0-2

The frustrating thing about the first two games is not that the players are not playing hard, it is that they are not playing smart at all. I honestly thought that the first thing that Frost would do is eliminate the stupid fouls we commit in every game. So far, the fouls have killed us and they are the reason we lost both games. A lot of our players are just not playing smart football. Being an athlete is good but we need smart athletes who do not beat themselves. Unfortunately, Riley recruited the wrong type of players and we will need to endure a bad season until things get better. I am not expecting much this season. I was hoping for a miracle start but it just seems like we will have to ride this season having low expectations. If we make a bowl, this season will be a great success. Nevertheless, I am confident that Frost will not rest until Nebraska is back competing for championships. It might take 3-4 years but he is the man for the job and I am 100% sure that he is not the type of person who likes to lose games like these. The team is still detoxing from the poison that was Riley.

 
dspanther05 said:
people expect a natty championship first season.
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Is this one of those strawmen I've heard so much about?

I don't remember seeing anyone expecting a natty this year.  Heck, I don't remember seeing anybody expecting a conference title this year.  Hell, I don't recall anyone expecting a division title this year.

There's a lot of space between a National Championship and the worst start in 61 years.

Nobody expected that.

 
huskerfan74 said:
The frustrating thing about the first two games is not that the players are not playing hard, it is that they are not playing smart at all. I honestly thought that the first thing that Frost would do is eliminate the stupid fouls we commit in every game. So far, the fouls have killed us and they are the reason we lost both games. A lot of our players are just not playing smart football. Being an athlete is good but we need smart athletes who do not beat themselves. Unfortunately, Riley recruited the wrong type of players and we will need to endure a bad season until things get better. I am not expecting much this season. I was hoping for a miracle start but it just seems like we will have to ride this season having low expectations. If we make a bowl, this season will be a great success. Nevertheless, I am confident that Frost will not rest until Nebraska is back competing for championships. It might take 3-4 years but he is the man for the job and I am 100% sure that he is not the type of person who likes to lose games like these. The team is still detoxing from the poison that was Riley.
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51 new players this year- 1/2 the team is new.  Many are freshman.  The speed, the atmosphere, and the intensity of the game itself has to be overwhelming.  And then Frost is coaching them to make their mistakes at high speed-which they are-and it may look they their not playing smart but really they're just playing fast and instinctive and they don't have the experience for it yet.  But I also think that now is the time to just rip the band-aid off and learn to play fast. Learning curve and painful but also necessary.  But that special teams tho- If I could fix one thing with a magic wand- it would be that

 
Special teams is MORE than just the punter and kickers (all of which have performed adequately thus far).   Punt average is pretty fair and we've hit about 65% on field goals.  Kickoffs have been mostly out of the end zone.  The areas of dramatic fail are in the near total absence of a return game and failure to field balls before the ball rolls us into a hole,. etc.  Coverage and returns MUST be immediately improved.   We don't need 'elite' talent and three recruiting classes to find players who can catch and block and tackle.  There are plenty of players on this squad who do this at a level MUCH higher than we have watched for almost 2 decades.  Dejuan Groce comes to mind as our last truly 'special' returner.   That is just unacceptable.  

When you're outmanned, you have to find ways to create special plays and keep things close and avoid making glaring mistakes.   Do what you can to hang in there and get a few lucky breaks and you can pull the upsets now and then.  We are doing NONE of the above and have not been since the Rose Bowl.   The state of the program is the combined product of the many coaches and staffs of the past 18 years!    Frost has to play the hand he has been dealt.   But, there are a few things he can and must do right away to fix the things he has some control over.  Returns and coverage play is most important among them.

 
The Dude said:
Is this one of those strawmen I've heard so much about?

I don't remember seeing anyone expecting a natty this year.  Heck, I don't remember seeing anybody expecting a conference title this year.  Hell, I don't recall anyone expecting a division title this year.

There's a lot of space between a National Championship and the worst start in 61 years.

Nobody expected that.
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I don't think anyone expected game 1 to be cancelled, our 1st string qb hurt, 2nd string transferred and starting our 3rd string walk on either. 

 
dtbugeater said:
Agree. Bunch wasn’t awesome, but he is a walk on quarterback.  He did his part. It is the rest of the team that failed to pick him up not the other way around. 
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Very good point. Anytime you read someone blaming it all on the qb, you know they 1) do not understand the game, and 2) probably never played the game themselves.

 
Look at the records of the teams we have been splitting games with in the west. 0-3 Purdue, 1-2 Northwestern, etc.  We fit right in with our peers. The west is weak, we are weak. This year is about getting better as the year goes on and recruiting more athletes.

I can see a young team for the next 3 years at least.

 
3rd and long said:
That might be the best example ever of a misleading statistic. 

70% was because the type of what the majority of throws he was asked to make (quick, short, and simple) were, not because of an incredibly accurate night of throwing. 

Mind you I’m not dumping on Bunch because I’m not. I really don’t have much issue with how he played (he’s just a lot slower than I thought), just saying that citing that number as an indication of how he played is almost as bad as the people who are blaming him for the loss. 
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You cherry picked just one of the things that I said in that post.

The point of my original point was that Bunch played well enough for us to have won that game. 

 
Undone said:
You cherry picked just one of the things that I said in that post.

The point of my original point was that Bunch played well enough for us to have won that game. 
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Sorry, wasn’t meaning to argue your post.

Just that while I agree he didn’t play poorly (which I also said),  that stat was also not a true indicator. If someone is 70% in a normally called game with multiple downfield or difficult throws then it is much more indicative of an outstanding game by the QB. 

 
New coaches, new system, a prior losing season, the first game cancelled, facing a team who can surprise good teams, a walk on 4th string QB and 50+ new players and the 0-2 start is not a huge surprise.  It looks like we go at least  0-3 before we start to see better days.  We have the right coach at the helm, we have to give him plenty of time to right the ship and hand pick players for several recruiting classes.  Did anyone watch Ohio State last night?  How many players of their caliber do you think we have right now?  

 
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