And considering that Nebraska's mediocrity will have a significantly negative impact on merchandise sales and brand value, it's honestly shocking that our leadership didn't make a quality hire last time around.
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and yet the crowd sounded as loud as I've ever heard them.
Hmmmm..........it's too bad not everybody is buying into your bullsh#t, or your story would be a lot easier to tell huh?
That's funny, I'm not selling b******t. If you can't handle honesty and have to use ad hominem attacks because you have nothing to bring to the table, then I'm sure there's an echochamber you can go bury yourself in to convince yourself you're right.
I can appreciate your honesty. I can't appreciate your wishing that someone would fly a plane around Memorial Stadium saying "Fire Riley" because you don't have the patience to give the guy a chance, nor the understanding that a chance means longer than a season.
One thing that'll never cease to amaze me is the passion of Husker fans. It's a tremendous positive, but a double-edged sword. When everything's going well: it's great. When everything's not going well: things get turned up to a boil way too soon.
I said this when Bo was our head coach, but I think it bears repeating:
We all want Nebraska to win, coaches, players, and fans alike. Some of us have one idea for how to get there. Others have a different idea for how to get there. Don't confuse patience from some fans with a desire to see Nebraska fail.
About Harbaugh and McElwain: I look at Michigan and Florida and, like most of you calling for Riley's head, I'm frustrated that they're doing so well and we're doing not as good. But realistically, the comparison between Harbaugh, McElwain, and Riley stops at the fact that they're in their first years at a new school. There was no chance Nebraska was going to hire Harbaugh as soon as the Michigan job opened up. Similarly, there was no chance Nebraska was going to hire McElwain as soon as the Florida job opened up. Both schools would eagerly outbid us to have a former player/coordinator coach their team. The fact that they had success elsewhere makes those hires good hires, and the fact that Florida/Michigan have a lot of talent makes for a smoother transition. In fairness, I was thinking the talent on Nebraska would help Mike Riley and his coaching staff make a better transition into Nebraska than 2-4.
Perhaps Riley misspoke when he mentioned matching players to a system. I think that gave fans (myself included) a false sense that Riley was going to immediately or eventually adopt a very power-run, vintage Nebraska offense, and although I think it's a fair criticism that Nebraska doesn't run it enough, you can't at the same time look at all the weapons we have at WR (Westerkamp, DPE, Reilly, Alonzo Moore, Cethan Carter are all good WRs/TEs) and think we don't have the ability to chuck it across the yard. Just because you don't like it doesn't make it a wrong thing to do. Maybe our own perception of the team's strengths and weaknesses aren't exact; maybe we don't really have a significant rushing threat--having an all-star RB the past two years can raise expectations.
A coach's third year at a program is what is referred to as the defining year, the indication of what you're really getting for a head coach. By the 3rd year, current players are more adopted to the current system, and new players are recruited because of their match with the system Riley wants to run. I know it's sucks feeling like this season is wasted, but it's a learning/growing year.
