A Call for Moderation

[Bay_Area_Husker]

Haven't been around this board for a while, but it's good to see that everyone is still polarized.

I saw a few things yesterday that made me hopeful/optimistic:

* A more confident and accurate Armstrong
* A wonderful first and third quarter
* Younger players getting great experience
* Westercamp, enough said

I saw a few things yesterday that made be doubtful/pessimistic:

* Giving up 500+ yards, many to a freshman quarterback
* Ridiculous penalties
* A kicking game in shambles
* An unwillingness to establish the run and an inability to convert short yardage

Face it, nobody saw anything yesterday that should make him confident that Riley will resurrect the program, and nobody saw anything yesterday that should make him confident that Riley will fail to resurrect the program.

Hope to see continued improvement week after week.

Go Big Red!

 

[elvis1403]

Yeah and then I saw the press conference with Mike Riley. The game is a joke to him and it passed him by. We need to move on to the future

 

[huskerbaseball13]

Yeah and then I saw the press conference with Mike Riley. The game is a joke to him and it passed him by. We need to move on to the future

We should give each HC we hire just two months to recruit before we fire them.

 

[rrthusker]

Yeah and then I saw the press conference with Mike Riley. The game is a joke to him and it passed him by. We need to move on to the future

Guess you missed the Pelini years if you thought this was bad.

 

[inWV]

I say this as a fan who thought (at least initially) it unwise to part ways with Pelini. It's not easy to attract coaching talent when you can 9-10 guys. But Bo is long gone and NU hired a good replacement I think. Riley at least has the demeanor of a head coach and the drama is dialed back big time. At least that seems true inside the locker room and in the coaching offices, but perhaps not in some regions of the fan base. I am bummed about the loss, but I am also enthused that we fought back from a ten point deficit. Tommy looked like a power conference QB. Newby and Wilbon apparently are going have to step it up so that we can have a run game.
I think it fair to at least give Riley a few games before we pronounce him unworthy. I might go as far as a season.

 

[DerHusker]

Yeah and then I saw the press conference with Mike Riley. The game is a joke to him and it passed him by. We need to move on to the future

 

[jay-cheese]

Well Said inWV. Past coaches had 3-5 yrs to get it going...Riley (and Eichhorst) will NOT get that benefit.

GBR

 

[Pennsyhusker]

There are four weaknesses on this team right now, all of which hurt us on Saturday. 1. Our offensive line was not opening holes in the run game nor was it protecting Armstrong. 2. Our linebackers are inexperienced (without Ivey) and it showed. That is why I think Banker did not blitz more. 3. Our defensive ends are good against the run but are very, very mediocre pass rushers or QB containment. That means the need for more blitzing. See number 2 above. 4. Our field goal kicking is a dumpster fire. Brown needs to be benched immediately. I don't care what he shows in practice. It is the game that counts and he was inconsistent last year too. Unless three out of four of these things improves markedly I see a four or five loss season ahead.

 

[jawbreakingsafetyplay]

Who is going to fire Mike Riley before he has been given a fair shake of at least a few seasons. Fans can get mad and rabble rouse all they want on message boards or even in public forums but it won't change that the AD is committed to a change and will provide the resources and patience a change like this requires.

 

[LovNit]

A few fans remind me of that fan duel commercial where a can addresses a high school team and says he is given up on them and moving on to another team. This isn't fantasy football, although some seem to live in a fantasy world.

 

[HuskerTimOmaha]

Yeah and then I saw the press conference with Mike Riley. The game is a joke to him and it passed him by. We need to move on to the future

@Tulsa Tom

 

[jflores]

Who is going to fire Mike Riley before he has been given a fair shake of at least a few seasons. Fans can get mad and rabble rouse all they want on message boards or even in public forums but it won't change that the AD is committed to a change and will provide the resources and patience a change like this requires.

Building on this. Mike Riley, better or worse, is loved by the national media. If NU doesn't treat him well, like say shit canning the dude after a handful of games, there will be *zero* positive comments towards NU football going forward. That's not to say we can't fire Riley someday if he doesn't work out, but if naysayers continue to be unreasonable about what kind of time a new coach (any new coach) has to establish a program, we're really going to be without a paddle.

We might cause less damage, if we crucified Jesus than can Riley after one season.

 

[headcard]

Yeah and then I saw the press conference with Mike Riley. The game is a joke to him and it passed him by. We need to move on to the future

0/10

 

[jedimasterjed]

The only way he is on the hot seat this year is if we don't make a bowl game. He deserves a minimum of 3 years to get his program established. I still have strong hopes of winning the BIG West this year.

 

[RedSea]

Yeah, just going to have to wait and see at this point. I don't understand why some looked at the game and are sure that Riley has us heading in the right direction, or how you would know that we're doomed with him at the helm after one game. BYU was respectable competition, not some D2 patsy, and sometimes you get tripped up by respectable competition. But there are real problem areas, and we don't know yet whether the new staff can/will get them fixed. Guess the next milestone for evaluation will be Miami.

 

[jflores]

Yeah, just going to have to wait and see at this point. I don't understand why some looked at the game and are sure that Riley has us heading in the right direction, or how you would know that we're doomed with him at the helm after one game. BYU was respectable competition, not some D2 patsy, and sometimes you get tripped up by respectable competition. But there are real problem areas, and we don't know yet whether the new staff can/will get them fixed. Guess the next milestone for evaluation will be Miami.

The basis of "right direction" for me is based on Damon Benning's continual references to "portable" things.

We tackled well. We didn't cave in down 10 points or whatever it was and let it be a romp. The QB got loose on some scrambles and stuff, but we otherwise played the designed run better than we've seen in a while. We had several freshman or otherwise young players contribute. We made adjustments at half. Those are things you can build upon.

I feel like if this was a Pelini led team a few things would have happened. When our inexperienced OL led us to 39 yards on 17 carries or whatever it was, Beck would have pounded the rock for nothing every once in awhile that DT was eating our lunch, and then chucked every other play downfield. Rout on. If you are going to throw it 40 times, then its a damn good thing we ran like 16 screens and several more short throws.

I also felt like the defense would have been worse. There's no question that Hill would have caused Pelini trouble too, but we can almost count on that the designed run game would have been eating our lunch too. At least when BYU made a play, we got ball carriers to the ground. If you take out Bando's tackles and Young's plays and Williams and al the other young kids that have come along to be productive, where would we have been?

Pelini could have won that game sure, just as Riley could. I just feel like Pelini might have had a few breaks go his way to do it, and breaks aren't portable like tackling, run defense, and a well run passing game. In the long run we're going to be well served if we build upon that base.

 

[NikkiSixx]

Yeah, just going to have to wait and see at this point. I don't understand why some looked at the game and are sure that Riley has us heading in the right direction, or how you would know that we're doomed with him at the helm after one game. BYU was respectable competition, not some D2 patsy, and sometimes you get tripped up by respectable competition. But there are real problem areas, and we don't know yet whether the new staff can/will get them fixed. Guess the next milestone for evaluation will be Miami.

To me, I saw some things in the passing game that we actually executed that looked very professional. I kind of thought our prior offense was a bit 'high school' in some respects, but certain plays we ran last Saturday, looked as good as some of the pro level stuff we were doing late during Callahan's time.

So I was quite surprised to see us executing that kind of stuff this early, and it looked fairly polished sometimes. Of course it is not perfect yet, however I feel like if they are this far along on some of this stuff already, we should be playing excellent ball later in the season. Sure some stuff needs to be addressed, cleaned up and worked on. But I saw a glimpse of what things could be, and I'm pretty excited about it. I honestly believe, we are going to end up pretty freaking good by November. We will probably have another loss or two early, but I'm more inclined to upgrade my 7-5 prediction to a 9-3 one if only the field goal kicking issues were sorted out.

As to the staff, I think they really are professionals and know how to teach and will do the best they can to have the players ready. It's actually one of the least of my concerns, worrying about the staff.

 

[jay-cheese]

If the "streak" ends...the coach goes. 2 yrs, 3 yrs, 5 yrs....doesn't matter. It's win or go home around these parts and we can't be losing games that we should win or the fans will stay home.

GBR