Do We Have the Talent We Need?

Raw talent...yes.  Developed talent...no.

That falls on the coaching staff.  Iowa State starts one senior on offense.  They have an OL that features two red shirt freshmen.  Would you pick the Iowa State offense over the Nebraska offense?  They started slow, what with lack of practices, but over the season, they have corrected mistakes and are now playing at their peak.

Nebraska, at least on the offense, is still committing the same dumb mistakes they made at the start of the season.  That's all on coaching.  Player development is sorely lacking.

you have the talent but lack the leadership.

 
Born N Bled Red said:
Why would you feel like that when "most Nebraska fans," clearly weren't satisfied with these???? Heck- Riley made two bowl games in 3 years and went 9-4 in year 2! 





Frank Solich


9–4


5–3


2nd


Lost Holiday Bowl (Arizona) 23–20


19


20




1999


12–1


7–1


1st


Won Fiesta Bowl (Tennessee) 31–21


3


2




2000


10–2


6–2


T–1st[A 5]


Won Alamo Bowl (Northwestern) 66–17


8


7




2001


11–2


7–1


T–1st[A 6]


Lost Rose Bowl (Miami) 37–14


8


7




2002


7–7


3–5


4th


Lost Independence Bowl (Ole Miss) 27–23


 


 




2003


10–3


5–3


2nd


Won Alamo Bowl (Michigan State) 17–3[A 7]


19


18











2004


Bill Callahan


5–6


3–5


T–3rd


 


 


 




2005


8–4


4–4


T–2nd


Won Alamo Bowl (Michigan) 32–28


24


24




2006


9–5


6–2


1st


Lost Cotton Bowl Classic (Auburn) 17–14


 


 




2007


5–7


2–6


T–5th


 














2008


Bo Pelini


9–4


5–3


T–1st[A 8]


Won Gator Bowl (Clemson) 26–21


 


 




2009


10–4


6–2


1st


Won Holiday Bowl (Arizona) 33–0


14


14




2010


10–4


6–2


T–1st


Lost Holiday Bowl (Washington) 19–7


20


19




Big Ten Conference (Legends Division) (2011–2013)




2011


Bo Pelini


9–4


5–3


3rd


Lost Capital One Bowl (South Carolina) 30–13


24


24




2012


10–4


7–1


1st


Lost Capital One Bowl (Georgia) 45–31


25


23




2013


9–4


5–3


T–2nd


Won Gator Bowl (Georgia) 24–19


 


25











2015


Mike Riley


6–7


3–5


4th


Won Foster Farms Bowl (UCLA) 37–29


 


 




2016


9–4


6–3


T–2nd


Lost Music City Bowl (Tennessee) 38–24


 


 




2017


4–8


3–6


5th
Click to expand...




Because double standards.

The question isn't whether or not the majority of Husker fans would be satisfied if Frost had the same success as Fitzgerald.   The question would be how many statues would we erect?

 
Last edited by a moderator:
So Frost is definitely spot on with regards to playing musical chairs at running back. We really don't have that 'feature back' kind of guy there that can really make plays completely on his own without big rushing lanes. We had that guy, and then he got kicked off the team.

The biggest problem is not talent. At least not in the most commonly used definition of "talent." The biggest problem absolutely boils down to turnovers, stupid penalties, and bad special teams.

Iowa and Northwestern have equal or lesser talent on their roster, top to bottom. But look at their W/L record this season. Both of those teams are well-coached, play solid fundamentals, and generally don't make stupid mistakes.

We are going to continue to get embarrassed in this league if we don't become well-disciplined like those two teams.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
Husker_Bohunk said:
I read what he wrote but I'm not buying it. It's just more excuses.
Click to expand...


I mean you can call it an excuse or whatever you want, but you can't really "not buy" that guys like Benhart, Piper, Betts, Scott, etc haven't had 3 years of development under Frost. You can blame him for not holding onto Riley guys and players in their first recruiting class, but it's a hard sell to look at guys who've been here 1 or 2 years and ask why they aren't showing 3 years of development.

 
Husker_Bohunk said:
I read what he wrote but I'm not buying it. It's just more excuses.
Click to expand...
Your not buying that we had blown recruiting classes?  Or that the majority of our talent is young/inexperienced?  Or are you just of the opinion we should just be winning because we are Nebraska, and the 4-5 years leading up to Frost don't mean anything? 

In my opinion there is a blend of reasons and excuses.  The coaches don't get a free pass on everything but they certainly have plenty of reasons why this team is where it's at. 

 
Husker_Bohunk said:
Frost has 3 classes of recruits on this team. His recruits. And we're playing worse than we did under Mike Riley.

Other coaches can take underclassmen and have them ready to play, so why can't Frost? He's had 3 years to get his first class ready, 2 years to get the second one ready and yet we keep using the same tired excuses that these players need time to develop. We're running out of time with his first class because they've already used up over half their eligibility. How much longer do we need to wait? How many more times do we need to listen to excuses for why we are still the doormat of the Big 10? When do we actually get to start seeing progress in the W/L column instead of counting our moral victories?
Click to expand...


Hey I got an idea. Let's you and I both go in for a heart surgery. The crew working on you, is learning on the job they've been there a mix of 1-3 years. The crew working on me has been there mostly 5 years, with a standout or two that has been there 3 or 4 years.

Which one of us is more likely to survive?

 
Born N Bled Red said:
Hey I got an idea. Let's you and I both go in for a heart surgery. The crew working on you, is learning on the job they've been there a mix of 1-3 years. The crew working on me has been there mostly 5 years, with a standout or two that has been there 3 or 4 years.

Which one of us is more likely to survive?
Click to expand...
Perfect lol.  I deleted the response I was typing.

 
Born N Bled Red said:
Hey I got an idea. Let's you and I both go in for a heart surgery. The crew working on you, is learning on the job they've been there a mix of 1-3 years. The crew working on me has been there mostly 5 years, with a standout or two that has been there 3 or 4 years.

Which one of us is more likely to survive?
Click to expand...
Great analogy. 

 
Born N Bled Red said:
Hey I got an idea. Let's you and I both go in for a heart surgery. The crew working on you, is learning on the job they've been there a mix of 1-3 years. The crew working on me has been there mostly 5 years, with a standout or two that has been there 3 or 4 years.

Which one of us is more likely to survive?
Click to expand...
Or, we could both go in for heart surgery and I could have the crew with 1-3 years experience which has a 95% positive outcome rate and you could have the crew with 5 years experience and a 60% positive outcome rate. My crew was better trained in its 1-3 years than yours was in 5 years. Who is more likely to survive?

Your argument totally ignores the fact that many coaches have gone into "dumpster fire" situations and turned the program around in the first 3 years.

 
luvthecorn said:
Or, we could both go in for heart surgery and I could have the crew with 1-3 years experience which has a 95% positive outcome rate and you could have the crew with 5 years experience and a 60% positive outcome rate. My crew was better trained in its 1-3 years than yours was in 5 years. Who is more likely to survive?

Your argument totally ignores the fact that many coaches have gone into "dumpster fire" situations and turned the program around in the first 3 years.
Click to expand...


This is what I'm thinking as well.  Now, let's tie this back to football.  How many coaches have started out at their respective schools with three losing seasons in a row that now are seeing sustained success?  

 
Cy the Cyclone said:
Raw talent...yes.  Developed talent...no.

That falls on the coaching staff.  Iowa State starts one senior on offense.  They have an OL that features two red shirt freshmen.  Would you pick the Iowa State offense over the Nebraska offense?  They started slow, what with lack of practices, but over the season, they have corrected mistakes and are now playing at their peak.

Nebraska, at least on the offense, is still committing the same dumb mistakes they made at the start of the season.  That's all on coaching.  Player development is sorely lacking.

you have the talent but lack the leadership.
Click to expand...


Well said and I completely agree with the lack of development happening on this staff.  I used to get more excited on big recruiting days when we would sign new players, but given how Frost's staff has operated the first 3 years, I believe these kids are not going to reach their maximum potential in the Husker program.  

 
@Mavric, I'm curious, why did you break it down 2015-2018 and then 2019-2020? Doesn't that imply the 2018 class and its shortcomings are somehow on Riley, not Frost? 

Riley inherited classes ranked:

  • 35th
  • 22nd
  • 32nd

Frost inherited classes ranked:

  • 23rd
  • 26th
  • 30th

Riley went 19-19; Frost is 11-20.

I recall this same "Do we have the talent?" conversation during the last regime. We did, we do; we still don't have the coaching, playcalling, clock management, player development, etc. 

 
QMany said:
@Mavric, I'm curious, why did you break it down 2015-2018 and then 2019-2020? Doesn't that imply the 2018 class and its shortcomings are somehow on Riley, not Frost? 

Riley inherited classes ranked:

  • 35th
  • 22nd
  • 32nd

Frost inherited classes ranked:

  • 23rd
  • 26th
  • 30th

Riley went 19-19; Frost is 11-20.

I recall this same "Do we have the talent?" conversation during the last regime. We did, we do; we still don't have the coaching, playcalling, clock management, player development, etc. 
Click to expand...
The talent argument is just dumb. Kirk is starting 7 sophomores on offense in Iowa City, they seem to make it work. 3 cycles of recruiting is plenty to at least get your team off the ground. Especially with transfers, grad transfers and JUCO players these days. If Frost were hovering around 6-6, 7-5, 8-4 , then I would understand saying he hasn't had enough time to build a championship caliber roster. But he's had more than enough time to build a team that can go better than 2-5 in conf and compete in the west.  It doesn't take years to break into the top 4 of a completely mediocre division, yet we still haven't done that. 

 
I have a hard time assessing offensive “talent” in isolation of the awful QB play and OC play calling.

As I’ve said before, any OC who tries to make our OL block laterally is trying to jam a square peg in a round hole. Let them drive and trap and they’re decent.  Ask them to go sideways and S&C has not built them to do that.  They are far too heavy footed and the opposing DC knowing our preferences often calls hard slants which regularly blow our guys up. Then to add insult to injury, earlier in the season moreso then last couple of weeks, to NOT attempt to throw the ball deep and allowing 8 defenders to stack the box made those lateral run plays and behind the line passes more likely to create a loss than a gain. 
 

My last observation which lets the OC off the hook just a bit, is that I’m not sure if we had any games this year where our QB was better than the opposing QB.  Game after game we saw opposing B1G QB’s come in and make key throws when they needed them, while ours struggled to hit passes many high school QB’s could hit regularly.

At the end of the day, my takeaways are as follows:

1.  I think we may need a new QB coach as our current one appears to be failing to develop the throwing motion, footwork and ability to read opposing defenses

that are required to win at this level.

2.  If after replacing that coach and our QB’s still can’t consistently hit the broad side of a barn, then the OC needs to re-jig the scheme to match what our QB’s can do well.
3.  S&C needs to be aligned with the OC as well.  If the team identity is going to be based on lateral running (which personally is not my favourite), then S&C need to have the OL doing more skipping and less squats.

So outside of “getting better QB passing” which is kind of obvious, the largest part of the “talent” issue that we can go after is the lack of alignment between the talent we do have, the systems and plays the OC appears stubbornly committed to run, and the S&C crew that need to deliver the bodies to run those plays.  So we can blame a lot of other individuals (coaches and players) for their smaller contributions, but this biggest issue falls on the team CEO and he needs to make it priority one heading into next season.

 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top