Two years in....no growth

huskerfan74 said:
I am honestly tired of hearing people say that a coach needs a few years to turn things around and get his players in. That is complete bullsh#t and horse crap. Look at what harbaugh and Meyer did in their first years. Look at what Petersen did at Washington in ONE YEAR. THEY inherited whatever was left and coached them up. We just give coaches excuses and prolong the inevitable. Let us face it, Riley is not a long term solution. He has a couple more years of coaching at best. If he could not turn things around when he was at his prime, he is not going to do it now. He is a nice guy and loyal to his assistants and we will continue to see average seasons and slowly lose respect that the Nebraska brand used to carry.

If you are a good coach, you win no matter what. Look at Saban, he loses QBs, good assistants, excellent players, and he simply reloads and continues destroying everyone. We are just left with the hope that the Angels will start playing football by our side so we can may be win a championship. Hopefully that will happen in the next decade or two.
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I agree with you. I would even add that Chryst has made Wisconsin better in 2 years. Wisconsin has been good for many years, but it's not often that this late in the season they are still in talks for making it to the national championship game or the CFP? They have played the toughest schedule in the nation in my opinion, and have one OT loss to the #2 team, and a 7-point loss on the road to the #3 team. Great coaching can make a difference, and Riley and his staff are just average overall, not the dramatic change needed to make NU relevant nationally.

 
huskerfan74 said:
I am honestly tired of hearing people say that a coach needs a few years to turn things around and get his players in. That is complete bullsh#t and horse crap. Look at what harbaugh and Meyer did in their first years. Look at what Petersen did at Washington in ONE YEAR.
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Meyer and Harbaugh inherited loaded rosters full of 4 and 5 star talent. OSU had an interim coach for one year but were rolling under Tressel before that. Even had the type of QB Meyer wanted waiting for him. They are both terrific coaches to be sure but Nebraska is not in the same place talent wise right now.

Petersen went 8-6 in year 1. 7-6 in year 2. Now he's got it going in year 3 so he didn't do it in one year.

 
Offensively, Riley and his staff failed in 2 areas

1) Not bringing in a QB that could truly compete with Armstrong. I have been a big fan of Tommy, but he is not a good passer. Riley should have brought in a guy in 2015 or a JC guy in 2016 who could truly compete with Tommy and provide quality depth at QB. With Lee having the inside track to start at QB the next 2 years, it could be into year 5 of Riley before we see a HS recruited QB actually start in his system.

2) Not doing a better job with the mess at o-line. I know Riley inherited the o-line that lacked quality depth, but he and Cav didn't do a whole lot to get current RS and true freshman on the field. Now going into 2017, there appears to be more talent and depth, but are people going to use the excuse of "well it's the first year starting for a few of these linemen". Cav needs to get a great line going next year, because without Tommy's running ability producing yards in the run game and his mobility reducing the # of sacks, it could be a long season for the offense in 2017.

 
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alwayshusking said:
huskerfan74 said:
I am honestly tired of hearing people say that a coach needs a few years to turn things around and get his players in. That is complete bullsh#t and horse crap. Look at what harbaugh and Meyer did in their first years. Look at what Petersen did at Washington in ONE YEAR.
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Meyer and Harbaugh inherited loaded rosters full of 4 and 5 star talent. OSU had an interim coach for one year but were rolling under Tressel before that. Even had the type of QB Meyer wanted waiting for him. They are both terrific coaches to be sure but Nebraska is not in the same place talent wise right now.

Petersen went 8-6 in year 1. 7-6 in year 2. Now he's got it going in year 3 so he didn't do it in one year.
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In year 2, Petersen handed the reigns to a freshman QB, and is seeing the results of his strong play in year 3. Is Tanner Lee going to be able to be a difference maker with wholesale changes across all the skill positions on offense?

 
I guess I do not see the great talent in Lincoln right now. 6-8 guys who could play on any team, but then a big drop off. I see a DL that lost 4 guys (2 NFL), an offensive line that has injuries, and a running QB trying to be a throwing QB. I see MR recruiting his butt off unlike Bo, who left the cupboard pretty bare. The depth is just not there like with other teams. Its not MR fault. He's getting NU there. My hope is that next year the coaching staff will be running their system with what they know best. A finesse passing attack with a QB who can make the throws and make the reads. Sitting in the stadium, I have seen guys running wide open but the QB cannot see/doesn't check down/doesnt understand the offense. I have hope that it will get better. I have to believe once they get D1 talent on the Dline that the defense will look better. I have no idea what the secondary is doing under Banker though. Seems like a lot of 12 yards off the ball when they need eight. The special teams coach needs to pack his stuff up and go somewhere far, far away.

I liked Bo but got tired of his act. He was a bad reflection on NU and a PR disaster. I am trying to like MR and willing to give him a 4 year window to start turning things around. Not sure if he can, but talent wise, he will leave the program better than what he inherited it, imho. I seem to remember that MR redshirted a lot of players that will pay dividends down the road.

 
KCBuc said:
I see MR recruiting his butt off unlike Bo, who left the cupboard pretty bare. The depth is just not there like with other teams. Its not MR fault.\
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The recruiting rankings say otherwise.

Are we top ten? No way.

But "bare?"

We've out recruited our division by a fair margin over the last few years (aka, talent on the roster) and the team that beat us today by 30 friggin spots.

So let's stop moving the goalposts.

 
I keep hearing that MR and his staff are killing it on recruiting as well, but the proof is not in the signing classes yet. They will have to hit on a lot of guys that haven't committed yet to make the '17 class way better than classes we have seen in the past few years.

 
Iowa just beat us soundly with much inferior talent. We have so many weapons yet these coaches failed to utilize them properly. I would argue that WISCONSIN and IOWA are doing much more with much less. Our coaches are failing big time. Next year, we will do much worse because we are losing some of our best receivers and play makers. Let us see what Mike Riley and company recruiting does for us over the next two years. We go 8-5 next year and that is best case scenario.

 
ColoradoHusk said:
alwayshusking said:
huskerfan74 said:
I am honestly tired of hearing people say that a coach needs a few years to turn things around and get his players in. That is complete bullsh#t and horse crap. Look at what harbaugh and Meyer did in their first years. Look at what Petersen did at Washington in ONE YEAR.
Click to expand...
Meyer and Harbaugh inherited loaded rosters full of 4 and 5 star talent. OSU had an interim coach for one year but were rolling under Tressel before that. Even had the type of QB Meyer wanted waiting for him. They are both terrific coaches to be sure but Nebraska is not in the same place talent wise right now.

Petersen went 8-6 in year 1. 7-6 in year 2. Now he's got it going in year 3 so he didn't do it in one year.
Click to expand...
In year 2, Petersen handed the reigns to a freshman QB, and is seeing the results of his strong play in year 3. Is Tanner Lee going to be able to be a difference maker with wholesale changes across all the skill positions on offense?
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I don't know. That's certainly one of the big questions of the offseason. If he can make good reads and deliver an accurate ball he'll be a big upgrade over what we have now.

That and how much can the OL improve with an infusion of young talent? Those are a couple questions but we'll have to wait for the answers.

 
In the end I think Riley's success will come down to recruiting. He is doing some good things but we need to do much better.

https://n.rivals.com/team_rankings/

5 teams that absolutely should not finish higher in recruiting rankings than us but currently are:

Maryland

Arkansas

Colorado

Arizona

Miss. State

We are currently at #24 and I have always said we need to consistently be in the top 15 if we want to compete in conference championship games and beyond. And it is odd to see Oregon St. only 3 spots behind us. So we need to move up another ten spots for this recruiting season to be a big success IMO.

 
To close the talent gap its time too hit the JUCO ranks and get some skilled postion players. WR, LB, and even a dual threat QB. Instant players that can fill gaps.

 
Tommy Armstrong was #6 Dual Threat QB and #293 Recruit in 2012. Beathard was #49 Pro Style QB and #1100 in the same class.

Terrell Newby was #11 RB and #124 Recruit in his class. LaShun Daniels was #97 RB and #1590 in his.

We'll need Alabama-quaility recruiting to cover up for some of this staff.

 
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