Would you rather....

ColoradoHusk

ColoradoHusk

Heisman Trophy Winner
Let's say NU is able to win the last 2 games of the regular season. I know that's a big if, but NU will have finished the regular season at 6-6, but two wins over teams that were ranked in the top ten.

But, what if the season was like a typical Bo season. I am not saying Bo is the coach, but Riley is still the coach. Instead of losing to BYU, Illinois, Northwestern, and Purdue, Riley is able to win all of those games, but still loses to Miami, Wisconsin, Michigan State and Iowa (any team with a pulse). The wins are all pretty comfortable wins with 1 or 2 close wins, and the losses are 1 blowout with 3 close losses.

As a fan, what would you deem is the "better season"?

 
To me, they're a wash. I was tired of the same ol' same ol' with Bo, but beating a couple Top 10 teams isn't a whole lot of consolation for finishing the season .500.

 
I'll take 2 wins against unbeaten top 10 teams as a sign of progress to our goal of competing for and winning championships over an 8th straight 9 win, 3 or 4 blowout losses season. The only benefit I'd see to the latter is getting to play in a slightly better bowl game against a tougher OOC opponent, which isn't all that enthralling.

 
I'd take this season if finishing strong means potential for a conference championship next year. Otherwise, I'd take the #9wins

 
I would say same but different. Like the wins Bo had but those losses just made you look like everyone else on your schedule then wasn't good and lost to teams like you said with a pulse. I'll take this season cause of the confidence, the ending celebrated with the fans and trending up IF they win out.

 
Nhusker23 said:
I'll take 2 wins against unbeaten top 10 teams as a sign of progress to our goal of competing for and winning championships over an 8th straight 9 win, 3 or 4 blowout losses season. The only benefit I'd see to the latter is getting to play in a slightly better bowl game against a tougher OOC opponent, which isn't all that enthralling.
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We'll need to schedule those kinds of teams then.

 
If we finish 6-6 and were in every game, the season is basically no different than us going 9-3 with a couple of blow-out losses. Perhaps a slight advantage to Riley for not acting like an asshat along the way.

 
Hujan said:
If we finish 6-6 and were in every game, the season is basically no different than us going 9-3 with a couple of blow-out losses. Perhaps a slight advantage to Riley for not acting like an asshat along the way.
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Purdue blew NU out, and Miami pretty much did too, until Miami stopped playing.

 
Great question!

I would rather have more wins...this season was basically "over" by week 6 (maybe even by week 3), I don't really want to be the "spoiler" team...I would rather still have that show to play in the conference title game instead of being all by eliminated by the 3 week of the conference schedule.

 
Actually,with a defense this bad I find it highly encouraging that we haven't been blown out in embarrassing fashion... yet

I have to vote Riley.

 
ColoradoHusk said:
Hujan said:
If we finish 6-6 and were in every game, the season is basically no different than us going 9-3 with a couple of blow-out losses. Perhaps a slight advantage to Riley for not acting like an asshat along the way.
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Purdue blew NU out, and Miami pretty much did too, until Miami stopped playing.
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Agreed. On the other hand, both games also had weird things going on that swung the game initially, only to level out at the end. In Miami it was all the drops that prevented us from sustaining drives and put us in a big hole. Against Purdue, it was the rash of turnovers.

This is not excusing or overlooking the significant coaching mistakes that were made in those games, BTW. Particularly, Purdue. We should have done nothing but pound the rock with Cross/Ozigbo in that game.

 
ColoradoHusk said:
2ndNnine said:
Actually,with a defense this bad I find it highly encouraging that we haven't been blown out in embarrassing fashion... yet

I have to vote Riley.
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The Purdue game was an absolute embarrassment.
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The Purdue game doesn't bother me at all. If this were year four or five of the coaching staff, and we hadn't had those five gut-wrenching losses already, and our backup QB didn't have 5 turnovers leading directly to 28 points, I would be embarrassed. But considering all that, it doesn't bother me. I thought we would lose that game before it was even played.

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I'd prefer this season and the theoretical 7-6 record over another Pelini #9win Special. I've been saying for years I would prefer some 7-win seasons if it meant some 11-win seasons and conference championships sprinkled in. There's nothing special to me about winning 9 games but getting blasted by the good teams, and never being in serious contention for a championship.

 
Adam Rittenberg was on Mike'l Severe's show today, he is a national college football writer, so he isn't just focused on the Big Ten or just Nebraska football. Severe commented that some fans are treating the Michigan State win as the biggest win since Oklahoma 2001. Now, rankings-wise, it might be close. But Rittenberg made a great point. Nebraska has had a number of big wins in the past number of years, in order to get into conference title games that they did achieve. Those games that NU won had a lot riding on them for Nebraska.

The Michigan State game had NOTHING riding on it for Nebraska and Riley. There wasn't a trip to the conference championship game or a major bowl at stake. NU was in a no-lose situation. If NU loses to Michigan State, it's record would have been 3-7 rather than 4-6. Those are still very bad seasons, record-wise. I think Riley has been able to pull off a lot of "big upsets" during his time at Oregon State is that those teams really had nothing to lose. In 2009 and 2013, Oregon State was in contention in the Pac 10/12 and they lost when the games mattered.

 
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