Falling Standards

[84HuskerLaw]

BTW, we didn't crush Minnesota the past 2 seasons. They beat us. So, it isn't too out of place for people to want to celebrate that and be positive about it. It's no secret, Husker football has basically sucked for the last 15 years when compared to the prior 25 years. MR has coached 6 games. Let's not hang the frustration of 15 years of futility around his neck just yet.

I don't get the comment about sucking the past 15 years because I quite simply do not see it that way. Whether we deserved to be playing the game or not, we did play for a NC in 01'. In 09' we had one of the most dominant defenses with a DL that should have won the Hypseman. 10' had the makings of a very special season until Martinez got injured. I'll admit we've been on sort of a roller coaster ride the past 15 years, but we've had highs with those lows.

Hey, it's just my opinion. I started following the Huskers in the 70's as a young boy, attended UNL in the early 80's during the "scoring explosion" of Gill, Rozier, & Fryar, followed the team closely and travelled to a lot of games in the 80's and 90's.......and then on that fateful day in 2001 in Boulder my football soul was crushed and it has never been the same since. Followed that up with an undeserved appearance in the NC game of 2001, bad timing and coaching decisions made getting rid of Solich, hiring Callahan, Pederson, tearing down the history of the program, distancing the program from former players, destroying our power running identity, going WCO, replacing those mistakes with an a$$hole of a coach in Pelini, winning no games of substance, no championships, getting blown out and embarrassed in any game that mattered , numerous defensive futility records, almost all strings and records broken in the last 15 years. Yeah, there were a few bright spots thrown in there......a few. I'll still stand by my statement that the last 15 years has basically sucked compared to what we once were, and I'm not just talking 94 thru 97, cause nothing is going hang with that comparison. I'm an old geezer I guess but I do feel sorry that many of the younger fans seem to think 9 meaningless wins against average to bad teams actually means something. TO almost always had us one heartbreaking loss away from a natty and perpetually in the top ten. Sorry, but if the height of a persons fandom has been post 1997, that person simply does not understand what it was like to be on top of the CFB world. But I am also jealous of those people because they seem to be able to elicit a bit more joy and happiness out of whatever it is we have been doing on the football field for the last 15 years. And those fans have my respect because I'm pretty sure I would not be the fan I am without the pre 1997 base I have. If I had to start during the Callahan regime, I don't think there is any way in hell I could be a Husker fan.

I started attending games in 1968 and listening in about '65 at age 7 on the radio. I have loved Husker football and really enjoy all the Husker sports and teams generally. Even though I loved playing basketball, I have felt for for about 10 years that Nebraska should simply drop men's basketball. Talk about an exercise in futility: Nebraska has NEVER WON A CHAMPIONSHIP IN BASKETBALL IN FOREVER! We are NOT competitive in most games really and we are a team that many of our opponents will chalk up in the 'win' column before the season starts and rightly so. I still feel that way. If we get to the point of making the decision to hire a new men's coach because we just aren't getting to where we want to be, then it is time to simply discontinue the program. Put the resources into the other teams and maybe boost them up a bit.

Football is the cash cow (or has been since late in the Devaney era when it became popular to buy season tickets and actually go to the games and not just buy tickets to give to friends and business customers as complementary 'thank yous'. Many tickets were bought after Devaney drove from town to town across the state to meet local business men and ask for donations. The program took off and we could buy our way into the elite of football programs.

Times have changed and kids have changed. Life has changed. America has certainly changed (and not for the better clearly). Our program has changed even though many of us wish it had not. We long for the good old days. Before Osborne retired in my view.

We are not anywhere close to what we once were as a program. Now, getting a win is a big deal - no matter who we play. We used to be able to predict with a high degree of reliabilty on how we'd play etc. Now, the balloons are released with a field goal! That used to be a no no and they would be held until the first TD was scored. Period.

Yes, our expectations are lower and 'standards' are lowered. They have to be. Things have change (and not for the better). In my opinion.

 

[GBRedneck]

I find myself curious as to the outcome of the games, but I'll be honest, I'm not real interested in watching them. It's not entertaining to me, which is what football is supposed to be. Sad to say it but until they run the ball as a major focus and play an attacking style of defense, I'll probly not cancel more entertaining plans to tune in. Still love the Cornhuskers tho.

And therein lies the danger of settling for mediocrity. People start tuning out, and Nebraska football stops becoming the event that it was/is.

As for the assertion that people that dislike the current regime are pining for '94, '95, or '97...that's a hell of an unsubstantiated leap, to say the least. Most of us realize that the 90s will likely never happen again, and the only reason they happened for 'Bama is because they cheated their way there--otherwise, it still wouldn't be replicated.

That doesn't mean we should relax our standards for this program--this program should compete, get division championships regularly (or be Top 2/3, depending), and the occasional conference title. This team has the kids and talent to have won the West--our coaching staff bungled it, bottom line, and that should give pause to folks that are paying attention, as it does not mean there's a rosy upside to this staff in year 2, 3, or beyond. It means we hired a .500 staff, and we're getting .500 results.

But hey, if you're fine with Nebraska at .500 and striving for a toilet bowl, then hip hip hooray for you then, I suppose?

I don't know how you are able to say this with 100% confidence. There is literally zero data backing your claim that "a coach's first seven games at a program will tell you how well he will do in year 2, year 3, and beyond." Bo was 4-3 (just one game better against a similar schedule) after his first 7 games, and we know he never did worse than 9-4.

But, I digress; no two coaching situations are the same, because there are so many factors that play a role. You have to consider the talent left by the previous coaching staff, the depth left by the previous coaching staff, the number of injuries/missed games, the resources available to the coach at other schools, the relative talent level of school A in conference A versus school B in conference B, the strength of opponents, adjustment to new schemes, and the list can go on and on.

Not to mention, the probability of us being 3-4 right now is incredibly, incredibly low, so we're really better than our record indicates. Yes, we played a role in creating our own bad luck, but two teams play the game; Mangum could've misfired, Tommy could've thrown the football a little further, or the Miami CB could've been playing a little deeper, Alex Lewis could have not made a boneheaded decision, Ozigbo could've caught the ball, or Tommy could've kept the ball, the Illinois player could've dropped the long pass and the TD pass, Gaglionone could've missed the FG...

It just amazes me how ignorant people are with regards to the number of factors that play a role in a team's record (factors that can't be controlled by the current coaching staff). This lowering standards is a made-up storyline used by fans who just want to be mad at something. Nobody has lowered their standards, some just understand that it's a process and that there isn't just a single path that leads to where we want to be.

The thing is, you can ignore the record and watch the team play and watch the coaching decisions made by Riley and staff and you can look at his 30 year history and it's quite obvious what we are in for the next 2 years.

 

[It'sNotAFakeID]

It just amazes me how ignorant people are with regards to the number of factors that play a role in a team's record (factors that can't be controlled by the current coaching staff). This lowering standards is a made-up storyline used by fans who just want to be mad at something. Nobody has lowered their standards, some just understand that it's a process and that there isn't just a single path that leads to where we want to be.

QUOTED FOR TRUTH

+100k

If you run on 3rd and 3, that's just one of many factors that can be controlled by a coaching staff...

Sure. But running it doesn't guarantee an automatic first down. Hell...even being diverse in your running game doesn't guarantee an automatic first down. Neither does passing it.

I'm with you though, during the course of the game, if we face 8 3rd and shorts (3 or less), we should run it 75% of the. There's more room for freedom on 2nd and short, but on 3rd and short if you have a guy who can get 3 yards up the gut most of the time, it just makes sense to give it to him.

And several of those 3rd and shorts were in four down territory. I saw Jano sitting on the bench.

I know. I was asking for him the entire game. I really was.

 

[AFhusker]

BTW, we didn't crush Minnesota the past 2 seasons. They beat us. So, it isn't too out of place for people to want to celebrate that and be positive about it. It's no secret, Husker football has basically sucked for the last 15 years when compared to the prior 25 years. MR has coached 6 games. Let's not hang the frustration of 15 years of futility around his neck just yet.

+1