Year 4 Expectations

[Dogs In A Pile]

As I remember it, Riley was most definitely expected to win more and better games than Bo Pelini. That's what he was hired.

Seemed to me Riley was most definitely expected to come in and NOT to be a horse's a$$ and an embarrassment to the program, University and State as a whole. The polar opposite of the man he was replacing. If Pelini wouldn't have been such a douche-bag he probably would not have been replaced. But with gem we had as an AD at the time who knows. I'm not sure too many expected a career .500 coach to come in and start competing for conference championships. In fact most expected things would turn out the way they did 3 years later.

 

[TheSker]

Pelini mainly got fired cause he was an a$$ to important people.  I know he had the one huge booster on his side, but from what ive heard the rest of the boosters weren't 

You've heard wrong.

 

[Hedley Lamarr]

You've heard wrong.

Yeah Eichorst and Pearljam went on their own little mission. Issue is Eichorst isnt the kind of AD that coaches are wanting to come play for. By all accounts he was a total s#!t AD in terms of leadership and decision making. He should have fired Bo (if that was his plan) the year prior to when he did honestly in my opinion. You run into the same issue we did with replacing Solich though because you do not fire 9 win coaches unless you have major recruiting violations or other types of scandals etc. This all could have been avoided if TO doesnt go above the AD when he announced Solich was taking over. We literally had our pick of the litter after 97 and went with our RB Coach as our next HC. We then hired Callahan who could identify high level elite talent and get it here but didnt feel like hiring a competent DC. Then you replace him with a guy who showed he could develop but couldnt quite recruit to the level of Callahan. Then you replace him with someone who was an inferior recruiter to Callahan and couldnt develop as well as Bo. At this point your program is crashing and burning because you find yourself worse off than where you started after Solich. Culture was trash, athletic development was trash, recruiting rankings were a total façade. You then bring in the "savior" who at the time was considered the best hire we have made in forever. However we let him bring his entire group of 6 staff. I still believe Frost could literally spend whatever he wanted on his assistant coaches if he simply asked Moos. Wanna get a hot shot coordinator or position coach? Here is a blank check if this is what you need. However we find ourselves sticking. I know several talked about how Held was a great hire etc but I am more than disappointed in our RB development heading into year 4. Callahan could recruit RBs, Bo could recruit RBs, and Riley even ended up hitting on Ozigbo. Hopefully I can be proven wrong because to me yikes. sorry for the long winded rant prior to 6am on a Sunday.   

 

[runningblind]

Yeah Eichorst and Pearljam went on their own little mission. Issue is Eichorst isnt the kind of AD that coaches are wanting to come play for. By all accounts he was a total s#!t AD in terms of leadership and decision making. He should have fired Bo (if that was his plan) the year prior to when he did honestly in my opinion. You run into the same issue we did with replacing Solich though because you do not fire 9 win coaches unless you have major recruiting violations or other types of scandals etc. This all could have been avoided if TO doesnt go above the AD when he announced Solich was taking over. We literally had our pick of the litter after 97 and went with our RB Coach as our next HC. We then hired Callahan who could identify high level elite talent and get it here but didnt feel like hiring a competent DC. Then you replace him with a guy who showed he could develop but couldnt quite recruit to the level of Callahan. Then you replace him with someone who was an inferior recruiter to Callahan and couldnt develop as well as Bo. At this point your program is crashing and burning because you find yourself worse off than where you started after Solich. Culture was trash, athletic development was trash, recruiting rankings were a total façade. You then bring in the "savior" who at the time was considered the best hire we have made in forever. However we let him bring his entire group of 6 staff. I still believe Frost could literally spend whatever he wanted on his assistant coaches if he simply asked Moos. Wanna get a hot shot coordinator or position coach? Here is a blank check if this is what you need. However we find ourselves sticking. I know several talked about how Held was a great hire etc but I am more than disappointed in our RB development heading into year 4. Callahan could recruit RBs, Bo could recruit RBs, and Riley even ended up hitting on Ozigbo. Hopefully I can be proven wrong because to me yikes. sorry for the long winded rant prior to 6am on a Sunday.   

The bringing the entire staff thing was part of the deal to get him to say yes wasn't it?  Which was a red flag probably but what do you do? You can hope he will make big changes on 2 sides of the ball if a 4th straight losing season comes but I doubt he would, seems too loyal. The defensive staff has done very well but the same can't be said for the offense and we don't actually have any special teams coaches (analysts don't count, they can provide great insight but they don't have anyone to give it to who is actually paying attention to ST on game days).  The writing may be on the wall by then anyway as I can't imagine recruiting goes well in 22 if we gave a losing season AGAIN in 21.

Have to just hope the guys who keep pumping our SP+ improvements are actually right about wins being on the horizon.

 

[ZRod]

Cry me a freaking river about the national stage.  "Good" teams continually to this day get hammered in big games.   He also was in big games because his team's were good.  Every single Scott Frost team would get slaughtered by any of Bos teams. 

Some say Melvin Gordan is still running free to this day.

 

[ZRod]

Those are also true, but you got the icing on the cake backwards.

I firmly believe he was safe record wise, but people hated working with him. Wasn't good enough for the way he acted.

He wasn't safe. People were fed up with 4 loses every year. "Can't spell Pelini with out 4 L's." I think a majority of the fan base was tired of the stagnation and not winning big games. The s#!t attitude just gave them a reason to pull the trigger.

 

[lo country]

The bringing the entire staff thing was part of the deal to get him to say yes wasn't it?  Which was a red flag probably but what do you do? You can hope he will make big changes on 2 sides of the ball if a 4th straight losing season comes but I doubt he would, seems too loyal. The defensive staff has done very well but the same can't be said for the offense and we don't actually have any special teams coaches (analysts don't count, they can provide great insight but they don't have anyone to give it to who is actually paying attention to ST on game days).  The writing may be on the wall by then anyway as I can't imagine recruiting goes well in 22 if we gave a losing season AGAIN in 21.

Have to just hope the guys who keep pumping our SP+ improvements are actually right about wins being on the horizon.

I think was why Frost was available after the UF interest.  They wanted Frost, but not his staff.

In year 4 we are long on potential, but short on results.  I'll be the first to admit I bagged on Chin, but whatever he is doing is starting to work.  We have experienced leadership at all 3 levels and more importantly depth......I never thought heading into year 4, Frost would be 12-20.  We would have lost our top offensive weapon 2 years in a row, no WR depth again, no RB depth again, and no experienced QB......

It's going to be hard to get better when we continually have issues with continuity and depth on the offensive side. I am a dead horse beating, run the ball guy, but I really hope Frost cans the horizontal game and go vertical.  Heavier sets, lean on the TE's, lean on and into the behemoths upfront, traps, treys and counters.  

The reality is every team in the B1G adjusted to us and we have yet to adjust to any of them......Hopefully this year.

 

[runningblind]

Some say Melvin Gordan is still running free to this day.

He's not, I am a Broncos fan and can confirm. :lol:

 

[lo country]

Interesting read concerning 5 walk-ons whose dad's were Huskers.  They are all high on Frost and the direction of the program.

The two grown men — on the same Nebraska teams in 1995 and 1996 — talked about old times. Then Booker delivered a good-natured jab: When are the Huskers coming back?

“He gave a stern answer like, ‘This is our year,'” Booker said. “I was like, ‘Good, because my son is coming.’ Frost has confidence in the team and we have confidence in him. We’re going to go to war with Frost.”

https://omaha.com/sports/huskers/recruiting/sons-of-huskers-become-walk-ons-hoping-to-restore-the-success-their-dads-enjoyed/article_4507e588-7849-11eb-81ca-e7b2a0c5ed91.amp.html

 

[ZRod]

He's not, I am a Broncos fan and can confirm. :lol:

Guess he left it all on the field in Indy.

 

[Guy Chamberlin]

Yes and no.  He was definitely hired to be the anti-Pelini.  

But pretty much everyone - Pearlman, Eichorst, fans, etc. - expected that pretty much anyone could come in here and win more than Pelini.

There's kind of a lot of revisionist history about why Pelini was fired.  Pearlman wanted him out because of his antics.  And there were plenty of fans that disliked how he behaved to whatever extent.  But most people wanted him gone because he "should" have been winning more.  Lost four games each year.  Couldn't win the big games.  A drunk monkey could get #9wins at Nebraska.  The recording from his farewell to the players allowed a lot of people to shift why they wanted him gone to that kind of behavior but before that most people were convinced we could/should be doing better in the Win column.

That's a pretty good summation. I do think the majority of fans were tired of both Bo's antics and lack of forward progress, but I think a majority were also willing to give him a couple more seasons and didn't like the look of firing him. Mixed bag, as a lot of other fans wanted him gone after Iowa 2013.  I'm betting alums and donors weren't all on one side. 

But everyone -- and I mean everyone - could have rationalized the sideline behavior if Bo had delivered just a little more than he did. If the clock runs out against Texas, this whole conversation might be different.  But it would mostly be a matter of time. That famous locker room tape and Bo's post-Nebraska career suggests Perlman and Eichorst weren't wrong to get him out of there. 

I believe the damning stat around the time was Bo's really poor record against ranked teams, and sub-.500 record against teams with winning records. IIRC, there were only two Power 5 schools that had fewer "upsets" over higher ranked teams than Nebraska during the Pelini years.  Duke was one of them. 

As mentioned, I'm sure some fans and Athletic Department folk loved having Mike Riley to cleanse the palate, but he was most definitely hired to win at the same time.  Nice Mike felt the heat the moment BYU caught that Hail Mary. 

 

[Mavric]

Pelini mainly got fired cause he was an a$$ to important people.  I know he had the one huge booster on his side, but from what ive heard the rest of the boosters weren't 

No, that isn't the case. Eichorst was all set to fire him a year earlier but couldn't get the boosters on board.  That's why it went several days after the Iowa game before it was announced he was returning.  He was trying to get everyone on board to fire Pelini but couldn't so they finally had to say he was coming back.

 

[Mavric]

But everyone -- and I mean everyone - could have rationalized the sideline behavior if Bo had delivered just a little more than he did. If the clock runs out against Texas, this whole conversation might be different.  But it would mostly be a matter of time. That famous locker room tape and Bo's post-Nebraska career suggests Perlman and Eichorst weren't wrong to get him out of there. 

To me, this is the biggest what-if of the last 20 years.  If we find a way to hold on, Bo has a conference championship, a BCS bowl birth and - given the opponent would have been a middling UConn team in the Fiesta Bowl - likely a BCS bowl win.  That changes a lot of narratives going forward.

I believe the damning stat around the time was Bo's really poor record against ranked teams, and sub-.500 record against teams with winning records. IIRC, there were only two Power 5 schools that had fewer "upsets" over higher ranked teams than Nebraska during the Pelini years.  Duke was one of them. 

Like I said, the biggest thing was people were convinced we should be winning more.  All the other stuff made was just fuel for the "we should be winning more" fire.  There are a ton of other coaches - from Saban on down - that act basically the same way on the sideline.  But when you're not winning as much as people think you should be, you don't get the pass.

This was making the rounds online last week.  Definitely reminded me of Pelini.

 

[MyBloodIsRed16]

Cry me a freaking river about the national stage.  "Good" teams continually to this day get hammered in big games.   He also was in big games because his team's were good.  Every single Scott Frost team would get slaughtered by any of Bos teams. 

As long as Frost didn't run any tosses to the outside or naked bootlegs.  (Bo's Big10 teams).

 

[BigRedBuster]

Cry me a freaking river about the national stage.  "Good" teams continually to this day get hammered in big games.   He also was in big games because his team's were good.  Every single Scott Frost team would get slaughtered by any of Bos teams. 

No, he was in big games because those teams were in our conference.