The mental part of football is what is holding Nebraska football back. It's not a talent issue.

Agreed.. its a cerebral issue... 

I have tried to just shut up about it all. But after seeing Oregon State win with our QB, WR, LB and K Saturday night...honestly Beavers are 1 or 2 plays from being undefeated right now.

I know we want to make this about Chins.. right? After all.. the D got burned soo bad..  but what about QB whisperer Verdu? We lost Gebbia.. he looks like $$ right now..  2AM has regressed...  Luke is good but raw.. he was NOT ready for Illinois  ?  how? We lost Vedral.. and other OFFENSIVE players.. this is SOOO much deeper than Chinander...  

I love Frost.. I grew up in Oklahoma.. I saw him against UCF that hot ugly day.. drove up with my dad :) I live in Oregon now.. now I get to see Gebbia and others here in town.. and I go

WTH? wow.. something is broken in Lincoln and its not just Chinander...

 
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HuskerRobNOregon said:
But after seeing Oregon State win with our QB, WR, LB and K Saturday night...honestly Beavers are 1 or 2 plays from being undefeated right now.
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In fairness, Gebbia was legitimately beaten out 3 seasons ago by AM and chose to make a move to benefit himself. 2 years of backup role later he now looks good, but it isn't fair to use today's results to judge events that happened 3 years ago.  Maybe he would have stayed and would be starting for us today? Maybe Verduzco would have ruined him too. If ifs and buts and all that jazz.

Avery Roberts also left, not because we made him, but because he wanted to. Wish him all of the success in the world.

Tyjon Lindsey is not helping OSU win anything right now. He is still not the star he thought he was 3 years ago.   

Lightbourn's and Przystup's stats are identical, so we aren't missing him either.  

They may be 1-2 plays from being undefeated right now according to you, and yet, they are stuck on the same 1 win so far this year that we are. 

 
Gebbia and TL's points helped them win Saturday night right? 

Looks to me like Mr Smith in Corvallis has the Beavers headed the right way..  Huskers got killed by ILL .. no way anyone can say N is a better destination right now...

 
To me, mental aptitude (or lack thereof) in football is a consistent display of blown leads, tightening up in critical moments (2 min drill), or just always losing to a same team year after year even in years when you feel like the talent/momentum spectrum is in your favor.  I don't feel like the mental angle is really at play here

What I have seen is a near endless list:

  • No clear philosophy on offense
  • Mistake prone team undone by constant, repetitive and untimely penalties that are self inflicted
  • A level of QB play reminiscent of high school football 
  • Supposed talent not translating to on field results
  • Lack of progression of upper class-men players that should be noticeable by year 2 and 3
  • Lack of identify on defense: Some weeks we press coverage, other weeks we give a 20 yard cushion, some weeks we're bringing 7 guys in the box close to the line, other weeks we're doing delayed blitzes that never get close to the qb yet opens up windows to throw to
  • Lack of playmakers on BOTH SIDES.... where is our receiver that can grab 75-100 yards and 8-10 grabs every week or our running back that can put up 100 consistently... We shouldn't expect to have both.... WE DAMN SURE AS HELL should have at least one of these covered being a Big10 school... AND WE DONT.... Where is our all conference linebacker that can help make up for deficiencies of others on the field?  Where's our guy on the D line/OLB that offenses HAVE TO SCHEME for, otherwise its going to be a long day of disruptions in the backfield?  Answer- we dont have that guy, anywhere

To me, these are the foundations that need to be in place and once they are, that is when the mental edge will kick in.  There's way more to the above that we're also missing.  Unfortunately for Frosty, his background and passion for this state can only go so far.  There's a saying in business and in life that you always want to be surrounded by those that are smarter/work harder than you to elevate your game and the second you feel like you're the smartest in the room thats a red flag.... Until frosty realizes that he needs to bring on members of his staff with more experience than him and an explicit track record of excellence in their focus area ( O coord, D coord, etc) then we will continue to be an embarrassment of a P5 program given the athletes we are still somehow getting.  I would need to look this up but I would be shocked if another school existed that does less with the talent available than we have for years (Recruiting rankings vs. performance on field)

 
What does constitute as a mental angle is our dumb as hell blackshirt hand out tradition that is so overplayed at this point.  I don't get what the win exactly is here.... are we rewarding a solid performance against a winless team as justification for the praise?  EVERY.SINGLE.TIME we f'n announce the blackshirts, the team seems to come out full of itself, flat AF, and gets exposed in an embarrassing fashion.

This staff preaches endlessly on all spots are always up for grabs.  Great, if thats the case, why in the hell are we handing out this recognition to more than just the starters when its not even clear they've earned it in the first place.  Nicknames and all are cool, but at the end of the day, those dumb black jerseys were a freaking clothing mishap and nothing more.  The tradition was built by excellence on the field, not what color threads in practice and feel that this has been glossed over tremendously... This progrum is going no where until we stop latching on to the glory days and this recognition for the defense is one of the last "traditions" that has been stretched way too thin and gives a sense of entitlement and non existent security to guys who should be fearful their position on the depth chart is in jeopardy given the lack of pulse we often see from the defense.  

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If we're really concerned about mental edge, then we should seriously consider hitting the pause on "traditions" that is nothing more than a mental gimmick for a team who doesn't deserve them and provides nothing but a false sense of security.

 
I understand our rushing stats seem good. But I don’t trust it in crunch time or goal line do you? We get gash plays from QB run. But in crunch time- 3rd and 2. Are you going to muscle our way to first down? I have my doubts 

 
Huskers93-97 said:
I understand our rushing stats seem good. But I don’t trust it in crunch time or goal line do you? We get gash plays from QB run. But in crunch time- 3rd and 2. Are you going to muscle our way to first down? I have my doubts 
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Nope, zero confidence.  If you were to take out the rushing stats tied to a QB scramble I'd be shocked if we're not dead last in all of FBS in rushing.... I assume Wan'dale is our leading rusher, ever tho he's a WR, and I've given up on the D Mills experience

 
HuskerRobNOregon said:
Looks to me like Mr Smith in Corvallis has the Beavers headed the right way..  Huskers got killed by ILL .. no way anyone can say N is a better destination right now...
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Records are the same.. You can believe anything you want about the programs, but at the end of the day the only concrete difference is perception. OSU perceived to always be a wasteland of college football vs blueblood NU. People expect OSU to be bad so when they are 1-3 in the Pac12, it's "trending toward improvement," When NU is 1-3 in the Big10, it's then end of the world we will never win another game. Fact's indicated that OSU currently no closer to being nationally relevant than NU, which in itself is a discussion, but I'm not interested in pining for a QB that was beat out here 3 years ago and a non-productive receiver on a team that is no better than the one I am currently puking over.

 
Frost said big 10 teams would have to adapt to our style of offense. Well that took about 5 minutes. We have no fricking idea what we are trying to do. Might as well line up in the I formation and run the ball 45 times, throw a couple of passes to the tight end and call it a day cause this trying to be cute and make a big splash plays ain't working. 

 
Gebbia looks to be much better ... watch him against the Ducks last year.. and in games this year. He can throw the ball and run... would love to see him  head to head now .. no way 2AM gets the nod. Verdu is supposed to be the magician...lol

 
we are getting spanked by teams we are supposed to beat.. again.. this is not just about Chinander.. this is on Frost, Verdu others.. Chins can't be only problem. Luke was not ready.. how can he not know plays? No travel schedule this week.. nothing.. 

I thought going into this game last week.. gulp.. they could go undefeated.. rest of the way.. no more Ohio State, Wisc, Penn State left on the sched... oh hell no.. we are back to being Bi-Polar "Pelini's" again.. 

 
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Husker03 said:
In fairness, Gebbia was legitimately beaten out 3 seasons ago by AM and chose to make a move to benefit himself. 2 years of backup role later he now looks good, but it isn't fair to use today's results to judge events that happened 3 years ago.  Maybe he would have stayed and would be starting for us today? Maybe Verduzco would have ruined him too. If ifs and buts and all that jazz.

Avery Roberts also left, not because we made him, but because he wanted to. Wish him all of the success in the world.

Tyjon Lindsey is not helping OSU win anything right now. He is still not the star he thought he was 3 years ago.   

Lightbourn's and Przystup's stats are identical, so we aren't missing him either.  

They may be 1-2 plays from being undefeated right now according to you, and yet, they are stuck on the same 1 win so far this year that we are. 
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He may have been "legitimately"  beaten out 3 seasons ago....or maybe Scott chose the better runner with the idea that Professor Verdu could make him a great passer. That hasn't happened. This offense desperately needs a QB who can locate and hit wide open receivers like Betts instead of eyeballing Robinson from the time he left the line of scrimmage. Not saying we have world class receivers but there have been times they were open this year and the ball never got to them. If Scott has hitched his wagon to this offense then he needs a QB who can throw,  not two who are afraid to so they take off running.

 
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Same response to a different topic (Let's Discuss).  Lack of mental discipline that contributes to penalties and turnovers.

I wish the issue were as acute as rotating in a new player, or changing play calling, but it is far more fundamental and team-wide.  Create a program oriented around clean play execution and the wins will come.  

Let's also spare any further and tedious discussion of the "progress" being made at practice.  A punter literally walked 15 yards for a first down on Saturday.  This is a results business and the 2+ years body of work I have seen (with 34 years experience) leads me to believe that things will remain as they are for the foreseeable future.  That said, I appreciate all that Coach Frost has done as a player, ambassador and coach for this University.

 
Husker03 said:
Records are the same.. You can believe anything you want about the programs, but at the end of the day the only concrete difference is perception. OSU perceived to always be a wasteland of college football vs blueblood NU. People expect OSU to be bad so when they are 1-3 in the Pac12, it's "trending toward improvement," When NU is 1-3 in the Big10, it's then end of the world we will never win another game. Fact's indicated that OSU currently no closer to being nationally relevant than NU, which in itself is a discussion, but I'm not interested in pining for a QB that was beat out here 3 years ago and a non-productive receiver on a team that is no better than the one I am currently puking over.
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At the moment NU is a better destination than Oregon State, but man....that moment seems to be closing fast. 

The scary part is that records didn't mean anything and perception was everything 3 years ago. The Callahan/Pelini/Riley years meant nothing in 2017. If you were a recruit - or someone advising a recruit - the important thing was that Nebraska quarterback, Oregon disciple, and UCF turnaround artist Scott Frost was returning to Nebraska, and that was an exciting place to be. Everyone could shrug off the transitional year. 

But if you're a recruit -- or someone advising a recruit -- you have no idea what's going on at Nebraska right now and it's not an exciting place to be. Scott Frost's value on the HC open market has plummeted. You don't watch them on TV and think you might be the missing piece.Things are happening at Indiana and Minnesota. Maybe even Illinois, Purdue and Rutgers. If you're 18 years old, you have zero memories of Nebraska as a blueblood. When the head coach says his young team mailed in the game in a blowout loss to a bottom feeder you probably don't want to join either the coach or the team.

This is a short year with a bunch of asterisks, but these last three games could make a huge difference in who wants to stay and who wants to come here. 

 
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