What did we learn UCLA edition

Undone said:
Before the season started I definitely said on this board that "we should do less of the big sets and line up in 11 man more because that'll fit with Raiola's passing ability and give us more big play capability."

We proceeded to actually do that down the stretch here, and it seems like Raiola wasn't ready for it. It just hasn't looked good in the past several games.

And then the staff waits until we're down 13 points to consistently line up with a lead blocker in the run game and try to grind out first downs with the run. I'm honestly just really confused about what the staff sees during the week that leads them to line up in the shotgun and throw without trying to establish the run first.

I was wrong about multiple things heading into this one. We just can't run well with Dowdell unless he has a lead blocker a lot of the time.
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We have a room full of situational running backs. Dowdell is a power back and we mainly run him out a quasi spread shotgun look.

EJ is shifty but doesn’t have breakaway speed or power 

RJ more of a scat/passing back

combine that with an ineffective line and and incoherent OC and that ladies and gentleman is the making of a pisspoor running attack 2024 edition 

 
I’ll start with this. I believe Matt Rhule is an upstanding man. He has high integrity. He’s a passionate man. He loves the kids. His give-a-crap and work ethic are outstanding. I’d have no problem my kid going to play for a man like him. He’s a really good dude. That said…
 

I learned the narrative of Rhule being a program builder does not apply in this case. He’s never excelled against elite coaches. 
 

1. His record against top 25 teams

2. His record against NFL caliber coaches

3. His record, and trend, here. 
 

He hires his friends. That might work at low tier college ball. It is not a B!G or nationally-relevant level strategy. It is showing.  The signs were there.  And now it's more than suspicion.  He's showing his pattern that he cannot coach at elite levels especially with his Staff choices.  

 
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Decked said:
He didn’t call plays lol. Reid calls the plays. This is common knowledge. He taught the offensive scheme..yes. But he did not call plays. You know maybe the most massive thing the OC does lol
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You can just say you’re wrong. It’s fine. I said nothing about who called the plays during a game, I said he was Mahomes’ OC.  And during the beginning of a very dominate Era for the chiefs too. 

You said he was the QB coach. Lol. 

 
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DefenderAO said:
I’ll start with this. I believe Matt Rhule is an upstanding man. He has high integrity. He’s a passionate man. He loves the kids. His give-a-crap and work ethic are outstanding. I’d have no problem my kid going to play for a man like him. He’s a really good dude. That said…
 

I learned the narrative of Rhule being a program builder does not apply in this case. He’s never excelled against elite coaches. 
 

1. His record against top 25 teams

2. His record against NFL caliber coaches

3. His record, and trend, here. 
 

He hires his friends. That might work at low tier college ball. It is not a B!G or nationally-relevant level strategy. It is showing.  The signs were there.  And now it's more than suspicion.  He's showing his pattern that he cannot coach at elite levels especially with his Staff choices.  
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Very well spoken and I think many would say the same things as you just did.  Same could have been said about Mike Riley, but he had to go eventually.  I think he cares about his team, and that is a good thing, but in the end, winning is all that matters.  

 
Really folks if Indiana wouldn't have punked us so badly with a first year coach, I don't know if I would be so harsh on Rhule and his staff right now.  How many times each season do we see first year head coaches take a program and win games and make bowl games?  More than we want to admit.  We keep going in reverse.  We an agree. that the last guy here to win was Pelini.  Pelini was a first time first year head coach.  I say we need to back to that for starters and give that some time, but giving guys like Riley, Frost, and now Rhule more than a few years( 2 or more) has not worked.  We have not seen signs of this program making strides to improve.  I have not seen improvement in any of this team other than QB play was an upgrade, but wonder if that actually is an upgrade now.

 
Nebhawk said:
I wish someone would explain to me how 5 coaching staffs later, we are still getting Top 25 talent recruited each season and still losing after 20 years of hiring and firing coaches.  Read between the lines, this program is not attracting talent and the rankings are not being completely telling.  It has to be or how could we not hit on at least one coaching staff in the last 20 years.  We keep blaming all the coaches for the same ineptness and being bad coaches, while I think that is with some truth, but our recruiting rankings are inflated to a point that leads this towards failure more.  I have not seen a talented team here for years.  If we truly were getting Even Top 50 talent, surely winning 6 games in a season would not be that hard.  K-State and Kansas never hardly reach above Top 40 for classes and they can each make bowl games in back to back seasons on occasion.  Do you see the same type of players on the field as you see on either one of those teams from A to Z?  Eye test should tell you something.........Banks and Neyor haven't seen the end zone or ball that much since Big 10 play started?  Dowdell is a beast and our staff won't give him the ball unless were down 3 scores?  He was not good enough to play at Oregon?  Talent is the biggest issue with this program.
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To be fair, it’s been 3 coaching staffs. Despite Bo being a hot head, he won here. Did he win titles? No, but the man averaged 9-10 wins a year. He could develop players to a level we haven’t seen in a decade now

now to answer your question- high level we haven’t fielded a competent, complimentary team across 3 phases consistently since solich. Bo had some great defenses but often coupled with really bad offense, when he figured offense out our defense declined tremendously. Riley couldn’t field a defense. Frost not only didn’t have a defense but had an offense that could go from 20 to 20 but couldn’t  score. Rhule has improved the defense but our offense is pitiful.

Position wise, our continued decline of both sides of line play and players that are pro caliber is the biggest “what’s been wrong” with Nebraska, to me. it’s not a question of if we have to be a running program, we absolutely must be a run first progrum. 

on the recruiting ranking piece- a lot of that is smoke n mirrors. Vast majority of frostys skill recruits either left after a couple years or didn’t play a down for us. It’s very rare for o line recruits to play early. The good news is we have picked up the quality of recruits on the line, I just have zero confidence we have the right OC or ol coach to maximize said talent 
 

 
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Nebhawk said:
Very well spoken and I think many would say the same things as you just did.  Same could have been said about Mike Riley, but he had to go eventually.  I think he cares about his team, and that is a good thing, but in the end, winning is all that matters.  
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Matt Rhule is like Mike Riley 2.0.  Year 2 under both started with great promises and ended with fans ready for a change.  Both are extremely nice guys but simply not winners on the field.  Riley at least seemed to win some games against good teams throughout his career.  Rhule just loses.  I know I said this earlier, but Rhule is 21-38 over his last 5 seasons as a head coach.  We can all thank Trev Alberts for picking a preacher that cannot coach.  

Here are some more interesting stats:

  • As a College Coach, Mike Riley was 112-99 for a .531 winning percentage.  As a college coach, Matt Rhule is 57-54 for .514 winning percentage.
  • As an NFL coach, Mike Riley was 14-34 for a .292 winning percentage.  As an NFL coach, Matt Rhule was 11-27 for a .289 winning percentage. 



Trev Alberts made a HORRIBLE hire.

 
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DefenderAO said:
I’ll start with this. I believe Matt Rhule is an upstanding man. He has high integrity. He’s a passionate man. He loves the kids. His give-a-crap and work ethic are outstanding. I’d have no problem my kid going to play for a man like him. He’s a really good dude. That said…
 

I learned the narrative of Rhule being a program builder does not apply in this case. He’s never excelled against elite coaches. 
 

1. His record against top 25 teams

2. His record against NFL caliber coaches

3. His record, and trend, here. 
 

He hires his friends. That might work at low tier college ball. It is not a B!G or nationally-relevant level strategy. It is showing.  The signs were there.  And now it's more than suspicion.  He's showing his pattern that he cannot coach at elite levels especially with his Staff choices.  
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I posted this a few weeks ago about the program builder notion. If we lose out, Rhule will be exactly 57-57 as a college Head Coach. 

runningblind said:
It's been 3 schools, over 9 years, and he is now 57-52 as a head coach.  Here is some history of schools before he showed up:

2010 Temple: 8-4

2011 Temple: 9-4

2012 Temple: 4-7

So that is 21-15 the 3 years prior to his arrival, then he went 28-23 in his 4 years, very similar. Is that a significant "building" of the program or just more of the same?

2014 Baylor: 11-2

2015 Baylor: 10-3

2016 Baylor: 7-6

That equates to 28-11 over the 3 years leading up, then Rhule went 19-20 at Baylor. Yes there were extenuating circumstances at Baylor with off field issues, but it was a winning program football wise before him.  Not sure that qualifies as program building either. 

We all know the Nebraska history prior to his arrival.

Rhule is now 2-21 against ranked teams, and is just slightly over .500 as a college head coach in 9 years. I am not giving up on him turning the corner just yet, but at some point you are what your record says you are.  
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Sadly our only chance at going to a toilet bowl is trying to beat Wisconsin. We are NOT beating Iowa or USC based on how they are playing lately. 

 
Cobra Kai said:
It's interesting listening to this coaching staff, since they arrived always talking about how these big ten games go.  They always say things like, "we prepare for it to be a one score game", or "whoever has the ball last." Some sort of coach speak to infer that they are expecting every game to go down to the wire. 

While I know that isn't the only problem we have, it just dawned on me tonight...and I'm a little ashamed I didn't see it sooner.  We play offense to get to the fourth quarter in a close game...ahead or behind.  We are not aggressive, we don't play to win offensively.  We play to keep the game close, because that's big ten football. 

How about for the next 3 games, don't have offensive gameplans trying to get to the fourth quarter with a chance to win...call the game offensively, trying to attack...idk we are just so predictable and conservative...it makes so much sense now that this light bulb went off in my brain. 
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Yes. I think he talks like he is still coaching in the nfl but it’s college. Teams get blown out. 

 
Sorry, not game related, but I just realized it's been 15 years since we've had Ndamukong Suh and that defense. 

Time flies

 
I liked the energy that HH brought when he came in. Made some errors in some situations, but I felt the mood pick up a bit with him out there

 
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