swmohusker
Active member
Effort and being fiery is a good way to come out and play but all that wears off after a few plays. The best way to sustain a high effort is competition. We dont have much competition across the board. Guys should be playing hard bc if they dont it is bench time and the next guy is in. That is why in the NFL it is about responsibility and assignment, not effort. If you dont give effort you will be gone. We have watched the same guys make the same mistakes for most the year and we just ride with it. Our oline knows they will start the whole game barring injury bc they are the "best" 5 and have no fear of someone coming for their spot. Once you are in that comfort zone of having your position, you dont have competition fueling your effort to play at a higher level.I didn't feel like starting another thread for this and since this thread is about effort, I thought I'd put it here.
Honestly, at this point, I'm not that concerned about winning or losing on Saturday. Yes, it would really suck if we lost to Purdue and I will be happier with a win than a loss. However, what I want to see on Saturday is effort across the board. I want to see players demolishing the other side. Purdue is a team that Nebraska should be able to do that to. Understand what you are supposed to do and do it. We saw some of that in the Minnesota game. I want to see the players pumped up and ready to play.
The more I think about it, I think this is the biggest thing that we are missing and we have been missing this for a very very long time. I think Callahan brought in the NFL attitude where...."This is your job, go out and do it, no need to be emotional about it". That is the absolute opposite of what college football is all about. The entire game is an emotional game and many times, the team that comes to play jacked up (but disciplined) and on fire wins the game. Bo was a hot head on the side lines getting in people's faces. He took it too far and was an embarrassment and in large part, that's why he wasn't as effective as he could have been. That fire needs to come from the team. The HC needs to be the calming influence on the side lines when in the heat of battle. I think that is what Riley is looking for. He wants the fire to come from the team, not from him and that's the way it should be.
These players need to be there excited to be on that field and destroy the other team. We need that on this team. Until that part of the culture on the team changes, I'm not sure the results get much better. BUT, that can't come from the HC. It needs to come from within the team.
I want this team to come out with emotion in this game and be the team with the most energy.
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