Chatelain's column - 2003 all over again

[MichiganDad3]

Please explain why we have to see Dirk's columnn on the huskerboard every Sunday. (Unless he's the one posting it). I am capable and prefer to do my own thinking. This team was loaded offensively when it took the field in the fall, now the offense is a shell of it's former self. Remember all those articles about the scoring explosion in Dirk's own newspaper? Should Bo have been prepared to lose Martinez, 60% of his offensive line and many of his receivers during at least for portions of games? Aside from Frazier's issues with blood clots, what NU team ever had to deal with this many injuries? Should Bo have recruited better? Possibly, we could have a little more depth, but look at these kids you recruit these days. As soon as they don't start, they wanna transfer. How many guys have left (and I don't mean tossed off the team) that might have helped with depth yesterday?

NU was once a mecca, but that was before all the other schools rose to prominence. NU put the blueprint in place to spend money on football and everyone followed. I don't see how we can ever have the advantage we had in the 70's & 80's.

The 1998 team lost many key players to injury.

 

[desertshox]

Because they are no the same regardless of what a poster tries to say to make themselves feel like we are relevant as we were then.

why does nebraska have to be relevant to cheer for them?

 

[Hedley Lamarr]

Please explain why we have to see Dirk's columnn on the huskerboard every Sunday. (Unless he's the one posting it). I am capable and prefer to do my own thinking. This team was loaded offensively when it took the field in the fall, now the offense is a shell of it's former self. Remember all those articles about the scoring explosion in Dirk's own newspaper? Should Bo have been prepared to lose Martinez, 60% of his offensive line and many of his receivers during at least for portions of games? Aside from Frazier's issues with blood clots, what NU team ever had to deal with this many injuries? Should Bo have recruited better? Possibly, we could have a little more depth, but look at these kids you recruit these days. As soon as they don't start, they wanna transfer. How many guys have left (and I don't mean tossed off the team) that might have helped with depth yesterday?

NU was once a mecca, but that was before all the other schools rose to prominence. NU put the blueprint in place to spend money on football and everyone followed. I don't see how we can ever have the advantage we had in the 70's & 80's.

I do not think anyone here is expecting us to be in the MNC every year. What is expected is that we are competitive with our peers. Or I guess what we should consider our peers. In my opinion that is top 15 teams. We have resources etc that should allow us to destroy 8 of the 12 teams in our conference. UCLA puts little to nothing in their program like we do. Look at our facilities and fan support. Now look at our recruiting class ranking and coaching staff. The two things do not match up. Bo is paid 3 mil a year to win titles not celebrate moral victories and get embarrassed yearly on national television. Regardless of how many injuries we had there is still no reason to lose to Minnesota as well as an extremely overrated MSU team. The UCLA game is also no excuse because these injuries were not nearly as glaring. Same crap different year. I refuse to make excuses regardless of injuries etc. Bo said all you can ask of your team is to play with passion and heart....I guess that is a load of crap in my opinion. You can ask them to play sound football and hold onto the ball. But those obviously are not as important as passion and heart. There is a reason we are -28 in turnovers in Bo's tenure at NU.

 

[Hedley Lamarr]

Because they are no the same regardless of what a poster tries to say to make themselves feel like we are relevant as we were then.

why does nebraska have to be relevant to cheer for them?

Maybe you should ask the 91k people that buy season tickets. They do not do it because they enjoy watching us lose. With your logic we may as well all become Iowa fans and support moral victories.

 

[Blackshirt39]

I'm a sarcastic a$$ and absolutely nothing I said there has any ounce of my beliefs behind it. I just can't take this team,or this program serious anymore. I think there is a serious lack of commitment to winning and I won't invest my whole heart and my emotions into something that I feel a lot of guys on this team don't give a sh#t about.

I completely understand how you feel. I really don't like the attitude surrounding the program right now.

Location doesn't work against 85% of schools and location absolutely is a big part of where kids sign.

My math may be off, but the point is that location hurts more schools than it helps. There are places that have a lot worse locations than ours and have found consistent success. Location plays a factor, but the best recruiting tool available is winning trophies.

Where?

Boise

Kansas St.

Mizzou

NIU

NDSU

Duke

Wisconsin

Louisville

Oklahoma St.

Minnesota (not consistent but trend up)

most schools in Texas not named Texas or Texas A&M

Most of those teams would beat us now, or in the last ten years have seen more consistency with locations that aren't better than Lincoln, NE. Location isn't all about geography either. How is the location working out for Miami, Florida and Texas right now?

 

[Hedley Lamarr]

The location excuse is getting old....EZ-E knows recruiting and he should know that Lincoln, NE has always been located exactly where it is. It is not like we used to have beaches and sunny weather year round before Bo got here. We have ALWAYS recruited nationally. We have also usually held our own in the 500 mile radius. This staff has done a terrible job in that regard. What do you expect when your recruiting coordinator was a solich assistant for so many years though.

 

[desertshox]

Because they are no the same regardless of what a poster tries to say to make themselves feel like we are relevant as we were then.

why does nebraska have to be relevant to cheer for them?

Maybe you should ask the 91k people that buy season tickets. They do not do it because they enjoy watching us lose. With your logic we may as well all become Iowa fans and support moral victories.

what exactly is my logic?

i dont see a correlation between relevancy and being a fan. i couldnt care less what others think (relevancy) of the team i cheer for. so why exactly does nebraska need to be relevant to cheer for them?

 

[Bogate]

The last time we fired a coach for these reasons we got Callahan. But hey, let's fire Bo cause that will fix EVERYTHING.

This has got to stop. These two coaching situations are mutually exclusive. I am unsure what is right for this program at this moment, but fear of 2003 is not influencing my way of thinking and I pray to God it isn't Eichorst.

I also really wish we'd fired Osborne back in the 80s when he just couldn't get it done. Think of how great our team could have been without him.

You guys clamoring to replace Bo are what's crazy. He's essentially got a freshman football team out there and has a good shot at going 10-3 and winning a bowl game. Yes losing sucks. But give the man time to get it right.

Yep. Should have fired that coach in the 80s. The one with 7 conference championships, two close losses in NC clinching games, and perennially ranked in the Top Ten (sometimes Top 5). Calling that the same situation as right now is what is crazy.

Also, do you struggle with reading comprehension? I said I wasn't sure what should be done, I didn't call for Bo's firing.

you forgot to mention the seven straight embarrassing bowl losses too florida st. and miami!! Most people were getting tired of consistently losing BIG games in the 80's and early 90's but there werent forums then too make it as well known! Were those losses any closer than 09 texas?

 

[beanman]

To me the difference between 03 was we were 2 years removed from the National Title game. How do you panic and pull the plug like that. Pelini's teams have accomplished nothing. 9 wins means nothing today. They play 12-13 games! We've won our division 4 times. Okay great the weak big 12 north with the only real competition being missouri and the Big 10 with michigan state being the big threat....a team that was 0-7 against Nebraska (so not a powerhouse). The best thing Bo has accomplished in 6 years is an almost win over texas in the title game and blanking an average arizona team in the bowl. That was the peak...almost 4 years ago! So there's the big picture.

Here's the microscope. Turnovers...tons of them. Penalties...lots of them. Players admitting they weren't focused in big games. A defense that struggles to tackle. A glaring lack of leadership from players (although we seem to have a few stepping up now). How do you defend all this stuff...year after year?

Again, it was Solich's off the field stuff that got him fired. Had that not been the case I'm pretty sure he would have had another year for sure. Do I think he would have turned things around? Probably not considering who his offensive coordinator was.

I still don't buy that Solich was terminated for off the field problems. In this day and age it's hard to keep stuff a secret and the information is NOT out there...

So you would rather believe that we fired a coach who went 9-3? Which one do you think is more likely? It was a lot easier to keep stuff secret in 2003 than it is now. Pedey may have been a colossal prick, but he is a hell of a guy for not going public with Solich's off the field issues. The subsequent coaching search was a complete f'ing disaster, but I can hardly blame him for getting rid of Frank.

 

[Hedley Lamarr]

Because they are no the same regardless of what a poster tries to say to make themselves feel like we are relevant as we were then.

why does nebraska have to be relevant to cheer for them?

Maybe you should ask the 91k people that buy season tickets. They do not do it because they enjoy watching us lose. With your logic we may as well all become Iowa fans and support moral victories.

what exactly is my logic?

i dont see a correlation between relevancy and being a fan. i couldnt care less what others think (relevancy) of the team i cheer for. so why exactly does nebraska need to be relevant to cheer for them?

Well lets see, national perception DOES matter. Recruits watch TV (crazy I know) Believe it or not if we were never relevant we would not have a 91k stadium and millions of dollars put into practice facilities and lifting facilities. We do all of these things to be relevant. Sure you can still cheer for them if you wish but our program is built and funded to be relevant on the national stage. I guess I do not see the point you are trying to make? You can cheer for a crappy team if you wish feel free. I cheer just as you do but have noticed a trend taking place in Lincoln that is making a portion of the fanbase apathetic. When this happens and the losses do not hurt as they used to you will see an even larger decline in Lincoln because fans will care less.

 

[Hedley Lamarr]

The last time we fired a coach for these reasons we got Callahan. But hey, let's fire Bo cause that will fix EVERYTHING.

This has got to stop. These two coaching situations are mutually exclusive. I am unsure what is right for this program at this moment, but fear of 2003 is not influencing my way of thinking and I pray to God it isn't Eichorst.

I also really wish we'd fired Osborne back in the 80s when he just couldn't get it done. Think of how great our team could have been without him.

You guys clamoring to replace Bo are what's crazy. He's essentially got a freshman football team out there and has a good shot at going 10-3 and winning a bowl game. Yes losing sucks. But give the man time to get it right.

Yep. Should have fired that coach in the 80s. The one with 7 conference championships, two close losses in NC clinching games, and perennially ranked in the Top Ten (sometimes Top 5). Calling that the same situation as right now is what is crazy.

Also, do you struggle with reading comprehension? I said I wasn't sure what should be done, I didn't call for Bo's firing.

you forgot to mention the seven straight embarrassing bowl losses too florida st. and miami!! Most people were getting tired of consistently losing BIG games in the 80's and early 90's but there werent forums then too make it as well known! Were those losses any closer than 09 texas?

the simple fact that you have to reach to 2009 and a roster full of NFL talent that was recruited by Callahan should speak volumes to the state of our program....

 

[beanman]

The last time we fired a coach for these reasons we got Callahan. But hey, let's fire Bo cause that will fix EVERYTHING.

This has got to stop. These two coaching situations are mutually exclusive. I am unsure what is right for this program at this moment, but fear of 2003 is not influencing my way of thinking and I pray to God it isn't Eichorst.

I also really wish we'd fired Osborne back in the 80s when he just couldn't get it done. Think of how great our team could have been without him.

You guys clamoring to replace Bo are what's crazy. He's essentially got a freshman football team out there and has a good shot at going 10-3 and winning a bowl game. Yes losing sucks. But give the man time to get it right.

Yep. Should have fired that coach in the 80s. The one with 7 conference championships, two close losses in NC clinching games, and perennially ranked in the Top Ten (sometimes Top 5). Calling that the same situation as right now is what is crazy.

Also, do you struggle with reading comprehension? I said I wasn't sure what should be done, I didn't call for Bo's firing.

you forgot to mention the seven straight embarrassing bowl losses too florida st. and miami!! Most people were getting tired of consistently losing BIG games in the 80's and early 90's but there werent forums then too make it as well known! Were those losses any closer than 09 texas?

Dude, look who we were playing back then. To even be in those games in the first place was much much much more impressive than what we've done in Bo's tenure here. And to call all of them embarrassing is a stretch don't ya think? And by the way, 2009 Texas was with Cally's recruits.

1987 - Lost by 3 to final ranking #3 Florida State

1988 - Lost 23-3 to final ranking #2 Miami

1989 - Lost 41-17 to final ranking #5 Florida State

1990 - Lost 45-21 to UPI national champs Georgia Tech

1991 - Lost 22-0 to AP national champion Miami

1992 - Lost 27-13 to final ranking #3 Florida State

1993 - Lost 18-16 to national champs Florida State (by the grace of the officials)

 

[TheSker]

9 wins means nothing today.

An informal poll of 120 D1 athletic directors might not support that statement.

 

[Hedley Lamarr]

9 wins means nothing today.

An informal poll of 120 D1 athletic directors might not support that statement.

They would also say that getting curb stomped yearly on national television is cause for concern...

 

[TheSker]

9 wins means nothing today.

An informal poll of 120 D1 athletic directors might not support that statement.

They would also say that getting curb stomped yearly on national television is cause for concern...

Absolutely a cause for concern.