How Life Works by FauxPelini

Mavric

Mavric

Yoda
Staff member
This is actually a pretty good way to describe the current state of Husker fandom (in general terms) by Faux and Dirk.

But first, Faux Pelini. He’s writing a weekly Q&A column for The Athletic this fall and, no surprise, the first edition is excellent, particularly this question from a Cal fan, MC013, who’s “vexed by the constant state of inadequacy our football program is in.” 

Faux’s reply? 

Dear MCO13,

Because you seem like a nice person and used the word “vexed” in your question, I’m going to share the secret of life with you: Life is one simple math formula.

The formula is:

[PERFORMANCE] – [EXPECTATIONS] = X

If X is a positive number you get raises and praise and friends.

If X is a negative number, you get fired and people think you are dumb.

Many people focus on making sure their performance is great. They study, go to the gym, practice, read and do all kinds of other stuff to make sure they are performing as well as they can. And all of that is good and worth doing.

But it ignores half of the equation.

People don’t really care what you accomplish, MCO13. I mean, they care, but that’s not the main thing. What they really care about is whether you disappointed them or impressed them. And whether they are disappointed or impressed is tied to what they subconsciously predicted was going to happen in the first place, which was based on their expectations.

So you want expectations about you and your teams and other things you care about to be as low as possible.

For example, if a coach goes into a season where six wins are expected and he wins eight, there will be parties and nice articles and maybe a raise. If the fans and bosses expect 10 wins and he wins nine, people will be mad. (Trust me on that one.) It’s just math...

You know why that’s funny? Because it’s mostly true! But does it apply to Mike Riley this fall? 

Because expectations for Nebraska football haven’t been this low in a long time. The over/under record, according to Bovada, is 7-5. Almost nobody is picking Nebraska to even win its division.

There’s a brand-new defense, basically a new offense (considering all the personnel changes) and a schedule featuring three preseason top-10 teams, not to mention a road trip to Oregon.
Click to expand...


OWH

 
According to that formula, you can already mark "X" as a negative number for this year if one listens to a good sized number of posters on this board. Quite an expectation variance between the national pundits, Vegas (predicting 6 - 8 wins total)  and many fans who see "no reason we shouldn't win 10 and be West Champions"

I'm glad I don't have the smarts to worry about things like that.  All I know is that every Saturday the Huskers play, I'll be pumped up and ready to holler for the young men in scarlet and cream.

 
It would seem that Nebraska fans 'expectations' in the big picture remain the same - very high in the medium and long term but we are less demanding in the short term.  This is really a better description of hope than of expectation in my mind.  I believe Riley intends to put a team out on the field to play 'something that looks a lot like football' as he tends to put it.  I know we haven't seen much this fall and have heard little more than not much but the only area of concern I have with the reports and news and so on is the apparent lack of hitting during the spring and fall.  I am detecting a clear and urgent fear of injuries that bothers me.  Indeed injuries can derail our train before it leaves the station but if we are not ready to block and tackle better than our opponents, we will lose whether we have the next Payton Manning or Tom Brady or not.   I am not sure I want a Payton Manning if I could have a Tommie Frazier or Turner Gill or Scott Frost or Dave Humm.  But I would take take ten wobbly kneed Mannings over a thousand Ryker Fyfes.   I believe Lee is more like Manning than Fyfe so that's reason for hope.

 
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