Can Nebraska ever return to Greatness

Huskerfollower4life

Huskerfollower4life

Active member
https://athlonsports.com/college-football/paul-finebaum-says-miami-hurricanes-nebraska-cornhuskers-will-never-return-to-greatness  Paul Finebaum states his opinion on it and says Nebraska and Miami will never return to greatness.  Now the thing I'm debating is does he mean greatness bc of the multiple championships in a 4 year span or greatness in the sense of winning one??  I certainly feel that Nebraska could get back to the level of winning a championship but will say it would be hard to sustain that level of success in today's college football with so much turnover.

 
I have come to grips that we will never win another national championship.  In fact, I will be shocked if we ever win another conference championship.

With that said, I will continue to be a huge fan.  I will watch as many games as possible and throw various amounts of money around traveling to games, buying tickets, buying gear, and donating to the program.

(I am also someone who has watched more Nebrasketball games than any reasonable person should over the last 30+ years hoping and waiting for something from that program...)

 
Last edited by a moderator:
Since 'greatness' is somewhat subjective, I tend to focus more on what the actual results could be.

Similar to @Red Five, I don't think Nebraska will ever win another national title. Or, at the very least, the chances are incredibly unlikely. (Maybe they could catch a hot streak like Washington but I also don't expect Washington to regularly be in the spot they're in now.) There are a lot of reasons for this but they mostly boil down to talent and just how college football is currently structured. But, I do think that consistently winning 9-10 games, a couple conference championship appearances each decade, and maybe a conference title win once every 10-15 seasons is certainly within the realms of realism.

And a lot of that boils down to resources and talent acquisition. Nebraska has (on paper, at least) recruited better overall talent than a lot of other B1G programs that win 10 games and compete for conference titles. And they've been just a couple of plays away from beating some insanely talented teams in recent years. So, success is certainly achievable. It's just going to take the right staff and support system to pull it off. I'm really hopeful Rhule is the guy to at least make Nebraska an occasional conference title contender. 

 
Last edited by a moderator:
JJ Husker said:
Yep. Finebaum says self important bombastic things and he’s a biased idiot. A bad combination and not someone anybody should pay attention to.
Click to expand...
True but I wanted to know if Nebraska fans believe in that belief that Nebraska can't get back to greatness or even win get back to the level of winning a conference championship.  It seems that a lot of husker fans share the same feelings as Finebaum that we won't never get back there bc like I said returning to greatness is subjective which I agree with @Enhance

 
Huskerfollower4life said:
True but I wanted to know if Nebraska fans believe in that belief that Nebraska can't get back to greatness or even win get back to the level of winning a conference championship.  It seems that a lot of husker fans share the same feelings as Finebaum that we won't never get back there bc like I said returning to greatness is subjective which I agree with @Enhance
Click to expand...
Yes, we can get back to greatness.  The question is idiotic because it doesn't put a timeline on it.  

Can Nebraska get back to greatness (National champion) in 2 years?

.........10 years?

.........25 years?

.........50 years?

Maybe Nebraska can't get back to greatness with college football exactly the way it is now. (I don't believe that).  But, look how much the sport has changed in the last 20 years.  You really think it's not going to change in the next 20 years?  You think there were fans in the 40s and 50s thinking Nebraska will never be good again?

 
Last edited by a moderator:
Huskerfollower4life said:
True but I wanted to know if Nebraska fans believe in that belief that Nebraska can't get back to greatness or even win get back to the level of winning a conference championship.  It seems that a lot of husker fans share the same feelings as Finebaum that we won't never get back there bc like I said returning to greatness is subjective which I agree with @Enhance
Click to expand...
Nebraska can be successful and can achieve greatness if the definition is consistently good, an occasional conf championship and possibly a natty at some point. But it is highly unlikely they (or any team for that matter) will “return” to what Nebraska accomplished in the 90’s or the 25 years of excellence under Osborne. Those days are over with and done. I see no reason Nebraska could not reach the same level of greatness as any other team. Sure it’ll be a little tougher due to the new landscape and where we’ve been for the last ten years but winning begets winning and once we clear the initial hurdle and string together a few very good seasons we won’t be at any bigger disadvantage than anyone else.

 
I'm not sure what Alabama has pulled off the past 20 years will ever be replicated with the current landscape.  Or Georgia for that matter.

Going to the 12 team playoff will, by itself, make sure that doesn't happen again.  There will be a major upset almost every year with that many teams in the hunt.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
Never say Never.  Nebraska shouldn't have done as well as they did in that 40 year span in comparison to all of our neighboring schools in the upper midwest.  We were in a poor recruiting position, it was cold, it was.......   but still we caught lightning in the bottle under Bob and Tom.  And given the chance with a new staff, Frank may have turned us back into being a real competitor.  

We have what many schools don't have that we see in the top 25:

1.  Great Fan base  (you can take a bow now  :clap )

2.  Facilities that are second to none

3.  Strong NIL

4.  Tradition - while current history has been poor, the history is still there that will draw athletes. 

5.  Coach - I think we finally have a coach that will not only take us to Bo's win ave (9 per year) but exceed it. 

6. Administration: we have an administration, esp in the AD's office, but higher up that understands that football isn't a threat but the window to enhancing the U's image

NIL and the portal levels the playing field for schools like Nebraska that are in a bad recruiting location but yet have all of the other intangibles.   I am hoping that Raiola's signing is the first of many such high profile recruits deciding to come to Nebraska.  Get the wins and who knows what can happen.  :koolaid2:

:restore2 :power

Moiraine said:
What if climate change gets so bad by 2300 that the only states not underwater are Colorado, Wyoming, North Dakota, Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, and Nebraska?
Click to expand...
Please include Oklahoma  - I may still be around in 2300  :smokin

 
All I know is that the addition of USC, UCLA, Washington, and Oregon isn't gonna make the Big Ten any easier for the Huskers. Or the rest of the Big 10. It's easy to see Big 10 and SEC champions coming to the playoffs with two losses or so. 

 
Guy Chamberlin said:
All I know is that the addition of USC, UCLA, Washington, and Oregon isn't gonna make the Big Ten any easier for the Huskers. Or the rest of the Big 10. It's easy to see Big 10 and SEC champions coming to the playoffs with two losses or so. 
Click to expand...
I agree, which makes it HUGE that the playoff is expanding to 12 teams next year. We're probably going to start seeing a lot of one and probably even two loss conference champs with insane SOS.

That is one thing that 'could' bode well for the Huskers. A playoff berth would be amazing and ABSOLUTELY achievable at a place like Nebraska, based on their talent acquisition capabilities and resources. And it wouldn't require a conference title. With the way CFB is currently set up that's actually probably a best case scenario season for a place like Nebraska - a playoff berth.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
Is nebraska going to 13-0 and win the big10 and be ranked in the top 3? No. Can nebraska go 10-2 and be ranked in the top 12 occasionally? Sure. Not sure if that qualifies as great or not but I would be pretty happy.

 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top