As an outsider, I can confidently say things are better than fans may feel right now

[Cdog923]

10 hours ago, Decoy73 said:

Like not being able to go out w/o being recognized or something else?  No need for me or anyone else to know if it’s something else.  Just found this part interesting.  Otherwise I pretty much agree.   We as a fan base probably don’t appreciate enough how difficult this job is for Scott.   I’m still on board with him as our coach and will be no matter how the season turns out.  It’s just a tough year all around for hundreds of reasons.  

 

10 hours ago, knapplc said:

 

Something else. He's had a difficult few years that most people experience but not when they're in the public eye doing a high-stress job. He's handled it as well as one could expect, and he hasn't made any excuses. But his first three years here haven't been like the first three years for other coaches at other schools.

 

 

That coupled with the birth of a child and the death of his father = stressors he was not used to having to deal beforehand. 

[Hilltop]

I would agree with the OP.  I think that is why it so frustrating to much of the fan base.  We were the more talented team on Saturday but still came up short.  We won the stat sheet but made a few more mistakes.  What we see gives us hope - that beats the hell out of where we were in Riley's 3rd year.  I'm still very optimistic that we win 4-5 of the remaining games.  GBR

[Enhance]

10 hours ago, Decoy73 said:

Like not being able to go out w/o being recognized or something else?  No need for me or anyone else to know if it’s something else.  Just found this part interesting.  Otherwise I pretty much agree.   We as a fan base probably don’t appreciate enough how difficult this job is for Scott.   I’m still on board with him as our coach and will be no matter how the season turns out.  It’s just a tough year all around for hundreds of reasons.  

I will say that this is mostly where my mind is at, though I admit more and more negative thoughts sinking into my head. A lot of coaches have to do deal with difficult challenges as a head coach. That's not meant to belittle their struggles or individual challenges. In fact, I think we as college football fans tend to be very blunt in our assessment of head coaches. We often leave very little room for error. But, it's also a bit of a reality of the position and Scott would be one of the first people to acknowledge this and say that it can't be an excuse.

 

It's just difficult to see regression and stagnation in certain parts of the team while seeing other parts of the team improve, particularly on the offensive side of the ball where there are position groups simply not performing to an acceptable standard. I'm not near the point where I think it's time to bail on Frost. Far from it, in fact. It would seem like some soul-searching needs to happen in that program though.

[J-MAGIC]

People need to chill the hell out and stop whining. We've opened the season against the No. 9 defense in SP+ in Ohio State and the No. 5 defense in SP+ in Northwestern, and we moved the ball well on both while starting two non-FBS-scholarship wide receivers. The young talent on defense looks great and we are wildly improved on that side of the ball. The downfield passing game is going to get better as the actually-talented younger receivers work in. The red zone execution and discipline need to improve but those things are also kind of fluky and Frost is taking responsibility for those.

 

Before the season we universally agreed that the opening stretch of games was going to be brutal and that we needed to be patient and get through it (and only got more brutal than we anticipated after we figured out NW was actually good). And then the games start and we drop a close one to a good team known for stealing games and everyone starts acting like things are an unfixable disaster. A big part of this fan base needs to start using their brains, stop crying every time something goes wrong, and grow up.

 

[Undone]

Thinking that McCaffrey makes us a team that does a 180 degree turnaround and would make all the difference sort of confuses me. He also threw a really stupid interception that also cost us the game.

 

Martinez was our leading rusher with 102 yards. He at least moved us into the red zone, but we just suck at punching it into the end zone.

[TheSker]

3 minutes ago, Undone said:

Thinking that McCaffrey makes us a team that does a 180 degree turnaround and would make all the difference sort of confuses me. He also threw a really stupid interception that also cost us the game.

 

Martinez was our leading rusher with 102 yards. He at least moved us into the red zone, but we just suck at punching it into the end zone.

I think Jurgens being out hurt more than many might think.  The OL had more than their share of struggles.

 

Jurgens experience and physical presence changes a lot of things.

[Undone]

3 minutes ago, TheSker said:

I think Jurgens being out hurt more than many might think.  The OL had more than their share of struggles.

 

Jurgens experience and physical presence changes a lot of things.

 

I agree that on plays like the failure from 2nd & goal from the two where they stuffed Mills for a two yard loss, we can probably attribute some of that to not having Jurgens.

 

But...then Luke throws an interception the play later. If we had just taken a field goal there and hadn't missed the previous field goal, then on our last drive we could have been kicking yet another field goal for the win.

 

But, poor special teams, stupid penalties, and even stupider turnovers are still a massive problem for Frost in year three. It is perfectly ok to point this out. It is seriously glaring right now.

[TheSker]

1 minute ago, Undone said:

 

I agree that on plays like the failure from 2nd & goal from the two where they stuffed Mills for a two yard loss, we can probably attribute some of that to not having Jurgens.

 

But...then Luke throws an interception the play later. If we had just taken a field goal there and hadn't missed the previous field goal, then on our last drive we could have been kicking yet another field goal for the win.

 

But, poor special teams and penalties are still a massive problem for Frost in year three. It is perfectly ok to point this out. It is seriously glaring right now.

I agree about special teams.  My comment is more specific to red zone woes.

 

Jurgens is legit all conference caliber.

[Huskers93-97]

3 minutes ago, Undone said:

 

I agree that on plays like the failure from 2nd & goal from the two where they stuffed Mills for a two yard loss, we can probably attribute some of that to not having Jurgens.

 

But...then Luke throws an interception the play later. If we had just taken a field goal there and hadn't missed the previous field goal, then on our last drive we could have been kicking yet another field goal for the win.

 

But, poor special teams, stupid penalties, and even stupider turnovers are still a massive problem for Frost in year three. It is perfectly ok to point this out. It is seriously glaring right now.

Even Frost admitted in the post game the program is not where it should be at this point. So if he is saying it- why can't the fans?

[RedDenver]

28 minutes ago, Undone said:

Thinking that McCaffrey makes us a team that does a 180 degree turnaround and would make all the difference sort of confuses me. He also threw a really stupid interception that also cost us the game.

The pass that bounced off a helmet and was then intercepted? How is that a stupid interception? Seems unlucky to me.

[Hilltop]

9 minutes ago, RedDenver said:

The pass that bounced off a helmet and was then intercepted? How is that a stupid interception? Seems unlucky to me.

That was a pass that we intercepted.

[TheSker]

Just now, Hilltop said:

That was a pass that we intercepted.

The one McCaffrey threw in the red zone bounced off a helmet 

 

It happened once to each team.

[Husker in WI]

It feels like McCaffrey looks better, but honestly the results are the same. I am unconvinced that a QB change will make a huge difference, but willing to try!

 

I think some of this is Frost and co getting used to not being way better at what they do than the opposing DCs. No one ever seemed ready for them at UCF, and in the Big Ten it seems like the defenses are ahead and half of our offensive gameplan has to be thrown out. Are DCs that bad in the AAC/Pac-12?

[J-MAGIC]

44 minutes ago, Undone said:

Thinking that McCaffrey makes us a team that does a 180 degree turnaround and would make all the difference sort of confuses me. He also threw a really stupid interception that also cost us the game.

 

Martinez was our leading rusher with 102 yards. He at least moved us into the red zone, but we just suck at punching it into the end zone.

Luke really wasn't doing anything Adrian already wasn't. His numbers look better because NW was playing prevent on the last drive and giving him stuff underneath. He certainly wasn't pushing the ball downfield anymore than Adrian was. 

 

If coaches think the ball isn't going where it needed to with Adrian and need to make a change, then let's do it. But I think way too much blame is being placed on the QBs for our passing game right now and I think Adrian gets one more chance from me. 

[Undone]

4 minutes ago, J-MAGIC said:

Luke really wasn't doing anything Adrian already wasn't. His numbers look better because NW was playing prevent on the last drive and giving him stuff underneath. He certainly wasn't pushing the ball downfield anymore than Adrian was. 

 

If coaches think the ball isn't going where it needed to with Adrian and need to make a change, then let's do it. But I think way too much blame is being placed on the QBs for our passing game right now and I think Adrian gets one more chance from me. 

 

Same page. The QB is probably even likelier than the coach to take the brunt of the blame from emotional fans after a frustrating loss.

 

But, the offensive numbers tell a bit of a different tale.

 

At the end of the day though, we have to score in the red zone. Our running game got stuffed inside the 20 and we miss a field goal; a lot has to improve.

 

Also, how insane is it that we put up fewer points against Northwestern than we did against Ohio State?