"These aren't Bo Pelini's Cornhuskers, folks."

[HuskerExpat]

Yes, the Mike Riley led Huskers lost to Wisconsin last night.

Yes, a win is always better than a loss.

Yes, two of the largest comebacks in school history came under the watch of Bo Pelini. Some of the worst blowouts in school history also came under the watch of Bo Pelini, and that's the point I want to make.

Bo Pelini teams were too volatile, too undisciplined, too emotional, and the on the field results reflected that. Sometimes the team would step up and mount a comeback, other (and most) times they would pack it in and call it a day.

This team plays with emotion, but they play with controlled emotion, with confidence. How else do you explain the 108-13 scoring differential in the 4th quarter?

Mike Riley has taken an emotionally fragile team and, in a little over a year, has transformed them into a team brimming with a quiet confidence, a team who has shown that it will never quit.

That's so much better than Pelini.

And he hasn't made a complete jacka$$ of himself on the sideline and hasn't made the University of Nebraska look bad. Not even once.

And the team sees the fans as an asset instead of a burden. I was sitting just behind the Nebraska bench at Wisconsin. Many, many Nebraska players were interacting with the many Nebraska fans during the game.

Us fans haven't been viewed like this in years.

 

[cm husker]

So he recruitied talent in the 15-20 range.

Finished 20-Just outside top 25 range.

Isn't that the definition of underachieving?

Now you finally seem to be understanding the thoughts posed by most of us "bolievers."

Bo pieced together a truly broken program in '08 and '09. He was a little slow in his recruiting relationships early, but overall, I thought he had 15 to 25 roster talent most years he was at NU.

Most times, he just achieved what I thought was on par with what he should return based on the talent available, though in 2013, I thought he and his staff did a masterful job salvaging a season rife with injuries. That said, he never really underachieved against that talent, either.

I just though that 2015 and 2016 were shaping up well for him and his players if they'd been able to stay in the same system. I thought that top to bottom, this season's roster would have been his best, especially if he'd been able to hold onto at least 1 of 2 NFL DTs.

My whole contention has been that we shouldn't fire a coach who achieves results at least even with the talent he has on hand, and that's consistent with the test I've applied to Riley.

Now, if the contention is that NU wasn't recruiting well enough under Bo, so he needed to be fired, that's a fine opinion to have, but despite the recent hype, I just don't see anyone fielding a roster at Nebraska that is consistently among the top 10 most talented in the country. It's just completely unlikely to happen, so we need a coach who can field a top 15 to 20 roster and eek out top 10 results. Personally, based on his first 7 years, I thought Bo could grow into that type of coach.

I'm not sure that based on Riley's history as a coach that I feel the same about him. Last season was an important data point. So is this season. Next season will be particularly telling.

 

[cm husker]

Kinda hard to be overrated as the #8 team in the nation when your only two losses are to the #2 and #6 teams by one score each, and you have wins over the #9 and #15 teams.

That's your opinion and I get it at this point. I don't think they are overranked in that it's a clear injustice. I just don't see them as the 8th best team in the nation and I think they'll lose a couple of more games this season.

 

[Landlord]

Do you see us as the 9th best team in the nation?

 

[2ndNnine]

I'd love to see Northwestern beat them Saturday. Illinois Purdue and Minnesota have no chance.

 

[Guy Chamberlin]

there is no evidence at hand

You act like Bo never beat a good team. He did.

You also act like NU isn't talented. They are. More talented Wisconsin, for sure.

You've claimed that Bo handed Mike Riley a roster of Top Ten talent.

But Bo took that same talent and coached them into unranked irrelevance.

And now somehow Bo would be the kick-a$$ coach he never was by winning games that are only played in your imagination.

Nebraska lost in overtime at Camp Randall and dropped only two spots in the rankings. Professional college football analysts appear far more impressed with the Husker's performance then some Husker fans determined to sh#t on the Riley hire.

Actually, I've said the talent is around 15 to 20.

And didn't only 1 of Bo's teams finish unranked?

As for the rest, we'll see how the season plays out. I think Wisconsin was and is overrated.

Actually, you've said the talent is Top 10 (see below)

And Bo's teams that finished #25 and Unranked would have shared most of that talent. And likely had an edge, given the NFL quality guys who bolted.

I believe you've already staked out the fearless conclusions that any Nebraska success this year would confirm that Bo left the team with great talent, and any failure would confirm that Riley and staff mismanaged it.

That's a win/win scenario. But only if you want to be a douche about it.

I think you'd be surprised by the "lack of depth" across CFB.

True, DL is thin, but every team has holes at various places, save a very select few. I doubt there are more than 10 teams in the country that have more talent and depth than Nebraska.

 

[Redux]

So he recruitied talent in the 15-20 range.

Finished 20-Just outside top 25 range.

Isn't that the definition of underachieving?

Now you finally seem to be understanding the thoughts posed by most of us "bolievers."

Bo pieced together a truly broken program in '08 and '09. He was a little slow in his recruiting relationships early, but overall, I thought he had 15 to 25 roster talent most years he was at NU.

Most times, he just achieved what I thought was on par with what he should return based on the talent available, though in 2013, I thought he and his staff did a masterful job salvaging a season rife with injuries. That said, he never really underachieved against that talent, either.

I just though that 2015 and 2016 were shaping up well for him and his players if they'd been able to stay in the same system. I thought that top to bottom, this season's roster would have been his best, especially if he'd been able to hold onto at least 1 of 2 NFL DTs.

My whole contention has been that we shouldn't fire a coach who achieves results at least even with the talent he has on hand, and that's consistent with the test I've applied to Riley.

Now, if the contention is that NU wasn't recruiting well enough under Bo, so he needed to be fired, that's a fine opinion to have, but despite the recent hype, I just don't see anyone fielding a roster at Nebraska that is consistently among the top 10 most talented in the country. It's just completely unlikely to happen, so we need a coach who can field a top 15 to 20 roster and eek out top 10 results. Personally, based on his first 7 years, I thought Bo could grow into that type of coach.

I'm not sure that based on Riley's history as a coach that I feel the same about him. Last season was an important data point. So is this season. Next season will be particularly telling.

We were certainly broken. He was definitely slow. Maybe the talent was there but we never seemed to have enough of it when injuries piled up. If he had top 15 talent, we rarely saw it take shape on the field. I'm absolutely certain you believe 2015 and 2016 were going to be great years for him, sorry to break it to you but most are pretty certain it would have been more of the same we saw in 2012, 2013 and 2014. Okay to Good seasons that saw a lot or really embarrassing losses and just enough potential to leave some hope, lord knows it was just enough to keep me Bo-Lieving up until Wisconsin in 2014.

The contention, and this point has been stressed to you roughly 1,000,000,000 times, is that he was not fired simply because of recruiting shortcomings. He was not fired simply because of Win/Loss records. He was not fired simply because of blowout losses. He was not fired simply because of his temper and his crappy relationships with his bosses and his sideline meltdowns and his secret recordings.

Bo was fired because all of those things put together. I know this, the rest of the board knows this, Bo probably knows this and somewhere DEEEEEP down I believe you understand and know this as well. If you take away the temper issues and a few of the embarrassing losses he may even still be here today. We have high standards here and he wasn't quite hitting them, not only that but he wasn't hitting them and he was kind of being a d!(k about it. That's why he is gone.

It's done, it's over with, he's not coming back. So what you, I or anyone else think his tenure here today would be doesn't matter at all. I get that you aren't exactly a Riley fan because mostly of the offense he runs and because he ironically lost a bunch of games at Oregon State. Well so far with that talent Bo couldn't get over the hump with, he is about to get over it. He may be able to bring in more talent than Bo ever did, that remains to be seen but it looks god. Yet here we are still discussing why you are bitter about the firing and instead of enjoying this season you are still dwelling on last seasons pitiful results and pine for the days of Bo. I actually feel sorry for you about that, I guess the whole lawyer defense mechanism is hard to turn off.

 

[cm husker]

there is no evidence at hand

You act like Bo never beat a good team. He did.

You also act like NU isn't talented. They are. More talented Wisconsin, for sure.

You've claimed that Bo handed Mike Riley a roster of Top Ten talent.

But Bo took that same talent and coached them into unranked irrelevance.

And now somehow Bo would be the kick-a$$ coach he never was by winning games that are only played in your imagination.

Nebraska lost in overtime at Camp Randall and dropped only two spots in the rankings. Professional college football analysts appear far more impressed with the Husker's performance then some Husker fans determined to sh#t on the Riley hire.

Actually, I've said the talent is around 15 to 20.
And didn't only 1 of Bo's teams finish unranked?

As for the rest, we'll see how the season plays out. I think Wisconsin was and is overrated.

Actually, you've said the talent is Top 10 (see below)

And Bo's teams that finished #25 and Unranked would have shared most of that talent. And likely had an edge, given the NFL quality guys who bolted.

I believe you've already staked out the fearless conclusions that any Nebraska success this year would confirm that Bo left the team with great talent, and any failure would confirm that Riley and staff mismanaged it.

That's a win/win scenario. But only if you want to be a douche about it.

I think you'd be surprised by the "lack of depth" across CFB.

True, DL is thin, but every team has holes at various places, save a very select few. I doubt there are more than 10 teams in the country that have more talent and depth than Nebraska.

If I say there are probably not more than 10, then that puts NU outside the top 10 (at best, 11th) and with injuries, I think it's around 15th in the country as a roster.

What teams are more talented than NU, now or when I wrote that?

Sad that someone who argues that we have talent is labeled a troll for it.

 

[cm husker]

Do you see us as the 9th best team in the nation?

No, I think we are somewhere between the 15th and 20th best. I think our ranking benefits from an exceedingly weak schedule. I'm not convinced that this staff can get their roster to overachieve, as evidenced by the closer than should have been wins this year.

 

[commando]

i think i understand now. Nebraska had the talent to not get seel clubbed by Wisconsin in years past....just not the coaching to prevent it.

 

[cm husker]

i think i understand now. Nebraska had the talent to not get seel clubbed by Wisconsin in years past....just not the coaching to prevent it.

Correct - the coaching staff those years failed. No way NU should have been beaten that badly.

Those Wisconsin teams were better than this one, though. This Wisconsin team has an awful offense. I have a feeling that offense and a bad game or two by their defense will lead to at least a couple of bad losses during the remainder of the season.

 

[commando]

and yet you rush to defend Bo at every mention of his name.

 

[cm husker]

and yet you rush to defend Bo at every mention of his name.

All coaches fail at times. That doesn't mean they should be subjected to unfair criticisms, especially when it's a backhanded way of knocking our players, for example:

1. this team of players doesn't suck in defeat like other teams that have let games get out of control

2. Pelini is a crappy recruiter, which translates to we have crappy players

3. Pelini poisoned the team, which translates to we have crappy players who are lazy, lack professionalism, are babies and generally are the reason why we stumbled through last season and struggle in wins that should be mostly dominating this season.

4. Pelini didn't recruit the right kind of QB for Riley, which means that despite all of the claims of "multipliness and adaptability," this offense really is stuck with needing a statute-esque pass distributor. We'll see how that plays out, but there's not much history of success with that type of offense in our region.

And the list goes on.

It's so odd to me. Everyone seems to just accept these saws about how other teams like Wisconsin have more talent or more depth or are less injured, but also ignore that the "objective measures" like recruiting rankings tell a totally different story and how it used to be that injuries were blamed on S&C but now it's just bad luck that the Riley staff has had to deal with.

By the way, how many freshman have played this year? Or kids from the 2015 class for that matter?

If we are really that untalented and lacking in depth, why haven't any of Riley's recruits emerged?

Personally, I don't see that as a problem, because they may be very good yet stuck behind other good players. I just wonder how the player downers reconcile that fact with their biases.

 

[Nebfanatic]

and yet you rush to defend Bo at every mention of his name.

All coaches fail at times. That doesn't mean they should be subjected to unfair criticisms, especially when it's a backhanded way of knocking our players, for example:

1. this team of players doesn't suck in defeat like other teams that have let games get out of control

2. Pelini is a crappy recruiter, which translates to we have crappy players

3. Pelini poisoned the team, which translates to we have crappy players who are lazy, lack professionalism, are babies and generally are the reason why we stumbled through last season and struggle in wins that should be mostly dominating this season.

4. Pelini didn't recruit the right kind of QB for Riley, which means that despite all of the claims of "multipliness and adaptability," this offense really is stuck with needing a statute-esque pass distributor. We'll see how that plays out, but there's not much history of success with that type of offense in our region.

And the list goes on.

It's so odd to me. Everyone seems to just accept these saws about how other teams like Wisconsin have more talent or more depth or are less injured, but also ignore that the "objective measures" like recruiting rankings tell a totally different story and how it used to be that injuries were blamed on S&C but now it's just bad luck that the Riley staff has had to deal with.

By the way, how many freshman have played this year? Or kids from the 2015 class for that matter?

If we are really that untalented and lacking in depth, why haven't any of Riley's recruits emerged?

Personally, I don't see that as a problem, because they may be very good yet stuck behind other good players. I just wonder how the player downers reconcile that fact with their biases.

Lamar Jackson 2016 Stanley Morgan, Ozigbo, D Young among others playing from 2015 class

 

[cm husker]

and yet you rush to defend Bo at every mention of his name.

All coaches fail at times. That doesn't mean they should be subjected to unfair criticisms, especially when it's a backhanded way of knocking our players, for example:

1. this team of players doesn't suck in defeat like other teams that have let games get out of control

2. Pelini is a crappy recruiter, which translates to we have crappy players

3. Pelini poisoned the team, which translates to we have crappy players who are lazy, lack professionalism, are babies and generally are the reason why we stumbled through last season and struggle in wins that should be mostly dominating this season.

4. Pelini didn't recruit the right kind of QB for Riley, which means that despite all of the claims of "multipliness and adaptability," this offense really is stuck with needing a statute-esque pass distributor. We'll see how that plays out, but there's not much history of success with that type of offense in our region.

And the list goes on.

It's so odd to me. Everyone seems to just accept these saws about how other teams like Wisconsin have more talent or more depth or are less injured, but also ignore that the "objective measures" like recruiting rankings tell a totally different story and how it used to be that injuries were blamed on S&C but now it's just bad luck that the Riley staff has had to deal with.

By the way, how many freshman have played this year? Or kids from the 2015 class for that matter?

If we are really that untalented and lacking in depth, why haven't any of Riley's recruits emerged?

Personally, I don't see that as a problem, because they may be very good yet stuck behind other good players. I just wonder how the player downers reconcile that fact with their biases.

Lamar Jackson 2016 Stanley Morgan, Ozigbo, D Young among others playing from 2015 class

I hate to get into the game of "he's X coach's player" but both Morgan and Young committed to Pelini's staff.

As Urban Meyer recently noted, we are loaded with good players.