New AD or Head Coach

[HuskerNation1]

9 hours ago, Stone Cold said:

I feel the answer is pretty simple here.  They were playing to honor there team mate who passed away earlier that summer in a car crash.  Mike Riley was never going to change and he has decades of coaching experience to show that.  If you take out that one fluke season then where do the numbers add up.

 

For the part in bold are you talking about Riley or Frost.  Riley was a .500 coach for nearly 30 years before he got here and guess what, he was 19-19 as Huskers head coach, so we got what we expected.  Frost was only head coach for 2 seasons, and he obviously had one very magical season where everything seemed to fall in place. But, over 5 years as head coach, his combined record at UCF and Nebraska is 29-26.  If you take out what appears to be his fluke season of 2017, his record is 16-26.  

[HuskerNation1]

7 hours ago, Wistrom Disciple said:

Thank you for putting a lot of time and thought into your post. Unfortunately, I will have to disagree with your entire premise and several of your points of argument.

 

First, Scott Frost will not be fired at any point under his current contract. He is the right guy for the job at this stage of our program despite his record. Moos & Frost have been upfront since the beginning that this overhaul of the program will take years, not months, and that is why they have been given such a long runway. NU Administration, Regents, AD and coach are all on the same wavelength and working in cohesion with one another. We haven't had that level of agreement in a long, long time and the results of this harmony will bear fruit soon. No one expected the turnaround to take this much time but no one expected to play games in front of an empty Memorial Stadium either.

 

Next, though some of your criticisms are warranted (redzone inefficiency, penalties, turnovers, etc.), most of the points you make do not add up to firing our coach. Transfers are the new normal in college football, Iowa has had no less than six transfers since the summer began with two of those transfers coming here. Many of the transfers and the attrition have been addition by subtraction for us. With the work ethic, motivation and lifestyle problems that were here prior to Frost's arrival, a jolt of reality was needed in order to get the right types of people to come to the school. Some of those kids turned out to be misses but that's how recruiting is, you don't really know a person until you're around them everyday and they are away from the their parents, HS coaches, etc. Some thrive away while others have problems. 

 

It is also surprising that our top RB has under 200 yards, yes. That said, our expected top RB has been hurt for over half the season, his backup has also been fighting injuries. I do agree that we need to utilize our runningbacks more, hopefully they can stay healthy and we can get some flow going. 

 

The entire offense frequently looks over to the sidelines before snaps. They had the same system at UCF, worked well there. Several other programs utilize this process and it works for them as well. Nothing surprising about the process, need to get execution of plays better obviously. 

 

I understand that you're frustrated, we all are. That said, we've all been fans up to this point, it is not the time to give up hope and start playing the guessing game of who should be the next coach at Nebraska. Texas and Michigan have been playing that game for several years now and they've stuck with the same coaches while only building more of the dark clouds over their programs. We had the same issue in Bo's final years and it negatively impacted the program, coaches, players and fanbase. The solution is obviously to start winning games. We are not too far away from contending to win our division so hopefully these last couple games get us some confidence and look forward to a better 2021. 

 

I agree with you that Frost will be given a 4th year and that Moos was up front to give Frost time to turn the program around.  Based upon what we have seen thus far, however, I am not sure Frost is the right guy to turn this around.  I have not seen enough results or positive trends to show he has what it takes to succeed in the Big Ten, and that is where I think looking back at his short tenure at UCF can be problematic.  Winning at UCF is not the same as trying to win in the Big Ten. I think we all bought into the UCF success and felt that Frost could copy that template and replicate the success in the Big Ten. The reality is that it has not worked on any side of the ball, and 3 years into his realm at Husker head coach, this team has absolutely no identity.  If you asked an average football fan what the strength of the Nebraska program is currently, you would be met with blank stares.  We have no identity and that really falls back on the head coach.  

 

I appreciate your optimism, especially with the last sentence that we are not too far away from winning the West division, but I am not seeing anything that warrants the optimism.  Perhaps if Frost cleans house this off season and brings in some new minds with a different perspective there will be a reason to sense more optimism, but doubling down on the same schemes and approach with the same staff will likely yield similar results.  

[Mavric]

59 minutes ago, Lightfighter214 said:

That may be true, but generally the tried and true way of helping younger qbs is to roll of the pocket, cut the field in half, simplify things. Nu isn't really doing that right now.

 

Which other schools have done this consistently to form "the trend"?

[Wistrom Disciple]

55 minutes ago, HuskerNation1 said:

I agree with you that Frost will be given a 4th year and that Moos was up front to give Frost time to turn the program around.  Based upon what we have seen thus far, however, I am not sure Frost is the right guy to turn this around.  I have not seen enough results or positive trends to show he has what it takes to succeed in the Big Ten, and that is where I think looking back at his short tenure at UCF can be problematic.  Winning at UCF is not the same as trying to win in the Big Ten. I think we all bought into the UCF success and felt that Frost could copy that template and replicate the success in the Big Ten. The reality is that it has not worked on any side of the ball, and 3 years into his realm at Husker head coach, this team has absolutely no identity.  If you asked an average football fan what the strength of the Nebraska program is currently, you would be met with blank stares.  We have no identity and that really falls back on the head coach.  

 

I appreciate your optimism, especially with the last sentence that we are not too far away from winning the West division, but I am not seeing anything that warrants the optimism.  Perhaps if Frost cleans house this off season and brings in some new minds with a different perspective there will be a reason to sense more optimism, but doubling down on the same schemes and approach with the same staff will likely yield similar results.  

I agree with a majority of your post and the lack of a clear cut offensive identity also frustrates me. I would like us to be a little more smash mouth with the run game but I believe the coaches are slowly figuring things out. 

 

I disagree that major staff changes will be the answer at this stage. One of the keys for our decades of success was continuity with the bulk of the coaching staff. I think it would be most beneficial if Frost were to keep most, if not all, of the coaches on staff through 2021. Reassess after what will hopefully be a normal calendar year in 2021 (spring football, recruiting, fall camp, etc.) but giving the players some stability after this rocky season. 

 

The optimism stems from the team being in several close games the past few years and the defense progressing in development. Yes we have had an annual embarrassing loss (Minnesota blowout last year, Illinois this year) but it is the other games the past couple years against Northwestern, Purdue & Iowa that give me hope that we're not as far away from being relevant as our record would suggest. The losses frustrate me as well but I don't believe we are far off from being a conference contender. With +80% of our most talented players being underclassmen, I believe we should be more optimistic that our future will be better than the present.

[Danimal]

11 hours ago, Mavric said:

 

Also, for the record, I was one of the last hold-outs on backing Pelini.  Not that I didn't recognize his faults.  Many were mocking his #9wins as something pretty much anyone could do.  I was one of the loudest voices saying that it was really hard to win that many games each year.  Perhaps we've found that out now.

 

It was always my view that if you gave Bo a firmer hand in terms of his behavior and offered constructive critique while also being supportive and opening the checkbook for some needed staffing upgrades(for example make Els an analyst/recruiting coordinator, give Papuchis ST's/LB's, and hire top-tier DC). Do that and no we aren't at mid-90's level but we bump-up to 10-win  seasons and that yearly blowout loss becomes more competitive.  

[TheSker]

12 hours ago, HuskerNation1 said:

 

Yes and Riley was 19-19 in 3 seasons at Nebraska and I agreed with the decision to let him go.  I think it was right of many fans to criticize Riley for his lackluster resume over 3 years as Husker head coach, and I think its just as right for fans to also criticize Frost now for his lackluster resume in 3 years as head coach.  Frost is currently 10-19 and would need to win 9 straight to match Riley's record upon departure. I realize Riley inherited a program with a history of winning 9 games so that can explain some of the better record he has had over Frost thus far, but as I replied earlier, the fact that we are discussing if Frost has been as good as his predecessor is not a positive sign for the program.  We hired Frost to turnaround the program and that simply has not happened thus far.  Maybe with some significant changes this off season we will see great improvements in year 4.  

Frost prefers the weight room to ice cream socials.....so I'm less concerned about the short term issues under Frost.

[All Hail Herbie]

Given the persistent discipline problems that I have seen for 10 years (spanning 3 coaching staffs), I do not think staff changes now will fix our problems.  These are structural issues that seem engrained in what is now a losing culture.  Moreover, staff changes not only mean disruption, but also come at significant monetary cost as well as time to transition to a new approach.  

 

At this point, while I remain skeptical of this staff's ability to turn it around, I think we have little choice but to stay the course for another couple of seasons.  Not out of confidence in there being light at the end of the tunnel, but out of a true lack of options.  We are truly in a box.

[Hilltop]

Watch these two games.  To me this tells the story of our progress.  Both are losses against the same team.  We are a much better team under Frost.  Of note, also look at the number of upperclassmen on the Husker roster for the 2017 game compared to what we played with Friday.

 

 

 

[Mavric]

27 minutes ago, Lightfighter214 said:

Hear this consitently watching nfl games. Announcers break it down all the, kyle shannanan and mcvay are known for it

 

Garoppolo threw 50 passes outside the pocket over the last three seasons before this one.  That is barely two per game for him.  That doesn't sound like it's really that much of a trend.  I think you're hearing of something and putting way more emphasis on it than is actually happening.  Certainly not something that Shannahan would be "known for" if he's only calling it that much.

[Husker in WI]

1 minute ago, Hilltop said:

Watch these two games.  To me this tells the story of our progress.  Both are losses against the same team.  We are a much better team under Frost.  Of note, also look at the number of upperclassmen on the Husker roster for the 2017 game compared to what we played with Friday.

 

 

 

 

I'm actually with you, but I think most doubters' contention is the bottom game could easily be 2018 or 2019. We quickly improved from the end of Riley's tenure, but losing "better" does get old 3 years in. It took one year to get to a point where we could stay within a score of Iowa. 2 years later, that's still where we are.

 

I do think this year was an improvement despite the end result.. 2018 we only had a shot because Ferentz decided to try and be cute for once and let us back in. Last year we were scrapping for a lot of the game and managed to make it close, but we were not the better team. This year, we outplayed them for the majority of the game in my opinion - we just have to get out of our own way.

[Guy Chamberlin]

48 minutes ago, TheSker said:

Frost prefers the weight room to ice cream socials.....so I'm less concerned about the short term issues under Frost.

 

I think there's room for both weight rooms and ice cream in football. It's a game. They're still kids. They don't look like they're having fun right now. 

 

So what would you have said if MIke Riley had the players making snow angels before practice? 

 

 

[TheSker]

2 minutes ago, Guy Chamberlin said:

 

I think there's room for both weight rooms and ice cream in football. It's a game. They're still kids. They don't look like they're having fun right now. 

 

So what would you have said if MIke Riley had the players making snow angels before practice? 

 

 

You're trying too hard.

[Guy Chamberlin]

29 minutes ago, Hilltop said:

Watch these two games.  To me this tells the story of our progress.  Both are losses against the same team.  We are a much better team under Frost.  Of note, also look at the number of upperclassmen on the Husker roster for the 2017 game compared to what we played with Friday.

 

 

 

 

 

Riley's 2017 team crushed Illinois 28 -6, and Scott Frost's 2020 team lost to the same team in a blowout!

 

Ipso facto.....let's close this thread. 

 

[Guy Chamberlin]

5 minutes ago, TheSker said:

You're trying too hard.

 

I got nothing going on this morning.

 

You didn't answer the question. 

[Hilltop]

1 minute ago, Guy Chamberlin said:

 

 

Riley's 2017 team crushed Illinois 28 -6, and Scott Frost's 2020 team lost to the same team in a blowout!

 

Ipso facto.....let's close this thread. 

2017 Illinois also went winless in the B1G and was starting a roster full of underclassmen.  It was Lovie Smith's reset...  Nebraska just played against many of the same players with 4 years of experience.