Thoughtful Plan on Moving Forward

M

moveitforward

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Several critical steps necessary to move forward -

1. Any coach that is hired (including our current coach) should be given at least 5 years.

2. Although the number is shrinking, our “emporer’s new clothes” fans - who still are too many - need to step into reality. Our team is not entitled to victories just because we have a Red “N” on our helmet, or because we were national champions 20 years ago. Support our players and their coach. 

3. High school players today were babies the last time we were a top 10 program - 2001. In their eyes, we are an average program in an average conference - because we are! Come to grips with that, and the fact that recruits look at these message boards - what they read here today is chaos.

4. We will only rebuild this program one practice, one game, one year at a time. It will take years, and supportive determination. No magical coaches.

5. Finally, I guess we should be thankful we no longer play in the Big 12. A few weeks ago, OU beat Ohio State in Columbus, and last week Iowa State beat Oklahoma - in Norman. 

Just the facts.

 
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This thread is false. Teams rebuild quickly all the time. Look at Penn St. They had the worst scandal in college football history that I can remember. The death penalty was on the table. Look at them now. Cream of the crop in the B1G. That's just one example. It all starts with a "good" coach. Which Grandpa is not. He and The Wisconsin Ginger are laughing all the way to the bank. 

 
moveitforward said:
5. Finally, I guess we should be thankful we no longer play in the Big 12. A few weeks ago, OU beat Ohio State in Columbus, and last week Iowa State beat Oklahoma. 
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Last year. when Ohio St beat Oklahoma in Norman, the Sooners used that game as motivation to improve, and were a much better team afterward.  If the two teams had played at the end of the year again it would have been a different game.

Likewise this year, after Oklahoma beat Ohio St, the Buckeyes studied their weaknesses in that game and analytically worked to improve.  This is a much different and better team that played in Lincoln last night than that game vs Oklahoma earlier.   If Oklahoma and Ohio St played next week, different game.

Besides Iowa beat Iowa St FWIW....

in any case I actually think the two conferences are about equal  most years in terms of difficulty to win league games.  All the power 5 leagues are tough week in and week out.

 
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OP has a point... I am not a Riley apologist, but 5 years makes us look reasonable.   Coach was a hot commodity and has proven to be a sharp recruiter.  We are hampered by injuries etc... but hard to figure out why we lack passion and an identity as a team.  

 
moveitforward said:
There is a reason they actually play the game - to determine who is the better team. Your statement falls flat, IMO.
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Sure, I agree that the actual games played do count.  At that point in time Iowa was better than Iowa St.   And Maryland better than Texas.   And Oklahoma better than Ohio St.

I am just making the point that rematches of earlier games in, say, conference championships, often have a different result from the first game.   Because good teams use losses as opportunities to improve.   Last year, Oklahoma was a much better team later on, after learning from the loss to Ohio St.

 
I am not afraid to say I was optimistically giving Riley this season to prove he belonged here. I was behind him and trusted his vision. After the non con I was willing to give him the conference slate to show me something. I like MR, I wanted him to have a great year so all of the naysayers could quiet down. But all he has shown me through conference play is he doesn't have this team improving. We may get better here on out, but it's too late now. The first half last night was so bad. OSU may as well have been going against air. We have the talent to be competitive against OSU and give them fits. It's not the loss, that is to be expected against OSU and their talent collection. But we should be able to make it hard on them. We looked like we were zero resistance to them. Maybe Riley could build a winner here given more time, I'm not sure. But I am sure a different coach can build a winner and a team that looks tough when we aren't winning yet. 

 
moveitforward said:
Several critical steps necessary to move forward -

1. Any coach that is hired (including our current coach) should be given at least 5 years.

2. Although the number is shrinking, our “emporer’s new clothes” fans - who still are too many - need to step into reality. Our team is not entitled to victories just because we have a Red “N” on our helmet, or because we were national champions 20 years ago. Support our players and their coach. 

3. High school players today were babies the last time we were a top 10 program - 2001. In their eyes, we are an average program in an average conference - because we are! Come to grips with that, and the fact that recruits look at these message boards - what they read here today is chaos.

4. We will only rebuild this program one practice, one game, one year at a time. It will take years, and supportive determination. No magical coaches.

5. Finally, I guess we should be thankful we no longer play in the Big 12. A few weeks ago, OU beat Ohio State in Columbus, and last week Iowa State beat Oklahoma - in Norman. 

Just the facts.
Click to expand...
It will certainly take time.  the biggest plus for Riley is that he seems to be a good recruiter and he is willing to make major changes to his staff.  the biggest weakness seems to be his getting out-coached and under preparing his team for games (and poor clock management). He was not out coached by UW, however physically his team was not prepared for a 4 quarter (defense) brawl.  I only watched a few minutes of the OSU game (late in Q4) and I couldn't understand why when the game was way out of hand, Riley's OC kept calling for pass plays, geeze, run the ball, kill as much clock as possible so you can get out of game healthy.  instead we see game extending incomplete pass plays...  Either way it was still 3 and out for the most part. 

 
I am not an apologist for Coach. We need to learn patience. 5 years was not unreasonable. Coach has shown he is willing to make hard choices with staff.  We have a couple of top 5 position/recruiting coaches in the country.   Coach knows this team better than us, and this will/would take time to correct.  However; pitchforks, rope and fire are in the fan's hands, and Riley's fate is sealed by weeks end. We are writing a lot of checks for exes.  Kinda sad.

 
I don't get why we need to show patience for a coach who wasn't highly sought after when he was hired by NU, and Riley hasn't shown anything on the field worth a darn. Yeah, Riley has cut ties with long-time assistants to try and change things, but the poor product on the field has stayed the same.  The one constant is Riley. He's heading things up, and he's failing. 

 
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