Wistrom says selfishness of players "makes me sick"

HeyBurke said:
So begins the "kids these days are too privileged" circlejerk. Teenagers have been the same since the beginning of time. It's up to their mentors (coaches, in this case) to set them on the straight and narrow. This is obviously a failure of our coaching staff.
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its way more f'd up now than ever,...kids want to unionize in college to get paid now to play ball.........WTF?

 
Sker

I agree with you on this. See Bama, Oregon, Auburn, Florida State and bevy of others. But my main question, and not trying to stir the pot, but do you really feel we have the talent that the top programs do. I truly do not think we are close, nor do I feel the coaching is on par with the top programs. If you are right, we should start to see some significant improvement in the next two years. I see more athletic kids, but not sure I see the mind set of winners, above and beyond.

I do not see top five classes, or anything even clos to that level. I know this year is supposed to be better, but other programs will pass us is my guess, and we will end up with a top 20 class. For the last 14 years or so, it has required top 5 classes to win the MNC. Top 5 on a regular basis. We have not seen that level of player since Calahan recruited them. We flirted with that level of play, but only with that level of athlete.

Have we set impossible goals for this program, due to past performance? I think we have.

 
Hunter94 said:
HeyBurke said:
So begins the "kids these days are too privileged" circlejerk. Teenagers have been the same since the beginning of time. It's up to their mentors (coaches, in this case) to set them on the straight and narrow. This is obviously a failure of our coaching staff.
Click to expand...
its way more f'd up now than ever,...kids want to unionize in college to get paid now to play ball.........WTF?
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Good God, the pay for play debate has been around for 30 years. I don't agree with the union, but if anything, give the kids now some credit for having the initiative to do something about it.

 
skersfan said:
Sker
I agree with you on this. See Bama, Oregon, Auburn, Florida State and bevy of others. But my main question, and not trying to stir the pot, but do you really feel we have the talent that the top programs do. I truly do not think we are close, nor do I feel the coaching is on par with the top programs. If you are right, we should start to see some significant improvement in the next two years. I see more athletic kids, but not sure I see the mind set of winners, above and beyond.

I do not see top five classes, or anything even clos to that level. I know this year is supposed to be better, but other programs will pass us is my guess, and we will end up with a top 20 class. For the last 14 years or so, it has required top 5 classes to win the MNC. Top 5 on a regular basis. We have not seen that level of player since Calahan recruited them. We flirted with that level of play, but only with that level of athlete.

Have we set impossible goals for this program, due to past performance? I think we have.
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It's not unreasonable to demand you win your conference at least once in 15 (or 7) years.

 
skersfan.......I think Pelini has greatly improved his recruiting and can continue to do so. We know he's a great defensive mind but talent is still required. I'll answer your question from my perspective this way. If there's NFL talent on the defensive line (and hopefully the OL), we're in good shape. It's like Wistrom said in that interview......two of the best players at their position in the country with Wistrom and Peter. If Gregory and Collins (at a minimum) and perhaps Valentine are NFL caliber, I like our chances in the B10.

 
The next generation always sets a precedent for change and the generations before them will always fear their future and change for the worse. Unfortunately, this time it may in fact be true. I think our humanity is becoming reduced and its been building steam since the beginning of the industrial revolution, but now things are coming to a head. You are starting to see a generation of kids that predominantly grew up in single parent families, where there was lack of any other consistent form of support (extended family, teachers, neighbors, etc.) Also, boys have been shown to be most at risk of developmental issues that arise from the lack of a father figure in the household (majority of single families are constituted of the mother). But even in two parent families, again like no other time in our history both parents work leaving the development of the child in critical developmental years in the hands of child care providers (inadequate to say the least). You are seeing a generation that has learned their mentality, attitude, and ethics more from their peers than can be said of any generation prior to it. And guess what? The conditions that created their "selfishness" and lack of "compassion and accountability" started to become quite significant in the mid to late 80's (college kids in the mid to late 2000's) and has only worsened become more pervasive today. There is a lot more to it than that of course but I don't have enough time to thoroughly explain it. So I'll leave you with that.

 
True2tRA said:
Grant dares anyone to look back through the tapes and see him not playing full effort through the play. Right now, I dare anyone to find me a play in the last six years where all eleven offensive or defensive players played from whistle to whistle. I bet you can't do it. I see a few guys almost every single play either jogging behind a play, not blocking downfield, or giving half effort when the play goes the opposite side of the field.
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This is what's been most frustrating to me. I don't really see it as a "kids today" issue. There's coaches that get more out of players of the same generation.

And it's not like we're talking about 13-16 year-olds here, anyway. These are young men we're talking about. Adults.

 
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NUpolo8 said:
It's not unreasonable to demand you win your conference at least once in 15 (or 7) years.
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That's an interesting question. When NU won lots of conference title, we were in an 8 team conference. If results were purely random, we'd expect to win one title about every 8 years. It was also possible to split the title among teams (co-champions) Then we were in a 12 team conference (with title game for only one champ), where we'd expect to win once every 12 years. Now we're in a 14 team conference, only expecting to win once every 14 years.

Now football is clearly not random, and teams definitely win the title more often (and go without a title for very long periods). But with Ohio St., Michigan, Penn St, and Nebraska as blue-bloods expecting to win the title every couple years, with Wisconsin, Mich St, Iowa also expecting a title every 5ish years, and Northwestern, etc. expecting to win once a decade or so, how often can we really expect to win the conference?

 
EbylHusker said:
NUpolo8 said:
EbylHusker said:
If they were allowed to beat and whip the players for failure, they'd probably play with more motivation.
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Melodrama is fun.

I'd also hate for you to be a fly on the wall on Wistrom's teams I'm thinking.
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You do have a lot of unfounded speculation here, no reason to stop now, I guess.
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Oh right. Unfounded speculation. The buzzword around here.

Surely I made it up, and don't recall hearing about things back then.

Or god forbid, read about it somewhere.

http://books.google.com/books?id=JrVre9tCL84C&pg=PA222&lpg=PA222&dq=grant+wistrom+running+stairs&source=bl&ots=7Zuii_VZpz&sig=-vm729NA4olIOFaxvHlAO06vA5k&hl=en&sa=X&ei=zihdU4SlBMSayASpyoGgCQ&ved=0CEcQ6AEwBw#v=onepage&q=grant%20wistrom%20running%20stairs&f=false

 
Hunter94 said:
HeyBurke said:
So begins the "kids these days are too privileged" circlejerk. Teenagers have been the same since the beginning of time. It's up to their mentors (coaches, in this case) to set them on the straight and narrow. This is obviously a failure of our coaching staff.
Click to expand...
its way more f'd up now than ever,...kids want to unionize in college to get paid now to play ball.........WTF?
Click to expand...
Did you know that athletic scholarships weren't always around? Somewhere along the line there was enough outrage about a "lack of entitlement" to the point where scholarships were introduced. But yes, way more f'd up now than ever...

 
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