...I will ask you to keep an open mind.
If you just strive to be at the level that Wisconsin has been the past five years (and apparently that is the standard the media is using as the basis for ranking the teams in the West), getting to Indy should be the goal for this year's team.
I truly believe this team makes it there (over Wisconsin) at 10-2, with one non-con and one conference loss (take your pick). And regardless of a Win or a Loss in the B1G championship, this year's team will land in a cushy January 1 Bowl Game, and a chance to beat a good team to finish the season.
Now getting an SEC team in the Capital One Bowl at 10-3 may not necessarily appear to be a step-up, but it's not a step back either. But a win in that game would make Nebraska 11-3, provide the program with it's first Top 10 finish since 2000, and would create a significant amount of momentum for the program heading into 2016.
Right now, I just don't see 11 wins as a big stretch. Getting to a Top 10 finish in Riley's first year would immediately validate his hire amongst the talking heads in the media, and would make recruits nationally take notice that Nebraska is back as a player again on the college football scene (and, yes all of that can happen in Year One folks).
Now, I get that Bo was a "season like that" away from getting over the hump, and could never put it all together. So why would Riley be able to do something in one season that Pelini couldn't figure out how to do in seven?
Bo, for all his charm (just kidding), never gave himself a chance to be a great head coach. Through nepotism or just plain paranoia, he chose to underhire and surround himself with "yes men" whenever he could on his coaching staff.
By contrast, Riley has no "first time" assistant coaches on his staff, nor has he hired a former golf teacher to be a position coach. In fact, his top two assistants both served more than 8 years as a Power 5 conference coordinator and each bring to the table NFL experience in their background.
And for HCMR's staff, that's not the exception. He has five staff members with NFL coaching experience, and four with Coordinator experience on the Division 1 level.
If "luck" indeed "favors the prepared" as the old saying the goes, HCMR may not need much of it it build on the foundation that Pelini has already laid in Lincoln. He just needs to avoid the collapses, and provide a steady hand when needed in those games where his knowledge and experience will most likely become indispensible.
To me, that's the difference between 9-4 and 10-2 in the regular season for this year's squad. And if that gives this team a shot to play for all the marbles in Indy (and a chance to end that 15 year conference title drought), I think any Husker fan would take that for a chance to erase then nightmare of the 21st century of Nebraska Football we've all be living through.
GBR
If you just strive to be at the level that Wisconsin has been the past five years (and apparently that is the standard the media is using as the basis for ranking the teams in the West), getting to Indy should be the goal for this year's team.
I truly believe this team makes it there (over Wisconsin) at 10-2, with one non-con and one conference loss (take your pick). And regardless of a Win or a Loss in the B1G championship, this year's team will land in a cushy January 1 Bowl Game, and a chance to beat a good team to finish the season.
Now getting an SEC team in the Capital One Bowl at 10-3 may not necessarily appear to be a step-up, but it's not a step back either. But a win in that game would make Nebraska 11-3, provide the program with it's first Top 10 finish since 2000, and would create a significant amount of momentum for the program heading into 2016.
Right now, I just don't see 11 wins as a big stretch. Getting to a Top 10 finish in Riley's first year would immediately validate his hire amongst the talking heads in the media, and would make recruits nationally take notice that Nebraska is back as a player again on the college football scene (and, yes all of that can happen in Year One folks).
Now, I get that Bo was a "season like that" away from getting over the hump, and could never put it all together. So why would Riley be able to do something in one season that Pelini couldn't figure out how to do in seven?
Bo, for all his charm (just kidding), never gave himself a chance to be a great head coach. Through nepotism or just plain paranoia, he chose to underhire and surround himself with "yes men" whenever he could on his coaching staff.
By contrast, Riley has no "first time" assistant coaches on his staff, nor has he hired a former golf teacher to be a position coach. In fact, his top two assistants both served more than 8 years as a Power 5 conference coordinator and each bring to the table NFL experience in their background.
And for HCMR's staff, that's not the exception. He has five staff members with NFL coaching experience, and four with Coordinator experience on the Division 1 level.
If "luck" indeed "favors the prepared" as the old saying the goes, HCMR may not need much of it it build on the foundation that Pelini has already laid in Lincoln. He just needs to avoid the collapses, and provide a steady hand when needed in those games where his knowledge and experience will most likely become indispensible.
To me, that's the difference between 9-4 and 10-2 in the regular season for this year's squad. And if that gives this team a shot to play for all the marbles in Indy (and a chance to end that 15 year conference title drought), I think any Husker fan would take that for a chance to erase then nightmare of the 21st century of Nebraska Football we've all be living through.
GBR
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