Year 4 Expectations

Mavric said:
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.

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.

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I think getting a conference title and BCS win would have given Pelini more leash, but after 2012 his teams had been delivering diminishing returns and his record was being propped up by winning close games in the Gary Anderson/Bill Cubit/Darrell Hazell/Jerry Kill/Hot Seat Kirk Ferentz version of the Big Ten West. His teams would not have been going 8-4 in the 2019 or 2020 versions of this division. Pelini was still delivering top 30/40ish-type teams, and maybe he'd have turned it back around with another year, but there was a football case to be made for moving on. And you can't be underwhelming in your job performance AND a raging jerk to the people you work with and expect to keep your job. 

As far as Riley, anyone saying he wasn't expected to come in and win as much or more than Pelini is doing some big-time revisionist history. The narrative was that "If he was able to win eight games at a bad program, imagine what he'll be able to do at a program with resources!" Instead he came in and ran the program with resources exactly like the bad program. Many fans thought it was a bad hire but that wasn't the consensus. 

 
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For this upcoming season I sadly expect more of the same we have seen the last three seasons. I want things to get better but I'm kind of growing tired of hearing every year is the year. 

I hope I'm wrong and it is a great season of 8 to 10 wins. 

 
TheSker said:
The 2019 redshirts

The 2020 class

The 2021 class
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Hopefully 2022 will be our coming out year.  And 2023 should be even better (no OU).   I think we make it to a bowl game this year and do much better the following year. 

Somehow after a 2 year absence, OSU makes it back into our schedule in 2024. 

 
J-MAGIC said:
I think getting a conference title and BCS win would have given Pelini more leash, but after 2012 his teams had been delivering diminishing returns and his record was being propped up by winning close games in the Gary Anderson/Bill Cubit/Darrell Hazell/Jerry Kill/Hot Seat Kirk Ferentz version of the Big Ten West. His teams would not have been going 8-4 in the 2019 or 2020 versions of this division. Pelini was still delivering top 30/40ish-type teams, and maybe he'd have turned it back around with another year, but there was a football case to be made for moving on. And you can't be underwhelming in your job performance AND a raging jerk to the people you work with and expect to keep your job. 

As far as Riley, anyone saying he wasn't expected to come in and win as much or more than Pelini is doing some big-time revisionist history. The narrative was that "If he was able to win eight games at a bad program, imagine what he'll be able to do at a program with resources!" Instead he came in and ran the program with resources exactly like the bad program. Many fans thought it was a bad hire but that wasn't the consensus. 
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I think the "imagine what he would do here" narrative was a story we told ourselves as part of the bargaining stage, right after the denial and anger of hiring a nobody, but before the depression and acceptance from the first game. I Ihink everybody had the wind sucked out of our sales with the hire of Riley, but we hoped we would be wrong. We weren't...

 
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Athlon Sports sees us as # 9 in the conference. It is disheartening seeing Wisc, Iowa at @ 2 & 3 on his list and us wagging our tails way down the list.  I hope we can prove some of these writers wrong this year. 

https://athlonsports.com/college-football/big-ten-football-spring-power-rankings-and-storylines-watch-2021

9. Nebraska

2020 Record: 3-5 (3-5 Big Ten)

Returning Starters: Offense: 4, Defense: 9

nebraska-cornhuskers.png


Key Spring Question (Offense): Everything. Coach Scott Frost’s group averaged only 23.1 points a game last season and question marks remain at quarterback with Adrian Martinez, along with the development of talent at the skill positions.

Key Spring Question (Defense): Continue last year’s improvement. The Cornhuskers gave up 5.96 yards a play in Big Ten games in 2019 but cut that total to 5.46 in ’20. With nine starters back, there’s optimism this group should take another step forward in ’21.
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TGHusker said:
Athlon Sports sees us as # 9 in the conference. It is disheartening seeing Wisc, Iowa at @ 2 & 3 on his list and us wagging our tails way down the list.  I hope we can prove some of these writers wrong this year. 

https://athlonsports.com/college-football/big-ten-football-spring-power-rankings-and-storylines-watch-2021
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I hope we can prove them wrong also but there is zero reason to rank us higher at this point.  Trending up in past seasons and optimism have gotten us losing records each time.

 
J-MAGIC said:
I think getting a conference title and BCS win would have given Pelini more leash, but after 2012 his teams had been delivering diminishing returns and his record was being propped up by winning close games in the Gary Anderson/Bill Cubit/Darrell Hazell/Jerry Kill/Hot Seat Kirk Ferentz version of the Big Ten West. His teams would not have been going 8-4 in the 2019 or 2020 versions of this division. Pelini was still delivering top 30/40ish-type teams, and maybe he'd have turned it back around with another year, but there was a football case to be made for moving on. And you can't be underwhelming in your job performance AND a raging jerk to the people you work with and expect to keep your job. 

As far as Riley, anyone saying he wasn't expected to come in and win as much or more than Pelini is doing some big-time revisionist history. The narrative was that "If he was able to win eight games at a bad program, imagine what he'll be able to do at a program with resources!" Instead he came in and ran the program with resources exactly like the bad program. Many fans thought it was a bad hire but that wasn't the consensus. 
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This is the most ridiculous falsehood in this entire thread.  Bo had way better freaking players then anything remotely put on the field by this staff.  I am not even going to get into the D Line he had ready to go when he was fired.  He had identified that and recruited beasts to that position.  2 of them were the most underutilized players in Nebraska history.  Ahh that's right though, that wouldn't have continued right?  That's always the stupid narrative?  He couldn't recruit right?  As far as I've seen this staff hasn't even come close to being even in the running for guys of Bos classes calibur.  Riley's and Frosts best players were still Bo recruits.  There's no revisionist history here.  This dumping on the guy who was clearly a superior coach of the last 4 is crazy.  I liked winning, we won, we were never more then a game out of the top of the division.  Big game comment right?  I'll take all those big game blowouts to the desecrations of Memorial stadium that occurred after he left.  

 
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