Cold dose of reality by Dirk

teachercd said:
Few things...

1.  The love affair with Nelson simply doesn't match up with his play on the field.  But, like one writer said about 3 months ago...he would be a fan favorite.

2.  How can people still bash on Bo's record?  I get it if you hate him and want to bash on him as a person...but man we would all be thrilled with a 9 or 10 win season this year.
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I feel the same way about Nelson and would address it on two fronts.  

* he’s only a freshman and will get better, however, athletically I’m not sure he’ll be able to keep up

*  I want at least 22 more players with his attitude and passion...that role and his part in it justifies his place on this team and in fans hearts and will keep him on the field in some capacity

not bashing on bos record however was not a fan.  Time makes the heart grow fonder for some.  However, don’t forget losing to teams we shouldn’t have lost to, getting embarrassed by anyone with a pulse.  Again his ceiling was 9 wins and was closer to 7 wins typically than 10. Keep in mind many of the players that hid his deficiencies were going to be gone in 2015 and the 9 win thing would have been in severe trouble.  He was a lazy recruiter, s#!t had they not snubbed burrow he could be here.  Bo was/is a below avg head coach, above average dc, good position coach.  Last thing, if he wasn’t a complete d!(k to all the fans and media he might still be here.

 
I know a lot of people, my self included, have been frustrated with the results we have seen on the field. But lets look at a few different things.

1. I honestly believe the team last year, may have only 1 or 2 wins this year. Other than Ohio St and Minnesota (who I think is better than anyone wants to give credit), we have fought hard in every game and been in position to win every one. Last year, we would have lost to Northwestern, Illinois, and hell possibly USA as well.

2. We don't have a lot of studs on the field right now, especially on defense. When you watch the games, how many position groups, or even just players do you see and think, man they are towards the top of the conference. Is that Frost's fault? IDK I think maybe a little bit, but based on what was here when he got here, and how little time he had to put his first recruiting class together it's really not that big of a surprise that were struggling and a lot of the time out of position due to our lack of athletes

3. The type of kids Frost and his staff have been recruiting look to be promising. Look at the size of our O-Line recruits. We seem to be getting big, strong, kids, who are rated pretty highly. Our best athletes are the guys Frosts staff have recruited. The shelves were a lot more empty then we realized when Riley left and unfortunately this program is more of a rebuild then a program like this ever should have been. 

Go ahead, get frustrated at the ugly losses, the state of our program now, but don't lose site of the big picture. I know there are some people calling for the firing of  different staff members and wanting to see different people in Frost's ear telling him how he should run the program and what he should do. That would totally be cutting off our nose to spite our face. It would just continue to set the program back. Let Coach Frost do what he came here to do. There's a reason why he got the amount of time on his contract he did. It's been said nobody cares about the program as much as he does. I believe that to be true. 

 
4skers89 said:
Something strange is going on in Lincoln.  We used to turn 2 and 3 stars into 4 stars.  Now we turn 4 stars into 3 stars.  That's makes a turnaround difficult.
 

"Moreover, losing makes it hard to find winners. You think Alabama and Ohio State get the best players because those kids love their facilities best? Heck no. They want to win."
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I think also the really good recruits want a program that puts players into the NFL. 

To Dirk's comment that "losing makes it hard to find winners," I think that statement is accurate. But Frost did win at UCF in 2017, and he carried that resume forward to the tune of two better-than-the-norm classes here. If the talented guys from these first two classes stay on campus (obviously we've already lost Washington), it's a lot to build off of. 

I'm most concerned right now with Greg Austin and Tony Tuioti's coaching ability right now. There's a good foundation to work with and we just need to build off of it on our lines.

 
Gene Chizik won a Natty at Auburn his 2nd year - gift wrapped by Cam Newton. Everyone was like I told you he was a good coach!! He was fired two years later after going 3-9. He also did't do anything his two years at Iowa State.

I think quick success doesn't always mean much. I feel these few years will suck and our expectations need to be nothing unitl the 19' class are juniors (2021 or 2022). If we don't see anything by then Frost might not be the guy. I truly feel we will see what we want by then though. 

 
On the topic of Dirk, over-arching stories like this are kind of his mainstay but I don't know if I ever really see the guy talking about the specifics of how the team plays.

Articles like this are what a lot of people want to feed on when things are going poorly but it's like...he's been writing this same article for 10 years, right? Maybe that's the point, but my point is that it just doesn't tell us anything we didn't already know.

 
Nebfanatic said:
How so? I don't recall anyone saying anything more than he has a great motor and the tools to become a great player for us. The plays he misses are freshman mistakes but he plays with passion that most of our other players on that side of the ball don't possess.
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I guess I would ask you to define "plays with passion"

 
Undone said:
I'm most concerned right now with Greg Austin and Tony Tuioti's coaching ability right now. There's a good foundation to work with and we just need to build off of it on our lines.
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Austin absolutely. Tuioti to a degree. 3-4 is so dependent on linebacker play you lean on those 4 dudes so heavily and right now they are potentially the weakest position group on the entire team. We depend on the OLBs to be good in pass coverage, set an edge and be able to get to the QB. Guess what 3 things we aren’t doing on 3rd down. So while Tuioti is gonna be big. This staff needs to be able to recruit and develop and coach the linebackers if the 3-4 is going to be the base defense moving forward. 

 
FrantzHardySwag said:
3-4 is so dependent on linebacker play you lean on those 4 dudes so heavily and right now they are potentially the weakest position group on the entire team.
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+1, good point.

Yes, I'm hoping that Ruud winds up being as good of a coach as he was a player for the ILBs.

 
BIG ERN said:
Gene Chizik won a Natty at Auburn his 2nd year - gift wrapped by Cam Newton. Everyone was like I told you he was a good coach!! He was fired two years later after going 3-9. He also did't do anything his two years at Iowa State.

I think quick success doesn't always mean much. I feel these few years will suck and our expectations need to be nothing unitl the 19' class are juniors (2021 or 2022). If we don't see anything by then Frost might not be the guy. I truly feel we will see what we want by then though. 
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I could see next year turning a corner to the tune of 8-9 wins, but we will see. I agree with what you said though. 

 
FrantzHardySwag said:
3-4 is so dependent on linebacker play you lean on those 4 dudes so heavily and right now they are potentially the weakest position group on the entire team. We depend on the OLBs to be good in pass coverage, set an edge and be able to get to the QB. Guess what 3 things we aren’t doing on 3rd down. So while Tuioti is gonna be big. This staff needs to be able to recruit and develop and coach the linebackers if the 3-4 is going to be the base defense moving forward. 
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^ This. A lot of what people are blaming the D-line for is really more on the linebackers in this scheme. Being a D-lineman in a typical 3-4 is kind of an unglamorous job - you're mostly there to take up space and plug holes, while the OLBs are the attack dogs that are supposed to be generating most of the pass rush. That's why I've been harping on our OLB recruiting so much.

 
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