Falling Standards

I've settled I guess.

I like these guys. I really like the amount of coaching I'm seeing every time a player comes to the sideline. It seems like the position coaches are always there to meet them. Langs is talking with Tommy constantly as well.

We're pretty close to being undefeated, but we're not. Still, it's hardly been "sh**ty" to watch, to use your words. It's really been pretty interesting and exciting. I wish we coudl be on the other side of those close losses, I'm sure the players and coaches wish it too.

I guess I see it as more than just a "moral victory" when we beat a team that has beaten us the past two seasons, and when we compete to the wire against a Wisconsin team that has literally made us their b!^@h since we joined the conference. Moral victory? Nope, it's called playing better football. To be honest, playing better football is what eventually wins you games, and last weekend was hopefully the start to this team playing even better football. I see plenty they've already improved upon though.

I see the Head Coach of this team as one of those improvements.

 
Nope, it's called playing better football.
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Passing Yards Allowed

Rank

127

Nebraska 7 178 310 2392 11 7.72 13.44 341.7
That 127 is going to have to get below a triple digit number before I buy into your assertion...and Nebraska will have to be above .500 in the win / loss record.

Those are just arbitrary benchmarks I picked, they don't or shouldn't mean anything to anybody else. Riley and company are not there, but it seems I am willing to give him more time than most everybody else on the forum, so nobody should take this as bashing him.

 
True2tRA said:
I've settled I guess.

I like these guys. I really like the amount of coaching I'm seeing every time a player comes to the sideline. It seems like the position coaches are always there to meet them. Langs is talking with Tommy constantly as well.

We're pretty close to being undefeated, but we're not. Still, it's hardly been "sh**ty" to watch, to use your words. It's really been pretty interesting and exciting. I wish we coudl be on the other side of those close losses, I'm sure the players and coaches wish it too.

I guess I see it as more than just a "moral victory" when we beat a team that has beaten us the past two seasons, and when we compete to the wire against a Wisconsin team that has literally made us their b!^@h since we joined the conference. Moral victory? Nope, it's called playing better football. To be honest, playing better football is what eventually wins you games, and last weekend was hopefully the start to this team playing even better football. I see plenty they've already improved upon though.

I see the Head Coach of this team as one of those improvements.
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I pretty much agree with all of this.
One thing that was sort of "weird" on Saturday was this...picture it, 3 super cool guys watching the game at Tanners in Omaha (okay, not super cool but whatever) we are having a blast as the game is going on, lots of food (even though Tanners food is not all that good) and lots of drinks.

The game ends and people were reacting in a "weird" way...I was happy with the win and everything but a lot of the fans there seemed to be acting like Nebraska just beat Alabama. It just seemed a bit odd.

Maybe it was just that I expected NU to win.

 
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I agree with a little bit from each post here. My over all feeling is that I'm just not crazy about the "style" of offense. I just don't like pass happy offenses, it's my preference. And the defense pretty much blows chunks (as far as scheme), so yeah, not much fun there.

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.

 
I am I said:
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.
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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?
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I think you have to realize a couple of things. You may not like these things either. Nebraska is not as good as they were in 1997. Other teams around the country are also better than they were in 1997. You can't just say we are Nebraska and we will crush this team because we always have done this. Ohio St., the reigning national champion can't even do that. They have to show up and play or they could get beat. They have struggled against teams they should not struggle against in a lot of cases this year. The same can be said for MSU. Indiana can score points, if you are off some against them they can win the game.

I am sorry that teams like Minnesota, TCU, Baylor, Utah, Oregon, MSU, TTech, Ole Miss, Miss St., Memphis, and so on didn't get the memo about how you need to always suck.

No one is happy or settling for a 3-4 season. I don't think Mike Riley is settling for a 3-4 season. The college football world is not the same. Nebraska is not as good as the once were, doesn't mean they can't get back there, but lots of teams are a lot better than they used to be.

 
You can keep your high standards, but the bottom line is that we just aren't that good this year and you are only setting yourself up for disappointment. You can call it settling, but I prefer to call it adjusting. If Pelini was here, I would expect a conference championship. After 6+ years, he should have been able to build a team and a program that is good enough to win it. Since we are starting over with a new coach, my only expectation is a bowl game. I know even that has turned out to be quite a challenge, but at least I wasn't let down before the conference schedule even started. I still have high standards, but I know it's unreasonable to expect big things with a first year coach. My long term standards are still to win it all, and if we aren't in position to do that in the next 4-5 years then maybe we move on. You just can't expect that right away.

 
Our "standards" fell every time we looked the other way while Nebraska's head coach screamed at the players, officials, media, and god knows who else for 5+ years, and they fell when we allowed a culture of negativity and divisiveness to permeate the program, and they fell when we accepted unqualified friends and relatives as coaches and coordinators at Nebraska.

And we accepted all of that because of #9wins, even though we were blown away by nearly every good team we played. Pathetic.

By the way, we lost to Minnesota the past two years. OPEN YOUR EYES.

 
JJHusker1 said:
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.
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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.

A lot of things seemed to gel and be better against Minnesota. It remains to be seen if we've turned the corner or not, but we at least have to feel optimistic about the remainder or the season. One of the things I stated in the offseason after the Riley hire was that we'd be playing better football by the end of the season than at the beginning of the season. I still firmly believe this. In all those seven years under Bo, we couldn't say that about very many seasons especially the last couple. We've been competitive in every game we've played this season. All we need to do is clean up some things and finish.

 
I am so sick and tired of people acting all pissy at the fan base because they claim we have all lowered our standards or lowered our expectations.

What a total load of BS. Just because you are happy with a win over a team that has beat us the last two years doesn't mean your ultimate goal or standards of where we desire the program to be has been lowered at all. It's called enjoying the season. Some of you should try it some time. It's actually fun. And, when we ultimately get back to winning championships LIKE ALL OF US WANT we can look back and see how much fun it was watching the program get built back up.

This constant scolding or hand wringing over the fan base "lowering expectations" or "lowering standards" is nothing more than some fans turning their nose up at the program and thinking they are so much better fans than everyone else.

This is a perfect example of why I refuse to watch Husker games with certain fans. If you can't enjoy a win, why even follow the program at all?

 
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junior4949 said:
JJHusker1 said:
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.
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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.

A lot of things seemed to gel and be better against Minnesota. It remains to be seen if we've turned the corner or not, but we at least have to feel optimistic about the remainder or the season. One of the things I stated in the offseason after the Riley hire was that we'd be playing better football by the end of the season than at the beginning of the season. I still firmly believe this. In all those seven years under Bo, we couldn't say that about very many seasons especially the last couple. We've been competitive in every game we've played this season. All we need to do is clean up some things and finish.
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This I really agree with. I have no idea what the record will be, but getting people healthy on defense and getting DPE involved more in the offense will make this a better team. The pass defense is what it is. They need to work to get better and see some improvement. I think DL and MR may be figuring out what they need to do offensively to win games.

 
I'm not thrilled about our record but I am happy that we have been competitive in every game we have played this year. I am willing to give Riley some time because of it. To me, it seems like this team has a different attitude then they have had in the past. The players seem to be buying into the coaches and are finally enjoying themselves. Riley is a positive person and that is rubbing off on the players. The kids know that if they screw up, they aren't going to get a spit shower when they hit the sideline. I really do think bigger things are in store for us.

 
BigRedBuster said:
I am so sick and tired of people acting all pissy at the fan base because they claim we have all lowered our standards or lowered our expectations.

What a total load of BS. Just because you are happy with a win over a team that has beat us the last two years doesn't mean your ultimate goal or standards of where we desire the program to be has been lowered at all. It's called enjoying the season. Some of you should try it some time. It's actually fun. And, when we ultimately get back to winning championships LIKE ALL OF US WANT we can look back and see how much fun it was watching the program get built back up.

This constant scolding or hand wringing over the fan base "lowering expectations" or "lowering standards" is nothing more than some fans turning their nose up at the program and thinking they are so much better fans than everyone else.

This is a perfect example of why I refuse to watch Husker games with certain fans. If you can't enjoy a win, why even follow the program at all?
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Exactly. Why can't winning just be fun? I completely agree about not being able to watch with some people who only find the negative in games. We can win by 50 but it they complain that we only ran for 100 yards.

"Not the victory but the action; Not the goal but the game; In the deed the glory." What does this mean to you?

 
Years ago it used to be about stomping the other team. Now my expectation is to meet up with friends and watch the game while tossing some cold ones back.

 
skersfan said:
Life must be hell for you. Can not see any positives in any thing the team has done.

They seem to be coming together, we never saw that in 7 years of the past staff. Riley has a mine field to walk through. He does not know who really has bought in, and those that have not. Takes time to weed things out.

Look at the bright side, we won a game. That really is all that matters to fans like you. Smile, enjoy it, and if they lose you can go back to dancing in the streets screaming our coach is not good enough, we deserve better.

Get a real life. Life does not exist because of Nebraska football for god's sake.
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Can you please expand upon this profound statement? Does coming together mean beating a team with a horrible offense? The win was great for the team morale and to get to 3-4 but...

 
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