Does anyone think we'll be better next year?

[SFW]

I know with the same staff we will be out coached in every game. So in that case.....no.....not better.....more of the same. Maybe a game or two in either direction is all.

If we get a new coach and staff then yes.

 

[Guy Chamberlin]

out of curiosity, what is the difference between "bad luck" and "bone head plays"?

is "bad luck" a euphemism for bad coaching? Or is bad coaching caught under bone head plays?

just trying to track the rationalizations accurately.

I'm confused, too.

What did we call all the penalties, turnovers and bone headed plays the previous seven seasons?

Good question since the amount of those this year is about equal to the total amount over the last 7 seasons.

I don't think we've been watching the same team.

 

[GBRedneck]

out of curiosity, what is the difference between "bad luck" and "bone head plays"?

is "bad luck" a euphemism for bad coaching? Or is bad coaching caught under bone head plays?

just trying to track the rationalizations accurately.

I'm confused, too.

What did we call all the penalties, turnovers and bone headed plays the previous seven seasons?

Good question since the amount of those this year is about equal to the total amount over the last 7 seasons.

I don't think we've been watching the same team.

In the category of blatantly bad endgame coaching decisions, Riley leads about 7-0 over Pelini.

 

[suh_fan93]

No.

 

[NUance]

out of curiosity, what is the difference between "bad luck" and "bone head plays"?

is "bad luck" a euphemism for bad coaching? Or is bad coaching caught under bone head plays?

just trying to track the rationalizations accurately.

I guess you're asking me since I used those terms in my post above. Although I really don't know what you're getting at in asking this. I find it hard to believe that you don't know the difference between a boneheaded play and just plain bad luck. Really, you don't know the difference?

Okay then, here you go. Let's look to the Miami game for a couple of examples.

Bad luck play: Miami's interception at the end of the third quarter. Tommy threw a decent pass to Brandon Reilly right at the 1st down line. It hit Reilly in the hands right as the defender made contact, and bounced up in the air. The two Miami defenders collide with Reilly, and #2 goes rolling on the ground. He rolls over, laying flat on his back, and the ball falls right in his lap. That pick was just due to an unlucky bounce for us. LINK

Boneheaded play: First play in OT. Tommy rolls right. He has Taariq Allen headed to the corner of the endzone. Instead of throwing it to the back corner of the endzone where it will either be a TD or fall incomplete, Tommy throws it about 10 yards short. Corn Elder picks it off and runs it back to midfield. You can see it here at 12:12: LINK

I hope this helps.

 

[NUinID]

I think we will be a marginally better football team. Honestly, how could we not?

However, the schedule gets much tougher, so I think our record will be similar to what it is this year. 4-8, 5-7 something along those lines.

I don't think MR makes it to the 2017 season. (If he loses out in bad fashion, he may be lucky to get to 2016 season)

I am curious where are schedule gets "much tougher"? I just want to know your reasoning. NU swaps MSU for OSU I guess you can view Ohio St. as being a ton better than Sparty, but it is swapping one really good team for another really good team. Are you seeing Oregon that made the NC game last year or the team that will have a hard time finishing 7-5 this year? I don't see an over all tougher schedule. Wisconsin is Wisconsin, NW is NW, Minnesota is Minnesota. Is Maryland and Indiana better than Rutgers?

I am just interested why you think so.

 

[olddominionhusker]

Yes, I do. How much better, I don't know. At this point, we have no idea how much progress will be made teaching the offensive, defensive, and special teams schemes, as well as the mental aspect of our players.

I really do think HCMR knows how to develop a winning program, and I want to give him a chance to do so, but the total failure of this season has made that really hard. There really need to be some changes with his assistants.

I'm really not trying to be snarky here, but what would make you think Riley knows how to develop a winning program based on a pretty extensive resume over 30 years where he never built a consistent winner and certainly not a champion. Im with you on the assiastants though. I think making a DC change at the very least would calm things down and buy him some more time

 

[Enhance]

This is exactly what I was afraid of. They tank their first season so that next year's 6-6 looks like improvement. smh

Man you really post some irrational stuff. You need to put your tin foil hat in the closet. If you truly think that MR would tank a season so he looks better the next you need to have a serious talk with yourself. Or quit talking to yourself. Which ever works.

You're right. Most of the games they gave away were probably stupidity, not malice. Although I'm not sure about Purdon't.

Purdue, at least to me, came down to effort. I try not to call out individual players, however, there seems to be a pretty telling gif floating around of Nate Gerry standing still on one of Purdue's offense plays - not doing a thing. I've heard a few people talking about it.

I don't think all the players have given up, but, some of them appear not to care as much as they did early season. I can't say I completely blame them; however, attitude really comes down to the individual.

How could it come down to effort? You attribute nothing to 50 passes by a first time starter?

What was Gerry supposed to do during that scrum? If he runs and sticks a helmet into the 8 dudes already piled up, he possibly pushes the pile forward or knocks a tackler off.

People are pointing at the GIF, but it's not from Gerry's point of view.

He was on the backside seal and looking at a mass of players. I don't even know if he could see that the RB got loose on the backside.

I'm tired of people taking plays like this out of context. One could look across games every weekend and find this sort of play during all sorts of situations.

It's not somehow indicative of where this team and its players are. And I'm tired of the guessing games that never give the benefit of the doubt to guys like Gerry, but assume they must be at fault when a .500 coach gets off to a poor start.

Don't put words into my mouth. I notice you have a fondness for doing this. I never said it was all effort. I said effort, to me, was the biggest contributing factor this last week. The excessive passing, the lack of a consistent pass rush, a struggling running game... there's a million things wrong with this team. Do I really have to individually list them to appease you?

Fact is it's not just Gerry. There were a couple plays from last week where it was pretty clear to me our players just gave up on a play or didn't push that hard. Gerry is just one example. Yeah, he may have been on the backside, but to then just stand there completely flat-footed and not even attempt to do anything?

 

[Kiyoat Husker]

When I look at next season'ts schedule I look at what every team will have coming back. Minnesota breaks in a New QB so will Oregon, Maryland breaks in a new coach, Indiana may get tired of Kevin Wilson though I think that is a mistake. I watch Oregon a lot I don't see this year as a one year blip for them. I an not saying the are going to suck but 8-4 is probably about right for them. I don't see this schedule as any tougher than this year. This year is actually tougher than I thought it would be. BYU, Iowa, NW, and Illinois are all better than I thought they would be this year. Doesn't mean we should lose to all of them though, it just means they are better.

Ok, I can get on board with your logic. So If we assume a similar SOS, and at least SOME improvement/ better luck, 8 or 9 wins does seem reachable. (Maybe even 10)

I was going to make a case for Bohl's Wyoming making a big jump because I recently saw a game in which they had zero turnovers and zero penalties. I was thinking he was making progress in creating a new NDSU-like culture there. Then I looked at their season stats. Not very impressive anywhere.

 

[Undone]

I don't think all the players have given up, but, some of them appear not to care as much as they did early season. I can't say I completely blame them; however, attitude really comes down to the individual.

And will you say the same thing if at the same point next season we're 3-9? Serious question.

 

[NUance]

I don't think all the players have given up, but, some of them appear not to care as much as they did early season. I can't say I completely blame them; however, attitude really comes down to the individual.

And will you say the same thing if at the same point next season we're 3-9? Serious question.

Well, if it's true next season I imagine he'd say the same thing. And so will I, and others. But how will we know until the games are played?

:

 

[Undone]

Well, if it's true next season I imagine he'd say the same thing. And so will I, and others. But how will we know until the games are played?

:

Oh for sure, we won't. Just looking for patterns in the logic.

I'm wondering if the narrative would have been that Riley would have gotten all of the credit for "motivation" if we were 7-2 right now, but the players get the blame 100% if we're 3-9.

It's all completely subjective. But I'm not seeing much from Mike in the realm of keeping the bottom from falling out of his team's attitude. Can he completely control it? No, he can't. But is it his job - I'd say it is, yes.

 

[NUinID]

When I look at next season'ts schedule I look at what every team will have coming back. Minnesota breaks in a New QB so will Oregon, Maryland breaks in a new coach, Indiana may get tired of Kevin Wilson though I think that is a mistake. I watch Oregon a lot I don't see this year as a one year blip for them. I an not saying the are going to suck but 8-4 is probably about right for them. I don't see this schedule as any tougher than this year. This year is actually tougher than I thought it would be. BYU, Iowa, NW, and Illinois are all better than I thought they would be this year. Doesn't mean we should lose to all of them though, it just means they are better.

Ok, I can get on board with your logic. So If we assume a similar SOS, and at least SOME improvement/ better luck, 8 or 9 wins does seem reachable. (Maybe even 10)

I was going to make a case for Bohl's Wyoming making a big jump because I recently saw a game in which they had zero turnovers and zero penalties. I was thinking he was making progress in creating a new NDSU-like culture there. Then I looked at their season stats. Not very impressive anywhere.

Wyoming is bad this year. If they are patient there he will have them going by about year 4 IMO. They are playing a lot of young guys and have had a lot of injuries. I don't see any more than 4-5 wins next year for them, but that should jump to 7-8 the next year if they are patient.

You never know though, I was dead wrong on how much better I thought some teams would be this year Iowa and NW are way better than I thought they would be this year. Illinois HC must have been poison. They are a pretty solid team. The only team I have gotten right is Minnesota. I saw them winning maybe 6 games this year and they will struggle to do this.

I am a college football fan. I watch a lot of college football. Did any of you watch the Toledo/N. Illinois game last night, I did cause I like college football. Two pretty good teams playing in that one. I think I have a decent grasp of other teams around the country.

 

[Guy Chamberlin]

If Riley were 7-2 right now, there would be a lot of complaints that he was not a significant upgrade over Bo Pelini and should never have been hired.

 

[NUance]

Well, if it's true next season I imagine he'd say the same thing. And so will I, and others. But how will we know until the games are played?

:

Oh for sure, we won't. Just looking for patterns in the logic.

I'm wondering if the narrative would have been that Riley would have gotten all of the credit for "motivation" if we were 7-2 right now, but the players get the blame 100% if we're 3-9.

It's all completely subjective. But I'm not seeing much from Mike in the realm of keeping the bottom from falling out of his team's attitude. Can he completely control it? No, he can't. But is it his job - I'd say it is, yes.

I'm not sure what "narrative" you are talking about. It's not like some cabal has been formed to prop Riley up in the hope that he will drive NU into the ground.

As for Enhance89's comments above, I don't always agree with him, but from what I can tell he is a poster who calls it like he sees it. I don't think he pulls punches from either the coaches or the players if it looks like their effort is lacking.