A Stupid Question

JJ Husker said:
I wasn’t satisfied with his 9 wins or, maybe more accurately, I wasn’t happy with his 3-4 losses. And really little of that had to do with his demeanor....until his last two years anyway.  But then again I thought a marginally trained monkey could’ve secured the same amount of wins and Riley blew that theory out of the water. This is why culture and “in the deed” is more important than the W-L record.
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What you and Takoda are saying reflects my thoughts exactly about Pelini, Riley, and culture.

With Pelini, I had actually learned to accept that we may never be in the national championship picture again and could probably be content with 9 wins, but Pelini's behavior and the mentality that he instilled were unacceptable. Was underwhelmed by Riley's hire but if he could have brought a more positive culture and still have Pelini's record, I could have lived with it and simply waxed nostalgic for the good ol' days. But ultimately, Pelini was crap. Riley was crap. I agree that culture is important, and with the right culture will finally come success. Maybe.

 
Guy Chamberlin said:
For some of you younger folks, Tom Osborne was notoriously pleasant and consistently won 9 games, but there were many years in his first 20 seasons when the fanbase grumbled about those 9 wins not being enough. 

The only difference: no internet. 
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It was the age of the small town coffee shop/gas station. I recall many a gripe session down there when Nebraska didnt win in the fashion they'd like.

"I can't believe how slow we started!" "We had no business winning by 3 scores, it shoulda been 50..."

 
Frost has already moved our offense forward from last year after just four games. In our 42-35 loss to Oregon last year we had 361 yards of offense. In our 46-36 win over Arkansas State, we had 497 yards of total offense.

We've cracked over 560 twice this season, both against Power 5 teams. It's fine if that's not enough data for anyone else but for me it shows it's moving in the right direction for sure in terms of scheme and execution. Take out the penalties and turnovers and this offense is pretty damn good.

But defense...defense is just absolutely terrible. It hasn't really improved at all from last year, and I think it's even fair to say that it might have gotten worse. That's troubling.

 
El Straino said:
It was the age of the small town coffee shop/gas station. I recall many a gripe session down there when Nebraska didnt win in the fashion they'd like.

"I can't believe how slow we started!" "We had no business winning by 3 scores, it shoulda been 50..."
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During one of those Osborne seasons I sat behind an elderly woman who came to the games by herself. Every time Nebraska failed to convert a third down, she'd throw up her hands and say "well there goes the Orange Bowl!"

 
Guy Chamberlin said:
During one of those Osborne seasons I sat behind an elderly woman who came to the games by herself. Every time Nebraska failed to convert a third down, she'd throw up her hands and say "well there goes the Orange Bowl!"
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So, was it Callahan or Pelini or Riley that actually put her in the grave? :lol:  Or possibly one of those pre 1994 Orange Bowls?

 
 One of the issues with Mike Riley is he was a 62-year old coach. When you hire a 62-year old football coach, you are screaming "win now!"

Frost is 43 and has time to adjust and build this thing the right way.

Another thing, Bo did not leave the 'cupboard bare.' That 2015 team had 6 losses by a touchdown or less. Many were due to game mismanagement way beyond anything Frost and Co have done. The 2016 team was ranked in the top ten in late October before a close loss to Wisconsin. Those teams could have put Bo over the top, if Bo could only get out of his own way. 

Bo had his best teams with Callahan's recruits, but Bo also created a culture where every game mattered and competition. I don't want to relitigate Bo, but I appreciate his consistency more and more. We've took winning for granted it became hard to appreciate someone who cranked out 9 wins and good kids. It didn't help those miserable SOB's at the OWH were rooting for him to fail. One thing about Bo is I always felt you had to earn your spot and the best players played. T

Frost has disappointed me with game management and special teams. Certainly a veteran coach like Les Miles could have 'coached up' the Huskers and squeaked out a win or two in 2018.

But the Frost system is not to out-Mark Dantonio or Les Miles an opponent, although that approach would be useful this year.

The Frost System is to put up tons of points and outscore their opponents. It's to put up 40 points by the 4th quarter. It's to Tom Osborne'em again.

It's going to be worth is in the long-run and moves like promoting Kade Warner and losing Lindsay (best of luck) tell me things are getting better. 

Riley's team last year flat gave up in November. I want to see this team improve and fight.

Keep the faith. GBR

 
I'm going to break it down to just one issue. It's been a problem for all these coaches.

Defense.

Our defense has been bad. Really bad. Like, the other team can't believe we let them run the same play over and over and over bad. A defense that may be lacking speed, and still chooses to give  an 8 yard cushion on every play. It's actually getting mystifying, and it seems to have infected Scott Frost, too. 

We can talk offensive identity all we want, but nothing is going to change until we field a coherent defense. 

 
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