Coaching or Talent - which is more responsible

[knapplc]

Yeah, I didn't say we can't blame anything on Pelini. But saying "oh well, we lost to BYU and Miami because of Pelini" is disingenuous at best. Sure, if we had recruited top 5 classes for the last 10 years, we have a much better chance to win, but looking at the talent and coaching we do have, mistakes were made that cost us the game.

Probably a good thing nobody is saying that then, right? I'm not seeing that, anywhere.

That's the very point of this thread: http://www.huskerboard.com/index.php?/topic/76388-408-left-us-high-and-dry/

By going with the "cupboards are bare" argument, that's the stance you're taking. We lost, because of Pelini's recruiting.

And for the record, he wasn't very good at recruiting, but we do have talent. Those comparing our current roster to 2004 is beyond laughable, to the point of pure absurdity.

This does not say the bold.

Nebraska had a travel roster of 79 players. Of that, there were 24 walkons, and 9 true freshman. Let that sink in a bit. Years of crappy recruiting has left Riley and staff in quit a hole talent wise. That is nearly 2 full classes of missing talent. Callahan at least left us some talent to work with, 408 not only stole from the university , while pretending to lead the program, but was derelict while doing it. We are in nearly the same shape as when we came out of the Solich years. Riley has a long hard road ahead, he may work miracles, but if not, he damn sure needs our patience.

"We lost, because of Pelini's recruiting" is a gross oversimplification of this post.

 

[Saunders]

We don't have the talent to win against BYU or Miami outright. And our attrition/non-contributor rate of out-recruiting other teams is more than 1 out of every 3. That has to hurt any coaching effort considering Pelini consistently didn't even fill classes.

The numbers say otherwise.

 

[knapplc]

We don't have the talent to win against BYU or Miami outright. And our attrition/non-contributor rate of out-recruiting other teams is more than 1 out of every 3. That has to hurt any coaching effort considering Pelini consistently didn't even fill classes.

The numbers say otherwise.

I mean... both were one-score games. We kinda do have the talent, apparently.

 

[StPaulHusker]

We don't have the talent to win against BYU or Miami outright. And our attrition/non-contributor rate of out-recruiting other teams is more than 1 out of every 3. That has to hurt any coaching effort considering Pelini consistently didn't even fill classes.

The numbers say otherwise.

http://www.footballstudyhall.com/2015/2/10/8007929/why-the-college-football-recruiting-class-rankings-are-flawed-metrics-talent-blue-chip

 

[Saunders]

Nebraska had a travel roster of 79 players. Of that, there were 24 walkons, and 9 true freshman. Let that sink in a bit. Years of crappy recruiting has left Riley and staff in quit a hole talent wise. That is nearly 2 full classes of missing talent. Callahan at least left us some talent to work with, 408 not only stole from the university , while pretending to lead the program, but was derelict while doing it. We are in nearly the same shape as when we came out of the Solich years. Riley has a long hard road ahead, he may work miracles, but if not, he damn sure needs our patience.

"We lost, because of Pelini's recruiting" is a gross oversimplification of this post.

I was more alluding to the overall thread. Posters have compared our on hand talent to 2004. You couldn't find a writer in the state who would agree with that. We're much closer to 2008.

 

[Saunders]

We don't have the talent to win against BYU or Miami outright. And our attrition/non-contributor rate of out-recruiting other teams is more than 1 out of every 3. That has to hurt any coaching effort considering Pelini consistently didn't even fill classes.

The numbers say otherwise.

http://www.footballstudyhall.com/2015/2/10/8007929/why-the-college-football-recruiting-class-rankings-are-flawed-metrics-talent-blue-chip

Yeah, I already know this. They aren't perfect, but they're very good as a predictor.

 

[knapplc]

Nebraska had a travel roster of 79 players. Of that, there were 24 walkons, and 9 true freshman. Let that sink in a bit. Years of crappy recruiting has left Riley and staff in quit a hole talent wise. That is nearly 2 full classes of missing talent. Callahan at least left us some talent to work with, 408 not only stole from the university , while pretending to lead the program, but was derelict while doing it. We are in nearly the same shape as when we came out of the Solich years. Riley has a long hard road ahead, he may work miracles, but if not, he damn sure needs our patience.

"We lost, because of Pelini's recruiting" is a gross oversimplification of this post.

I was more alluding to the overall thread. Posters have compared our on hand talent to 2004. You couldn't find a writer in the state who would agree with that.

2015 Nebraska more resembles 2004 Nebraska than 2008 Nebraska. While the cupboard is not bare, it is very thin in spots. Unnecessarily, and that's a Pelini problem.

 

[Saunders]

We don't have the talent to win against BYU or Miami outright. And our attrition/non-contributor rate of out-recruiting other teams is more than 1 out of every 3. That has to hurt any coaching effort considering Pelini consistently didn't even fill classes.

The numbers say otherwise.

I mean... both were one-score games. We kinda do have the talent, apparently.

And I think we do too. So did a whole crapload of people on this board. Yet, now, some of those same people are saying "oh, we don't have the talent to compete."

That's simply not true.

The sky is hardly falling. But the staff has to fix some stuff, and do it immediately, or things could get ugly. And they need to start with the secondary, and penalties.

 

[StPaulHusker]

Nebraska had a travel roster of 79 players. Of that, there were 24 walkons, and 9 true freshman. Let that sink in a bit. Years of crappy recruiting has left Riley and staff in quit a hole talent wise. That is nearly 2 full classes of missing talent. Callahan at least left us some talent to work with, 408 not only stole from the university , while pretending to lead the program, but was derelict while doing it. We are in nearly the same shape as when we came out of the Solich years. Riley has a long hard road ahead, he may work miracles, but if not, he damn sure needs our patience.

"We lost, because of Pelini's recruiting" is a gross oversimplification of this post.

I was more alluding to the overall thread. Posters have compared our on hand talent to 2004. You couldn't find a writer in the state who would agree with that.

2015 Nebraska more resembles 2004 Nebraska than 2008 Nebraska. While the cupboard is not bare, it is very thin in spots. Unnecessarily, and that's a Pelini problem.

28 out of 79 recruits from 2012-2014 are no longer with Nebraska or not contributing. It is most definitely a Pelini problem.

 

[QMany]

We don't have the talent to win against BYU or Miami outright. And our attrition/non-contributor rate of out-recruiting other teams is more than 1 out of every 3. That has to hurt any coaching effort considering Pelini consistently didn't even fill classes.

The numbers say otherwise.

I mean... both were one-score games. We kinda do have the talent, apparently.

Did we just get out-coached by Al Golden?

 

[NoLongerN]

Coaching or Talent? My answer is neither and both.

We are in a period of transition. I don't expect or believe that everything Coach Riley wanted implemented is done or achieved with the current team. My guess is that closer to the middle to end of the season he will have a better grasp about what he really has here at Nebraska and and what holes he needs to fill or adjust as it relates to coaching and players. He needs to be given some time and grace to figure it out and put his plan into place.

We are all gonna find out if Nebraska has the grace and patience to let him implement and evolve. I'm more then comfortable letting him have the same time frame Bo had. I will have to trust the AD decision and give Coach Riley to the time. Good luck coach. I'll be pullin' for you.

 

[Saunders]

Nebraska had a travel roster of 79 players. Of that, there were 24 walkons, and 9 true freshman. Let that sink in a bit. Years of crappy recruiting has left Riley and staff in quit a hole talent wise. That is nearly 2 full classes of missing talent. Callahan at least left us some talent to work with, 408 not only stole from the university , while pretending to lead the program, but was derelict while doing it. We are in nearly the same shape as when we came out of the Solich years. Riley has a long hard road ahead, he may work miracles, but if not, he damn sure needs our patience.

"We lost, because of Pelini's recruiting" is a gross oversimplification of this post.

I was more alluding to the overall thread. Posters have compared our on hand talent to 2004. You couldn't find a writer in the state who would agree with that.

2015 Nebraska more resembles 2004 Nebraska than 2008 Nebraska. While the cupboard is not bare, it is very thin in spots. Unnecessarily, and that's a Pelini problem.

2008 vs 2015. Who are you picking? Me:

QB - 2015

RB - push

OL - 2015

WR - 2015

TE - 2015

DL - 2008 (because of Suh, and depth. Our ends were just ok)

LB (injuries go push)

CB - 2008 by a mile

S - 2015 (Gerry is better than Asante or O'hanlon)

 

[Saunders]

Nebraska had a travel roster of 79 players. Of that, there were 24 walkons, and 9 true freshman. Let that sink in a bit. Years of crappy recruiting has left Riley and staff in quit a hole talent wise. That is nearly 2 full classes of missing talent. Callahan at least left us some talent to work with, 408 not only stole from the university , while pretending to lead the program, but was derelict while doing it. We are in nearly the same shape as when we came out of the Solich years. Riley has a long hard road ahead, he may work miracles, but if not, he damn sure needs our patience.

"We lost, because of Pelini's recruiting" is a gross oversimplification of this post.

I was more alluding to the overall thread. Posters have compared our on hand talent to 2004. You couldn't find a writer in the state who would agree with that.

2015 Nebraska more resembles 2004 Nebraska than 2008 Nebraska. While the cupboard is not bare, it is very thin in spots. Unnecessarily, and that's a Pelini problem.

28 out of 79 recruits from 2012-2014 are no longer with Nebraska or not contributing. It is most definitely a Pelini problem.

I'll have to find the article (I believe it was CFBMatrix or SBNAtion,) but IIRC, the average number of "non contributors" per class is around 1/3.

 

[knapplc]

And I think we do too. So did a whole crapload of people on this board. Yet, now, some of those same people are saying "oh, we don't have the talent to compete."

That's simply not true.

The sky is hardly falling. But the staff has to fix some stuff, and do it immediately, or things could get ugly. And they need to start with the secondary, and penalties.

I'm leery of statements like this. Without all those statements lined up in the same thread, it's hard to say that the same people who thought we'd be good this year all now think we'll be bad. It's a really broad statement with no specific facts. Even if Biff the Blogger said we'd be world-beaters in July and now thinks we'll have a losing record, all that means is Biff changed his mind or he was (or is) uninformed.

I agree the sky is not falling. We're single-digits away from being 3-0. I figured we'd likely lose to both BYU and Miami, although I didn't think either would be as close as they were. That we darned near won both games has me hoping a smidge.

We can win the West, we can play for the conference title. We're seeing a team, both offense & defense, that could pull that off. That's all right.

This is supposed to be a transition year. A throw-away year. Warts and all, talent on the roster and recruiting mistakes from the past included, the fact that we may be able to get to Indy in December is amazing. I'm pretty cool with that.

 

[alwayshusking]

Talent mostly imo to answer the OP.

If I had a gripe with this staff 3 games in it's on some personnel choices.

Davie was out there too long before getting the hook this season.

Newby is a solid player and has a role in this offense but I think Wilbon needs to get touches at RB. He can make guys miss and break arm tackles.

Foster should be getting some time at one of the OG spots, neither of the starters has played very well.

Can we play this coverage scheme with the talent situation at DE and CB against teams that are good at throwing the ball?

The good news is they've had 3 games to evaluate their personnel and hopefully make good decisions going forward.