Athlon: Open letter to the concerned Nebraska fan

[junior4949]

Agree. I don't like revisionist history. Miami '15 was nearly identical to MSU '14.

Mike Riley's team played a lot like Bo Pelini's team. I may not like admitting it, but it's true.

Yet for some reason I'm not worried.

Life's funny.

Were you worried last year after the Michigan State game? I know I wasn't worried at all. I was rather impressed the team had a pulse against a good team and nearly pulled off the comeback. I didn't get worried until the Wisconsin implosion.

 

[Joe_5700]

Riley has already made this his program. I remember watching OSU get drubbed by good Pac 12 teams. I remember watching the 20 yd outs chucked in vain on 3rd and 12 many times when he was there. He didnt have an NFL QB there at the time, and he doesnt have one here now.

But Riley isnt the problem in its entirety. Absolutely husker fans should be worried. There is a generation of adults now whos only recollection of Husker greatness is the 2001 NC game with the U. Thats scary. Its been too long this program has been languishing. The fans will lose interest. The leadership at Nebraska cant seem to understand that Coaches arent plug and play. You've got to get the right fit. Rodriguez at UM didnt work. Harbaugh will work. Meyer at THE OSU will work. Riley at NU will not work. The coach has to fit into the identity of the program. You are what you are.

What are the Cornhuskers of Lincoln?

This is a team at a University with high academic and character values instilled by past coaches and staff. Not many NCAA violations. Lots of Academic AA. Good enough for the Big 10. We do it the right way. This school and town could never attract a 3 deep stable of studs from Alabama, Texas, and Florida to run the Offense of the Rileys, Callahans, of the world. When you try that here with 3 star dudes, the team runs into a buzz saw of better talent. It takes your team 3 months to figure out the playbook, but it takes the other team 3 days. And the fans (money) dont respect it. It doesnt look like Devaney and Tom did it.

The last few years playing Wisconsins running attack and crowding defense I have to admit they looked more like Huskers than we did (Alvarez). I dont know what abomination that Martinez Beck offense was.

Nebraska football will rise again when we get the guy who understands that here at NU we need to recruit guys for OUR system that really want to be huskers period. He needs to understand that at Lincoln you do this by emphasizing power running,play action pass and some type of option (read option, or other) out of multiple sets. Now that we are in the Big 14 I dont know that a speedy 43 is the answer but the Key is UNRELENTING RUN FIRST DEFENSE. When we get a coach that understands this to the core, NU will return to national prominence. There was a metaphorical great book of football knowledge in the football offices at Nebraska. In it were the keys to domination at NU. Emblazoned on its large leatherbound cover were 5 national titles. Callahan tossed that book in the trash and no one has bothered to look for it since.

You make some very good points. I'm not exactly understanding what you mean by "OUR system", but I'm assuming you are referring to a dominating ground attack. I think Riley himself has consistently said that he wants to emphasize physicality and the run--and I think that is coming. I like the looks of the offense, which appears to be a combination of pro and spread/read sets.

Nobody's running smash mouth anymore, except for maybe "Bert", but even they are passing the ball more.

Going back to the offensive style that we were successful with in the 90's isn't going to come back under Riley. I do agree that it might work again because we are never going to win enough recruiting battles for the pro style athletes to ever work here. We could however once again get that top rated option type QB. Of course we would need the offensive line pipeline to re-open again...

 

[Guy Chamberlin]

Bob Devaney hired Tom Osborne for Tom's offensive sophistication. Osborne had a lot of new ideas and schematics, including opening up the passing game that Nebraska had used only sparingly.

When Osborne shifted to a run dominant offense a full 9 seasons into his head coaching career, it was actually a very sophisticated option game with lots of variables and trick plays, adding up to a substantial playbook. Not everyone could run it, but having recruited for it and stuck with it, it was operating very successfully in a couple seasons. Although it would take a full 20 seasons before Nebraska fans stopped second-guessing Osborne. If you don't remember Osborne's vaunted running game getting shut down cold by good teams in nationally televised games on the way to unsatisfying 9 win seasons, you don't know Husker football.

And yeah, I remember those Wisconsin running backs going wild against Nebraska and remembering when that used to be us. But Wisconsin merely discovered that Nebraska had no intention of stopping the run. If you look at Wisconsin over the course of the season, they ran a mix that was virtually identical to Tim Beck's.

Tom Osborne is on record as saying the offense he used to run probably wouldn't work in today's game.

The rushing game will never go away. I expect to see it tomorrow. But times change. Saying that we need to get back to the days when we won multiple national championships is a bit easier than doing it.

I'm not happy Nebraska has lost two games, but good lord, those were two exciting games. That's part of college football, too. Believe it or not, the national press isn't mocking us. They're duly noting that Nebraska has played two of the most exciting games this season.

Chin up.

 

[Guy Chamberlin]

Agree. I don't like revisionist history. Miami '15 was nearly identical to MSU '14.

Mike Riley's team played a lot like Bo Pelini's team. I may not like admitting it, but it's true.

Yet for some reason I'm not worried.

Life's funny.

Were you worried last year after the Michigan State game? I know I wasn't worried at all. I was rather impressed the team had a pulse against a good team and nearly pulled off the comeback. I didn't get worried until the Wisconsin implosion.

I felt exactly the same on both counts.

 

[cornographic]

Riley has already made this his program. I remember watching OSU get drubbed by good Pac 12 teams. I remember watching the 20 yd outs chucked in vain on 3rd and 12 many times when he was there. He didnt have an NFL QB there at the time, and he doesnt have one here now.

But Riley isnt the problem in its entirety. Absolutely husker fans should be worried. There is a generation of adults now whos only recollection of Husker greatness is the 2001 NC game with the U. Thats scary. Its been too long this program has been languishing. The fans will lose interest. The leadership at Nebraska cant seem to understand that Coaches arent plug and play. You've got to get the right fit. Rodriguez at UM didnt work. Harbaugh will work. Meyer at THE OSU will work. Riley at NU will not work. The coach has to fit into the identity of the program. You are what you are.

What are the Cornhuskers of Lincoln?

This is a team at a University with high academic and character values instilled by past coaches and staff. Not many NCAA violations. Lots of Academic AA. Good enough for the Big 10. We do it the right way. This school and town could never attract a 3 deep stable of studs from Alabama, Texas, and Florida to run the Offense of the Rileys, Callahans, of the world. When you try that here with 3 star dudes, the team runs into a buzz saw of better talent. It takes your team 3 months to figure out the playbook, but it takes the other team 3 days. And the fans (money) dont respect it. It doesnt look like Devaney and Tom did it.

The last few years playing Wisconsins running attack and crowding defense I have to admit they looked more like Huskers than we did (Alvarez). I dont know what abomination that Martinez Beck offense was.

Nebraska football will rise again when we get the guy who understands that here at NU we need to recruit guys for OUR system that really want to be huskers period. He needs to understand that at Lincoln you do this by emphasizing power running,play action pass and some type of option (read option, or other) out of multiple sets. Now that we are in the Big 14 I dont know that a speedy 43 is the answer but the Key is UNRELENTING RUN FIRST DEFENSE. When we get a coach that understands this to the core, NU will return to national prominence. There was a metaphorical great book of football knowledge in the football offices at Nebraska. In it were the keys to domination at NU. Emblazoned on its large leatherbound cover were 5 national titles. Callahan tossed that book in the trash and no one has bothered to look for it since.

You make some very good points. I'm not exactly understanding what you mean by "OUR system", but I'm assuming you are referring to a dominating ground attack. I think Riley himself has consistently said that he wants to emphasize physicality and the run--and I think that is coming. I like the looks of the offense, which appears to be a combination of pro and spread/read sets.

Nobody's running smash mouth anymore, except for maybe "Bert", but even they are passing the ball more.

Going back to the offensive style that we were successful with in the 90's isn't going to come back under Riley. I do agree that it might work again because we are never going to win enough recruiting battles for the pro style athletes to ever work here. We could however once again get that top rated option type QB. Of course we would need the offensive line pipeline to re-open again...

Hmmm, been hearing this type of nostalgia for, oh, about 15+ years now. Osborne's O is not coming back, sorry to say.

As to the current pro style orientation, well, we just recruited this guy named Patrick O'Brien, 4*, 7th ranked pro style qb, soooo......

I think we're going to be ok, I like what I'm seeing from Langsdorf.