Pick Six Podcast, Oct 6th (w/McKewon & Nyatawa)

Kernal

Kernal

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Anybody else listening to these podcasts? I think they're new this year at the OWH. They're about an hour long and come out every week. It's Sam and Jon talking about Husker football in general. This week they're talking quite a bit about the culture and Pelini.

Here's the link.

 
This was the best episode yet. I've never seen Sam McKewon so fired up about a subject as some of the stuff with Pelini and Riley. It's really worth a listen. I've enjoyed Sam's writing since he was with the Nebraska State Paper and he's my favorite Husker writer. I'm afraid we'd better enjoy him while he's still here, because he seems like the kind of talent that will be movin' on up.

 
Haven't you heard? Sam Mckewon is the whole reason our team is 2-3 right now. BURN THE WITCH

I like Sam too, and am listening to the podcast right now. Thank you for posting it.

 
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Oh man, Sam really is getting fired up.

~ 30 minute mark or so and on.

These reporters have covered the team closely for the last X number of years and they're going over a lot of stuff. Past stuff, current stuff. Great perspective and musings and woah, so well worth listening to.

 
zoogs said:
Oh man, Sam really is getting fired up.

~ 30 minute mark or so and on.

These reporters have covered the team closely for the last X number of years and they're going over a lot of stuff. Past stuff, current stuff. Great perspective and musings and woah, so well worth listening to.
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I'm at the same part. He's completely right on the Pelini culture. I know I've been negative about Riley since the Illinois loss, but anyone who thinks Pelini should still be here is insane.

 
I'm getting uncomfortable! Haha! I'm turning the volume down so I don't have to duck for cover. But yeah, he's been wanting to get all that off his chest for a while.

Interesting nugget about the presser on Monday. Jon notes that Riley meets Tommy at the door and says, "Did you hear what I said?" (Tommy nods) "If they ask about the play, it's my fault. It's my fault."

Tommy went up, though, and took the blame anyway.

 
zoogs said:
I'm getting uncomfortable! Haha! I'm turning the volume down so I don't have to duck for cover. But yeah, he's been wanting to get all that off his chest for a while.

Interesting nugget about the presser on Monday. Jon notes that Riley meets Tommy at the door and says, "Did you hear what I said?" (Tommy nods) "If they ask about the play, it's my fault. It's my fault."

Tommy went up, though, and took the blame anyway.
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Yeah it's stuff like that which makes what Illinois game that much tougher. Because I want to cheer for Riley because the culture he's bringing in is what this team needs, and he's the Nebraska coach so if he succeeds we all succeed and we're all happy. It's the play calling that was just so frustrating I had to vent this past week. I hope more than anything they don't make the same mistakes they did this past weekend

 
zoogs said:
I'm getting uncomfortable! Haha! I'm turning the volume down so I don't have to duck for cover. But yeah, he's been wanting to get all that off his chest for a while.

Interesting nugget about the presser on Monday. Jon notes that Riley meets Tommy at the door and says, "Did you hear what I said?" (Tommy nods) "If they ask about the play, it's my fault. It's my fault."

Tommy went up, though, and took the blame anyway.
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Agreed. You can tell that Sam has been paying attention all this time and making sense of some of the things he's seen. And of course he's very articulate, even on the fly in a podcast.

Also, that was an interesting nugget about Riley approaching Armstrong at the Press Conference. I'm a little bit surprised Nyatawa didn't write that into a story.

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The discussion about culture and Pelini goes from about 15:00 - 45:00. They also talk about the Illinois game, Wisconsin, and recruiting.

 
Haven't listened to this week's, but Sam did have a small rant last week on the culture as well IIRC.

 
I listened to the podcast on Tuesday evening. It was very interesting. Sam has some very heated words towards Bo, and is also sympathetic towards Bo in a matter of a few minutes.

Sam doesn't absolve Riley and his staff on a number of things. There are a lot of issues going on around Lincoln. Riley needs to be a strong leader and get it cleaned up.

 
Great podcast, but very long!

on how coaches can get players through this malaise:

Jon: There's this vibe of underacheivement, disappointment, & regret that naturally makes its way into the lockerroom in a place like Nebraska, where the expectations are so high......

The coaches in the midst of all this have to not only build the players confidence back up, but also keep them locked into their philosophies, their culture. (which, by the way, is completely different from what the players were conditioned to over the last few years).... It's a very tough paradox that they are stuck in right now.

Sam: What Nebraska often used to rely on, over the last several years, is a kind of "everybody doubts you" , "your backs are against the wall", "the only people who are going to care about you are you" and "Let's go out and prove everybody wrong"

The challenge that Nebraska's players have NOW, is that this coaching staff is probably not going to talk a whole lot about that. They're going to talk more about "here's how we get better", "here's how we improve", "Let's focus on improvement from game to game" as opposed to .......... this notion of people being for or against you.

That is a challenge, because so often, (especially in this sport), negativity has short-term gains. It does. There is a certain kind of gain that you get from cynicism, and negative motivation, Fear. Some very, very good teams win that way, in fact. In part because they just have better players than everybody else.

It's a challenge to do it the way that Riley is trying to do it. It 's harder. The long-term rewards are better, and I think also long-term, the FANS will come to appreciate it more. But I think in the short-term it doesn't sizzle. And it doesn't sell. And when you have two games that you lost, that you should have won, and the WAY that Nebraska lost them, I think there's a general feeling of: "maybe this isn't the right direction" ---

I want to say that I think it's completely ridiculous to say that 5 games into a tenure. I'm a big believer that you need to give a coach at least 4-5 years in order to make something work. Unless there is some sort of malfeasance. And there isn't any malfeasance here.----

I still think they have the talent to win the Big Ten West. The loss to Illinois was UNACCEPTABLE, on a lot of levels. It shouldn't have happened. But it did. I still think they have a shot to go 6-2 in the league. (I think 7-1 is too optimistic), but they are going to have to play better football to get there.
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Pretty interesting, the first I have really ever heard him say anything at all about BP in any context.

 
Very cool podcast Kernal. You should keep posting these. I didn't know that these were a thing.

Jon and Sam are two of the local writers I actually enjoy and consider less fluffy than some of the other guys...

 
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