SuperBigFan69
Head Coach
Banker said he just wants them playing fast
Benning is all about the effort
- Thread starter Red Five
- Start date
I don't personally blame the coaches directly for motivation. If a player can't motivate themselves, they're probably not going to be that good. A coach can maybe bring it out of you a little more or provide some focus but it's up to the players.
However, it's been pretty obvious over the last few years that a lot of people wanted to blame the coaches for everything. I guess who you blame changes a lot based on whether you like the coach or not.
All that being said, I do there coaches can have an indirect impact on motivation. In this year's case, the lack of success has to have some effect on motivation. It can't be as easy to get fired up after losing a bunch of games like we have. And if the players are starting to get as frustrated as many fans are at the coaches seeming inability to put the players in a position to succeed, that won't help matters.
Are we playing faster because we're always chasing the other team's players down the field?
HuskerInLostWages
All-American
One that stands out to me overall from the last game...Turner. He stopped his run and then realized he was thrown the ball and had he continued his route he has a sure TD(if he actually decided to catch the ball that is).
Danny Bateman
Heisman Trophy Winner
FYI, you can rematch most (if not all) games via Watch ESPN online if you have a subscriber log-in through your TV provider.
It was lots of little things that added up killing us. Malik dogged it on one early run play. The safeties, despite knowing NW was probably just trying to run clock, played soft up high and didn't fly down to help in the run game.
The biggest one was a simple swing pass to Jackson in the flat. Whoever had coverage whiffed, JJ started up the sideline, and our backside defense was jogging after him. I guess they assumed the first guy would make the play. He ended up making a few more guys miss downfield and the play went for 28.
That's just straight up lack of hustle. No way around it. Not playing through the whistle.
Red Five
Heisman Trophy Winner
I don't think anyone was fast chasing the NW QB down the sidelines...
(Also, Bando has to still be hurt, right? I mean...)
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Danny Bateman
Heisman Trophy Winner
Effort is an all encompassing, all the time thing. If you're not giving full effort, your prep leading up to games is going to suffer. If you just go through the motions throughout the week, I guarantee you're not maximizing your execution.
In that sense, effort almost dictates execution.
Red Five
Heisman Trophy Winner
I always forget about the WatchESPN thing. I'll try to look at it tonight. But it would be great is someone more technologically inclined than me could gif some of the plays (cough, True, cough).
Thanks for your thoughts on the last drive.
Losing five games by a combined total of 11 points is "epic levels of losing?"
I never expected Riley and Co. to turn this thing around with just spring practice and fall camp.
Red Five
Heisman Trophy Winner
Absolutely! The staff if totally dropping the ball by not punishing the guys who are slacking. They can slack and then be right out there the next week starting again.
Swiv3D
Starter
I don't know if it's that they don't necessarily care, it's just that they clearly gave up at that point. Either way, that's not what a football team at any level is supposed to look like with 5 minutes left in a close game.
Blackshirt_Revival
Four-Star Recruit
Maybe the Nebraska Cornhuskers could use a few more guys that really want to play for Nebraska, as in ones who grew up dreaming to do so and would do about anything to do so. Motivation probably wouldn't be such a concern, then.
That's my takeaway from reading this thread, anyways.
Is that to say we shun recruiting studs nationally? Absolutely not, but this thread just totally reinforces to me why we should have a greater presence of local talent on the team.
Instant identity and instant character. Recruiting then compliments your built-in strengths. Built-in motivation, in addition to a sanctuary and support system for the out-of-area guys. Build your OL, DL, LBs, TEs, FBs with mostly local guys. You can build the foundation for a quality a class with kids at these positions within a roughly 500 mile radius of Lincoln. Target the best skill position players nationally who you think will suit what it is we want to do. You will probably have to rely on the bulk of your skill position guys coming from out of that region, but that is not to say you cannot or will not find very good skill position players within that region, either.
Seems like a strange way to recruit to some, but once you forge an identity, I think recruiting instantly becomes much better overall (and dare I say, easier?) and more of a match for what it is we want to do as a team. See Stanford who has very high hurdles to jump to get kids on campus to play there due to their admission standards, in spite of their Bay Area location, yet still finds a way to field quality teams with quality players. And by the way, this would basically amount to a slightly updated version of how we recruited and had success here for years.
Are things different and harder recruiting this way for Nebraska now? Yes, but I'd counter it's difficult to recruit to Nebraska in any other fashion, as well (relative to most other power programs). Just because it may be difficult (at least at first) to do it this way doesn't stop it from being better than having no real direction or identity (as far as I can tell), mired in a bog of futility, and it's definitely no excuse to abandon the foundation of what truly made our program so great and special and unique for so long. Then again, to do something like this, we'd need a coach and an administration/AD that would have that sort of vision, and who would want/try to forge that identity. Not sure I can identify what Mike Riley's vision for Husker football is, and don't think I care to know what Perlman or Eichorst's vision is.
But regardless, even if what you think I'm saying is total rambling nonsense, a coach needs to hold his team accountable, regardless of what kind of system we are running or what players constitute our team--a coach that, while not being an authoritarian by any means, needs to exert his authority and take control of his team, period. And yes, the kids need to be motivated, tuned-in, and have desire to succeed here. Whether that is purely on them to provide that or on the coaches, or both, if I'm the coach of this team, it's definitely something I'm addressing, whether that means looking at my motivational skills/demeanor, my staff's motivational skills/demeanor, disciplining or sitting a player if the effort and attitude is not there, or whatever--it needs to be addressed. Send a message, take control of the team. If Riley can't do that, then what is his function again, exactly?
That's my takeaway from reading this thread, anyways.
Is that to say we shun recruiting studs nationally? Absolutely not, but this thread just totally reinforces to me why we should have a greater presence of local talent on the team.
Instant identity and instant character. Recruiting then compliments your built-in strengths. Built-in motivation, in addition to a sanctuary and support system for the out-of-area guys. Build your OL, DL, LBs, TEs, FBs with mostly local guys. You can build the foundation for a quality a class with kids at these positions within a roughly 500 mile radius of Lincoln. Target the best skill position players nationally who you think will suit what it is we want to do. You will probably have to rely on the bulk of your skill position guys coming from out of that region, but that is not to say you cannot or will not find very good skill position players within that region, either.
Seems like a strange way to recruit to some, but once you forge an identity, I think recruiting instantly becomes much better overall (and dare I say, easier?) and more of a match for what it is we want to do as a team. See Stanford who has very high hurdles to jump to get kids on campus to play there due to their admission standards, in spite of their Bay Area location, yet still finds a way to field quality teams with quality players. And by the way, this would basically amount to a slightly updated version of how we recruited and had success here for years.
Are things different and harder recruiting this way for Nebraska now? Yes, but I'd counter it's difficult to recruit to Nebraska in any other fashion, as well (relative to most other power programs). Just because it may be difficult (at least at first) to do it this way doesn't stop it from being better than having no real direction or identity (as far as I can tell), mired in a bog of futility, and it's definitely no excuse to abandon the foundation of what truly made our program so great and special and unique for so long. Then again, to do something like this, we'd need a coach and an administration/AD that would have that sort of vision, and who would want/try to forge that identity. Not sure I can identify what Mike Riley's vision for Husker football is, and don't think I care to know what Perlman or Eichorst's vision is.
But regardless, even if what you think I'm saying is total rambling nonsense, a coach needs to hold his team accountable, regardless of what kind of system we are running or what players constitute our team--a coach that, while not being an authoritarian by any means, needs to exert his authority and take control of his team, period. And yes, the kids need to be motivated, tuned-in, and have desire to succeed here. Whether that is purely on them to provide that or on the coaches, or both, if I'm the coach of this team, it's definitely something I'm addressing, whether that means looking at my motivational skills/demeanor, my staff's motivational skills/demeanor, disciplining or sitting a player if the effort and attitude is not there, or whatever--it needs to be addressed. Send a message, take control of the team. If Riley can't do that, then what is his function again, exactly?