Husker Despair

[huskerfan66]

I think the premo seats between the 30’s are more than 2,000 per seat.
I could be mistaken but my relative’s have them in the southeast end zone..

Rumor has it they want to make everything in rows considered lower bowl north of 2g more like 2500

 

[dinglefritz]

We don’t like to admit it, but TO had a window of opportunity that he fully exploited and it worked wonders. Boyd Epply, recruiting nasty players, using partial qualifiers, huge walk on program with steroids, and straightforward tough ass coaching and culture.

TO retiring had nothing to do with his heart or stress. He jumped into a more stressful job right after that being a congressman. He saw the writing on the wall and all the advantages that he was able to exploit were either being taken away or other programs had caught up. He did the Jerry Seinfeld and went out on top.

All other fan bases kept saying that when TO left, we would not be a good program again and unfortunately they have been correct. As others pointed out, we have become the new Minnesota and I don’t expect that to change.

Ummmm no. Of this I am certain. Tom nearly died before his last bowl game. Being a congressman was no where near as demanding as being the head coach at NU. I know for a fact that his Drs advised him to retire from coaching.

 

[huskerfan1414]

We don’t like to admit it, but TO had a window of opportunity that he fully exploited and it worked wonders. Boyd Epply, recruiting nasty players, using partial qualifiers, huge walk on program with steroids, and straightforward tough ass coaching and culture.

TO retiring had nothing to do with his heart or stress. He jumped into a more stressful job right after that being a congressman. He saw the writing on the wall and all the advantages that he was able to exploit were either being taken away or other programs had caught up. He did the Jerry Seinfeld and went out on top.

All other fan bases kept saying that when TO left, we would not be a good program again and unfortunately they have been correct. As others pointed out, we have become the new Minnesota and I don’t expect that to change.

Some Husker fans’ determination to undermine what TO did, like the above post, always baffles me.

 

[huskerfan1414]

It really is unbelievable just how bad our program is and has been. That triple tipped pass USC caught for a first down down on 3rd and long literally sums up our entire program the past 10 years.
We’re the worst football program in America the past 8 years. Think about that. Its fact.

What sucks is that even if it “gets better” I worry it will be 6-8 win seasons and rhule will buy himself more time. He’s never going to get it done here but we are stuck with him. Hes a mediocre coach and it was an underwhelming hire. We need to find a winner.

I fully believe the best thing for Nebraska is to hire jeff monken. We wont. And that isnt crazy talk…I have very much considered this. If a five star QB with a five star TE and two 4* transfers doesnt prove we cant be like everyone else and expect to stand out i dont know what will. And its not even that we dont stand out….we dont fit in and cant even make a bowl game
If not power running and option, then the most successful young coach who wins games no matter where at any level.

But rinse wash repeat.

 

[huskerfan1414]

Honestly, our only complete head scratcher was Mike Riley. Every other guy we hired was at least a respectable/reasonable hire who had had coaching success.

Frost was the hot coach that cycle and years later went limping out of the state, reputation ruined.

Rhule can turn around Temple and post-scandal Baylor, but not Nebraska???

FML. 🤦‍♂️

Callahan was a dumb hire and so was rhule. Rhule never did anything at temple or baylor and everyone knows it. We point to some meaningless wins he had to make ourselves feel better about the hire. He never won anything or beat anybody.

 

[huskerfan1414]

Looking at McGuire's wikipedia page, there is no way he should have been hired. He had no coaching experience or even played WR. He was just an analyst and son of a coach. And our running backs coach wikipedia is almost empty. The only thing is that he played a few snaps at Rutgers and apparently that was enough for Rhule as well. We need to be hiring a veteran's staff instead of helping out old friends find their first job.

I was heckled for questioning the hire.

 

[LBremser]

Rumor has it they want to make everything in rows considered lower bowl north of 2g more like 2500

Currently required donations for the sections (east and west stadiums) on the 50 are $2500, next sections on each side of that are $2,000, and from there the amount for each section as you move to the goal line decreases $250. I can't see them raising those amounts with the current quality of play on the field, and regardless I doubt that they would have enough demand at those levels. There are a lot of seats in those sections, though, that are not paying the full amount because the seats were passed down from the old days and the AD has said that he is going to increase those to full rates.

 

[huskerfan1414]

A lot of good points. There is a lot of money going to all the BIG schools and most of them (not us) are using it to hire great coaching staffs. Trev gave Rhule a $7 million salary pool for his assistants, what does he do with it? Gives Satterfield, who was about ready to be run out of SC, a $500,000 RAISE! And here was Rhule's stated objective for what he wanted in a WR coach: "one of the main qualifications that Rhule was looking for in his receivers coach were ties to the Midwest and Texas for recruiting purposes. " How about someone who can coach, and not a 23-year-old whose "coaching" experience was 2 years of getting coffee and sandwiches for the real coaches.

This is why “we need to give more money” isnt a great argument for impreovement. Who are we spending the money on? Both coaches and players.

 

[HuskAir]

To date myself, the first game I have memories of is the 1992 Orange Bowl, following the 1991 season, where Miami shutout Nebraska 22-0, but it really wasn’t until Byron Bennett’s 45 yard field goal hooked left versus Florida State that I understood the emotions that came with a heartbreaking defeat. I could sense the frustrations and disappointment of my family, especially my dad at the time. It was like there was a 10-foot hurdle in the way and no pole to vault the program, hell, the state, to reach its ultimate goal. Anything short of winning a national championship in football was not good enough. I consider myself fortunate to have been introduced to Husker football at the very beginning of an incredible streak of success. The next 7 years yielded 3 national titles and national championship games 4 appearances. Multiple conference championships, incredible win percentages, great athletes, great coaches. A loss would ruin your week, because you knew the perfect season, the ultimate goal, was unreachable.

I joined this board the day we were introduced to Black 41 Flash Reverse Pass and celebrated a great win over a tough OU squad, with many of you. We were almost immediately met with the beginning of the end in Boulder, and watched the board melt down similarly to how my dad would melt down to losing to Florida State or Miami. 23 years here has been quite the ride. Through each of the 6 head coaches in that time frame, at some point there was always some level of HOPE and OPTIMISM, but at the same time, the bar of success continued to drop. What was once “National Championship or Bust” became the desire to not get left in the dust by Texas and Oklahoma, then it was maintaining 9 win seasons, then the bowl streak. What was once a national power came crashing down and cannot find its identity. The program has ridiculous amounts of fan support and wants to be a blueblood, but cannot even churn out mediocre results at this point. Even when we think we have an idea of what piece of the puzzle is missing, we are smacked in the face with issues in other areas holding the program back.

In 2009, NU was arguably a QB away from making a serious run at a BCS bowl. In 2023, NU was arguably a QB away from 9 or 10 wins. Flash forward a year… we landed the QB of our dreams, yet we are on the verge of extending our streak of losing seasons. “The more things change…” This has become a broken record, going on decades now. What is the programs identity? Not a single conference championship this millennium and no bowl games in two coaching cycles isn’t going to sell a tired fanbase going forward. The younger generation only has stories and YouTube to try and understand that the program was at the peak of the college football world at one point. The generations that lived through the 70s, 80s, and 90s have undoubtedly reached a different level of tired-purgatory. We know the history. We lived the history. We just long for a taste of what things once were. Any semblance at all, but it feels like it’s never going to happen. These are dark times. Have we reached a fork in the road as a fanbase? How will the program continue to garner support with continued failures and an exhausted fanbase?

Winning one of the final two games feels more important than ever. It won’t remove all feelings of fan fatigue, but it would show that the program is able to jump a hurdle and is ready to raise the bar for once, as opposed to further lowering it.

I’m not sure where I was going with this, other than say I do come across negative at times because I’m frustrated and I truly just want to program to get back on a winning track. Win a game that matters.

 

[BuckysBoys1]

We keep hiring .500 coaches at expect .800 results.

Scott Frost was a 1000.0 winner! Literally won every game. But Nebraska went Nebraska on him.

 

[Harry Caray]

We keep hiring .500 coaches at expect .800 results.

We keep hiring coaches who had one good season, and for some reason we think that means they will be able to build a winning program here. Callahan, Riley, Frost, Rhule....all only had one good season when we hired them, and most of the rest were losing seasons.

We need to hire a coach who has shown they can have sustained long-term success. Rhule has never stayed anywere long enough to show that. Frost and Callahan only had 2 years of head coaching experience. Mike Riley's career was on a clear downhill trajectory when we hired him.

 

[itseasyas1-2-3]

To date myself, the first game I have memories of is the 1992 Orange Bowl, following the 1991 season, where Miami shutout Nebraska 22-0, but it really wasn’t until Byron Bennett’s 45 yard field goal hooked left versus Florida State that I understood the emotions that came with a heartbreaking defeat. I could sense the frustrations and disappointment of my family, especially my dad at the time. It was like there was a 10-foot hurdle in the way and no pole to vault the program, hell, the state, to reach its ultimate goal. Anything short of winning a national championship in football was not good enough. I consider myself fortunate to have been introduced to Husker football at the very beginning of an incredible streak of success. The next 7 years yielded 3 national titles and national championship games 4 appearances. Multiple conference championships, incredible win percentages, great athletes, great coaches. A loss would ruin your week, because you knew the perfect season, the ultimate goal, was unreachable.

I joined this board the day we were introduced to Black 41 Flash Reverse Pass and celebrated a great win over a tough OU squad, with many of you. We were almost immediately met with the beginning of the end in Boulder, and watched the board melt down similarly to how my dad would melt down to losing to Florida State or Miami. 23 years here has been quite the ride. Through each of the 6 head coaches in that time frame, at some point there was always some level of HOPE and OPTIMISM, but at the same time, the bar of success continued to drop. What was once “National Championship or Bust” became the desire to not get left in the dust by Texas and Oklahoma, then it was maintaining 9 win seasons, then the bowl streak. What was once a national power came crashing down and cannot find its identity. The program has ridiculous amounts of fan support and wants to be a blueblood, but cannot even churn out mediocre results at this point. Even when we think we have an idea of what piece of the puzzle is missing, we are smacked in the face with issues in other areas holding the program back.

In 2009, NU was arguably a QB away from making a serious run at a BCS bowl. In 2023, NU was arguably a QB away from 9 or 10 wins. Flash forward a year… we landed the QB of our dreams, yet we are on the verge of extending our streak of losing seasons. “The more things change…” This has become a broken record, going on decades now. What is the programs identity? Not a single conference championship this millennium and no bowl games in two coaching cycles isn’t going to sell a tired fanbase going forward. The younger generation only has stories and YouTube to try and understand that the program was at the peak of the college football world at one point. The generations that lived through the 70s, 80s, and 90s have undoubtedly reached a different level of tired-purgatory. We know the history. We lived the history. We just long for a taste of what things once were. Any semblance at all, but it feels like it’s never going to happen. These are dark times. Have we reached a fork in the road as a fanbase? How will the program continue to garner support with continued failures and an exhausted fanbase?

Winning one of the final two games feels more important than ever. It won’t remove all feelings of fan fatigue, but it would show that the program is able to jump a hurdle and is ready to raise the bar for once, as opposed to further lowering it.

I’m not sure where I was going with this, other than say I do come across negative at times because I’m frustrated and I truly just want to program to get back on a winning track. Win a game that matters.

Along with scarlet red and others, I personally am gonna be 71 years old next month. I started being a huge NU fan in 1962 when I was 9 years old. My oldest grandson is married with 2 children. I have a great-granddaughter and great-grandson. So, it's been a while.

I would almost bet you, guys like scarlet and I can not only name every game we lost most years through the late 90's, but we also can remember pretty damn close what the score of those games were. I'm not sure the younger generation realizes how effing important this football program was to "guys like us" in those days as young men, with growing families, and football was near the top of our universe. The unbelievable highs and the unbelievable lows.

I went out to Virginia to live with my mom when I was 16 years old. The night Jerry Tagge reached across the goal line to score as we beat LSU for our first national title, I looked out the window and the KKK was marching along the railroad tracks.

During the next year when I turned 17, I enlisted in the USAF. In basic training I begged my Staff Sergeant to find a way to get a t.v. into the Dayroom so 96 of us guys could watch the "Game of the Century." He complied, AFTER I agreed to do KP (Kitchen Patrol) 3 times during basic training when only 1 time was required. KP was not fun. I didn't want that to be the first Husker football game I had ever missed. NU football meant a lot.

Along with the other oldtimers, we've seen it all, the climb to get to the top of the mountain, and then the very best program for a period of times in all of college football. So, can I get pissy when the program continues to reel year after year? Yes I can.

Its a feeling of betrayal. A veritable money machine that continues to malfunction. Every effing excuse in the world for why we no longer can win.

I had a room in my basement dedicated to Husker football. Nothing fancy, just decades and decades of Sunday World Heralds with the latest game. Stacks and stacks of Street and Smith, Athlon, etc magazines, Sport Illustrated magazines with the Huskers on the cover. If it had anything to do with NU football, I had it.

On that day in Boulder in 2000 when we got run off the field by Colorado, I went to my basement, got my son to help me and went to the backyard where my burning barrel was at. Other than the Sports Illustrated magazines, I burned everything I had. I told my wife and son, this program is over, its never gonna recover from this humiliation.

I'll be a son of a bitch, I was right.

The "history of this program" is THIS PROGRAM IS HISTORY.

Donate to this mess? Not in my lifetime.

 

[Zeke2005]

Looking at McGuire's wikipedia page, there is no way he should have been hired. He had no coaching experience or even played WR. He was just an analyst and son of a coach. And our running backs coach wikipedia is almost empty. The only thing is that he played a few snaps at Rutgers and apparently that was enough for Rhule as well. We need to be hiring a veteran's staff instead of helping out old friends find their first job.

He should be coaching at Div 3 or NAIA school. Who in their right mind hires a person to coach in the big ten with zero experience???

 

[Zeke2005]

This post is WAY too good to be buried in the thread. Will edit my first post

In the past there was always something fixable to point to until the last coaches:

Solich: bad recruiting
Callahan: bad dc
Pelini: bad recruiting, insane
Riley: Crap hire
Frost: ???
Rhule: ???

People keep saying we aren’t cursed, but if we aren’t we have remarkably similar results again and again with different staff and players.

Our fans are BURNED OUT!

Never would have expected this to turn out like this, but somehow the 2 guys after Riley are worse than him!!
Rhule is better than Frost. Biggest mistake he made for year one (other than assistant coach hires) was Jeff Simms. Game 1, pi$$ed away a victory vs Minnesota. Didn’t know it at the time but it was the difference between bowl game and checking in the equipment on Thanksgiving weekend.

 

[Landomatic]

I was heckled for questioning the hire.

If I was one of them, my apologies. I had concerns about it based on his inexperience too, but I was willing to give it the benefit of the doubt as I assumed it was essentially a title only type of position where his primary, possibly only, role was Texas high school football inroads. Given his dad's history and how Rhule was able to capitalize on that, I thought (hoped) this would be more of the same. It clearly was not.

 

[Landomatic]

Never would have expected this to turn out like this, but somehow the 2 guys after Riley are worse than him!!
Rhule is better than Frost. Biggest mistake he made for year one (other than assistant coach hires) was Jeff Simms. Game 1, pi$$ed away a victory vs Minnesota. Didn’t know it at the time but it was the difference between bowl game and checking in the equipment on Thanksgiving weekend.

So, other than botching about half the coaching hires and the most important position on the field, pretty good job then, huh?

 

[Pennsyhusker]

This post is WAY too good to be buried in the thread. Will edit my first post

In the past there was always something fixable to point to until the last coaches:

Solich: bad recruiting
Callahan: bad dc
Pelini: bad recruiting, insane
Riley: Crap hire
Frost: ???
Rhule: ???

People keep saying we aren’t cursed, but if we aren’t we have remarkably similar results again and again with different staff and players.

Our fans are BURNED OUT!

We are burned out. And tapped out financially in terms of our willingness to keep donating to this program.,

 

[Zeke2005]

So, other than botching about half the coaching hires and the most important position on the field, pretty good job then, huh?

No I didn’t say pretty good job. I said he’s better than Frost.

 

[Landomatic]

No I didn’t say pretty good job. I said he’s better than Frost.

Wasn't really directed at you, just being sarcastic and pointing out that those are 2 major eff ups for year one for any coach. I wouldn't necessarily say that's better than Frost or pretty good or anything positive at all.

 

[regoratsginrom]

To date myself, the first game I have memories of is the 1992 Orange Bowl, following the 1991 season, where Miami shutout Nebraska 22-0, but it really wasn’t until Byron Bennett’s 45 yard field goal hooked left versus Florida State that I understood the emotions that came with a heartbreaking defeat. I could sense the frustrations and disappointment of my family, especially my dad at the time. It was like there was a 10-foot hurdle in the way and no pole to vault the program, hell, the state, to reach its ultimate goal. Anything short of winning a national championship in football was not good enough. I consider myself fortunate to have been introduced to Husker football at the very beginning of an incredible streak of success. The next 7 years yielded 3 national titles and national championship games 4 appearances. Multiple conference championships, incredible win percentages, great athletes, great coaches. A loss would ruin your week, because you knew the perfect season, the ultimate goal, was unreachable.

I joined this board the day we were introduced to Black 41 Flash Reverse Pass and celebrated a great win over a tough OU squad, with many of you. We were almost immediately met with the beginning of the end in Boulder, and watched the board melt down similarly to how my dad would melt down to losing to Florida State or Miami. 23 years here has been quite the ride. Through each of the 6 head coaches in that time frame, at some point there was always some level of HOPE and OPTIMISM, but at the same time, the bar of success continued to drop. What was once “National Championship or Bust” became the desire to not get left in the dust by Texas and Oklahoma, then it was maintaining 9 win seasons, then the bowl streak. What was once a national power came crashing down and cannot find its identity. The program has ridiculous amounts of fan support and wants to be a blueblood, but cannot even churn out mediocre results at this point. Even when we think we have an idea of what piece of the puzzle is missing, we are smacked in the face with issues in other areas holding the program back.

In 2009, NU was arguably a QB away from making a serious run at a BCS bowl. In 2023, NU was arguably a QB away from 9 or 10 wins. Flash forward a year… we landed the QB of our dreams, yet we are on the verge of extending our streak of losing seasons. “The more things change…” This has become a broken record, going on decades now. What is the programs identity? Not a single conference championship this millennium and no bowl games in two coaching cycles isn’t going to sell a tired fanbase going forward. The younger generation only has stories and YouTube to try and understand that the program was at the peak of the college football world at one point. The generations that lived through the 70s, 80s, and 90s have undoubtedly reached a different level of tired-purgatory. We know the history. We lived the history. We just long for a taste of what things once were. Any semblance at all, but it feels like it’s never going to happen. These are dark times. Have we reached a fork in the road as a fanbase? How will the program continue to garner support with continued failures and an exhausted fanbase?

Winning one of the final two games feels more important than ever. It won’t remove all feelings of fan fatigue, but it would show that the program is able to jump a hurdle and is ready to raise the bar for once, as opposed to further lowering it.

I’m not sure where I was going with this, other than say I do come across negative at times because I’m frustrated and I truly just want to program to get back on a winning track. Win a game that matters.

We are Indiana basketball.

 

[Zeke2005]

Wasn't really directed at you, just being sarcastic and pointing out that those are 2 major eff ups for year one for any coach. I wouldn't necessarily say that's better than Frost or pretty good or anything positive at all.

The records are better than what Frost had.

 

[itseasyas1-2-3]

We are burned out. And tapped out financially in terms of our willingness to keep donating to this program.,

We remember 2002, we went 7-6 and met Eli Manning and Ole Miss in the Independence Bowl.

After decades of Orange, Sugar, Cotton , Rose and other nice bowls, this is what our program had been reduced to?

Now, going on 8 straight years, that type of bowl, or any bowl is the measure of success?

We continue to root on a team of up and down players, a less than confident head coach, and launch into a 2 game series against 2 teams we are collectively 1-13 over the last seven years, the only win coming from an interim head coach.

All the Huskers have to do Saturday is beat a Wisconsin team that's beaten them 10 straight years.

NU was drubbed by Indiana and follwed the next week with a supreme effort against a much better OSU team, then followed that by sleep walking the first half against UCLA before losing.
Wisconsin was drubbed by Iowa followed the next week with a supreme effort against a much better Oregon team, will that be followed by a first half sleep walk against NU? We will find out.

One thing that's known... NU fans will show up, but the support is lessening.

 

[Pennsyhusker]

We remember 2002, we went 7-6 and met Eli Manning and Ole Miss in the Independence Bowl.

After decades of Orange, Sugar, Cotton , Rose and other nice bowls, this is what our program had been reduced to?

Now, going on 8 straight years, that type of bowl, or any bowl is the measure of success?

We continue to root on a team of up and down players, a less than confident head coach, and launch into a 2 game series against 2 teams we are collectively 1-13 over the last seven years, the only win coming from an interim head coach.

All the Huskers have to do Saturday is beat a Wisconsin team that's beaten them 10 straight years.

NU was drubbed by Indiana and follwed the next week with a supreme effort against a much better OSU team, then followed that by sleep walking the first half against UCLA before losing.
Wisconsin was drubbed by Iowa followed the next week with a supreme effort against a much better Oregon team, will that be followed by a first half sleep walk against NU? We will find out.

One thing that's known... NU fans will show up, but the support is lessening.

You could see the lessening of support already last year. Despite "sell out" status, the games I attended later in the season had tons of visible empty seats. And the "vibe" downtown is increasingly depressing before games. Oh yea, the same "rah rah rah Go Big Red" stuff is still there, but it is all kind of stale and everyone knows it. The vibe now is one of kind of "play acting" at being excited and overall atmosphere is one of "Let's just all enjoy getting drunk and having fun since the game is probably going to suck." The joy is gone. The excitement is gone. The expectation of winning has been replaced with an expectation of losing. And all of that is wearing thin...

 

[itseasyas1-2-3]

You could see the lessening of support already last year. Despite "sell out" status, the games I attended later in the season had tons of visible empty seats. And the "vibe" downtown is increasingly depressing before games. Oh yea, the same "rah rah rah Go Big Red" stuff is still there, but it is all kind of stale and everyone knows it. The vibe now is one of kind of "play acting" at being excited and overall atmosphere is one of "Let's just all enjoy getting drunk and having fun since the game is probably going to suck." The joy is gone. The excitement is gone. The expectation of winning has been replaced with an expectation of losing. And all of that is wearing thin...

The lower the expectation, the more chance it will be met.