The damage is done already. This is the issue with having expectations. Sure Riley could come out next year start 6-0 an look great, but surely would lose to Wisky and Iowa and lose the Big 10 west, and here we go again with Bo like deal. We will give him another year that year we go 8-4, but win against a few decent teams, lose against the ranked ones. One more year is given, because of some promise in younger players, once again were 9-3 and still not playing for the West title...........this is the issue I have with keeping a coach that clearly can't get it done. I would have settle for 8-4 for this with our losses coming to Michigan St, Miami, BYU and Wisky. Losing to NW, Illinois should not happen. We should be 5-3 at worst. This is what I looked at in the preseason. Those 4 losses would have been manageable. Iowa being a surprise might have been acceptable if they are for real, but still those would be all losses with some hope in the future.
When you lose to teams like Illinois, NW and a Wisky team that isn't anywhere near what it was, your failing to reach your potential. Like I said, the Wisky loss preseason was acceptable in some means, but after seeing them more and more, they are not a really good squad. Regardless, the reason, I can find reasons to defend Riley, but none are legit. Sure we can say that Bo had Ameer and Randy G who were game changers, but really two players don't define a 22 man squad, do they!
5-3 isn't a grand record by any means, but just think if we were 5-3 right now! There would be some hope at least for a West title yet wouldn't there be? Chance to play for something anyway. Right now there is nothing but pride, and frankly this bunch hasn't really proven that playing for pride is even a priority.
Let me retract on this for a split second, Northwestern is a good team that has beaten currently ranked teams, and is playing better than last year, no disrespect to them. That is also why this is more irritating as well. They have beaten good teams, and we should have beaten them today, and pissed away another game passing the ball 49 times. Throwing a pick 6 for what ends up being the difference.
In the day, you could count on Nebraska winning home games. Home games are and should be a given. Home losses to BYU, Wisky, and now Northwestern. Home teams win the close games, not lose them! No more excuses. Absolutely no more.
Sure our talent level isn't top 20, but neither is the teams that are beating us. The coaches of these teams are not outstanding coaches, or recruiters. This isn't the PAC 12, where your a Beavers team that loses to the Ducks, USC, and Stanford, and you can say that those teams were just better all around. We have n't even played those kind of teams yet!
I draw the line at Purdue or Rutgers. We lose either one of these games, we have to go in another direction. Have too!