.  After the 77' season, he would have been shown the door.  Does anyone believe Harbaugh survives at Michigan if by year five and six he's still coming in third in their division?  Does anyone believe that splash hire Jim McElwain survives at Florida if by year five or six he still can't field a competent QB and make a push to win the SEC? 

 

There's not a lot of coaches out there that get 22 years just to get their team back to the team they inherited.  There's probably a couple dozen programs out there that really believe they should be at the top year in and year out.  It's because of this that we will continue to see lots and lots of coaching changes.  As the money continues to get bigger, the shorter the amount of time the new guy has to fix anything.