WHAT DID WE LEARN- The 2024 Season Edition

TGHusker

TGHusker

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What are your season wrap up thoughts?

Mine: 

1.  DR shows great potential at QB but has to make a leap in consistency in year 2

2.  The team has yet to develop the 'killer instinct' when they have a lead.  3 games we should not 

have lost - thinking of UCLA, USC, Iowa and we allowed BC to make the game interesting.   Is this on the coaches who haven't fully turned the culture or on the senior/junior players?

3.  Staff turnover -  on the + side I believe Dana will make the O much improved next year.  I think the D will get better under Snow's (assistant HC) eyes..  Negative: why is Foley still here?

4. The D, outside of the Illinois and Indiana games, was the most consistent squad.  They allowed us to make the OSU game interesting. 

5.  This team, with more consistent play on offense and just barely average play on ST, could have, should have, would have been 10 - 3.  (Turn UCLA, USC, Iowa). 

6.  We are tired of hearing it BUTTT we really aren't that far off.  Need to win those 1 score games by developing the "take no captives' mindset.  

 
TGHusker said:
What are your season wrap up thoughts?

Mine: 

1.  DR shows great potential at QB but has to make a leap in consistency in year 2

2.  The team has yet to develop the 'killer instinct' when they have a lead.  3 games we should not 

have lost - thinking of UCLA, USC, Iowa and we allowed BC to make the game interesting.   Is this on the coaches who haven't fully turned the culture or on the senior/junior players?

3.  Staff turnover -  on the + side I believe Dana will make the O much improved next year.  I think the D will get better under Snow's (assistant HC) eyes..  Negative: why is Foley still here?

4. The D, outside of the Illinois and Indiana games, was the most consistent squad.  They allowed us to make the OSU game interesting. 

5.  This team, with more consistent play on offense and just barely average play on ST, could have, should have, would have been 10 - 3.  (Turn UCLA, USC, Iowa). 

6.  We are tired of hearing it BUTTT we really aren't that far off.  Need to win those 1 score games by developing the "take no captives' mindset.  
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Good stuff and thread.  

DR has all the potential in the world.  I'd like more urgency in his game.  I know that stats show the routes over 10+ were not the best and a lot of YOLO balls over 20+.  Unsure if that's on him or the receivers.  Both need to improve in this area.

Team still doesn't have that "take no prisoner attitude".  Too many opportunities to win and we didn't close.  TBH, as I watched this season, I blame that on Rhule and Co.  Players share some blame, but all season we showed the inability to score routinely in the 2nd half.  Lack of adjustment for sure, but I remember Rhule saying they'd go conservative to protect the lead and "teach the guys to win".  Rhule, career (college and NFL) is 70-83....A lot of his staff have been with him at various spots. I'd argue he needs to know/learn how to win.  Clock management, 25 games into NU tenure is still questionable.

I think Dana is a HUGE upgrade over Satt.  O seems to play better and with more rhythm.  Anxious to see if the staff remains or if there are some more more changes.  WTH is Foley still here.

D has played solid for sure.  I'm assuming Butler will go to more of a 4-3 base as his only experience with a 3 man front has been here.  Losing 600+ lbs of Nash and Ty will be hard to replace.  Unsure if we are set to run a 3 man front as our base with who is left.  A lot of potential talent left.  

ST play alone cost us several games.  Better team could have won some of those.  

Bottom line we just need more dudes at every level.  Defense needs that "eraser".  Guy who can clean up those missed assignments.  O needs to that bell cow RB and that go to receiver.  I know "all B1G" isn't the most accurate barometer, but Ty being 3rd string lets me know where we are/were at the talent level.  Need better Jimmy and Joes.  Interested to see how "program builder" Rhule does in this free for all NIL/Portal era of football where, IMHO, trying to build over time will get us left behind.  Different issue if we were a perennial top 10 team and had quality depth across the board.

We have the first winning season since 2016.  7-6 with a bowl win.  Great way to build for the future.  As always, went by too quick.

 
lo country said:
Good stuff and thread.  

DR has all the potential in the world.  I'd like more urgency in his game.  I know that stats show the routes over 10+ were not the best and a lot of YOLO balls over 20+.  Unsure if that's on him or the receivers.  Both need to improve in this area.

Team still doesn't have that "take no prisoner attitude".  Too many opportunities to win and we didn't close.  TBH, as I watched this season, I blame that on Rhule and Co.  Players share some blame, but all season we showed the inability to score routinely in the 2nd half.  Lack of adjustment for sure, but I remember Rhule saying they'd go conservative to protect the lead and "teach the guys to win".  Rhule, career (college and NFL) is 70-83....A lot of his staff have been with him at various spots. I'd argue he needs to know/learn how to win.  Clock management, 25 games into NU tenure is still questionable.

I think Dana is a HUGE upgrade over Satt.  O seems to play better and with more rhythm.  Anxious to see if the staff remains or if there are some more more changes.  WTH is Foley still here.

D has played solid for sure.  I'm assuming Butler will go to more of a 4-3 base as his only experience with a 3 man front has been here.  Losing 600+ lbs of Nash and Ty will be hard to replace.  Unsure if we are set to run a 3 man front as our base with who is left.  A lot of potential talent left.  

ST play alone cost us several games.  Better team could have won some of those.  

Bottom line we just need more dudes at every level.  Defense needs that "eraser".  Guy who can clean up those missed assignments.  O needs to that bell cow RB and that go to receiver.  I know "all B1G" isn't the most accurate barometer, but Ty being 3rd string lets me know where we are/were at the talent level.  Need better Jimmy and Joes.  Interested to see how "program builder" Rhule does in this free for all NIL/Portal era of football where, IMHO, trying to build over time will get us left behind.  Different issue if we were a perennial top 10 team and had quality depth across the board.

We have the first winning season since 2016.  7-6 with a bowl win.  Great way to build for the future.  As always, went by too quick.
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Terrific all-encompassing post, and one I wholeheartedly concur with.

I might add, (although I do believe DR is the future and will be great), but I think we were a bit oversold on his ability to throw the deep ball. Way too many examples this year of missing wide open guys by overthrowing (and I know it's better to overthrow then underthrow),  but there were two or three or four more wins in there if we just complete a couple of stretch plays downfield, and it almost seems as if he is so hesitant to underthrow, he takes the opposite safer option. Now that doesn't mean he can't mature and learn, and I fully expect him to, but part of the hype coming in was his adeptness at the Deep ball, and I confess I was not all that impressed by it in reality. Otherwise, I'm all on board for the future. GBR

 
Coaches let personal feelings affect who gets playing time instead of relying on talent 

Ty made himself some money and he deserves it

Special teams needs to overhaul.

A consultant was needed for time management.  Hopefully Snow can be that eye.

The KISS principle would have helped the offense out tremendously 

 
A lot of good stuff above.  Definitely moments from the season that could have and should have gone better... but I applaud the successes we did have.   Rhule did whatever it took,  imo, to deliver what we hired him to do.  Can he keep it going and deliver a solid 9+ win next year?  I like his chances...

 
TGHusker said:
What are your season wrap up thoughts?

Mine: 

1.  DR shows great potential at QB but has to make a leap in consistency in year 2

2.  The team has yet to develop the 'killer instinct' when they have a lead.  3 games we should not 

have lost - thinking of UCLA, USC, Iowa and we allowed BC to make the game interesting.   Is this on the coaches who haven't fully turned the culture or on the senior/junior players?

3.  Staff turnover -  on the + side I believe Dana will make the O much improved next year.  I think the D will get better under Snow's (assistant HC) eyes..  Negative: why is Foley still here?

4. The D, outside of the Illinois and Indiana games, was the most consistent squad.  They allowed us to make the OSU game interesting. 

5.  This team, with more consistent play on offense and just barely average play on ST, could have, should have, would have been 10 - 3.  (Turn UCLA, USC, Iowa). 

6.  We are tired of hearing it BUTTT we really aren't that far off.  Need to win those 1 score games by developing the "take no captives' mindset.  
Click to expand...
Agree with most of your assessment.  Special teams literally could not be any worse.  I think we have a bit of revisionist history against UCLA tho, I dont recall us ever being in control of that game, much less leading at any point.  Felt like we got punched in the mouth from the get go and the score made the game feel much closer than it actually was.

Order of priority and significance:

1. Improve the offense- yes special teams was way worse this year, but our offense was borderline embarassing.  Dana will help, an actual WR coach will help.  An added year of DR in college will help.  Need all of this to come together and it should

2. Improve special teams- Foley seems like a nice guy, at the same time, foley is clearly an inept coach that needs to be given the boot.  We ranked near dead last across all major ST statistical categories.  Embarassment is an understatement

3.  Defense:  Fill Ty and Nash void and more importantly, need to improve significantly in 3rd down defense.  

Our schedule sets up very nice next year.  We simply cannot afford to d!(k around from October first to mid november like we have the past 2 seasons

 
Moiraine said:
That’s the rumor, but there’s no word on whether it was renewed. 
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There was an article on it but I don’t remember the thread. There’s a screenshot of it in the fire foley thread. Yeah nothing updated from that article about updates. Maybe to festive of a time to report someone not getting renewed?

 
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BlackHillsHusker said:
Coaches let personal feelings affect who gets playing time instead of relying on talent 
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I don't mean to pick on this post specifically but I don't think we've ever had a coaching staff that wasn't accused of this at some point. Personally I think it's a pretty nebulous accusation.

Coaches weigh a lot of factors when choosing who to play. Just because they make the wrong choices and/or seemingly continue to play the wrong guys doesn't necessarily mean it's because they're all up in their feels about it.

For example, the narrative around Dana H. is he's "playing the talented guys" or 'not playing favorites' or however we want to phrase it. I look forward to midway through next season when he too will have allegedly forgotten how to do this.

 
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