Dead last in the dead period
- Thread starter artguy68
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well it seems we've had a few walk ons lately put the stars on themselves by busting their tails in conditioning and practice. Like it or not, we've got some really good players right now who started out as walk ons and very well may end up in the NFL. Normally you think of O linemen when you think of the walk on program but damn there are a couple of guys in the back 7 who look really good.
If we don’t turn the corner this year, that will be the reason. Amazing how bad Riley left things…
People just need to chill. It's going to be a lower than normal class for team rankings and yes COVID impacted Nebraska greatly and it didn't help the top in-state kids wanted out, unlike the 2023 kids that are already committed and a couple soon to commit to Nebraska.
Wins on the field this season will mean a lot more than whatever this class finishes at.
Wins on the field this season will mean a lot more than whatever this class finishes at.
Just spitballin' here, but I'm gonna guess you this quite a bit: "It's ok, we can just cuddle."
This part is hard to argue. Frost most definitely had some strange azz play calls in his first few years.
Considering the number of young skill position players we had to work in, losing spring football was a bad thing for our offense. Many analysts said early on that losing the spring was going to not be nearly as detrimental for very experienced teams. Laugh if you want.
If this class gets a C at this stage, Neb has done well over average for the past 40 years. At this point I’d give them a D or D-. Again….just from a historical perspective. No way in God’s green earth this class…at this point…isn’t below average. That can change. But most of you say that is based on Neb winning. Question for all - how confident are you that THAT will happen this year? Again all of the coaches are back. Upgrade in athletes perhaps but….
Anytime you throw a backwards swing pass on first and 3 at the 3 yard line when your team has shown no ability to successfully block or run that play all year = mind boggling.
Phalen Sanford and John Bullocks look like players to me. Fast and hit. Tagge has gotten some love from some former Blackshirts. On the offensive side Yant obviously looked good and the Harris kid sure looked like the kind of guy Iowa State would turn in to a 1000 yard rusher back in the day.
I'd give it a C also, but bear in mind it is an extremely small class. A class with 27 high 3 star recruits would garner a higher ranking. It's kinda funny......those folks who constantly trash Frost on a reflexive basis will diminish a top 20 recruit class. But when he gets a middlin' recruit class of 3 stars, they latch onto that to further diminish him.
Look, I get it. He and his staff have under-performed since their hire. I won't argue that. But I completely shut down ppl who ignore what he had to deal with when he got here. I distinctly recall players (I think Wandale was one) who publicly invited certain unnamed player to leave because he felt they weren't on board and who actively threw games after Frost's hire. Can't think of many P5 new hires who dealt with THAT degree of insurrection. Sorry, but you don't get to have it both ways. If you are honest in one direction you gotta be honest in all directions.
Unless that doesn't fit your agenda. Not you necessarily, Rick Shaw, but you get what I mean.
And you are arguing that after being a coordinator/head coach for 10 years this is going to magically improve?
Based on the spring game alone. It seems like every spring and early fall we hear over and over the names of walk ons only to never see them resurface again. Put these guys in the category of I will believe it when I see it.
Yant may be the exception and the real deal, guess we will find out. Weren't grades a factor for him not getting offers rather than ability?
Luke Reimer was a walk on and he has earned his scholarship….Yant might just get his after this season if he can contribute to the running back room with Stepp ( if fully recovered) Morrison, Scott and Gabe Ervin..
There will always be exceptions to the rule, (and we will read about all of them from the past 40 years) but for the vast majority I completely agree.
Yes, or rather I'm confident Frost and his staff have learned a bitter lesson about the B1G. The sniping I'm hearing about Frost is the same damned thing I heard about TO from 73 to 78......9-3? Pffft. Still can't beat OU. Remember the old joke that it took TO three hours to drive from Lincoln to Omaha because he wouldn't pass? Well, TO learned some valuable lessons in the late 80s. He revamped his offense and defense, and the rest is history.
Would you have have fired TO in 89? I'm guessing you would have.
I'm not saying Frost will become what TO became, but there's no doubt that a lot of people would have been clamoring for Osborne to be fired or retire following the '92 season.
Nebraska just finished ranked outside the top-10 for the fourth consecutive season, the longest such stretch in Osborne's career.
The Huskers had just lost their sixth consecutive bowl game with the last five all being by at least two possessions.
Nebraska had won the conference outright only twice in the previous nine seasons, a stretch of "futility" only surpassed by Osborne's first nine seasons at the helm as NU's head coach when he failed to win the conference outright until that ninth season.
Tom Osborne made no changes to his staff prior to the '93 season.
The #1 football recruit in the state chose to spurn Osborne and instead signed with Stanford and legendary coach Bill Walsh.
Imagine trying to find some Husker positivity on the internet that offseason. Who would've bet the ranch on NU going 60-3 with 3 MNCs over the next five seasons based on all of the above?
That said, I am intrigued to see what Frost does in 2021. We'll almost see improvement on special teams and offense by default where regression or stagnation would be insufferable particularly in the one area where Frost was expected to shine (offense). If you take away the transition years at UCF and NU, this is how Frost-led offenses have finished nationally in PPG:
3rd
3rd
6th
1st
64th
101st
UCF finished 64th in 2016. NU finished 54th in 2018.
It's pretty evident that something is different at Nebraska than it's been everywhere else and everyone likely has a theory as to what it is, but HCSF is unquestionably entering a seminal season in 2021 as far as his career as DONU's HC.
I'm going to sit back and enjoy watching what happens, I've been surprised before.
Sounds like qualification concerns were what prevented Yant from getting multiple SEC offers. I understand the spring game hype, but those two dudes (Sanford and Bullocks )were everywhere making plays against first teamers at times. Sanford is a D-1 athlete no doubt about it and I expect both will play special teams this fall to start out.
That play , the stupid swing pass is one I hate more than any other. While it’s worked for some teams , I don’t recall over the past few years any significant success. I do recall it getting blown up and even a few picks
So why didn’t Callahan get more time? How about Riley? I mean surely that would have learned from their mistakes m..,eventually.
People were pissed at Osborne for not beating OU….Frost on the other hand is still trying to get his team to line up correctly and snap the ball straight in year 4. Frost needs to win now…that’s already beyond evident with the lack of interest from recruits. The longer he remains in Lincoln as is, the further the program falls in to the abyss.
Callahan had the most promise, you could make the case that he needed more time. Riley was a lost cause from the get go, the train went totally of the track with him at the helm. Frost should never have been given an extension, he should have earned it.
Callahan: Ask some money boosters what they thought of him. He was an egomaniac who chose to distance himself from the deep-pockets. Back at ya: why WOULD he be kept on?
Riley: Really not sure why you even bring him up as a potential keeper. The guy was losing on practically every metric that matters, including recruiting.
Osborne inherited a machine from Devaney, one he helped build. In what universe would that compare what Frost walked into?
I've been quite clear in this thread that Frost owns a fair portion of the blame for his first four years. You can beat that dead horse like it's some epiphany but it appears it's only an epiphany to Frost haters. Rational people get it so not sure why you don't.
As was stated elsewhere in this thread this season is pivotal for the program and for Frost. Substantive improvement has to show. Somehow I think if he wins nine games this season----against the second toughest schedule in the country----there's going to be a lot of nostradami on this board who won't admit they were wrong.
Oh, and another backatcha: Are you in love with the rotating staffs we've had to endure since TO retired? Cuz if you are, then try to find any good coach to take this job.
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You make some good points but present an either or situation - if anyone complains then they are "Frost Haters" and then of course, there is the irrational group you suggest.
I am not a Riley defender in the least but his record was better than Frosts - I guess you could explain that away by saying he inherited more than Frost did but I am not sure that is true.
Certainly Osborne had the best shot coming in from a build perspective but then he quickly learned he needed to change to beat OU and he did that. I guess that is what amazes me, is people don't recognize how big the changes were that he made and with primarily the same assistants. So how is that possible? So, a complete change of philosophy on O and D with the same coaches can occur? Shazam!
I don't "hate" Frost as you suggest (the either love or hate argument) but some things are impossible to ignore. We are headed into year four, the record shows little improvement and worst of all, areas of the team., i.e Special Teams have digressed. When I watch Frost coached teams play, I see the lack of detail in their play/technique and that bothers me. It also translates into wins and losses but to point that out, I guess makes some of us haters.
Of course, you have to know that using the magic number of 9 wins for this coming season mirrors what was once considered not good enough. As for the rotating staff issue, that isn't ideal but on the other hand, neither is losing and noticing something is very wrong.
Yep…we haven’t had the necessary blocking on the edge by the receivers and TEs. But run it on the goal line given that? Just dumb.
You hit on something that I have always thought..
Scott could buy 1-2 years, if he was on the brink of being canned, if he publicly committed to going back to running the football.
In the past 18 months, however, we have seen an emphasis on WR's and pro style QB's, so it appears to me that he's trying to become more balanced.
Thankfully, we have also been seeing a preference for larger players too.
It's going to be interesting to see how this all unfolds, because there isn't a whole lot of time to be tinkering with things and they have to start lining up and just flat out beating the guys across from them.
As I recall, people WERE calling for TO to be fired. Fans felt he was doomed to always be a "close but not quite there" coach who took a backseat to larger-than-life personalities like Barry Switzer and then Jimmy Johnson.
Then TO make two changes in his philosophy: 1. Speed speed speed, signaled best by switching Ed Stewart from safety to LB. 2. Recruiting the best players instead of the best high character players. In the 80's we were proud of all our Academic All-Americans. In the 90's we brought in guys like Phillips and the Peters brothers.
No, I am not advocating that we follow suit. Every decade sees changes in what works. I also believe that we need to hang on to Frost and see what he can do long term. Yes, I am critical of his performance-- because it deserves criticism. Being a fan doesn't mean loving everything all the time to me.
It’s far more likely he endures a 4th straight losing season than him winning 9 games. The only thing that’s been clear is he’s in over his head.
The rotating staffs stink…that’s why it would be great if the athletic department got it right. Frost is not going to magically turn in to some great HC…the red flags were there in year 1 and it’s only getting worse on and off the field.
Actually I know a couple of boosters of substance who liked Callahan. One of my family members had a professional relationship with Callahan and said he was a really down to earth guy who just didn't deal well with the media. One on one he was great. Unfortunately for Bill, I don't think the Hawks cared much for him. Bo had a financial relationship with their banking business and they didn't appreciate him getting fired.
In addition to speed he looked at size a weight at position . The game that started the change in philosophy was the 1989 orange 🍊 bowl loss to Miami
This is fair, and I was probably being too simplistic in my post since I was trying for a balance of brevity and clarity. I understand that there are some in the middle between hate Frost and love Frost. I get it. Hell, I'm in the middle also, except I'm frustrated with Frost rather than hate him. What I can't stand is those who argue from the extremes, which seems to mostly be in the hate Frost crowd.
