The Moaning of Life

Supporting the team, cheering for them and being happy to be a Cornhusker fan makes you a "sunshine pumper." Anyone caught celebrating the Northwestern win is a sunshine pumper. Anyone happy that we had n**e w**s is a sunshine pumper. Anyone excited to have gotten to watch Taylor Martinez play here is a sunshine pumper. Anyone who even thinks of voicing out loud the idea that we may be better next year is a sunshine pumper.

Being a Husker fan is no longer about celebrating the culture of Nebraska football. It's about attaching yourself to a team that you'll be the most critical of.
Maybe it's just me, but I just don't see any of that.
You haven't seen the #9wins hashtag floating around, mocking winning nine games? You haven't seen this thread?

You haven't noticed how traffic quadruples after a loss?

You haven't noticed the fact that we can't have a Taylor Martinez-esque thread without it turning into an analysis of his flaws?

You haven't noticed that nary a thread has a mention of excitement for "next year" and someone, or often many someones, come in and says, "We were saying this last year." And the inevitable four-loss conversation starts, and the Bo leaving, and bap bap bap.

Are you saying you haven't seen any of this, or are you remarking on the hyperbole I'm using? Because if you're saying it doesn't exist, at all, I'm gonna get concerned.

I guess it depends on what you're looking at. Maybe you haven't seen this stuff.
I sense a project, but it won't get to be finished until the end of next season.

 
Doesn't all of the mentioned (bitching/moaning, arguments, negativity, etc.) kind of come with being involved with a message board? When you bring together thousands of people from various backgrounds, who choose to hide behind an anonymous screen name (except for Landlord, he clearly wants us all to know who he really is) you're not going see a whole lot of harmony, and accord....

Don't get me wrong, I hate most of you for your opinions
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, but it comes with the territory.....

 
Nah, I mean, there's negative and there's positive. I think the extent to which positive fans are being attacked for being positive just isn't very much (at other places? Maybe...), and offering a different viewpoint isn't the same as labeling anyone who, for instance, was excited about the Northwestern Hail Mary a sunshine pumper.

I suppose the exaggeration was meant to be more obvious.

 
Supporting the team, cheering for them and being happy to be a Cornhusker fan makes you a "sunshine pumper." Anyone caught celebrating the Northwestern win is a sunshine pumper. Anyone happy that we had n**e w**s is a sunshine pumper. Anyone excited to have gotten to watch Taylor Martinez play here is a sunshine pumper. Anyone who even thinks of voicing out loud the idea that we may be better next year is a sunshine pumper.

Being a Husker fan is no longer about celebrating the culture of Nebraska football. It's about attaching yourself to a team that you'll be the most critical of.
Maybe it's just me, but I just don't see any of that.
You haven't seen the #9wins hashtag floating around, mocking winning nine games? You haven't seen this thread?

You haven't noticed how traffic quadruples after a loss?

You haven't noticed the fact that we can't have a Taylor Martinez-esque thread without it turning into an analysis of his flaws?

You haven't noticed that nary a thread has a mention of excitement for "next year" and someone, or often many someones, come in and says, "We were saying this last year." And the inevitable four-loss conversation starts, and the Bo leaving, and bap bap bap.

Are you saying you haven't seen any of this, or are you remarking on the hyperbole I'm using? Because if you're saying it doesn't exist, at all, I'm gonna get concerned.

I guess it depends on what you're looking at. Maybe you haven't seen this stuff.
I wasn't coming from a place of negativity or intentional trolling when I made that thread. I know the new fun game is to pretend I'm a huge stick in the mud here, but you I assumed knew better than that.

I don't like the 9 wins defense. Is it a good thing that. Nebraska has won at least nine games since 2008? Yes. Of course it is. The problem is, it's the first step towards getting back to what we have gotten accustomed to here, and that's winning the conference, and beyond. It still seems like we're stuck on the first level.

And people aren't admitting it, but 2013 was the year nearly everyone was pointing to when NU lost to OU in the CCG and left for the Big Ten. Senior year Taylor, schedule shift, expierience, and the like. It didn't happen. Then, out of nowhere, here came the "9 wins" argument again when it was the only thing left. I was happy that NU won the bowl game, that's a good thing, but I was hoping to see some marked change in the method, as there were some pretty bad red flags being exposed. I would say the only thing that is different is it appears Bo went outside his comfort zone to get what looks could be a decent DB coach. Other than that, Els is still here, Pap is as well. Recruiting will not be as ranked high as some of the fervent defenders of the Process were going to claim.

These are all things worth discussing. And it can be done in a real, and fun way. But when you try to, some people jump all over it as somehow damaging to the program, and point to 9 wins.

Ultimately, those are the things I want to talk about, because if they're solved, it's the salad days here again. It's not a threat to the program if we discuss their faults. I'm excited for the future, but I worry too.

 
Here's where I have issue w/ the OP. You name a lot of singular plays. When you think back on the season - how many periods of great Husker football lasted beyond that - beyond a drive or two? I'm thinking the first quarter against UCLA, maybe the defense against Michigan. There's a few extended periods where we looked like a complete team for an entire quarter. Now, do the same exercise where it was a complete disaster. SD St, Wyoming 2nd half, UCLA 2nd half, Minnesota, MSU offense, Iowa entire game...etc, etc. So while we had a lot of highs, the lows seems to outweigh them - even in wins.

 
I understand that 2013 was the year that was pointed to. But that consensus began blindly 3 years ago. And in that time frame, a great number of players didnt develop as expected so we wound up with actually a very young team on the defensive side of the ball. And that senior qb was hurt all year. I know it's upsetting, but sometime the expectations need to be tailored a little based on the circumstances. We also thought this year would be the year because of the easier schedule, but we also didnt realize that Michigan St would be the force that they were and that both Minnesota and Iowa wouldve been as solid as they were. And yet, the things that seemed to hold us back were the same things that always have been. To me it was just a really strange year.

For over a year now, I've been pointing to 2015. Anyone with any sort of reasonable expectations shoulda know probably even prior to the 2012 season, that 2013 was just simply not going to be "that year". We knew way back then the question marks involved on the defensive side.

 
I don't think #9wins is being promoted as a Great and Good Thing to the extent that it's being portrayed, and I think the backlash is much stronger than the alleged "using it as a benchmark" thing. Kinda like how Callahan was ripped to shreds for wearing a certain shirt to a presser, or that asinine throat-slash. It's getting far more denouncement than support.

Anyway, I don't like the nine wins thing anymore, either, for reasons I expressed in the four losses thread.

But the thing is, I don't see nine wins or the other more pressing problems this team faces being discussed in a friendly, fun way. I see people calling for Bo or his assistants to be fired - and that's not a fun thing. Those are real guys with real families, and the vitriol sent their way (mostly Bo's way) is too much. Bo's behavior is X, but the anger and angst - not legit criticism, but the torches and pitchforks - is X2, and I don't see a benefit to that.

I see "X good thing happened and that was great" and then the inevitable word: but.

But. There's always a But. There's a lot of damning with faint praise going on, as if citing a good thing makes the bad thing to follow have no sting.

And I know, cue the "We're supposed to be able to critique the team" response, but nobody, least of all me, is saying there should be no criticism. But tone comes through, just like my tone is rankling some people here, because no matter how nicely I write this nor how many happy
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I might
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use, it's pretty clear that I'm not fond of an aspect of the criticism, isn't it?

That's how so much of the "but" comes across.

Whatever. Nobody's going to change because of this little sermonette. I'll be taken to task for telling people what they can and can't talk about, or told I'm doing the same thing. I get how it works.

 
Is it possible to be critical of Bo and optimistic for the upcoming season? Id like to think so. But still we have posts that are meant to do nothing but bash the coach and say how awful winning another 9 games will be. Excuses are excuses for a reason like stereotupes had to start somewhere. Its just a matter of understanding and balancing the excuses with reasonable expectations to find a happy place.

 
Seems pretty black and white to me. You're either a sunshine pumper or a fair-weather fan. No in betweens. You can't have it both ways. No cake! NO eating it too!

 
Ripped from my status update. The Husker Football forum is a wasteland of Not Good Enough and it's boring as hell. Nary a positive remark can be made without being shouted down in a chorus of "We want more/better/not whatever this is."

It's funny, really. We had a hell of a season. Unsatisfying in many ways, but pretty damned cool in others. But whatever happens, the single constant is that it's never enough. We're a lot that seems destined to be unsatisfied.

We've been talking about a new Tunnel Walk song. Here's the most appropriate choice...




Just to prove that we're not alone wanting more from a great program. Consider this little think piece about UCLA basketball...perhaps the bluest of the blue blood programs. (salty language included)

http://www.bruinsnat...birth-of-apathy

 
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So in other words, you are willing to lose this job if Zoogs talks back to you one more time?

ZOOGS, look out or Knappys-lappy will hit you with his cane/walker/dentures/season 5 of Matlock.
I don't even know what this means. zoogies has my utmost respect. We just differ in opinions on a few things, and I'm not afraid to let him know - I know he can handle it.

I'm not married to this Mod gig, and there'll be a day when I retire. And there will be much rejoicing, I am sure. But Mavric, new though he is, shows great promise. I may retire sooner rather than later. The guy is a natural.

 
9 wins isn't a "defense" of the year or performance, it's a reality. Let's go back a decade, shall we?

"They have great tradition," LSU coach Nick Saban said. "It's unusual to get rid of a coach who goes 9-3. Maybe some people are skeptical of the standards."
http://articles.chic...ollege-football

UM: “We actually were contacted by a third party. Not directly. I remember thinking about it. I had such great respect for Solich — he's an Ohio guy who's a good friend of mine — and I didn't agree with everything that went down. He won 10 games that year, right? That was alarming to me. I'm a coach, and whenever I see that happening to a coach, I think there's got to be something behind Door No. 1 to fire him after he won 10 games. I remember having great respect for the school but being concerned about what happened — and why it happened. If 10 games isn't good enough, I'm not sure what is.”
http://www.omaha.com...ERS/704289869/0

Guys on the list for NU were Dave Wandstadt, Bo Pelini, Turner Gill, Urban Meyer, Houston Nutt (turned down 2 million), Mike Zimmer, Brad Childress, the OC from KC, and surely there were others. We ended up with the fired coach of "the dumbest team in America."

The last time we fired a 9 win guy, we f'd up big time, and it haunted us for a long time. It changed the perception of Nebraska football around the country and Nebraska was considered poisonous. Coaches don't want to come in with a 9 win floor, which is where the talk of #9wins comes from. It's not so much an accomplishment, as a fact that it's a baseline for performance, and until we go below it, no change should be made.

There's a segment of the fanbase that thinks Bo is great, a segment that thinks he should be fired today and anyone who replaces him is better, and the rest who think the other two factions are crazy. I think Bo should have been let go after the Iowa debacle, but he wasn't, and there's a reason for that. The fact of the matter is, it's not a black and white situation. If it was, a change would have been made.

 
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I agree. If Solich goes 5-7 in 2003 and gets fired, this 9-win ordeal is probably not even an issue. Sunshiners dont push it. Downers dont knock it. And frankly, I dont really know how that would change Bo's current status, whether it would be improved or worsened.

 
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