With hard part in the past, Nebraska football expects bright future

Saunders

Saunders

Administrator
Winter has come to Nebraska, and with it the offseason. This is the part Mike Riley loves most.

In the past, during stints at Oregon State and elsewhere, Riley used the offseason to layer another floor upon his team’s existing foundation — to establish “things in the program that we can grow from,” he said. There is a rhythm to the annual rebirth, Riley continued, of cadences, formations and plays, and of an offense, defense and team working in unison.

That wasn’t a luxury afforded a year ago, when Riley inherited a group that remained up until the Cornhuskers’ season opener “a mystery” to be solved; admittedly, Nebraska remained a riddle for much of the new staff’s debut.

“Like coaches do, you build up some general concerns about what things are going to look like,” he told USA TODAY Sports. “I really wasn’t worried outwardly about how that was going to be. Then we got into the year and started with losing a game on a Hail Mary, then it kind of went from there.

“It just can’t be played off as bad luck. That’s really shallow to do that, and it’s a trap. It’s pretty self-indicting when you get in close games and you don’t win.”

http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaaf/bigten/2016/01/06/nebraska-football-coach-mike-riley-offseason/78344448/
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I like Riley's last quote, though I don't really understand what he means by "self-indicating." If he means that NU shouldn't have been in that many close games that could come down to a final drive, I agree with him. I like a lot of the quotes from Riley in that article. I just wish he wasn't married to Langs as his OC, because I don't see that system of offense ever producing a championship at Nebraska. And it certainly doesn't lend itself to consistent results over a period of seasons.

 
Sometimes, I wonder what the season would've looked like had they been able to bat down that Hail Mary attempt. Are they more confident in their abilities? Are they able to stay more focused in those close games that ended up not going their way?

I still think this team was relatively average this season in many facets, and at best was likely an 8-9 win team. But, it still makes you wonder what a victory there would've meant overall on the season. Perhaps, not much. Perhaps a lot more.

 
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I think if Langs had been more willing to "grind out wins' in a non-textbook fashion, that would have resulted in 8 or 9 wins much easier than if the HM had been batted down (and it would have given me more confidence in the future).

But the staff's unwillingness to check their system and grind out/manufacturer wins against teams like BYU, Illinois, Northwestern and Purdue is concerning to me going forward.

 
The Tall Texan said:
If they batted down that pass, the team would have been 7-6.
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This whole season was about adversity and the cultural shift transitioning from Pelini to Riley

And if Tommy doesn't throw the INT in OT to Miami we would have been 8-5

And if Nebraska runs the ball to eat clock against Illinois and had a pass defense, we would have been 9-4

And if Nebraska gets a first down against Wisconsin in the final minutes or had a pass defense, we would have been 10-3

And if Nebraska gets the 2-point conversion against Northwestern to force OT, we would have been 11-2

And if Nebraska runs the ball against Purdue's poor rush defense, we would have been 12-1

And if Nebraska doesn't throw 4 interceptions against Iowa, we would have been 12-0

If we did all of that, we're in the CCG in a rematch with Michigan State competing for the final playoff spot. We were so close, weren't we?

 
cm husker said:
I like Riley's last quote, though I don't really understand what he means by "self-indicating." If he means that NU shouldn't have been in that many close games that could come down to a final drive, I agree with him. I like a lot of the quotes from Riley in that article. I just wish he wasn't married to Langs as his OC, because I don't see that system of offense ever producing a championship at Nebraska. And it certainly doesn't lend itself to consistent results over a period of seasons.
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I also really like that quote as it sounds like he realizes some of those losses were due purely to poor coaching, as he said self-indicting, not self-indicating.
 
TheSker said:
Hunter94 said:
the highlight of the season?.......we didn't lose by more than 10 points to anyone............wow
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It's the new standard that was decided upon in place of 9/10 wins.

The "best" part is how the article relates not losing any games by more than 10 points to our last conference championship year. You da man, Riley!
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I'll always be somewhat disappointed in a season if it doesn't equal a conference championship. Clearly, I've been disappointed for awhile. I don't get too terribly caught up in the W/L total, however, I do think it has a role to play and there's no denying that. 9 wins is better than 6, but it's also nice to not be getting blown out by 35 points against teams that have no business blowing you out.

I would've taken 9 wins this season though...

Either way you slice it I think the program has been underachieving for awhile, but all we can do as fans is hope for better days ahead.

 
Enhance89 said:
Sometimes, I wonder what the season would've looked like had they been able to bat down that Hail Mary attempt. Are they more confident in their abilities? Are they able to stay more focused in those close games that ended up not going their way?

I still think this team was relatively average this season in many facets, and at best was likely an 8-9 win team. But, it still makes you wonder what a victory there would've meant overall on the season. Perhaps, not much. Perhaps a lot more.
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Silver linings, but I think that this season was for the best. They didn't get demolished (* for a Purdue game missing an enormous number of key players, including QB), they showed that they could hang with and beat some really tough teams, and also they learned that they can get beat by anybody.

So, the caliber of this team isn't very different from the dozens of also-rans in CFB every single year, a category that should include many recent editions of Huskers football teams.

The difference? 9-4 lends itself far too easily to defensive posturing. 6-7 means swallowing hard truths and looking in the mirror. Something NU hasn't had to do in a long time.

2014 Iowa: 7-6

2015 Iowa: 12-2

The first step to improvement is acknowledgment that you have to.

 
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