I will apologize for coming here. I am not prone to trolling. I was most interested in your fanbase's interpretation of Coach Frost's "I don't call the defense" quote. And also one of your player's saying "Enough of this rah-rah stuff." I really did not expect all of the discussion about red-headed stepchild and the refs-are-out-to-get-us. That is Vanderbilt mentality. When Gary Barnett came to Northwestern way back when, he said that we had to get away from loser mentality. Blaming referees was one of his examples. Right up there with moral victories. While we get grumpy about bad calls, we strive to stay away from the refs-are-out-to-get-us. I was startled to see it in the fans of a program of the historical caliber of Nebraska.
My startlement turned into a troll and has now resulted in a second (now condescending) post.
I will shut up and go away now. Again, apologies for the trolling.
I'll give you the benefit of the doubt here and provide a genuine reply. There is no doubt that, right now, the Nebraska program has a loser mentality that needs to be exorcised post haste. Too many recent games where you get your pants pulled down on national television will do that.
Even before this season, this has been a fragile team constantly waiting for the other shoe to drop because that's what they're grown accustomed to. We've also had a lot of players that seemed to enjoy the perks of a big-time D1 program so long as no one held them accountable. For some players, this is their third coaching staff and they may just be checked out. Hopefully those players are now removed but bad habits and bad attitudes still linger in certain corners.
The us-against-the-world mentality was started by Bo (such leadership) and it continues to rear its head during moments of adversity. Strangely, the refs and talking heads being out to get us (especially ESPN) has been part of our fanbase as long as I can remember, even during the championship years. Nothing like a good conspiracy theory to keep things paranoid.
In short, there are no easy fixes. It will take time to bring in the players with the talent, attitude and work ethic required to win. They will have to work at becoming good, then great, all over again. Over the next several seasons, the work habits will have to be re-established, including the extra work that championship players do on their own without being asked. Once the players start holding themselves accountable, look out.
In the meantime, I'm sure it's shocking to witness from the outside. It's shocking from the inside and we had some idea of the dumpster fire SF inherited, but nothing like this.