We've already almost given up as many punt return yards in 4 games as we did the entire '23 season.
Fire Foley.
- Thread starter huskerfan66
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When our FG kicker takes the field, Foley is probably more uptight than the kicker.
Lots of easy solutions from our peanut gallery. I’ve got news. Even our best kickers over the years have missed short field goals, kicked kickoffs out of bounds and shanked punts at times. We out kicked the coverage and had guys getting held on that long return. Firing Foley wouldn’t fix anything.
It's not just field goal kicking that's a problem with special teams.
Come on dude. Yes, kickers can have misses, but right now we are terrified to kick a 30 yarder. That is horrible. Also, if you listened to the presser today, our specialist are making dumb ass errors. That punt was supposed to go left and we smoked it to the other side of the field. That sets up a huge lane. The kick offs were the same. This is all coaching. Foley's fat ass just goes to small town Nebraska to schmooze and eat at the local diners. If he can't coach anymore, get him out of here.
Our special teams have been awful for a long time, but Foley was talked up as this dude who will make things happen. He hasn't, and in fact he has had the worst group out there in the time that staff has been here. He now is having to bring in other coaches. I'm fine with that, but pay those people and knock Foley's pay.
Buschini is as veteran as they come and he miskicked that punt. For whatever reason he just hauled off and blasted it down the middle. I don’t know how that lies at Foley’s feet. Every f’n time a player or players screw up it’s a chorus of fire the coach. How about we fire our QB coach? Dylan made some bad reads, threw into tight coverages, threw behind guys, missed a wide open guy, etc etc. We had multiple guys make mistakes and the most glaring ones in my eyes were on defense. Our play on the edges and back end did more to lose that game than Foley’s coaching. Our defense other than Ty and Nash sucked.
According to Rhule, Buschini kicked it to the right side, when he should have kicked it to the left side. If that was the only ST error, okay. But it wasn't. At some point, you have to question the coaching when the ST is making multiple errors.
Again. First pressure kick from a freshman walk on kicker in front of 93k and a national TV audience and that’s Foley’s fault? Alvano is injured. How many scholarship kickers and snappers should we carry? It was the kid’s first potential end of game kick and he’s a hometown Husker fan for life. Do you think there might have been a little adrenaline pumping there?
our OC puts way, way too much on Dylan's shoulders.
QB made multiple errors too. Let’s fire Thomas then. Sure as hell better can White because our D was embarrassed. Fire our edge and backer coaches cuz they sucked. Our DBs blew multiple coverages. Better just f’n clean house on defense.
It's not like we asked the kid to go knock down a 50 yarder with :02 for the win. This is an easy field goal for 90% of college programs. As @phoenix4nu said above. It isn't just kicking. Our special teams has not been good at all. Yes, there is a few bright spots at times, but overall it is not up to a standard we are trying to build to. Lapses in performance will happen. We aren't just having one off lapses. The whole unit is an issue.
How about we replace Foley with Bill Busch who has proven what he can do with special teams?
You could get him for a cup or coffee. And he'd love it!!
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I would have to assume this has at least been discussed and considered. The question is (if that is Rhule’s decision to make a change), when does that occur? The first 3 games the ST had mixed results; some areas improved and looked better whereas some areas looked stagnant (based on results). While certainly reasonable to question things, at least there was some slight upward trajectory. Now that a missed FG likely made a difference in winning or losing, the heat has been turned up.
We have a bye week coming soon. Maybe Rhule takes his chances that offense and defense can overcome any potential ST mishaps and still win prior to the break? Maybe the change takes place for the bye week to give a new coach time to assess?
Personally, I am leaning toward the latter scenario — and hope BBusch takes over (as well as Maher continuing to provide FG expertise).
I highly doubt that Rhule would hire someone that he declined to retain when he took over.
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Other than Ty and Nash the whole D was a MUCH bigger problem Friday night. Better fire that whole staff. It’s college football and top teams have struggles with their kickers. Hell the NFL kickers struggle. The Niners gave up a big punt return last night that probably cost them the game. Damn. I don’t know how some of us get through the day. I get it. I was frustrated too but you have to try to process all the information and look at it logically.
You keep bringing up one off stuff. If the 49ers continuously have all of those issues, yes, that person is going to get evaluated and told to take a hike if it keeps happening. Field goal kickers in the NFL are also sent packing all of the time when they start missing. Hell look at Maher. Was banging in 60 yarders but also missing a shit load and was shown the door.
To your D comment, that is another one off. I'm not calling for Tony White to figure it out because he has performed. If it becomes a trend over the next year, then hell yeah he needs to be looked at, but I think that dude is a good enough coach he will get it fixed. Foley I am not so sure of, and I am not also sure what he provides as a coach. I'd rather have a stud up and comer recruiter or a proven commodity then a dude on the back-end of his career that just seems to be eating his way through Nebraska small town diners into the sunset. Foley seems to be the outlier of coach on this staff. Most are up and comers or dudes that love football and nothing else. I don't get that vibe from him.
Most likely that is the case. But a person can dream. NU likely lost a game they should have won because of ST, and most people think that is the fault of the dedicated ST coach. Does Rhule ride with Foley for the rest of the year and take his chances on costing us another win, and then make a change after the season? Or does he make a change mid-year, with a bye week coming up soon?
I have no idea what should be done, but I would get excited if Rhule made a change with BBusch. An experienced, successful ST coach (among his many other successful position and DC roles) that lives in Lincoln would seem like a reasonable and viable option if the decision is a mid-year change. I'm not sure how many ST coaches that fit this scenario are currently unemployed on a CFB staff right now and could step in immediately.
I wasn't saying it should/will be done, just hoping it could happen.
There's not much Foley can do at this point to change the kicking situation. They brought in a promising freshman who missed his first pressure kick. Buschini undere pressure f'd up too. Maybe you make a change there but apparently he's been the best guy in practice.
I'm WAY more worried about White's inability to scheme something up to stop Illinois's run game than I am our kickers. UNI pushed ourd edge guys and backers around last week and White had all week to prepare for what he had to know was coming. Having two sophomore edge guys try to take on 320 lb OTs to get to a 4 man front isn't going to cut it against the likes of Iowa etal. He needs to figure it out fast.
Or you can retain the same coach, keep doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result? That's the definition of insanity.
or we can give him a chance to try to fix what he can. He can't fix the kicker or the punter kicking the ball down the middle instead of the side. He bombed that kick pretty much right down the middle and out kicked the coverage. I don't think the direction would have been that big of a deal if he hadn't hit it a little low and a lot long.
You have become a total apologist, Leave it up to BuSHANKski when we need a good kick.
I'm open to replacing Buschini. IF it was a mental error especially and not just I kicked it too hard and it didn't fly like he thought it would. I have a hunch that many of the posters on here have ever tried to kick or punt in an organized game. Hell a shank would have been better but even then if our cover guys don't get tackled we hold them to a much shorter return.
He's an experienced collegiate kicker.
I think Foley has tried to get this kid to be so precise, some of the blame goes to the kicking coach.
Unfortunately ST is more than the kickers . Our kicking game has been under average. But last year we blocked punts FGs and ran fake FGs that’s all ST . I agree ourFG is below average and Rhule is trying to fix that.
