Chatelain hits the nail on the head with three sentences

[strigori]

I make visits there. However 'being in on' is not the same as 'getting'

And history is not open for debate. Thus far Pelini is 20's rankings recruiter.

If you think what went down in Indy helped recruiting...

I don't think it's about stars or rankings or anything so much as it is about year-round effort and not missing out on all our top targets because of lack of it.

This year, the offseason was a marked improvement. In-season I don't know. I think there is some reason to be optimistic about recruiting, but the effort and pulling out all the stops year round is what counts -- wins and losses not even that much.

Should be abundantly clear to recruits around the nation that this defensive guru here in Nebraska needs all the talent he can get right now.

Its still a matter of getting kids into the program. Unless I'm missing someone, Cross is the only true freshman who got regular snaps. We played a few others, like Moss (whom I think they are aiming for a medical redshirt) but none that really made any headlines. And we have a rather long history right now of wasting a year with a handful of snaps here and there. So something happened to keep other kids off the field. And playing right away is attractive to lots of kids.

Right now all I see are more reasons coaches will use against us, than the arguments that will be made for us.

 

[The Spirit of Bob Devaney]

In the late 1970s they wanted to fire Tom Osborne. In the late 80s all of Nebraska was calling for Charlie McBride's head.

I get that the OWH needs to sell newspapers. And that's a great three sentences by Dirk. But to pronounce that Bo cannot get it done is silly.

Let's not get carried away because someone came up with a great line. Bo is still the shark. Dirk is still the remora eating the crumbs from Bo's gills.

Ah yes; case in point, thank you knapplc for towing the company line.

 

[knapplc]

In the late 1970s they wanted to fire Tom Osborne. In the late 80s all of Nebraska was calling for Charlie McBride's head.

I get that the OWH needs to sell newspapers. And that's a great three sentences by Dirk. But to pronounce that Bo cannot get it done is silly.

Let's not get carried away because someone came up with a great line. Bo is still the shark. Dirk is still the remora eating the crumbs from Bo's gills.

Ah yes; case in point, thank you knapplc for towing the company line.

That's it? That's what you've got? You've got nothing in response, so you use some cliche?

Listen, I'm not on the "Let's keep Bo forever" bandwagon. But I'm not so stupid to think that there are better coaches out there just begging to come here to replace Pelini. I'm also not going to so overreact to a bad loss that I demand we scrap the program and start over. It's not that easy. There are consequences to Bo moving on. Let's not embrace those consequences just because we're pissed today.

As easy as you trot out the "tow the company line" cliche I could say you're just mindlessly repeating Dirk's suggestion. Let's not go down that path, shall we? It just leads to ignorant bickering.

 

[NU jumper alum]

It seems to me that the success/failure of the team this year was about two things: scheme and depth. Wisconsin and Ohio State out schemed us and we were never able to get over the confusion of what they were trying to do. Injuries happen to every team every year. We did not have the depth at key positions along the lines to make up for those injuries.

 

[Husker66]

In my experience, at some point you know what you have with someone..if its a sales guy, you know at 6-12 months what you have. if its an executive, maybe its 12-24 months and you know what you have. at that point, their way of operaing, thinking, work ethic, how smart they are, etc has begun to demonstrate how good or bad they are...i have never see a mediocre sales person or exec just all of a sudden turn a corner in year 5 because it clicked and everything fell into place...that they became what you hoped when you hired them... You usually know long before that...

....thats what crawls int to the back of my mind when i here the fire Bo talk...Bo hasnt made it yet...just wait till next year......, etc...

firing Bo would admit a mistake was made and the program would probably be in very dangerous territory for another couple of years....thats a very scary thought ...

the ability to recruit, putting together a staff of good coaches, communicating the vision to the team, fundamentals, execution, etc is manifesting itself on the field in type of wins and losses we have...they type of wins this year kinda reminds me of that sales guy who get on a lucky streak for a while, and gets some stuff done, only to show up with no pipeline january 1....

 

[Count 'Bility]

I just still dont understand this entitled attitude. Does anyone think that maybe this is just where our program is, and could be for a long time? Sure many dont want to settle for that, but I guess I'm one that doesnt want to risk what success we do have in a blind attempt to make it better, because we as a fanbase have this generalized notion that we "deserve better". That elitest thinking is what helped to send this program down the crapper 10 years ago to begin with. I personally believe we are fortunate to have had as good as it has been under Bo. I'm not understanding all the angst I guess because I am comfortable admitting that we probably will never win another National Championship again. The logistics of college football is just not going to allow it for us. I hope I'm wrong just like anyone else. We are hungry for the dominant days again that we forget that that run was the lightning in a bottle not these days of 9-10 wins.

 

[irafreak]

All you people calling for Dirk's job....have YOU ever been a journalist? Have you ever been a small time writer even? Hell you ever written an english paper? So shut up then. You have NO idea what it's like to toil away at you words only to be called stupid on message boards. Comment sections riddled with DEstructive criticism.

...(sorry it's 7:30 in the morning and all I could think about reading the complaints are the people that come out here and basically tell people who have never played football that they have no right to criticize players or coaches...)

Carry on...

 

[huskered17]

I have know problem with a sports writer, asking the tough questions, just show a little tact. Don't ask what went wrong, we all watched the same game. How about asking, why it went wrong. We know Bo and his staff got out coached. Ask what adjustments were made and why those didn't help. How much did missing a starter on both lines, affect what we were trying to do.

Calling for Bo's head isn't the answer either. We seem to have two crowds on this board. The ones that were 8-10 yrs old, in the early 90's. And the rest sprinkled in from the 60's and up.

The ones in the 90's want it all now, can't blame them at all. What a great time to be a Husker fan. The rest of us should remember the growing pains. They called for Bob D's head in the sixties, and Tom's in the 70's. Now its Bo's turn. He is winning but, not the way some of us like it, to many lucky and close ones. To many bad blow outs. So I guess, in the words of Lombardi," winning isn't everything its the only thing," doesn't work for us. I think Bo needs and deserves more time, a lot more, unless he starts losing 6-7 games a year, and I can't see that happen any time soon. We may never win another n/c, but I think the blow out loses will soon be gone, most of the lucky wins also. We will go toe to toe with the elite teams again. The bowl game would be a good place to start. This may not be enough for all of us, but you can't please everyone. jmo

GBR!!!

 

[EZ-E]

Dirk usually backs up his opinions with statistics and facts. Unfortunately, the truth is something most Husker fans are not equipped to mentally handle. Bo ain't the guy!

Are you Dork (Dirk), Shitel (Shatel), or Barfdick??

Mad that I planted a false scoop?

 

[Hercules]

I just still dont understand this entitled attitude. Does anyone think that maybe this is just where our program is, and could be for a long time? Sure many dont want to settle for that, but I guess I'm one that doesnt want to risk what success we do have in a blind attempt to make it better, because we as a fanbase have this generalized notion that we "deserve better". That elitest thinking is what helped to send this program down the crapper 10 years ago to begin with. I personally believe we are fortunate to have had as good as it has been under Bo. I'm not understanding all the angst I guess because I am comfortable admitting that we probably will never win another National Championship again. The logistics of college football is just not going to allow it for us. I hope I'm wrong just like anyone else. We are hungry for the dominant days again that we forget that that run was the lightning in a bottle not these days of 9-10 wins.

I don't think anybody here is that upset with a 10 win season this year. But they're upset about the fashion in which we lost those 3 games. Three games in which we set school records for bad defense. ANY team that puts on three of the worst performances in school history should be questioning what's going on, not just programs with championship aspirations. You've got a defensive minded head coach who 5 years in is fielding one of the worst defenses in the history of Nebraska football - that doesn't make sense, regardless of what the "logistics of college football" are going to allow.

 

[zoogs]

It makes a lot of sense, actually.

Great players graduated, and nobody as great has come up to replace them. The idea that each year we should be improving doesn't reflect the cycles teams go through with reloading and developing talent. It's not like Stafford and A.Green and Ciante Evans and co are making the same mistakes they were making in 2008.

I think Bo has shown what he can do with talent, and there is reason to be concerned about his ability to pull in talent over the long haul. Those are questions that ought to be answered.

All those people who for years said "We're fine" as we pulled in small recruiting classes that missed on top prospects with a staff that didn't keep their foot on the pedal in that area, ... well, here's the result.

 

[junior4949]

Patriots fan actually. It's a process though. At least we're making the CCGs. More improvement and we'll start winning them. We could be in a lot worse shape than we are now.

We don't know if Bo can get us over the hump but we don't know if Bo is doomed to be stuck here either. Dirk's point sounds good but it isn't very.

Of the CCG's we've made it to, this past one should have been far and away the easiest to win. We lost in the worst way. I'm not sure how anyone could conclude we're any closer to winning them than we were three seasons ago. Clownahan even got us to a CCG. It's not like in 09' when we were playing the team that would head to the NC game. Wisconsin is a five loss unranked team now heading to a BCS bowl. If for no other reason, we should be ashamed that the B1G has now entered Big East status with regards of who we send to a BCS bowl. The B1G was prime for the taking this year. Next year, Ohio State is eligible and things just got a lot tougher.

 

[zoogs]

I'll give you that Wisky was the worst team (well - they have a darned stout run game and a fairly capable defense, at least) we have faced in a CCG. However, the '09 CG we had Suh destroying that OL single-handedly. In '10 we still had Prince, Dennard, Lavonte. This was by far the worst defense we brought to a CCG.

Although it was also our best offense -- though poor OL play will limit how much our extraordinary infusion of skill position talent can do.

 

[junior4949]

Who's fault is it that we fielded the worst defense we brought to a CCG? Wisky fired their OL coach earlier in the season because their run game wasn't up to par. Our team this year resembles a BC fielded team where our offense has to get into a trackmeet in order to win a game. Bo was brought here to fix the defense. Here we are in year five with his worst defense since he's been here. Do you really think next year it will be any better considering how many of our defense graduate? We're still running a two gap system with players that can't run it. I'm almost scared to even think how poor our defense really might be next year.

 

[zoogs]

I would say it's Prince and Dennard and Suh's fault for graduating hehe

But really, it goes back to Bo's '08, '09, '10 classes. He gets a bit of a pass from me on the recruiting front as long as he understands he must step it up, year round, 365-day effort. That is the crux of it to me. This past offseason we did step it up. In season, it seems to be the same as usual. That's a concern.

But that 2008 class was completely borked from the start, so I can't put the blame entirely on Bo for pulling out a 10-win season this year. So yes -- recruiting failures on Bo. But he has made a good case lately ('11, '12, '13...) for letting him work with these guys on their way up the ranks.

Who on our defense should I be worried about graduating? Love our players, they are all good guys, but where's the Dennard or Lavonte this year that we need to be antsy about replacing?