Speaking of sycophants, none of the Langs disciples have even tried to address the topic at hand.
Quite telling.
two questions..
1) Do you believe Nebraska can only win with Tom system of the 90's?
2) Do you believe that Nebraska had the success it did because TO was a great coach, and made changes when needed, or do you believe it was the base system of running the ball?
Personally, I believe it was more TO than the system he ran, though I 100% believe we need to run the ball. If I am not mistaken TO said he likes aspects of the spread offense.
I think the combination of the two could be successful at NU!
To answer (1), no, I don't think we can or should replicate his system from the 90s, though I do think it would work today. More than anything, I think NU needs to employ a "heavy" rather than "balanced" system that utilizes a playmaker, rather than game manager, at the QB position. I prefer run heavy for a number of reasons, but if people want to go pass heavy, I wouldn't be against it. I'd look at a lot of coaches who've achieved offensive success with less than ideal recruiting (e.g., Briles, leech, some of the guys at service academies, guys at Oregon early on in their success, even TO for many of his years). I'm of the basic opinion that year in and year out, NU will be between 20 and 30 in terms of recruiting, with some bounces up and falls down occasionally based on circumstance (eg, bad year of local talent or excitement of a new system ala '05).
Therefore, NU needs to be asymmetrical in its strategies. It can't hope to have much consistent success going toe to toe with the USCs and Alabama's of the world. I don't even think they can do that going up against the michigans and Michigan states of the world.
I also like the idea of a "chunk play" offense that cuts down on reads and uses players interchangeably rather than fundamentally changes based on the players' ability. That's why I like the option as a component of offense and the way it cleans up reads for guys in the passing game by forcing a man out of coverage.
(2) Nebraska had the success we did for a number of reasons, but mainly because we had a great coach. In my opinion, the best to ever coach because of what he accomplished in Nebraska. I think any coach who comes here should borrow heavily from his blueprint. I'm sure there are 50 ways to skin a cat, but there aren't that many ways to grind out championships in Lincoln, so why reinvent the wheel.
All of that said, with NU positioned the way it is, Riley can run his system and win 9-10 games a year, I think. And if he does that, we shouldn't fire him. I just don't see NU recruiting consistently well enough to win championships with that system, though I do think we can win with that same talent using a more creative system.