zoogs
New member
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Athlon: Open letter to the concerned Nebraska fan
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cornographic
Banned
Patience and Husker Fan don't go together.
commando
Active member
Reading the comments there, hearing about some of the tweets the players have to put up with, and seeing some of the flaming here has me convinced that there are way too many idiots that call themselves Husker fans.
edit to add
would it be possible to sticky that link?
edit to add
would it be possible to sticky that link?
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cornographic
Banned
zoogs
New member
Damning coaches and thinking up better ideas is kind of what fans do.
To put a positive spin on it, "It's great. It shows how much people are invested and how much they care."
But -- with all due respect to the scrutinizers, whether bitter and disaffected, or merely skeptical -- calm yo' bits
And try to enjoy the year.
To put a positive spin on it, "It's great. It shows how much people are invested and how much they care."
But -- with all due respect to the scrutinizers, whether bitter and disaffected, or merely skeptical -- calm yo' bits
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AZRaiderH8r
New member
Interesting article, and I agree with it for the most part. I don't see any point in speculating what the team would have done against Miami with Bo coaching, assuming that the comeback would have never happened. Really pointless speculation if you ask me. I appreciate Riley's demeanor (it was nice to see the other coach losing it on camera) and I'm encouraged about the staff's ability to recruit. I assumed that this season would be tough because a lot of moving parts were changed. I am loving the development of Tommy, and I will stay positive about the future. It's just too early to make any judgments at this point; I'll just continue to be a fan of the team, the young men who are giving it their all every week, and the staff that is trying to lead them. GBR!
GBRedneck
Banned
That is a really bad article. First thing that stuck out:
"Believe me, I knew I’d hear the complaints about him being a “.500 coach” or “the next Bill Callahan”, but these claims simply aren’t true. "
OK, he might or might not be right about the Callahan part. That's opinion. But the ".500 coach" part? That is a an absolute fact. Riley's current lifetime head coaching W/L record is 148-148. He is EXACTLY a ".500 coach".
Next part, which is just inaccurate ignorance that I see way too much of:
There are plenty of people that’ll call me a “hater” for saying this (and you may be one of them), but Bo Pelini’s team doesn’t get to overtime. His team doesn’t score another point in the fourth and might even give up another three or seven.
This isn’t because I dislike Pelini at all; it was just his MO at Nebraska. When the going got tough, the tougher ran away with the win.
Bo has the biggest comeback victory in Husker history! He had a huge come from behind OT victory in his last game! He came back and won a lot of games after trailing at halftime.
OTOH, Callahan was 0-17 when trailing at halftime, and Riley is off to a very Callahanesque start with an 0-2 record when trailing at halftime after only three games.
Oh wait, this might explain it . . . Written by Brandon Cavanaugh, who is part of the Athlon Contributor Network.
Is this one of those sites where anybody can be a sportswriter?
"Believe me, I knew I’d hear the complaints about him being a “.500 coach” or “the next Bill Callahan”, but these claims simply aren’t true. "
OK, he might or might not be right about the Callahan part. That's opinion. But the ".500 coach" part? That is a an absolute fact. Riley's current lifetime head coaching W/L record is 148-148. He is EXACTLY a ".500 coach".
Next part, which is just inaccurate ignorance that I see way too much of:
There are plenty of people that’ll call me a “hater” for saying this (and you may be one of them), but Bo Pelini’s team doesn’t get to overtime. His team doesn’t score another point in the fourth and might even give up another three or seven.
This isn’t because I dislike Pelini at all; it was just his MO at Nebraska. When the going got tough, the tougher ran away with the win.
Bo has the biggest comeback victory in Husker history! He had a huge come from behind OT victory in his last game! He came back and won a lot of games after trailing at halftime.
OTOH, Callahan was 0-17 when trailing at halftime, and Riley is off to a very Callahanesque start with an 0-2 record when trailing at halftime after only three games.
Oh wait, this might explain it . . . Written by Brandon Cavanaugh, who is part of the Athlon Contributor Network.
Is this one of those sites where anybody can be a sportswriter?
TGHusker
New member
While I think we have talent at a few specific areas DPE (when he comes back from injury), a few WRs, Collins and Gerry on D (although Collins hasn't produced up to expectations), it is evident that we need to rebuild. I think some of us, speaking of myself particularly, thought we had better talent coming back by looking at DPE, Westy, Collins and Gerry alone, however, the lack of team speed was too evident on Saturday against Miami and we have too many 'rookies' and walk-ons contributing where seasoned players should be carrying the load. So this is going to be a process. I still look for a 9-4 or at worse 8-5 year but am mentally prepared for worse.
Next year will be better and the 3rd year we should be a well oiled machine or so I hope. We need to address the speed issue wt recruiting - you cannot coach it or necessarily develop it. I liked how the guys came back after being down by 23 so that shows a lot of heart, determination and pride. That is important and it was great not hearing the normal excuses from last year after a loss.
Next year will be better and the 3rd year we should be a well oiled machine or so I hope. We need to address the speed issue wt recruiting - you cannot coach it or necessarily develop it. I liked how the guys came back after being down by 23 so that shows a lot of heart, determination and pride. That is important and it was great not hearing the normal excuses from last year after a loss.
JJ Husker
Donor
Great article, wish he would've gone in to more depth and longer. There are a myriad of reasons to not be giving up on the long term yet.
But some of those comments after the article, yeeesh. And I thought we had some idiots running around here. A couple of those guys take the cake. Greg Kitt and Chris Nielson.....f'n tools, wow. Ha, I guess they could be a couple of our "special" HB posters.
But some of those comments after the article, yeeesh. And I thought we had some idiots running around here. A couple of those guys take the cake. Greg Kitt and Chris Nielson.....f'n tools, wow. Ha, I guess they could be a couple of our "special" HB posters.
huskerfan92
New member
Nothing frustrates me more than when people say Riley is "Callahan 2.0". About the only thing the two have in common is they run a pro style offense. Riley is embracing the tradition at Nebraska. He's allowing former players to help in practice, he gave out the blackshirts before the season started so we could avoid the "when will Bo give out the blackshirts talk?" throughout the season, and heck he's allowing Boyd Epley to help in the training room! I believe Sipple wrote an article before the season about Dantonio and Michigan State, and how just a couple years ago they were a 6-6 team, that we need to be patient.
And to anyone who says "You hire a .500 coach, you're going to be .500", you're being completely naive. It's been said time and time again Oregon State and Nebraska are two completely different programs, but apparently that doesn't mean anything to some people so let's use other examples. Can you imagine if a coach was consistently .500 or better at schools like Purdue, Iowa State, and Kentucky? They would be celebrated as the next up and coming coach. That's what Mike Riley did at Oregon State.
Being a Chargers fan, me as much as anyone should be pessimistic about Riley, this is the 2nd time he's coached one of my teams. But I'm not because I'm able to see that this guy can coach as good as anyone. He's not Bill Callahan, not even close. I truly believe that Mike Riley and his staff are going to do great things here at Nebraska, and when his time here is done, we're going to be on a better path than we were before he came here.
And to anyone who says "You hire a .500 coach, you're going to be .500", you're being completely naive. It's been said time and time again Oregon State and Nebraska are two completely different programs, but apparently that doesn't mean anything to some people so let's use other examples. Can you imagine if a coach was consistently .500 or better at schools like Purdue, Iowa State, and Kentucky? They would be celebrated as the next up and coming coach. That's what Mike Riley did at Oregon State.
Being a Chargers fan, me as much as anyone should be pessimistic about Riley, this is the 2nd time he's coached one of my teams. But I'm not because I'm able to see that this guy can coach as good as anyone. He's not Bill Callahan, not even close. I truly believe that Mike Riley and his staff are going to do great things here at Nebraska, and when his time here is done, we're going to be on a better path than we were before he came here.
BigRedBuster
Active member
Steve Spurrier is thought of as one of the best college football coaches in the last 20-30 years by people outside of the state of Nebraska. He was 122-27-1 at Florida with an NC and won his division of the SEC 9 times. He now coaches at USC and is 85-47 and 44-38 in the conference and quite possibly is going to get let go after the season.
Now, if he had coached at USC before Florida, would everyone be thinking he is a great coach? Why could he do what he did at Florida and not at USC? Heck, he even went to the NFL and was even worse with a 12-20 record over two years.
Fact is, just because a guy doesn't win championships at a program that hasn't put in the money and resources to the program, doesn't mean he can't at a program that does.
Nick Saban was 34-24 at MSU mostly thanks to his last season where he was 9-2. That's only a 58% winning percentage. He then went on to LSU and ended up winning an NC in his 4th year after starting out with an 8-4 record. He then went to the NFL and was 15-17 and left. Goes to Alabama and everyone thinks he is the greatest thing in the world.
If great coaches are successful wherever they go no matter the resources, why then have these two coaches had up and down careers in large part due to what program they were coaching in at the time?
Fact is, Riley has not ever coached at a program like Nebraska as a HC. You might think he sucks because he only had, whatever, record at OSU. Reality is, you don't know jack about what kind of coach he is until he proves what he can or can't do here.
Now, if he had coached at USC before Florida, would everyone be thinking he is a great coach? Why could he do what he did at Florida and not at USC? Heck, he even went to the NFL and was even worse with a 12-20 record over two years.
Fact is, just because a guy doesn't win championships at a program that hasn't put in the money and resources to the program, doesn't mean he can't at a program that does.
Nick Saban was 34-24 at MSU mostly thanks to his last season where he was 9-2. That's only a 58% winning percentage. He then went on to LSU and ended up winning an NC in his 4th year after starting out with an 8-4 record. He then went to the NFL and was 15-17 and left. Goes to Alabama and everyone thinks he is the greatest thing in the world.
If great coaches are successful wherever they go no matter the resources, why then have these two coaches had up and down careers in large part due to what program they were coaching in at the time?
Fact is, Riley has not ever coached at a program like Nebraska as a HC. You might think he sucks because he only had, whatever, record at OSU. Reality is, you don't know jack about what kind of coach he is until he proves what he can or can't do here.
teachercd
Active member
But wasn't South Carolina horrible and didn't SS lead them to their only 10 win seasons or something like that? With a few top 5 rankings during the seasons and some high ranked recruiting classes?
Saban took over a pretty bad LSU team and won a title.
Look, Riley will get it done at NU, there is no doubt. But the comparisons seem odd.
Saban took over a pretty bad LSU team and won a title.
Look, Riley will get it done at NU, there is no doubt. But the comparisons seem odd.
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