It's the toughest question surrounding Nebraska football. I like Mike Riley and think he should get two full years (17 and 18), but in my heart and soul, I think the answers are as follows:
* Make line play THE priority. Target every big ol' Midwestern kid with good feet and smarts in our region and lock them up. Let's reestablish the pipeline, Midwestern style. Both sides of the ball. NEVER let a big kid with athleticism leave the state or immediate region. Bryson Williams to Wisconsin? An absolute travesty! Indefensible. Which leads me to ...
* Keep the best kids at home. Make fun of Noah Fant all you want, but he should be a HUSKER. We slow-played him, didn't show him the love and look what happened. Now he'll haunt us for the next three years. Harrison Phillips too. Yet we cry and cry about possibly losing "Bookie." Whatever. Keep the best Nebraska kids at NEBRASKA. Every year.
* Get dual threat QBs. Who gives a shit if they eventually play in the NFL or not. Let's get kids who can run. Tommy didn't progress the way any of us would have liked, but I'm guessing it's still easier to find a dangerous dual threat QB than a prototypical "NFL guy" who's a statue.
* Run the f****** ball. Or, as the snarky f****** on this board say, "Run the gosh durn bawl" or whatever it is they say. It's time for Nebraska fans to stop being embarrassed about wanting to run the football with power - like we used to do. It's time to stop hoping for this magical pro-style attack that will put up 50 points a game with a statuesque QB who throws WR screens and dinks and dumps his way to a first-round NFL draft position like Sean Mannion.
* De-emphasize California. I'm sorry, but a lot of California players are soft and overrated. They just are. The Pac 12 is soft overall, and other than the Pete C. era at USC, and a few decent Stanford teams, the PAC plays p**** ball. I mean, I don't like to criticize individual players, but Lamar Jackson? Please. Let's not forget we've "out-recruited" Wisconsin and Iowa every year ever on paper, and where has it gotten us?
* Practice with physicality. Damn it, stop pretending this is the NFL and doing walk-throughs 5 days a week. It probably cost Banker his job, but his quote about Iowa's practices being like war was telling indeed. Start hitting, multiple days a week. Do some 1s vs. 1s, full contact. If players get hurt, so be it.
* Be a BETTER Wisconsin and Stanford, not a WORSE Florida State or Oklahoma ... We have better edge athletes than every school in our division. If we ran a track meet against Wisconsin or Iowa, we'd blow their doors off. So why can't we beat them? Line play and physicality.
I got so many texts from friends around the nation today saying things like, "Sorry, man, I know how much this means to you" and "Damn, Nebraska does not look good right now." Yeah, no s****.
We need to embrace our roots and get back to them.
* Make line play THE priority. Target every big ol' Midwestern kid with good feet and smarts in our region and lock them up. Let's reestablish the pipeline, Midwestern style. Both sides of the ball. NEVER let a big kid with athleticism leave the state or immediate region. Bryson Williams to Wisconsin? An absolute travesty! Indefensible. Which leads me to ...
* Keep the best kids at home. Make fun of Noah Fant all you want, but he should be a HUSKER. We slow-played him, didn't show him the love and look what happened. Now he'll haunt us for the next three years. Harrison Phillips too. Yet we cry and cry about possibly losing "Bookie." Whatever. Keep the best Nebraska kids at NEBRASKA. Every year.
* Get dual threat QBs. Who gives a shit if they eventually play in the NFL or not. Let's get kids who can run. Tommy didn't progress the way any of us would have liked, but I'm guessing it's still easier to find a dangerous dual threat QB than a prototypical "NFL guy" who's a statue.
* Run the f****** ball. Or, as the snarky f****** on this board say, "Run the gosh durn bawl" or whatever it is they say. It's time for Nebraska fans to stop being embarrassed about wanting to run the football with power - like we used to do. It's time to stop hoping for this magical pro-style attack that will put up 50 points a game with a statuesque QB who throws WR screens and dinks and dumps his way to a first-round NFL draft position like Sean Mannion.
* De-emphasize California. I'm sorry, but a lot of California players are soft and overrated. They just are. The Pac 12 is soft overall, and other than the Pete C. era at USC, and a few decent Stanford teams, the PAC plays p**** ball. I mean, I don't like to criticize individual players, but Lamar Jackson? Please. Let's not forget we've "out-recruited" Wisconsin and Iowa every year ever on paper, and where has it gotten us?
* Practice with physicality. Damn it, stop pretending this is the NFL and doing walk-throughs 5 days a week. It probably cost Banker his job, but his quote about Iowa's practices being like war was telling indeed. Start hitting, multiple days a week. Do some 1s vs. 1s, full contact. If players get hurt, so be it.
* Be a BETTER Wisconsin and Stanford, not a WORSE Florida State or Oklahoma ... We have better edge athletes than every school in our division. If we ran a track meet against Wisconsin or Iowa, we'd blow their doors off. So why can't we beat them? Line play and physicality.
I got so many texts from friends around the nation today saying things like, "Sorry, man, I know how much this means to you" and "Damn, Nebraska does not look good right now." Yeah, no s****.
We need to embrace our roots and get back to them.
