Do husker fans today have lower expectations?

[Dagerow]

It goes like this. If you like having Riley as our coach, you've settled for mediocre. If not, you haven't.

Could you please provide more context as to how and why people would fit into these binary categories of fandom.

Does anyone actually believe with Riley as coach we could win the national championship?

 

[Enhance]

It goes like this. If you like having Riley as our coach, you've settled for mediocre. If not, you haven't.

Could you please provide more context as to how and why people would fit into these binary categories of fandom.

Does anyone actually believe with Riley as coach we could win the national championship?

That's why I asked for clarification - that's one interpretation of your statement but it's a fairly vague assertion overall.

Mike Riley has several likable qualities, but at this point, it's unclear whether or not he's a championship caliber coach. I have my reservations, but I still like him as our coach, and that is not a direct correlation to accepting mediocrity, in my opinion.

 

[JJ Husker]

It goes like this. If you like having Riley as our coach, you've settled for mediocre. If not, you haven't.

Could you please provide more context as to how and why people would fit into these binary categories of fandom.

Does anyone actually believe with Riley as coach we could win the national championship?

I don't know the answer to that. Considering winning a conference championship would be something new and completely different at Nebraska nowadays, I haven't got too involved with thinking about a natty. But what I do know is that we sure as hell weren't going to win one with Pelini. He was obviously satisfied with winning his 9 games and felt people were out of line expecting championships of any kind. And of course there were the lopsided blowouts and still running runnning backs. I don't predicate my fandom on any certain number of wins. I want us to play good ball and compete with everyone on our schedule. We haven't competed with top teams for quite some time and we have even struggled with some middle of the road teams.

I don't know if Riley will get us to where I'd like to see us but I sure as hell am going to give him more than 2 years to see what he's got to offer. Personally I'm not a big fan of the type of offense he wants to run here (It's not physical and smashmouth enough for my tastes) but I also acknowledge that his way has not been given a fair shake yet. Nobody could run the type of offense he wants with TA (and no backups) at QB. I have serious reservations if his lightweight, finesse and pass based offense will ever cut it in the B1G. But it seems to me he is recruiting well, which we lacked with his predecessor. Seems to me he is willing to make changes on his staff to improve on results (Reed, Banker...). What I'm trying to say is, giving Riley 3 or 4 years does not equate to "If you like having Riley as our coach, you've settled for mediocre. If not, you haven't.". That is the statement you made and that is what I was responding to.

Like I said, I'm not big on only looking at the W-L but given our schedule and where I think we should be this year, my over/under is 8.5 wins. 8 or less or some uncompetitive losses and I'll likely be screaming for a replacement. 9 or more and competitive in all games and I'll view that as being headed in the right direction. This thing has sucked since about 2001. I'm not unrealistic enough to think it's going to change drastically in 2 years, especially after the fashion this regime change took place. I don't think it is fair or reasonable to judge him on only 2 years (or his time at OSU) but I do think it is fair to hold him fully accountable beginning this year. I'm done with the buy in excuses (which I think had much merit) and I'm done with injury excuses (even if there were real issues there). Part of coaching at this level is planning and preparing your team for those eventualities. It is now fully his team and his responsibility. I'm going to give him at least one year where that is the situation.

 

[garn]

Myself, I don't know about expectations, but i'm just busier in my life than I was during the national championship years. As a life long Royals fan, I was wrapped up with the World Series in 2014 & 15 that other than gameday, football took a back seat for me. I'm not even a message board junkie anymore either. I don't know who's who on the team either, sure I know about Tanner Lee is or a Keyshawn Johnson Jr or Les Miles kid, but I haven't taken the time to study the roster, that comes from not caring about recruiting either.

 

[84HuskerLaw]

i don't think we have top 10 talent so i don't "expect" us to beat top 10 teams. I do hate when we get beat by teams who are less talented than us, or get blown off the field by teams we should compete with, In 1995 we had top tier players at every position, now its Alabama, Ohio State etc that have 2 deep 4 and 5 star rosters. I want us to beat the teams we "should" beat ,compete with better teams, and eventually rack up some top 10 wins.Were going the right direction. i think. but we're not there yet.

The only way we can prove there are teams that we "should" beat, is by beating them. After many average seasons, I believe our "should" beat list has become quite short, and every opponent needs to be given full respect. I do agree that we are moving forward, but it is a journey.

I iwould also suggest that when discussing the teams we 'should' beat, one has to be careful and willing to recognize that there is much more parity in the overall talent pool across all teams than there once was, in my view. In other words, the number of 'gimmes' (the teams that most schools schools scheduled for 'home coming' (it was expected to be an easy win) are fewer in number. The have nots really have improved significantly while the haves are having to deal with having a little less. This is where the depth factor really shows up in that our thirds and fourths are no longer gong to be the ones who turned down offers from lesser programs in order to try to win a job by competing against the 'best'. Scholarship limits have certainly had a big effect. We were fortunate in that there was a delayed impact in Lincoln because we happened to be on top at the time and our momentum if you will in recruiting and national standing helped to carry us a few more years before the limits and balancing effects took hold.

Now, we are competing for the same number or perhaps slightly fewer kids in aggregate numbers with a larger number of schools. The talent is being spread around making it harder to load up for us and the opponents all a little better relatively speaking. Thus, the games are tougher and far fewer gimmes and we have less depth.

 

[Landlord]

I'd say I believe in the likelihood of Mike Riley winning us a National Championship as much as I believe in the likelihood of a proven, national championship caliber coach wanting and taking the Nebraska job.

Neither are great.

 

[BigRedBuster]

It goes like this. If you like having Riley as our coach, you've settled for mediocre. If not, you haven't.

(I usually don't like posting such negativity, but everyone is avoiding the issue, intentional or not. And yes, I know a lot will disagree).

Well at least you gave him a fair chance

and are ignoring his willingness to make changes

.

But that's okay, whatever fits your narrative.

I find it ironic that people forget what was posted here in the past and now, in a complete about face, suggest the opposite (I don't know if that was you or the other posters who replied to my post asserted that but it was the general narrative here). People were mad that Bo "only" won 9 or 10 a season because that wasn't enough, and now if Riley won 9 or 10, it would be viewed as a success.

If that were true you would have a point.

But.....

 

[Dagerow]

It goes like this. If you like having Riley as our coach, you've settled for mediocre. If not, you haven't.

Could you please provide more context as to how and why people would fit into these binary categories of fandom.

Does anyone actually believe with Riley as coach we could win the national championship?

I don't know the answer to that. Considering winning a conference championship would be something new and completely different at Nebraska nowadays, I haven't got too involved with thinking about a natty. But what I do know is that we sure as hell weren't going to win one with Pelini. He was obviously satisfied with winning his 9 games and felt people were out of line expecting championships of any kind. And of course there were the lopsided blowouts and still running runnning backs. I don't predicate my fandom on any certain number of wins. I want us to play good ball and compete with everyone on our schedule. We haven't competed with top teams for quite some time and we have even struggled with some middle of the road teams.
I don't know if Riley will get us to where I'd like to see us but I sure as hell am going to give him more than 2 years to see what he's got to offer. Personally I'm not a big fan of the type of offense he wants to run here (It's not physical and smashmouth enough for my tastes) but I also acknowledge that his way has not been given a fair shake yet. Nobody could run the type of offense he wants with TA (and no backups) at QB. I have serious reservations if his lightweight, finesse and pass based offense will ever cut it in the B1G. But it seems to me he is recruiting well, which we lacked with his predecessor. Seems to me he is willing to make changes on his staff to improve on results (Reed, Banker...). What I'm trying to say is, giving Riley 3 or 4 years does not equate to "If you like having Riley as our coach, you've settled for mediocre. If not, you haven't.". That is the statement you made and that is what I was responding to.

Like I said, I'm not big on only looking at the W-L but given our schedule and where I think we should be this year, my over/under is 8.5 wins. 8 or less or some uncompetitive losses and I'll likely be screaming for a replacement. 9 or more and competitive in all games and I'll view that as being headed in the right direction. This thing has sucked since about 2001. I'm not unrealistic enough to think it's going to change drastically in 2 years, especially after the fashion this regime change took place. I don't think it is fair or reasonable to judge him on only 2 years (or his time at OSU) but I do think it is fair to hold him fully accountable beginning this year. I'm done with the buy in excuses (which I think had much merit) and I'm done with injury excuses (even if there were real issues there). Part of coaching at this level is planning and preparing your team for those eventualities. It is now fully his team and his responsibility. I'm going to give him at least one year where that is the situation.

Fair enough. I will say he is recruiting well.

 

[Dagerow]

It goes like this. If you like having Riley as our coach, you've settled for mediocre. If not, you haven't.

(I usually don't like posting such negativity, but everyone is avoiding the issue, intentional or not. And yes, I know a lot will disagree).

Well at least you gave him a fair chance

and are ignoring his willingness to make changes

.

But that's okay, whatever fits your narrative.

I find it ironic that people forget what was posted here in the past and now, in a complete about face, suggest the opposite (I don't know if that was you or the other posters who replied to my post asserted that but it was the general narrative here). People were mad that Bo "only" won 9 or 10 a season because that wasn't enough, and now if Riley won 9 or 10, it would be viewed as a success.

If that were true you would have a point.
But.....

You're joking right?

 

[Huskerlambs]

Myself, I don't know about expectations, but i'm just busier in my life than I was during the national championship years. As a life long Royals fan, I was wrapped up with the World Series in 2014 & 15 that other than gameday, football took a back seat for me. I'm not even a message board junkie anymore either. I don't know who's who on the team either, sure I know about Tanner Lee is or a Keyshawn Johnson Jr or Les Miles kid, but I haven't taken the time to study the roster, that comes from not caring about recruiting either.

What you say about the Royals reminds me of the Huskers. Both were great for a while, and then, both seemed like they would suck forever; both come from small markets, and it seemed like the deck was stacked against them, but then, the Royals just won the World Series recently. How did they do that? How did they win the World Series against the big clubs that had all of the money? They built the program from the ground up. The Huskers could rise again. We have the fan base and the assets. We need the right coach to build the right program. I hope that is Mike Riley.

Speaking of Riley, who went to Alabama, the Tide, for the most part, sucked after Bear Bryant. They went through Ray Perkins, Bill Curry, Gene Stallings (one natty), Mike Dubose, Dennis Franchione, and Mike Shula, before they found the right coach - Nick Saban (whose a$$ we kicked 50-10 when he coached at Mich. St.)

College Football is cyclical. We can be great again. I'm still mad at Tom for retiring. As long as that glorious man is drawing breath on this planet, he should have been coaching Nebraska Football.

 

[BigRedBuster]

It goes like this. If you like having Riley as our coach, you've settled for mediocre. If not, you haven't.

(I usually don't like posting such negativity, but everyone is avoiding the issue, intentional or not. And yes, I know a lot will disagree).

Well at least you gave him a fair chance

and are ignoring his willingness to make changes

.

But that's okay, whatever fits your narrative.

I find it ironic that people forget what was posted here in the past and now, in a complete about face, suggest the opposite (I don't know if that was you or the other posters who replied to my post asserted that but it was the general narrative here). People were mad that Bo "only" won 9 or 10 a season because that wasn't enough, and now if Riley won 9 or 10, it would be viewed as a success.

If that were true you would have a point.
But.....

You're joking right?

No.....
Your comment makes it sound like if they win 9-10 games, then there are lots of fans that would be perfectly content and happy and not crave a championship.

That flat out is wrong.

If there are fans like that, they are such an extreme minority it's not worth mentioning.

You jumped to this statement to go nothing more than further your agenda of wanting Riley gone. It helps if you actually use true facts to back it up.

 

[Landlord]

No.....

Your comment makes it sound like if they win 9-10 games, then there are lots of fans that would be perfectly content and happy and not crave a championship.

That flat out is wrong.

If there are fans like that, they are such an extreme minority it's not worth mentioning.

You jumped to this statement to go nothing more than further your agenda of wanting Riley gone. It helps if you actually use true facts to back it up.

What he's getting at is that there was a common sentiment amongst Nebraska internet fans that if Bo could do it every year, with his inexperienced promotions, his resentment towards recruiting, his blinding rage, his standoffs with the media, etc., then any blind monkey could get us to 9/10 wins.

That is true. And it is also true that it seems one of two things is also true. Either we were wrong, and Bo was quite better than we gave him credit for and that isn't easy, or that Mike Riley is just not a very good coach.

 

[zoogs]

Nobody thought 'any blind monkey' could get us 9-10 wins. There's an enormous difference between that and saying those 9-4, borderline or outside of Top-25 teams were anything to crow about. If anyone has low standards for success, ironically, it's the Bo birds who are openly pining for those days and who think it was some kind of travesty to fire a coach who could deliver results like that.

Again, they weren't terrible results, and it was statistically uncanny for Bo to have hit the mark in all seven seasons. Just nothing to write home about. And, apart from the anomaly breaking in 2015 -- in its own anomalous, fluky ways, as the '15 team put up a better show than the '16 one -- Nebraska has put together the same kind of unextraordinary, unawful seasons since Bo has left.

 

[JJ Husker]

No.....

Your comment makes it sound like if they win 9-10 games, then there are lots of fans that would be perfectly content and happy and not crave a championship.

That flat out is wrong.

If there are fans like that, they are such an extreme minority it's not worth mentioning.

You jumped to this statement to go nothing more than further your agenda of wanting Riley gone. It helps if you actually use true facts to back it up.

What he's getting at is that there was a common sentiment amongst Nebraska internet fans that if Bo could do it every year, with his inexperienced promotions, his resentment towards recruiting, his blinding rage, his standoffs with the media, etc., then any blind monkey could get us to 9/10 wins.

That is true. And it is also true that it seems one of two things is also true. Either we were wrong, and Bo was quite better than we gave him credit for and that isn't easy, or that Mike Riley is just not a very good coach.

I'm surprised, usually you avoid these logical fallacies.
I'm probably about as close as you'll get to one of the internet fans who thought a blind monkey could win 9 games every year at Nehraska. Problem is that thought didn't occur in a vacuum. It took into account our opponents every year and it was never win 9 against any and all comers but rather win 9 against the same teams and under the same conditions that Bo did. And considering Bo influenced some of those conditions when he left and our schedule may not always have 9 wins pre-penciled in, that kind of destroys the basis of your assumptions. None of it means Bo was better than thought or MR is not very good.

 

[SuperBigFan69]

Nobody thought 'any blind monkey' could get us 9-10 wins. There's an enormous difference between that and saying those 9-4, borderline or outside of Top-25 teams were anything to crow about. If anyone has low standards for success, ironically, it's the Bo birds who are openly pining for those days and who think it was some kind of travesty to fire a coach who could deliver results like that.

Again, they weren't terrible results, and it was statistically uncanny for Bo to have hit the mark in all seven seasons. Just nothing to write home about. And, apart from the anomaly breaking in 2015 -- in its own anomalous, fluky ways, as the '15 team put up a better show than the '16 one -- Nebraska has put together the same kind of unextraordinary, unawful seasons since Bo has left.

Many fans felt that 9 wins were built into the schedule every year. Many still do, I know I do.

The travesty wasn't firing Bo...the travesty was hiring Riley and not telling him that it would be a great time with this amazing fresh start to also use those connections he had made over the past 30 years to hire a bad a$$ staff right away.