2023 Season Final Grade Your Expectation vs Reality

OVERALL, TEAM GRADE

  • A

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • B

    Votes: 5 6.9%

  • C

    Votes: 32 44.4%

  • D

    Votes: 31 43.1%

  • F

    Votes: 4 5.6%
  • Total voters
    72
TGHusker

TGHusker

Well-known member
Take the poll and grade the season.   The D, O, ST grading is multi choice so you can give a score for each phase of the team. 

I had predicted 7-5 at the beginning of the season.  I figured better coaching would allow us to win those 1 score games.  Well, the better coaching wasn't there.  We had 5 close games - one would have thought that Neb would have found a way to win at least three of those or even 2 to get to 7-5.   So, my confidence in Rhule has been shaken.  He seems to be a good motivator- practice coach but we saw no advancement in the close games.

I scored the D as a B.  Played fairly consistently and was the bright spot.  Could not give them an A as they could have had more take-a-ways and they were playing inferior teams.    Thank goodness for Tony White.  Without him and what his defensive coaches did with our D, we could have easily have been 2-10   The D saw real development of both veterans and young players.  Glad both Ty and Nash are coming back.  Hope we keep Tony. 

I scored the O and ST as both Ds.  Yes there were many injuries on the O side but no real improvement throughout the season and the game mgmt was often terrible.  The play calling was horrendous at times.    How many drives this year started with a bad pass play so we are playing from behind on both 2nd and 3rd downs - thus limiting running plays.  Rhule wanted us to be more smashmouth but it still looked more like Frost finesse with the play calling. 

This is why Rhule needs wholesale changes on the O side of the team.  The O did not grow this year. 

Specials teams had nothing specials with punt and kickoff returns being almost non-existent and kicking very up and down.  

 
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5 wins is honestly more than I expected, but expectations change through the year.  Getting to 5-3 showed signs of good things, but losing 4 straight when this program badly needed a bowl is very disappointing.  Momentum is all lost heading into the offseason, which is very typical of our last 8+ years and is unfortunate.

The 5-3 record had more to do with the competition, worst division I can recall, and gave fans false hope.  This is still a very bad football team.

 
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TGHusker said:
I had predicted 7-5 at the beginning of the season.  I figured better coaching would allow us to win those 1 score games.  Well, the better coaching wasn't there.  We had 5 close games - one would have thought that Neb would have found a way to win at least three of those or even 2 to get to 7-5.   So, my confidence in Rhule has been shaken.  He seems to be a good motivator- practice coach but we saw no advancement in the close games.

I also learned:   Thank goodness for Tony White.  Without him and what his defensive coaches did with our D, we could have easily have been 2-10   This is why Rhule needs wholesale changes on the O side of the team.  Forget the injuries which were many, the O still did not grow this year. 
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:yeah
Agree with a lot of this. I expected the coaching to be better and get us some close wins. What made it more disappointing was the teams we faced were not as good as I thought they would be and we still lost. The defense was the brighter spot and you can see they have improved. The offense needs wholesale changes both with coaches and players. We need a road grader OL coach and players that create an offensive identity and make sure the games we are to win are never in doubt. If we don’t have an OL we can lean on and wear other teams down we will continue to struggle with the game on the line with shaky kicker leg and shaky QB arm. 

 
Defense:  B.  Good, but not great.  Mostly did a good job against bad offenses.  Needed to generate more takeaways.

Offense:  D.  Too many turnovers.  Do they have an identity?  Would have been an F, but unit was decimated with injuries.

ST:  C.  Some good and some bad.  Lot's of room for improvement on punt/punt return.

Overall, as impressive as the perfect October was, I was disappointed with the 0-4 finish,  when just one win gets us to a bowl.  

 
I expected 6-6 because of the weak schedule we had. To not make a bowl game with this schedule is just sad.

The Maryland game goes down as probably a top 10 program loss for me. Just the clown show of turnovers by our QB's after the defense plays a good game...we should have sealed bowl eligibility in that game and then been able to really let loose in the last couple.

 
I expected 5-7 and predicted so in the pre-season thread. The schedule ended up being much worse than I thought, and the team wasn't able to step up. 

So, slightly disappointed even though the team is exactly what I thought they would be. And the coaching is considerably worse than I thought. 

 
GSG said:
Probably should ask this again after everyone sobers up 
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Our best win was NW who was in the middle of a scandal. But let’s have this elitist attitude because people are using the last 13 weeks as evidence and you’re acting like things will randomly change. Just another “next year is our year guy.” Love to see it 

 
Defense C.  By far the best part of the team.  I almost have them a B, but despite help keeping the scores low, they struggled getting game changing turnover plays.  They also gave up some big plays in games when stops were needed.   This game, they finally get a pick late, but hold on the return.  Then, they have an opportunity to hold Iowa to a long FG attempt and after holding the RB to only 1 other big play the entire game, let him rip a 20+ yards.  It never fails.

Special teams D:  They sucked most of the season.  The kicker was wildly inconsistent.   The punter shanked too many.  We either fumbled or fair caught most returns.  

Offense D:  Bad QB play.  A lot of injuries at the skills spots.  Johnson showed running ability at times.  A few big deep plays at WR despite injuries.  Too many turnovers. Stupid time management. 

I predicted 6-6.  No bowl game means a failure of a season, so I am disappointed, particularly since we will likely never get this weak of a schedule again.  Even being in the Big 10 West, it ended up being a lot weaker than imagined.

 
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You don't have to dig much deeper than the abyssal turnover margin to see the main culprit to this year's season.  Get that even close to just bad, not horrendous, and we'd have exceeded everyone's expectations no matter how ugly it would have been.  

 
Scarlet said:
You don't have to dig much deeper than the abyssal turnover margin to see the main culprit to this year's season.  Get that even close to just bad, not horrendous, and we'd have exceeded everyone's expectations no matter how ugly it would have been.  
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Averaged 3 turnovers a game for the season….woof

 
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