Here's a completely new explanation for why 2017 sucked so bad that has never been brought up in this forum before - lack of accountability

knapplc

knapplc

International Man of Mystery
OK... MAYBE you've heard that once or twice in these forums. :D   But here's a few direct lines about the lack of accountability exhibited by last year's team from Mick Stoltenberg. 

It's what we already knew.  It just sucks hearing confirmation. 

Stoltenberg sees team beginning to show more accountability

So much else has in the past three months. And Stoltenberg, candid during a phone interview with Nebraska247 on Thursday afternoon, is not shy to say he saw much that needed changing.

"Obviously the things we were doing in the past, they weren't working. Period. There's no getting around that. There's a lot of things. I guess one thing that's been poor, kind of lacking, is just accountability," Stoltenberg said.

"Some certain guys weren't making the correct decisions and nothing was really done to right it or to fix the problem. That's something we sat down with, when Coach Frost and Coach Duval got here, we sat down and we talked about it. They wanted us to express what we saw, problems we maybe had seen in the past, things we maybe would like to be different."

So the strength staff, led by Zach Duval, listened to every player. What’s been going on around here? Each offered an opinion.

You could probably call it as cathartic as it was necessary.

And you'd probably be right in thinking there were some guys who had more than a couple things to say after a 4-8 season. It'd mean nothing if guys didn't follow it up by showing they cared with actions these past two months of winter conditioning. But the big defensive tackle sees encouraging signs each day that his teammates are starting to enjoy the process.

Even if that process can be hard.

"I think we're kind of moving in the right direction as far as accountability goes. I'm starting to see guys really take responsibilities for things they're supposed to do," Stoltenberg said. "That's in all facets of life. It's football, it's academics, it's socially, it's really everything.

"Maybe, some guys, they'd be accountable with football but they wouldn't be accountable with academics. Or they wouldn't be going to meals or certain things like that. It's realizing in order to be successful it's got to be all different levels ... it's got to be everything all mixed together."

To the 6-foot-5, 305-pound Stoltenberg, there is no excusing what went down last fall. "Unacceptable," is the word he uses. He agrees with what Scott Frost has said: This was a team better than 4-8.

"I think with the team we had in place last season, there's no way we couldn't have done what we did the previous season," said Stoltenberg, recalling the 9-4 finish of 2016. "It was a major disappointment. ... It was tough. It was tough to get up and fight every day when you know that a lot of the stuff you wanted to accomplish wasn't on the table anymore."
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teachercd said:
I am sure they started off with the best of intentions but I am also pretty sure that as the season went on more corners were cut.
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Riley couldn't back off his "nice guy" persona and all of a sudden crack down on the kids and hold them accountable.  There have been rumors of assistant coaches trying to discipline players, and being told to back off by Riley.

 
2 thoughts 

I’m surprised there hasn’t been more attrition. Sometimes the rats jump ship when the fire starts. 

Secondly, young men need discipline and accountability. They actually yearn for it. So maybe there aren’t rats, there’s just kids who need to be taught a different way and it’s actually working. 

My my dad coached for 26 years. He always said “don’t be the guy that leans against the wall. Pretty soon you’ll have a whole bunch of guys holding up that wall, leaning. Be the guy that never leans”

seems like when when one or two guys started to cut, more and more just followed suit 

 
All I can say is in spite of the tough schedule next season, it is going to be a heck of a lot better than this past one.  Not just for all of the positive that Frost and assistants are bringing to the table but also for all of these lapses/omissions  that the former staff had - accountability, discipline, motivation. 

 
RedSavage said:
Weird, I recall lots of people recently arguing we weren't better than 4-8.
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That's because it's a slippery slope to go down. People like to argue 'the team was better than 4-8 and here's why' while often ignoring the team was also pretty close to being 2-10. We can't have one without acknowledging the other.

I know it's hard to stomach but they were a bad team last year - they were a 4-8 team. They weren't good and they know it, even if their recruiting rankings and raw potential suggested things should've been otherwise.

 
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I am I said:
2 thoughts 

I’m surprised there hasn’t been more attrition. Sometimes the rats jump ship when the fire starts. 

Secondly, young men need discipline and accountability. They actually yearn for it. So maybe there aren’t rats, there’s just kids who need to be taught a different way and it’s actually working. 

My my dad coached for 26 years. He always said “don’t be the guy that leans against the wall. Pretty soon you’ll have a whole bunch of guys holding up that wall, leaning. Be the guy that never leans”

seems like when when one or two guys started to cut, more and more just followed suit 
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I’m sure we will see guys leave after the spring semester.  There is nothing to gain by quitting the team now, in the middle of the semester.  The ones who aren’t cut out for hard work and accountability will move on. 

 
ColoradoHusk said:
I’m sure we will see guys leave after the spring semester.  There is nothing to gain by quitting the team now, in the middle of the semester.  The ones who aren’t cut out for hard work and accountability will move on. 
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Agreed.

DB (in his often candid yet riddle-like manner) hinted on his show yesterday that he knows of some specific guys whom are definitely feeling the pressure of 'I better show up or I'm going to be left in the dust.' What I took from his statements is that the players who weren't doing the right things know it and they know the new culture and expectation Frost brought is not going to lend itself to trying to just get by. Frost isn't going to make things easy for any of them and, if they didn't know it before, they're figuring it out now.

 
teachercd said:
I am sure they started off with the best of intentions but I am also pretty sure that as the season went on more corners were cut.
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I think they lost those games in the off season by not putting in the work. After a couple of games they realized it. Probably didn't matter if they cut corners after that, their fate was sealed.

It's great if players are more accountable and working harder now. I don't expect one off season to make up for whatever wasn't done by a player that's been in the program the past few years.  

 
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