Is it "light years" better than the year before? Because we heard this crap from Pelini for years.
Watching games from the Bo years, I can’t believe how good we were every year. I mean 9 wins is a lot. And we had talent- lots of it. I think I’ve mis-remembered a lot of his tenure.
Sure there was a lopsided loss to Wisconsin- that was embarrassing- but there was plenty of good too.
The criticism of the fans never bothered me, we are obnoxious and deserved it. And I was glad we had a coach who felt losses, particularly right after they happened. The troubling thing for me was the escalation of his behavior. He’s a flame that burns our early.
We has least two in Thursday nights game: Janowich and Freedom. Fun game.Agree with a lot of this. Looking back at Pelini years we put a fair amount of guys in the NFL. However his last couple recruiting classes fell down a bit and then the talent drain under Riley and during the transition was brutal. I think the escalation of his behavior started to hurt his recruiting on the end. I mean guys seem him explode on the sidelines at players and that doesn't help.
For all the bad behavior and blowout losses though, I think his ultimate failing was development. I never really felt the same about the program he ran following that 2010 season. It started to feel like a team just sort of going through the paces, never really reaching their potential but also never falling far from it. Basically like getting a B average over and over again.
100% agree. The overall failings along the defensive line in general were staggering and eye-opening. The entire 2010 defensive line didn't pan out, an absolute disaster when taken into context of joining a league as powerful in the trenches as the B1G tends to be.The craziest thing about Bo was that he was never able to recruit based off Ndamukong Suh's success. He had a perfect pitch - look at what this guy was when I got here, and look what I helped turn him into. And yet that position was a black hole for him after Suh.
You're not alone. The one thing I tried to do during the Riley years was keep in perspective that a complete failure of a hire didn't necessarily mean it was wrong to get rid of BP. On a personal note, it was like the time I broke up with a girlfriend I'd had for multiple years. I started to date someone new not long after who broke my heart, and it got me thinking during the heartbreak that hey... maybe that old girlfriend wasn't so bad? Was I being too rash and impulsive to leave her?2012 is when I began feeling the hump was more like a 100ft wall. By the end I was ready for a change, but I'd went so All In on Bo my fandom took a major hit because the following hire was so uninspiring.
And yet that position was a black hole for him after Suh.
You mean Bo era players? That 2015 home game was Riley.Save for Maliek Collins & Vince Valentine, IMO. A Top 5 game from the Bo era for me was 2015 against Miami at home, which had both of those guys, Randy Gregory, Josh Mitchell, & Nate Gerry.
That game could probably be argued as being the nastiest home game atmosphere in the post-Solich era. Has to be at least top 3 anyway.
You mean Bo era players? That 2015 home game was Riley.
Weren't the Davis twins his recruits? They are in the NFL too...Save for Maliek Collins & Vince Valentine, IMO. A Top 5 game from theBo erapost-Solich era for me was 2015 against Miami at home, which had both of those guys, Randy Gregory, Josh Mitchell, & Nate Gerry.
That game could probably be argued as being the nastiest home game atmosphere in the post-Solich era. Has to be at least top 3 anyway.