Husker football in the future

J

JHaWk

Five-Star Recruit
I'm looking into my crystal ball and see Pelini rebuilding NU to a respectable football program in 3 years. With the newly rebuilt NU program, Pelini will lure all sorts of talented football players (and build the local kids up) and we will see a National Championship bid in about 5 years.

I believe NU is on its way up. I know there is no proof since the season hasn't started yet, but the way LSU's D looked in the national championship and the salvaging of the recruiting class say a lot about Pelini. I bet if Pelini had been hired after Solich, NU would already be a NC contender. dedhoarse

No one foresaw a 12-1 season for KU and no one will foresee the great season that Nebraska has ahead of it. I cannot wait for the battle of the italian stallions this year between Mangino and Pelini. KU lost a lot of talent this year, but we will be respectable. I just hope NU will be as well. I'm a KU fan first, NU fan second, but Pelini has me fired up for this next football season!

In the meantime I will have to root for the KU bball team...bball just isn't as awsome as football... sigh

I guess what I would like to know is what are NU fans thinking about the current state of their football program and how optimistic they are that NU will return to its glory days?

 
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As competitive as the top of college football is these days we may not see a NC run that soon. I dunno, maybe we'll make one this year? :dunno I think it's going to be tough for a while though. One thing I think has to happen is Bo and staff need to stay together for a long time. You have to figure a lot of the coaches at the top right now have long careers behind them. Bo needs to get some of that experience before he has a right to rank himself among them. Nothing substitutes for experience.

So I'm hoping Husker Empire keeps realistic expectations. The first plateau I want to see us get back to is a consistant 9 or more wins every season. If he can accomplish that, Bo will win his share of championships. But I doubt he's going to be as dominant as TO was in the mid 90s until he's got a decade or two under his belt.

5 years from now if he has three or four 9 win seasons, I'll be smiling. :)

 
JHaWk said:
I'm looking into my crystal ball and see Pelini rebuilding NU to a respectable football program in 3 years. With the newly rebuilt NU program, Pelini will lure all sorts of talented football players (and build the local kids up) and we will see a National Championship bid in about 5 years.

I believe NU is on its way up. I know there is no proof since the season hasn't started yet, but the way LSU's D looked in the national championship and the salvaging of the recruiting class say a lot about Pelini. I bet if Pelini had been hired after Solich, NU would already be a NC contender. dedhoarse

No one foresaw a 12-1 season for KU and no one will foresee the great season that Nebraska has ahead of it. I cannot wait for the battle of the italian stallions this year between Mangino and Pelini. KU lost a lot of talent this year, but we will be respectable. I just hope NU will be as well. I'm a KU fan first, NU fan second, but Pelini has me fired up for this next football season!

In the meantime I will have to root for the KU bball team...bball just isn't as awsome as football... sigh

I guess what I would like to know is what are NU fans thinking about the current state of their football program and how optimistic they are that NU will return to its glory days?
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I agree that we could be back to being respectable within 3 years. National championship in five... I'm not too sure about. I think it will take longer, unfortunately.

But your right, nobody saw the season that KU had coming. And anything can happen.

Here's to a good year... and beating Kansas. ;) :koolaid2:

 
Jayhawk fan,

I don't think Kansas lost too much talent. They lose McAnderson at RB, but they brought in a good juco RB and they return Sharp. Anthony Collins had a great year but KU has done a pretty good job with their line the past few years. On defense they lose Talib and McClinton, but other than those four guys (granted they were major players for KU) they bring back pretty much everyone else. Can they have the team chemistry that they had last year? That's the real question.

Can't wait for the "Italian Stallion" showdown either!

 
JHaWk said:
I'm looking into my crystal ball and see Pelini rebuilding NU to a respectable football program in 3 years. With the newly rebuilt NU program, Pelini will lure all sorts of talented football players (and build the local kids up) and we will see a National Championship bid in about 5 years.

I believe NU is on its way up. I know there is no proof since the season hasn't started yet, but the way LSU's D looked in the national championship and the salvaging of the recruiting class say a lot about Pelini. I bet if Pelini had been hired after Solich, NU would already be a NC contender. dedhoarse

No one foresaw a 12-1 season for KU and no one will foresee the great season that Nebraska has ahead of it. I cannot wait for the battle of the italian stallions this year between Mangino and Pelini. KU lost a lot of talent this year, but we will be respectable. I just hope NU will be as well. I'm a KU fan first, NU fan second, but Pelini has me fired up for this next football season!

In the meantime I will have to root for the KU bball team...bball just isn't as awsome as football... sigh

I guess what I would like to know is what are NU fans thinking about the current state of their football program and how optimistic they are that NU will return to its glory days?
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I like your crystal ball, It would be sweet if it were to happen that fast but rest assured it will happen.

GBR

 
The way I look at this situation is kinda like Oklahoma when Stoops took over. To me Callahan and Blake are very similar, good recruiters but not good head coaches. Stoops was able to use the talent Blake had built up and I think Pelini is coming into a similar situation. Pelini and Stoops come from almost the exact same mold and hopefully Pelini can duplicate that success.

 
I think we will have a harder go of it than Stoops did. When he came to OU, Texas was just getting into the Mack Brown era, meaning the Big 12 South wasn't as powerful as it is now. In addition to that, the North was just beginning it's slide into irrelevance (that was the end of the days when CU, KSU, and NU were all pretty powerful teams). So I think that contributed to the near-instant success of Stoops. Pelini on the other hand has to deal with a resurgent North division and annual title contenders in OU and Texas.

I'm not taking anything away from Stoops, he's an incredible coach obviously, just stating my opinion. I don't think Pelini will win a national title in his first 3 years, but I do think we will win the Big 12 in 2009 and go from there.

 
Good points. I agree that the conference is more competitive now than it was then. I have stated before that I don't think that we are as far behind as some people may think. Im not saying that we have the talent level of OK and UT, but Nebraska has never been looked at as the most talented team around(even in our glory days). We have built our tradition off of hard work and just simply executing better than the opposition. If our players take what the coaches give them, and buy in 100%, I believe we have the team to contend for the Big 12 this year. Osborne used to say that whoever blocked better, tackled better, and didn't make mistakes(penalties and turnovers) would win. Kansas is a testimate to that this past season.

Just my opinion.

 
bbhusker said:
Good points. I agree that the conference is more competitive now than it was then. I have stated before that I don't think that we are as far behind as some people may think. Im not saying that we have the talent level of OK and UT, but Nebraska has never been looked at as the most talented team around(even in our glory days). We have built our tradition off of hard work and just simply executing better than the opposition. If our players take what the coaches give them, and buy in 100%, I believe we have the team to contend for the Big 12 this year. Osborne used to say that whoever blocked better, tackled better, and didn't make mistakes(penalties and turnovers) would win. Kansas is a testimate to that this past season.

Just my opinion.
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Good call. If the receivers step up, I think we can have another top 15 offense. Couple that with a defense that finishes in the top 50 instead of the bottom 10, and you have a pretty damn good team. I do think we have the talent to be conference champs this year (particularly with OU losing some great players on D), it's just a question as to how well the team meshes and if guys pick up the defensive philosophy quick enough.

 
Okay, okay. I will be the first to admit that when I saw the title for this thread I rolled my eyes. But after reading the comments made, so far, I like the discussion. There are many individuals making very good points:

I'm a KU fan first, NU fan second, but Pelini has me fired up for this next football season!
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No kidding! Not only am I excited for NU's season to start, I'm anxious for college football to start up again. This past season I had an absolute blast watching various football games with a variety of people (family, friends, my wife) and had a blast eating good food, joking around with whoever was watching the game with me, and of course, drinking beer.

I hope all teams in the Big 12 have another great year of football. I really want the Big 12 to dominate this year, and it appears they definitely have the potential to do just that. With Bo taking over NU's struggling team, they definitely have a chance at putting in a great season. Kansas, Mizzou, Texas, Texas Tech, Oklahoma, perhaps KSU (just depends how talented those juco players really are), and Colorado all have the potential to do very well this season. Makes me excited just thinking about it. Go Big Red and Go Big 12!

As competitive as the top of college football is these days we may not see a NC run that soon. I dunno, maybe we'll make one this year? I think it's going to be tough for a while though. One thing I think has to happen is Bo and staff need to stay together for a long time. You have to figure a lot of the coaches at the top right now have long careers behind them. Bo needs to get some of that experience before he has a right to rank himself among them. Nothing substitutes for experience.
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This is true as it has ever been (evident from this past season where alot of teams surprised many people by doing very well). I think this is especially true in the Big 12. As I mentioned above, there are many teams within the Big 12 that have the potential to have an excellent season. NU will have their hands full this season!

The way I look at this situation is kinda like Oklahoma when Stoops took over. To me Callahan and Blake are very similar, good recruiters but not good head coaches. Stoops was able to use the talent Blake had built up and I think Pelini is coming into a similar situation. Pelini and Stoops come from almost the exact same mold and hopefully Pelini can duplicate that success.
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I can see your thought process here. Callahan was all about getting the top ranked players, and in my opinion, he was trying to set up something similar to what Pete has done with USC. But, these top ranked players are just an opinion, because as we saw from last season, it didn't seem to help our team much.

However, I think a fundamental problem with the Callahan regime was that while he was great at recruiting talent, he wasn't too swell at developing that talent. I know that Bo and company are very good at that, and this is evident if you look at Bo's past defenses he was a part of. I have great hope that alot of players that were ranked very high while being recruited, but didn't have the best season last year, may excel under new direction.

But, like I previously hammered into everyone's head above, the Big 12 Conference has alot of potential and therefore, alot of competition for Nebraska.

Should be an interesting season!

 
Agreed. I do like the statement from the coaches that we are going to be more of a power running offense, this should help the defense and bring back more of a physical style on the team. I always thought that the problems on defense were a lack of technique and lack of motivation, not to mention Coz was just retarted. I never understoon his line of reason for doing some of the things he did.

 
Completely agree Michael. The Big 12 may be alot more balanced this year between the North and South. It seems to me that everyone is on the rise with the exception of Baylor.(surprise, surprise) Kansas will have a much tougher schedule but they are no pushover and solid team. Iowa State will be improved and ended the year strong. Nebraska needs to get back to basics and listen to what the coaches are teaching them. Damn I can't wait!

 
bbhusker said:
Agreed. I do like the statement from the coaches that we are going to be more of a power running offense, this should help the defense and bring back more of a physical style on the team. I always thought that the problems on defense were a lack of technique and lack of motivation, not to mention Coz was just retarted. I never understood his line of reason for doing some of the things he did.
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Things he did? You mean, like, nothing? Every time the camera would pan to him on the sidelines, I felt like I was driving a semi and he was bambi in the headlights. Never seen a guy look more lost, more completely dumbfounded than Cos during some of those defensive meltdowns. But hey, this thread is about THE FUTURE, so let's not worry about him.

 
Agreed. So in your honest opinion, how much better do you think the defense will be? I might be being too optimistic but I think we can have a top 30 or better defense. I mean, are our players really that bad?

 
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