What is this year about?

[Elf]

First, I just woke up from hibernation, so mods, if this is covered somewhere else, merge away.

Simple question: When the end of the season comes, will this year be about "this year" or will it be about the next 5 years?

Will it be defined by a w/l record, or by progress made and the establishment of a new Husker mentality among fans, coaches, players, media, etc?

"Both" would be the easy answer. Not acceptable. Chose one or the other.

To satisfy the skeptics, Riley must win at least 9 games or more.

To satisfy everyone else, there must be progress.

Personally, I need to see progress. Tackling must improve on the defense. No more games where we get blown out. No more team melt downs on the field. Fewer penalties, fewer turnovers by us and more forced turnovers for the enemies. I think all of this and more is achievable with our staff upgrade.

 

[Saunders]

Winning and a lot of it.

First off...Riley is not taking over some downtrodden team with zero experience coming back.

He is not facing some daunting schedule, there is a chance they only face 2 ranked teams

He has a QB with 20 starts

Riley is a seasoned vetern with a super experienced staff

This is not a rebuild. Riley was hired, not to rebuild and not to maintain. He was hired so that a 9 win season starts to look like the floor and not the ceiling.

Couldn't it "start to look like the floor and not the ceiling" in many ways without actually winning 9 games this season?

For me, one of the reasons I would have a hard time with that is that NU is (at this moment) favored in all games but 2. They will probably only face 2-3 teams that are ranked higher than them. Right now that would be MSU and Wisconsin (Miami could be when they play but I am not sure that they are right now)

With an experienced staff and a QB with 20 starts and recruiting rankings that back up that NU has better talent than all the teams they face (except Miami and maybe MSU) I just can't imagine why NU would drop 5 or 6 games this year.

^^This.

 

[DomiNUs]

Winning and a lot of it.

First off...Riley is not taking over some downtrodden team with zero experience coming back.

He is not facing some daunting schedule, there is a chance they only face 2 ranked teams

He has a QB with 20 starts

Riley is a seasoned vetern with a super experienced staff

This is not a rebuild. Riley was hired, not to rebuild and not to maintain. He was hired so that a 9 win season starts to look like the floor and not the ceiling.

Completely agree. If we wanted another 4 loss season we would of stuck with Bo.

Riley was also hired to bring a different mentality to the program. Winning is what ultimately matters, but, if anybody thinks this was purely about how many games the coach wins, they're fooling themselves. MR's personality is a night and day difference compared to BP. If this hire had solely been about wins and losses, can we say for certain MR would've been the guy hired? I can't say that. I don't think any of us can with certainty.

As much as we all want to win and win now, be fair to MR. Yes, he agreed to take the job, but it's an extremely difficult job that a lot of us can't fully comprehend because we've never done it. He deserves some time to do things his way.

You are right about Riley being hired because of the mentality he brings. However, this is Eichorst's gamble. He fired a fairly successful coach and hired Riley. Hardly anyone except the real die hard football fanatics knew who Riley even was. If you fire a coach that wins, and make an obscure hire like Riley, you better win and win quick. Most new coaches are taking over dumpster fires for a program, Riley is not. This raises expectations even further. I somewhat agree that he deserves the time to get it right, but I just don't think this situation permits it.

 

[Elf]

Winning and a lot of it.

First off...Riley is not taking over some downtrodden team with zero experience coming back.

He is not facing some daunting schedule, there is a chance they only face 2 ranked teams

He has a QB with 20 starts

Riley is a seasoned vetern with a super experienced staff

This is not a rebuild. Riley was hired, not to rebuild and not to maintain. He was hired so that a 9 win season starts to look like the floor and not the ceiling.

Completely agree. If we wanted another 4 loss season we would of stuck with Bo.

Riley was also hired to bring a different mentality to the program. Winning is what ultimately matters, but, if anybody thinks this was purely about how many games the coach wins, they're fooling themselves. MR's personality is a night and day difference compared to BP. If this hire had solely been about wins and losses, can we say for certain MR would've been the guy hired? I can't say that. I don't think any of us can with certainty.

As much as we all want to win and win now, be fair to MR. Yes, he agreed to take the job, but it's an extremely difficult job that a lot of us can't fully comprehend because we've never done it. He deserves some time to do things his way.

You are right about Riley being hired because of the mentality he brings. However, this is Eichorst's gamble. He fired a fairly successful coach and hired Riley. Hardly anyone except the real die hard football fanatics knew who Riley even was. If you fire a coach that wins, and make an obscure hire like Riley, you better win and win quick. Most new coaches are taking over dumpster fires for a program, Riley is not. This raises expectations even further. I somewhat agree that he deserves the time to get it right, but I just don't think this situation permits it.

I think it's pretty clear that when you fire a coach that has won 9 or more games for all 7 seasons he was here that it wasn't his W/L record that got him canned. I don't think Eichorst was gambling when he fired Pelini, I think he was cutting out a cancer.

 

[Dagerow]

Progress

 

[RADAR]

Winning and a lot of it.

First off...Riley is not taking over some downtrodden team with zero experience coming back.

He is not facing some daunting schedule, there is a chance they only face 2 ranked teams

He has a QB with 20 starts

Riley is a seasoned vetern with a super experienced staff

This is not a rebuild. Riley was hired, not to rebuild and not to maintain. He was hired so that a 9 win season starts to look like the floor and not the ceiling.

Completely agree. If we wanted another 4 loss season we would of stuck with Bo.

Riley was also hired to bring a different mentality to the program. Winning is what ultimately matters, but, if anybody thinks this was purely about how many games the coach wins, they're fooling themselves. MR's personality is a night and day difference compared to BP. If this hire had solely been about wins and losses, can we say for certain MR would've been the guy hired? I can't say that. I don't think any of us can with certainty.

As much as we all want to win and win now, be fair to MR. Yes, he agreed to take the job, but it's an extremely difficult job that a lot of us can't fully comprehend because we've never done it. He deserves some time to do things his way.

You are right about Riley being hired because of the mentality he brings. However, this is Eichorst's gamble. He fired a fairly successful coach and hired Riley. Hardly anyone except the real die hard football fanatics knew who Riley even was. If you fire a coach that wins, and make an obscure hire like Riley, you better win and win quick. Most new coaches are taking over dumpster fires for a program, Riley is not. This raises expectations even further. I somewhat agree that he deserves the time to get it right, but I just don't think this situation permits it.

I don't think you understand, we got rid of the dumpster fire. I didn't know who he was when he was hired, but I am damn glad he is here along with his staff. I was on the verge of turning in my season tickets of 30 years if 408 was retained. We are in a much better place and most of the players will tell you that as well. Now we can win and win with class. Huskers win by 10 or more against BYU

 

[admo]

Someone help me out here. OP says it's a simple question, and to choose one or the other. And yet I find both equally important. What's option C?

 

[Hunter94]

the offense especially is new, kids that were not recruited to lineup in a pro style offense, will need to adjust in a hurry........i would hope for steady improvement in play through the season right up to the end.

 

[admo]

Winning and a lot of it.

First off...Riley is not taking over some downtrodden team with zero experience coming back.

He is not facing some daunting schedule, there is a chance they only face 2 ranked teams

He has a QB with 20 starts

Riley is a seasoned vetern with a super experienced staff

This is not a rebuild. Riley was hired, not to rebuild and not to maintain. He was hired so that a 9 win season starts to look like the floor and not the ceiling.

Completely agree. If we wanted another 4 loss season we would of stuck with Bo.

Riley was also hired to bring a different mentality to the program. Winning is what ultimately matters, but, if anybody thinks this was purely about how many games the coach wins, they're fooling themselves. MR's personality is a night and day difference compared to BP. If this hire had solely been about wins and losses, can we say for certain MR would've been the guy hired? I can't say that. I don't think any of us can with certainty.

As much as we all want to win and win now, be fair to MR. Yes, he agreed to take the job, but it's an extremely difficult job that a lot of us can't fully comprehend because we've never done it. He deserves some time to do things his way.

Scary thought, what if HCMR turned the Husker job down? Up to this point he seems like a good fit for this program. I don't even want to image who was left on the board to come in and take over.

 

[teachercd]

Winning and a lot of it.

First off...Riley is not taking over some downtrodden team with zero experience coming back.

He is not facing some daunting schedule, there is a chance they only face 2 ranked teams

He has a QB with 20 starts

Riley is a seasoned vetern with a super experienced staff

This is not a rebuild. Riley was hired, not to rebuild and not to maintain. He was hired so that a 9 win season starts to look like the floor and not the ceiling.

Completely agree. If we wanted another 4 loss season we would of stuck with Bo.

Riley was also hired to bring a different mentality to the program. Winning is what ultimately matters, but, if anybody thinks this was purely about how many games the coach wins, they're fooling themselves. MR's personality is a night and day difference compared to BP. If this hire had solely been about wins and losses, can we say for certain MR would've been the guy hired? I can't say that. I don't think any of us can with certainty.
As much as we all want to win and win now, be fair to MR. Yes, he agreed to take the job, but it's an extremely difficult job that a lot of us can't fully comprehend because we've never done it. He deserves some time to do things his way.

Scary thought, what if HCMR turned the Husker job down? Up to this point he seems like a good fit for this program. I don't even want to image who was left on the board to come in and take over.

That is interesting! I wonder who was "next" and I wonder who else might have been "first" and who was on the "list"

 

[Mavric]

Scary thought, what if HCMR turned the Husker job down? Up to this point he seems like a good fit for this program. I don't even want to image who was left on the board to come in and take over.

If Riley had turned the job down we may have actually had to do a coaching search.

 

[teachercd]

Scary thought, what if HCMR turned the Husker job down? Up to this point he seems like a good fit for this program. I don't even want to image who was left on the board to come in and take over.

If Riley had turned the job down we may have actually had to do a coaching search.

Hmmm, that is interesting too

 

[HuskerNationNick]

Kicking the sh#t out of Iowa, so I can go another year without hearing these squakeye fans open their mouths! Lol

Anyway, to win the games we should, be competitive in those we shouldn't and possibly win them too. If not, lose with dignity, not disgrace.

 

[HuskerNationNick]

Scary thought, what if HCMR turned the Husker job down? Up to this point he seems like a good fit for this program. I don't even want to image who was left on the board to come in and take over.

If Riley had turned the job down we may have actually had to do a coaching search.

Hmmm, that is interesting too

If Riley didn't want the job, we would have reached out to Chryst. If he had backed out, I would imagine that we would have gone after a first time HC, and actually offered Scott Frost, or Kirby Smart.

 

[grandpasknee]

Kicking the sh#t out of Iowa, so I can go another year without hearing these squakeye fans open their mouths! Lol

Anyway, to win the games we should, be competitive in those we shouldn't and possibly win them too. If not, lose with dignity, not disgrace.

I'm with you there..I'd almost settle for a one win season if that win was an absolute curb stomping of Iowa...lol.