Huskers heightening expectations for 2012.

[Chaddyboxer]

Arrogance is a character flaw and a crippler of work ethic.

Umm, the last 4 Osborne teams say hi. Especially Tommie Frazier.

I do concur....Also, T-Mart makes a good point when saying EVERY PLAYER should have national championship aspirations as their key goal.

You could argue that it is either confidence or arrogance....Tommie isn't the nicest of guys....heard this from MULTIPLE PEOPLE who have met him. To get back to topic, regardless...players need to set high goals, period. But they also need to set smaller goals and reach them so the bigger ones can be obtained.

 

[Chaddyboxer]

"If we dont go to the national championship, I'll be disappointed" holy hell i love the confidence and morale, but i remember this quote last year headed into Camp Randall, "we're going to shock the world"

Indeed NU did shock the world at Wisconsin last year --- it was shocking to see a team give up and roll over on national TV like that --- one would never expect a team to belly up like that. TMart was correct --- they did shock the world... just not in a good way.

Arrogance has a way of coming back to bite you. The young sometimes need to be bitten several times before they realize that they are not as good as they think. Then... once humility is instilled... they work harder and get better. NU needs to make that transition soon.

You do provide some good advice Robsker...but it's hard to decipher whether T-Mart is being arrogant or confident....definitely a difference.

 

[Enhance]

Arrogance is a character flaw and a crippler of work ethic.

Umm, the last 4 Osborne teams say hi. Especially Tommie Frazier.

I would say that's confidence, not arrogance.

But where do you draw the line between the two? The players may think it's confidence, but other people think of it as being arrogant.

In my opinion, arrogant people generally strive to be right, try to build themselves up, they don't apply their strengths to reach their success, they generally don't listen and tend to do things before they think about them. That doesn't sound anything like an Osborne championship team to me.

There is a fine line between the two. Frazier, for example, USED to be confident. Now, he's just arrogant.

 

[robsker]

"If we dont go to the national championship, I'll be disappointed" holy hell i love the confidence and morale, but i remember this quote last year headed into Camp Randall, "we're going to shock the world"

Indeed NU did shock the world at Wisconsin last year --- it was shocking to see a team give up and roll over on national TV like that --- one would never expect a team to belly up like that. TMart was correct --- they did shock the world... just not in a good way.

Arrogance has a way of coming back to bite you. The young sometimes need to be bitten several times before they realize that they are not as good as they think. Then... once humility is instilled... they work harder and get better. NU needs to make that transition soon.

You do provide some good advice Robsker...but it's hard to decipher whether T-Mart is being arrogant or confident....definitely a difference.

Thanks.

Regarding TMart ... if it is confidence then it is misplaced confidence because there is no basis upon which TMart could possibly be legitimately confident --- or, for that matter the team either. They have yet to play in a manner worthy of respect and have no grounds to be confident. Hopeful, sure. Confident... absolutely not.

 

[tmfr15]

"If we dont go to the national championship, I'll be disappointed" holy hell i love the confidence and morale, but i remember this quote last year headed into Camp Randall, "we're going to shock the world"

Yea. Wisconsin thought they were going to "shock the world" and win a national title. Instead they ended up with three losses and a rose bowl runner up.

Oh, you were referring to the Huskers' talk prior to the Wisconsin game? My bad.

 

[The Maudfather]

I think I'll keep my expectations tempered this season. They were mighty high last year and that made the blowout losses even more painful.

I think people should worry less about their expectations being fulfilled, and more about things being done the right way.

What if your expectations are things being done the right way?

 

[Enhance]

I think I'll keep my expectations tempered this season. They were mighty high last year and that made the blowout losses even more painful.

I think people should worry less about their expectations being fulfilled, and more about things being done the right way.

What if your expectations are things being done the right way?

Well, I think that's a little different than the impression I took from your words in comparison to mine. My expectations are for things to be done the right way, but that doesn't mean everything has to result in a championship. It's just unreasonable to expect us to do things the 'right' way, but it only being the 'right' way if it culminates in winning it all.

Ultimately, I don't like to see us lose, but we're one of 120 teams trying to win it all every year, with some teams obviously having better chances than others. I've grown to accept a loss as a part of a learning process, more-so than us tumbling off the cliff. I used to not be very pleasant after a loss, and now, I just let it be. It's made me a better fan and a better observer. It doesn't mean I don't want to win as badly, though.

 

[The Maudfather]

I think I'll keep my expectations tempered this season. They were mighty high last year and that made the blowout losses even more painful.

I think people should worry less about their expectations being fulfilled, and more about things being done the right way.

What if your expectations are things being done the right way?

Well, I think that's a little different than the impression I took from your words in comparison to mine. My expectations are for things to be done the right way, but that doesn't mean everything has to result in a championship. It's just unreasonable to expect us to do things the 'right' way, but it only being the 'right' way if it culminates in winning it all.

Ultimately, I don't like to see us lose, but we're one of 120 teams trying to win it all every year, with some teams obviously having better chances than others. I've grown to accept a loss as a part of a learning process, more-so than us tumbling off the cliff. I used to not be very pleasant after a loss, and now, I just let it be. It's made me a better fan and a better observer. It doesn't mean I don't want to win as badly, though.

Probably because I didn't specify my exact expectations from last season. I definitely wasn't expecting a national title, by any means, but in year four of the Pelini regime, I was expecting execution and not having the consistent mental lapses that we are so accustomed to seeing.

 

[It'sNotAFakeID]

"If we dont go to the national championship, I'll be disappointed" holy hell i love the confidence and morale, but i remember this quote last year headed into Camp Randall, "we're going to shock the world"

Indeed NU did shock the world at Wisconsin last year --- it was shocking to see a team give up and roll over on national TV like that --- one would never expect a team to belly up like that. TMart was correct --- they did shock the world... just not in a good way.

Arrogance has a way of coming back to bite you. The young sometimes need to be bitten several times before they realize that they are not as good as they think. Then... once humility is instilled... they work harder and get better. NU needs to make that transition soon.

You do provide some good advice Robsker...but it's hard to decipher whether T-Mart is being arrogant or confident....definitely a difference.

Thanks.

Regarding TMart ... if it is confidence then it is misplaced confidence because there is no basis upon which TMart could possibly be legitimately confident --- or, for that matter the team either. They have yet to play in a manner worthy of respect and have no grounds to be confident. Hopeful, sure. Confident... absolutely not.

Who wants to follow an unconfident leader?

 

[Saunders]

"If we don't go to the national championship, I'll be pretty disappointed," junior quarterback Taylor Martinez told ESPN.com, echoing a sentiment he has voiced during the spring. "If you don't set your goals high, I don't know why you'd be playing football."

This thread sure did go derpfest in a hurry based on a partial and incomplete quote. Show of hands, who here disagrees with this complete quote?

 

[kchusker_chris]

i certainly don't disagree w/ it. last week I had a goal to win the mega millions. 155 tickets later i came up a little short.

but saying you'll be "pretty disappointed" if you don't go to the national championship is a bit of a stretch for Taylor. it's an almost unrealistic goal. it's like he lives in a bubble. it also mean's the first loss of the season puts his goal out of reach. and it kind of conflicts with the "process" of just taking it one game at a time. this team goes from highs to lows faster than a teenage girl. i wish someone would just come out and say: "my goal is to win our first game of the year. ask me again after that and I'll tell you my goal is to win the next time, and so on, and so on...if I achieve that goal every week, things take care of themselves."

 

[Saunders]

i certainly don't disagree w/ it. last week I had a goal to win the mega millions. 155 tickets later i came up a little short.

but saying you'll be "pretty disappointed" if you don't go to the national championship is a bit of a stretch for Taylor. it's an almost unrealistic goal. it's like he lives in a bubble. it also mean's the first loss of the season puts his goal out of reach. and it kind of conflicts with the "process" of just taking it one game at a time. this team goes from highs to lows faster than a teenage girl. i wish someone would just come out and say: "my goal is to win our first game of the year. ask me again after that and I'll tell you my goal is to win the next time, and so on, and so on...if I achieve that goal every week, things take care of themselves."

IMO, it's just a different way of wording the same goal. If this was a Rex Burkhead quote, nobody would care.

 

[kchusker_chris]

i certainly don't disagree w/ it. last week I had a goal to win the mega millions. 155 tickets later i came up a little short.

but saying you'll be "pretty disappointed" if you don't go to the national championship is a bit of a stretch for Taylor. it's an almost unrealistic goal. it's like he lives in a bubble. it also mean's the first loss of the season puts his goal out of reach. and it kind of conflicts with the "process" of just taking it one game at a time. this team goes from highs to lows faster than a teenage girl. i wish someone would just come out and say: "my goal is to win our first game of the year. ask me again after that and I'll tell you my goal is to win the next time, and so on, and so on...if I achieve that goal every week, things take care of themselves."

IMO, it's just a different way of wording the same goal. If this was a Rex Burkhead quote, nobody would care.

This is very true. In their defense, some of that has to do with what Rex has already proven, versus what Martinez has yet to prove. But, do you think we'd ever see a quote like this from Rex? I don't think so.

 

[Saunders]

i certainly don't disagree w/ it. last week I had a goal to win the mega millions. 155 tickets later i came up a little short.

but saying you'll be "pretty disappointed" if you don't go to the national championship is a bit of a stretch for Taylor. it's an almost unrealistic goal. it's like he lives in a bubble. it also mean's the first loss of the season puts his goal out of reach. and it kind of conflicts with the "process" of just taking it one game at a time. this team goes from highs to lows faster than a teenage girl. i wish someone would just come out and say: "my goal is to win our first game of the year. ask me again after that and I'll tell you my goal is to win the next time, and so on, and so on...if I achieve that goal every week, things take care of themselves."

IMO, it's just a different way of wording the same goal. If this was a Rex Burkhead quote, nobody would care.

This is very true. In their defense, some of that has to do with what Rex has already proven, versus what Martinez has yet to prove. But, do you think we'd ever see a quote like this from Rex? I don't think so.

No, we probably wouldn't. But if you substitute rex with just about any other player, nobody would care. However, because it's TM, it's suddenly a big problem.

I'm in the "prove it" camp just as much as anyone else. But a (mis)quote from an article isn't going to tank the season.

 

[robsker]

Of course a quote (or misquote) will not tank a season. And which player authored the quote is irrelevant.

Now we do not know how pervasive the mindset that led to the quote is on the team --- perhaps this undue confidence is an isolated thing reflecting the perspectives of a few players... or, perhaps it is reflective of a huge subset of the team. We cannot (or, at least... I cannot) really say.

But if the quote is reflective of the attitude of the team then the quote is a symptom of a larger problem.

The problem is manifest this way.... we are NU and we are above playing Washington in the bowl game --- it is insulting to play them. LOSS. We are NU --- we show up against Northwestern and since we are so good and they are not... we will win w/o a problem. LOSS.

When a team is thinking championships when they have not had one in a decade --- when a team thinks they are so good that they should be feared (yet no one fears them) then the team is focusing on the wrong thing...

These coaches should be saying "shut up about championships and have hanging onto the ball as a goal.' Have playing hard, every snap of every game regardless of score your goal. Have not dropping passes as your goal. Have knowing your assignment as your goal. have your goals honed in entirely on process and getting better. The coaches should say shut up about what you think you should be and focus on getting better. Finally the coaches should tell the players that the coaches at NU and the players at NU have earned nothing yet --- have warranted no ones respect yet --- that the coaches and players collectively have not yet earned the right to have a Red N on their helmets --- and that now is the time to change that --- by totally dedicating to effort, intensity, discipline, an focus on assignment. Humble dedication to the process --- not arrogant entitled expectation.

No… the quote itself will not tank the season… the quote is but a symptom. The ailment is an entitled and mis-guided sense that somehow this team has warranted respect… when it clearly has not. Respect is earned… buckle down and earn it.