2016 Blowouts - Talent or Coaching?

[Guy Chamberlin]

You are definitely correct about OU and Switzer dominating Osborne, and truth be told those were some legendary Oklahoma teams. But as the years went on, those losses certainly felt like embarrassments to Husker fans and the conversations were nearly identical to recent blowouts. In that 27 - 0 loss, Nebraska never once snapped the ball in Oklahoma territory. In the 35 - 10 loss, Nebraska was ranked ahead of Oklahoma and choked with 6 turnovers. The 38 - 7 loss was another turnover fest and complete defensive collapse ala 2014 Wisconsin. Same with the losses in the mid and late-80s -- highly ranked Huskers getting shut down cold on offense and totally porous on defense with a spate of turnovers on national television. There was a 1988 meltdown against UCLA that didn't make your cut due to a couple garbage time TDs. The 1990 and 91 losses were also national television collapses when Nebraska simply didn't look like it could hang with college football's elite. 20 years into his career, Tom Osborne was considered a good and well-respected coach, but not a Big Game Coach. His teams often played tight and error-prone in big games, and when hit in the mouth they didn't know how to respond. He always kept Nebraska in the conversation, but it took 20 years for Tom and the Huskers to have their perfect storm (although 80 - 83 was a helluva mini-run.)

I know Arizona State in 1996 just missed the cut, and nothing the team did between 1992 - 1997 was remotely humiliating, but it was pretty amazing that a team with Scott Frost and Ahman Green not only failed to score a single point, but gave up three safeties in the same game.

Just as they do today, fans back then generously offered player and coaching critiques, along with dire predictions for Nebraska's future.

 

[ColoradoHusk]

You are definitely correct about OU and Switzer dominating Osborne, and truth be told those were some legendary Oklahoma teams. But as the years went on, those losses certainly felt like embarrassments to Husker fans and the conversations were nearly identical to recent blowouts. In that 27 - 0 loss, Nebraska never once snapped the ball in Oklahoma territory. In the 35 - 10 loss, Nebraska was ranked ahead of Oklahoma and choked with 6 turnovers. The 38 - 7 loss was another turnover fest and complete defensive collapse ala 2014 Wisconsin. Same with the losses in the mid and late-80s -- highly ranked Huskers getting shut down cold on offense and totally porous on defense with a spate of turnovers on national television. There was a 1988 meltdown against UCLA that didn't make your cut due to a couple garbage time TDs. The 1990 and 91 losses were also national television collapses when Nebraska simply didn't look like it could hang with college football's elite. 20 years into his career, Tom Osborne was considered a good and well-respected coach, but not a Big Game Coach. His teams often played tight and error-prone in big games, and when hit in the mouth they didn't know how to respond. He always kept Nebraska in the conversation, but it took 20 years for Tom and the Huskers to have their perfect storm (although 80 - 83 was a helluva mini-run.)

I know Arizona State in 1996 just missed the cut, and nothing the team did between 1992 - 1997 was remotely humiliating, but it was pretty amazing that a team with Scott Frost and Ahman Green not only failed to score a single point, but gave up three safeties in the same game.

Just as they do today, fans back then generously offered player and coaching critiques, along with dire predictions for Nebraska's future.

I'm 40 years old, so I started having consciousness of the Huskers in the early 80s. I remember plenty of criticism of Osborne in the late 80s and early 90s, when he was losing ground on the national stage. Yes, there were plenty of losses over 20+, but there weren't huge blowouts that we have seen in the past 15+ years. Maybe you and I have different views of what "several humiliating losses" means and if you are older than me, you were probably more apt to be more critical of Osborne and his teams during the "down years".

 

[I am I]

You are definitely correct about OU and Switzer dominating Osborne, and truth be told those were some legendary Oklahoma teams. But as the years went on, those losses certainly felt like embarrassments to Husker fans and the conversations were nearly identical to recent blowouts. In that 27 - 0 loss, Nebraska never once snapped the ball in Oklahoma territory. In the 35 - 10 loss, Nebraska was ranked ahead of Oklahoma and choked with 6 turnovers. The 38 - 7 loss was another turnover fest and complete defensive collapse ala 2014 Wisconsin. Same with the losses in the mid and late-80s -- highly ranked Huskers getting shut down cold on offense and totally porous on defense with a spate of turnovers on national television. There was a 1988 meltdown against UCLA that didn't make your cut due to a couple garbage time TDs. The 1990 and 91 losses were also national television collapses when Nebraska simply didn't look like it could hang with college football's elite. 20 years into his career, Tom Osborne was considered a good and well-respected coach, but not a Big Game Coach. His teams often played tight and error-prone in big games, and when hit in the mouth they didn't know how to respond. He always kept Nebraska in the conversation, but it took 20 years for Tom and the Huskers to have their perfect storm (although 80 - 83 was a helluva mini-run.)

I know Arizona State in 1996 just missed the cut, and nothing the team did between 1992 - 1997 was remotely humiliating, but it was pretty amazing that a team with Scott Frost and Ahman Green not only failed to score a single point, but gave up three safeties in the same game.

Just as they do today, fans back then generously offered player and coaching critiques, along with dire predictions for Nebraska's future.

And how did they accomplish that? They got some of the best damn talent in all of football.

 

[Guy Chamberlin]

You are definitely correct about OU and Switzer dominating Osborne, and truth be told those were some legendary Oklahoma teams. But as the years went on, those losses certainly felt like embarrassments to Husker fans and the conversations were nearly identical to recent blowouts. In that 27 - 0 loss, Nebraska never once snapped the ball in Oklahoma territory. In the 35 - 10 loss, Nebraska was ranked ahead of Oklahoma and choked with 6 turnovers. The 38 - 7 loss was another turnover fest and complete defensive collapse ala 2014 Wisconsin. Same with the losses in the mid and late-80s -- highly ranked Huskers getting shut down cold on offense and totally porous on defense with a spate of turnovers on national television. There was a 1988 meltdown against UCLA that didn't make your cut due to a couple garbage time TDs. The 1990 and 91 losses were also national television collapses when Nebraska simply didn't look like it could hang with college football's elite. 20 years into his career, Tom Osborne was considered a good and well-respected coach, but not a Big Game Coach. His teams often played tight and error-prone in big games, and when hit in the mouth they didn't know how to respond. He always kept Nebraska in the conversation, but it took 20 years for Tom and the Huskers to have their perfect storm (although 80 - 83 was a helluva mini-run.)

I know Arizona State in 1996 just missed the cut, and nothing the team did between 1992 - 1997 was remotely humiliating, but it was pretty amazing that a team with Scott Frost and Ahman Green not only failed to score a single point, but gave up three safeties in the same game.

Just as they do today, fans back then generously offered player and coaching critiques, along with dire predictions for Nebraska's future.

I'm 40 years old, so I started having consciousness of the Huskers in the early 80s. I remember plenty of criticism of Osborne in the late 80s and early 90s, when he was losing ground on the national stage. Yes, there were plenty of losses over 20+, but there weren't huge blowouts that we have seen in the past 15+ years. Maybe you and I have different views of what "several humiliating losses" means and if you are older than me, you were probably more apt to be more critical of Osborne and his teams during the "down years".

Of course most programs would love to have had Nebraska's "down years."

But there was certainly a pattern for winning a lot of games in the old Big 8, building up NC expectations, then losing the last couple games against better competition to leave a bad taste in the mouth for those 9 - 3 and 10 - 2 seasons.

Are 35 - 10, 22 - 0, and 37 - 7, and 45 - 21 lesser blowouts than 62 -3? I suppose. But they still felt like teamwide meltdowns on national television, just when you had your hopes up.

 

[BigRedBuster]

Those losses in the 70s and mid to late 80s were gut wrenching. It was very similar to the feelings fans have now. We would be built up to think the team is ready to take the next step and....wham....

And, yes, many of those were complete blow outs. I remember sitting there thinking that we didn't belong anywhere on the same field as some of those OU, FSU or Miami teams.

That is just part of college football. It's part of the emotions that make it so great. There are extreme highs and extreme lows.

Sad thing is, anymore, administrations are so damn fickle with the emotions of fans or the big donors.

There is no way TO would survive 25 years now days if his career went the same as it did back then.

From 1983 through 1993, we were 2-9 in bowl games with 7 losses in a row. And, Guy reminded me of the gem where we didn't snap the ball once on the opponents side of the field. I laugh when I read some fans who claim TO's offense was always a steam engine that rolled over people. That was also in a year where we were 2 years removed from back to back NCs and we couldn't even beat an unranked OSU team.

Yep....3 safeties in one game. woohooo!!!!!

 

[junior4949]

Offenses and the amount of points teams score are way different than two to three decades ago. Losing 22-0 back then would be closer to 48-10 now. Just look how much the rules have changed from then to now and which side of the ball they always favor. Fans love points. The rules have been set up for the offense while the defense has been wilted down to almost touch football.