Sipple: Amid fervent fan base, Pelini seeks even keel

[It'sNotAFakeID]

We are emotionally results driven.

Football players don't live in a bubble, they are subject to all the stuff which are written by fans, media, etc...which sometimes are extremely and unrealistically negative.

I think Pelini's "meltdowns" get blown out of proportion by the media, you don't? There were and are definitely people who portray Bo to be worse than he really is. Win or lose Pelini's temperament is ALWAYS brought up. The more it is talked about, the more distracting it is from the un-shielded football players.

And look at that, not one parent has brought it up to him. There are always going to be people on both sides of the fence, hell we could win the national championship and some people would still be unhappy.

You don't think this team has an opportunity to take a jump to the next level?

People don't understand what happens within the program because people aren't within the program. How can you know something if you're not in something?

And here's something Bo doesn't get enough credit for, the way players handle themselves off the field and in the classroom.

So look at that, I can read, and I still don't get what you are talking about.

 

['SkersRule]

The people that get offended and complain that Bo is whining about the fans are mostly the same people that Bo is talking about.

Ding we have a winner.

 

[jsneb83]

OK, now it is the process which the players and fans need to focus on, of course according to Bo, most fans don't know diddley sh#t about football, so we don't know what we are watching.....but i would say most fans can very clearly see a lack of effort and poor mental attitudes on the field and sidelines.......there is no fire in the defense, no expectations for success, no drive for perfection......big jump? we'll see........

Why are you putting words in his mouth? He didn't come out and say that fans do not know anything of football...and I didn't see poor mental attitudes on the field and the sidelines. I don't know how you can say their was no fire in the defense, no expectations for success, no drive for perfection. I don't know how you can possibly say that by just watching football games. You don't coach them, you don't see the players every day, you don't have even an eighth of the qualifications that Bo has, so how can you possibly make those statements?

Easy, he hates Bo.

i guess you were asleep this past season, when even some of the players admited they quit.......they packed it in.........go back and read the article, you couldn't possibly have missed his (Bo's) comment about how fans don't get what he is doing here......wow, it is all in print, his comments and some of the players comments from last season.........how can you deny that, assuming you can read?.......

First, thanks for saying I can't read even though I can type just fine on a message board. I can write, but can't read, yeah that makes alot of sense. Second, when Bo says that we "don't get what he is doing here," is he wrong? We don't know what is going on behind closed doors, and we don't know what he is saying to the team. If you look at the article, Bo says that "there has to be a certain level of trust in what I'm doing and why I'm doing it." So you don't trust Bo and you get butthurt when he says that we don't get what he is doing here, which is actually true.

 

[Hunter94]

OK, now it is the process which the players and fans need to focus on, of course according to Bo, most fans don't know diddley sh#t about football, so we don't know what we are watching.....but i would say most fans can very clearly see a lack of effort and poor mental attitudes on the field and sidelines.......there is no fire in the defense, no expectations for success, no drive for perfection......big jump? we'll see........

Why are you putting words in his mouth? He didn't come out and say that fans do not know anything of football...and I didn't see poor mental attitudes on the field and the sidelines. I don't know how you can say their was no fire in the defense, no expectations for success, no drive for perfection. I don't know how you can possibly say that by just watching football games. You don't coach them, you don't see the players every day, you don't have even an eighth of the qualifications that Bo has, so how can you possibly make those statements?

Easy, he hates Bo.

i guess you were asleep this past season, when even some of the players admited they quit.......they packed it in.........go back and read the article, you couldn't possibly have missed his (Bo's) comment about how fans don't get what he is doing here......wow, it is all in print, his comments and some of the players comments from last season.........how can you deny that, assuming you can read?.......

First, thanks for saying I can't read even though I can type just fine on a message board. I can write, but can't read, yeah that makes alot of sense. Second, when Bo says that we "don't get what he is doing here," is he wrong? We don't know what is going on behind closed doors, and we don't know what he is saying to the team. If you look at the article, Bo says that "there has to be a certain level of trust in what I'm doing and why I'm doing it." So you don't trust Bo and you get butthurt when he says that we don't get what he is doing here, which is actually true.

that made perfect sense..........what else you got?

 

['SkersRule]

"The average fan doesn't even get what I am talking about"...........pretty much Bo's own words, look it up. I think most fans do understand there is a process to execution and coaching/playing the game, the problem is when it doesn't work, we don't understand it.........no, i think many do understand it, the pure lack of discipline and playing without the constant mental errors is one area where the coaching has not addressed that issue......that's just one example. guys not knowing how to adjust to a different offensive set, freaking out before the play is even run, obviously not knowing their assignments or what defense they are running..how many times did we see the defensive LB looking to the sidelines for the defensive read, just moments before the ball was snapped?......there are a lot of basics that need to be addressed, fundamentals that look like they were not even covered last season.....making this defense fundamentally better will be a project......that's just a fact, there is no magic wand.

A lot of defenses are now using the "check with me" system and every defense communicates with each other.

 

[The Dude]

"The average fan doesn't even get what I am talking about"...........pretty much Bo's own words, look it up. I think most fans do understand there is a process to execution and coaching/playing the game, the problem is when it doesn't work, we don't understand it.........no, i think many do understand it, the pure lack of discipline and playing without the constant mental errors is one area where the coaching has not addressed that issue......that's just one example. guys not knowing how to adjust to a different offensive set, freaking out before the play is even run, obviously not knowing their assignments or what defense they are running..how many times did we see the defensive LB looking to the sidelines for the defensive read, just moments before the ball was snapped?......there are a lot of basics that need to be addressed, fundamentals that look like they were not even covered last season.....making this defense fundamentally better will be a project......that's just a fact, there is no magic wand.

I agree with you here, but I think the defense not recognizing certain offensive sets had a lot to do with being so young and playing in a new league. The reason I say that is because this is something that hasn't been an issue the last few years, so I don't suspect it's a coaching issue as much of an experience issue.

 

[RedRedJarvisRedwine]

Here we go again

 

[Hunter94]

"The average fan doesn't even get what I am talking about"...........pretty much Bo's own words, look it up. I think most fans do understand there is a process to execution and coaching/playing the game, the problem is when it doesn't work, we don't understand it.........no, i think many do understand it, the pure lack of discipline and playing without the constant mental errors is one area where the coaching has not addressed that issue......that's just one example. guys not knowing how to adjust to a different offensive set, freaking out before the play is even run, obviously not knowing their assignments or what defense they are running..how many times did we see the defensive LB looking to the sidelines for the defensive read, just moments before the ball was snapped?......there are a lot of basics that need to be addressed, fundamentals that look like they were not even covered last season.....making this defense fundamentally better will be a project......that's just a fact, there is no magic wand.

I agree with you here, but I think the defense not recognizing certain offensive sets had a lot to do with being so young and playing in a new league. The reason I say that is because this is something that hasn't been an issue the last few years, so I don't suspect it's a coaching issue as much of an experience issue.

i suspect you may be right, but i wonder if a little more film watching might be in order?........got to get over the hump of indecision.

 

[Saunders]

making this defense fundamentally better will be a project......that's just a fact, there is no magic wand.

And yet alot of people, who barely played organized football, let alone coached it, have pretty much bitched at everything Bo's done in the last year. They're completely pissed because he hasn't waved a magic wand, and fixed everything immediately. They're almost convinced, that he's failing on purpose, just because he's stubborn, and doesn't want to adapt.

 

[Enhance]

"The average fan doesn't even get what I am talking about"...........pretty much Bo's own words, look it up.

They don't.

I think most fans do understand there is a process to execution and coaching/playing the game, the problem is when it doesn't work, we don't understand it.........no, i think many do understand it, the pure lack of discipline and playing without the constant mental errors is one area where the coaching has not addressed that issue......that's just one example.

Team doesn't play well - everybody sees that. Then thousands of people (like you, and like me) get on social mediums and listen to well opinionated (and not so well opinionated) people blather on and on about what's wrong and what's right. Then, those thousands of people take what someone else has said (or what they believe to be the truth in their own eyes) and present it. These people don't understand the problems - they simply heard it from someone else. THAT'S the majority of our fan base - that's the majority of any fan base.

So, in that regard, Pelini does know more than most of us. He quite obviously knows what he needs to fix, just as I'm sure he quite obviously knows the fan base isn't stupid. But the fan base isn't full of geniuses - it's controlled by the few who actually know what they're talking about, or the many who have no idea what they're talking about.

guys not knowing how to adjust to a different offensive set, freaking out before the play is even run, obviously not knowing their assignments or what defense they are running..how many times did we see the defensive LB looking to the sidelines for the defensive read, just moments before the ball was snapped?......there are a lot of basics that need to be addressed, fundamentals that look like they were not even covered last season.....making this defense fundamentally better will be a project......that's just a fact, there is no magic wand.

You're misconstruing our defense. Our current defense checks the sidelines signals, much like our offense does, seconds before the ball is hiked. David constantly checked the sidelines, yet, almost everybody will agree he was the best player on the defense. This is not a "basic" that needs to be addressed, in terms of looking to the sidelines - that's our defense.

I absolutely agree that the defense needs to be fundamentally better - they biffed on a lot of things last year, especially tackling. Tackling was so bad at times it almost made my eyes bleed. But I'm not tweaking out about it, because this job is a lot harder than you are giving it credit for. If I see issues stay or get worse over the next year or two, perhaps then I will be more critical of Pelini. As of right now he's a young head coach who is still learning, at one of the biggest football universities in the country. Take a step back and think about it.

 

[bshirt]

i guess you were asleep this past season, when even some of the players admited they quit.......they packed it in.........go back and read the article, you couldn't possibly have missed his (Bo's) comment about how fans don't get what he is doing here......wow, it is all in print, his comments and some of the players comments from last season.........how can you deny that, assuming you can read?.......

Some of the players I talked to said that their mental focus wasn't good at times, so you'll get no disagreement from me there.

That said, I think it's extremely easy for fans to sit back and say the 'focus wasn't there' or 'players just quit'. Nobody wants to lose. I still 100% support Pelini's comments in this article and have no problem with them.

Most of our fans fans don't know what they're talking about - he does. He knows more about football than most people who watch him coach. This doesn't mean we can't be critical, but it certainly means we shouldn't criticize him for voicing his opinion, which I believe is true.

2012's current understatement of the year.

 

[kchusker_chris]

I like how Sipple talks about winning @ SC and the fan's elation translating into some proclamation that we're a BCS contender...because I remember a win like that not long ago that caused Bo to have the exact same reaction (Arizona - "we're back"). Pffff....been all downhill since that Arizona game.

The fans go as Bo goes. Even more so, the team goes as Bo goes. What he doesn't realize is that he has far more control over the fans' ups/downs than he realizes. He just doesn't have a clue how to utilize it to his advantage yet. Most of the biggest fan meltdowns have followed his on-field meltdowns. He's a roller coaster of emotion and the media/fans feed off that.

 

[HuskerFowler]

Ugh, all downhill since the win at Arizona.....REALLY?

19-8 is all downhill apparently. Oh wait if i twist the facts in a way to make Bo look bad hes 2-3 in his last five games, the sky is falling, the sky is falling.

 

[knapplc]

I know what I said is basically everything Pelini tried to convery to Sipple here. Like I said, I think Sipple is the one off base here with the way he portrays Husker fans. I think Bo is a bit off base with his judgment of Husker fans too. It just seems like the over the top fans get too much play in the media. I might be a bit over the top in some areas, but most people here are pretty fair in the way they approach things. I try to be. I think most people don't know what to expect anymore is my feeling. Every time this team takes the field, you can almost feel like we are one bad play or one major screw up from completely losing control. As much as Bo is trying to pass this "even keel" line off on people, he forgets who was sunshine pumper number 1. He was! He came to this program saying we settle for nothing less than championships. We don't believe in moral victories! Bo is learning the game, but he can't get mad when the fans expectations are high. Bo is the king of high expectations.

This board melts down after every loss. People were denouncing their Husker fandom after the bowl game loss, publicly, right here on HuskerBoard. Here and on other boards I read posts asking if Bo was going to stick around or be fired. People gripe daily about every single facet of the game, from coaching to the QB to playcalling to the uniforms. In that regard Sipple is spot-on in his analysis of this fanbase - but it's not just Sipple's analysis. It's a self-evident thing. We joke about it in the Mod forum after losses, gearing up for yet another meltdown. Warnings go up, people have been banned for flipping out after losses, and tons and tons of posts are removed simply because people cannot stop being so over-the-top. Many members talk about the board locking up because of this. It's not just Sipple.

That behavior is in stark contrast to our win vs. Arizona, which was an equally meaningless game to the direction of this program as our loss to SC, when comparatively few posts were made. Losses always generate FAR more posts here than wins. After Arizona we were talking about being a top-five team, building momentum, being "back," etc., but we weren't displaying the opposite of full-on meltdown mode, with 1,000 posts a day griping, griping, griping. There aren't even half the number of posts after a win compared to a loss.

But it's not just Bo creating this behavior, this happened after we beat Michigan in the Alamo Bowl under Callahan. It happened after Callahan's "#1 recruiting class" in 2005 or whenever. This fan base is bipolar in the extreme, and the coach has nothing to do with it. It's a pattern that has held true since Devaney retired. The abject despair that gripped this state after Miami tipped away the two-point conversion in 1983 was astounding.

Everyone defines "being fair" differently. I suppose each person feels that they are fair toward the team. To me, being fair means a pretty even balance of support to go along with justified criticism. There are a number of people who post here regularly who seem to forget to post in support of this team, and spend pretty much all of their time griping. Not what I consider "fair."

 

[kchusker_chris]

Ugh, all downhill since the win at Arizona.....REALLY?

19-8 is all downhill apparently. Oh wait if i twist the facts in a way to make Bo look bad hes 2-3 in his last five games, the sky is falling, the sky is falling.

That Arizona game was one of the most dominating wins I've witnessed from the Huskers in over a decade. We've flashed little pieces of that (michigan st.) since...but nothing quite like that. So yeah, it's been downhill since then.

19-8 really doesn't sound that great either...does it to you?