TheMeWho
Active member
Agree with your above post and the bold text is why I've felt all along that Trev (whom I believe is a very intelligent strategist) has always felt that MJ is the guy. Think about it, without any risk in damaging the season any further Trev is getting first hand knowledge on how MJ would lead. How athletes, media, administration personnel, B1G officials, etc.. etc... react and truth is, MJ is "ok" with a slightly lesser contract that is incentive driven, heck he's come out and said he wants his coaching staff taken care of. (First the athletes, then the coaches, then administrators and he'll take whats left).. Is this not an AD's perfect scenario? Personally, I'm a Dan Lanning fan (Oregon's HC) and not far behind him is Kalen DeBoer (Washington's HC). After that I really don't think any other mentioned coaches (maybe Lane, Rhule) bring anymore calm to Trev's decision. Lance, Aranda, Doeren all have Head Coaching experience but also haven't really won anything. Monken (Army HC) imo has as much upside as Liepold, Aranda, Doeren and also runs an offense much like Bo did... We don't know what offense MJ would implement if he's hired but there's someone that does, Trev..
I honestly think, when the dust settles, regardless of whom is hired, in the end MJ will be able to say "I did my best" and yes, imo, I hope he says that in 2040 after winning 3 naty's:woo :wasted
I’ll drink the cool aid with you!
I’m curious to see what MJ would do with this team with a full off-season under his belt. Does he have what it takes to be the permanent HC? I’m not 100% convinced yet but there’s still games to be played.
Right now there are definitely a few coaches I would take over MJ.
#1. Luke Fickell. He’s proven he can lead a team to the playoffs, even though they got walloped by ‘Bama. Now, “Does he want to come here?”, is a legitimate question. Make him say no to us (which is probably more than likely as I’ve gathered he doesn’t seem to want to leave the state of Ohio).
#2. Mike Gundy. Gundy has proven he can consistently get his teams to play at a high level while being at the “second fiddle” program in Oklahoma. He only has 1 losing season (his first) and 7 ten win seasons in 18 so far with the Cowboys. I’d be intrigued to see what he could do in Lincoln with our resources. Legitimate concerns would be can he recruit elite level talent to Lincoln? Are our resources really that much better than Okie State’s? Also, he hasn’t yet proven he can crack through to the playoffs, but he’s been “close”. Lastly, would he consider leaving his alma mater for NU? I don’t know, but I think it could be more likely than Fickell leaving Cincy for NU (no source, just my gut).
#3. Chris Petersen. I like what he did at Boise State and he certainly seemed to have things rolling smoothly in Washington before burning out in 2019. If the rumors are true and there’s actually mutual interest this would be a hire that would make me happy. My concerns would be does he suffer from burnout again after a few seasons and would what he accomplished on the west coast translate to the B1G? It may be valuable to have a coach who knows how to beat USC & UCLA.
#4/5. Matt Rhule or Mickey Joseph? If the top three say no I would really have to debate between offering Rhule or just keeping Joseph. I like Rhule’s approach to building a roster and think he could probably build a competent program here at Nebraska. The thing is he hasn’t stayed anywhere long enough for me to feel 100% confident in the hire. I’m putting Rhule ahead of MJ for now, but if Joseph gets us to six wins I say roll with Joseph (unless one of the top three say yes).
There’s plenty of decent coaches with varying degrees of success in the rest of the field. There’s probably a few who would be interested and could build decent teams and get us those 9 win seasons like Pelini did. A lot of those coaches are only in their first or second season at their current school and haven’t proven sustained success at the P5 level yet (Aranda/Kiffin/Klieman/Leipold/DeBoer/Lanning) or have plateaued and may be slowly falling (Campbell?). Others have had good seasons but I don’t think they would bring anything particularly special to the table as far as recruiting goes (Clawson/Doeren/Malzahn/Stoops). Would any of these coaches fare any better in our current situation than Mickey Joseph has? If any of them were thrust into the HC position before the Oklahoma game how would they perform with our roster? I really don’t know. That’s why I’m willing to give MJ a shot next year ahead of most of these guys (at least right now I am). Of course if the rest of the season goes to complete crap I can easily change my mind.
I want MJ and the Huskers to succeed but understand it’s a daunting task. It would be a daunting task for anyone, it seems. I’m legitimately curious to see what MJ could do next season as the HC. If it appears it’s not going to work next season, and we have to go through this again, some of those other coaches will have another year of data to go on so Alberts can make an even more informed evaluation. Do we risk that and give the less experienced Mickey Joseph the reigns? Right now, I’m willing to drink a couple cool-aids and see what happens.
Time will tell. Go Big Red!!!
