Are you saying we didn't have patience with Pelini? We gave him 7 years despite the fact that he won nothing of importance, got blown out many times, acted crazy on the sidelines, called out the fan base, and dared the athletic director to fire him. If anything we were too patient with him.
Someone convince me...
- Thread starter SkerInCo
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Are you saying we didn't have patience with Pelini? We gave him 7 years despite the fact that he won nothing of importance, got blown out many times, acted crazy on the sidelines, called out the fan base, and dared the athletic director to fire him. If anything we were too patient with him.
No the conversation was that Nebraska fan has no patience for just being good. Acting crazy on the sidelines, calling out the fan base and daring the AD to fire him have nothing to do with results on the field.
Again don't get me wrong, I was not a Pelini fan at all. But there are people on here saying they would be content with being Wisconsin and that is simply not true.
I'll probably repeat what many have already said, but I hope this will help:
1. Being unique has nothing to do with it - unless you mean we are unique in that we don't block and tackle like is required in the Big Ten. It's been proven you can get good football players to Lincoln, time and time again. The Big Ten West is pretty similar to the old Big 8. If we can't hold our own against Iowa and Wisconsin, let's just join the Mountain West.
2. There will be no shortage of qualified coaches that will want to come here. The more we offer to pay, the better the pool becomes. But let's actually do a thorough search and find the best fit. Callahan and Riley were rescue projects desperate to get out of their current situation and hired without due diligence. I don't know what to say about Bo, other than he proved you can be bad at many aspects of the job and still win 9 games at Nebraska. If nothing else, that should give you hope. The idea that Nebraska won't be able to attract a quality football coach is absurd. We just have to look...at more than one guy.
3. I agree with you on one thing. Memorial Stadium is a dump in a lot of respects. Are most of the seats still in the end zones? I won't sit in the end zones any more. If I can't sit in the East or West stadum, I ain't going. But the tunnel walk and other fan fare are fine. Win football games and you won't notice the peripheral stuff.
I'll close with this. Michigan State made the playoff. Washington made the playoff. Oregon made the playoff. Do you think it's impossible for NU to ever compete with those programs?
1. Being unique has nothing to do with it - unless you mean we are unique in that we don't block and tackle like is required in the Big Ten. It's been proven you can get good football players to Lincoln, time and time again. The Big Ten West is pretty similar to the old Big 8. If we can't hold our own against Iowa and Wisconsin, let's just join the Mountain West.
2. There will be no shortage of qualified coaches that will want to come here. The more we offer to pay, the better the pool becomes. But let's actually do a thorough search and find the best fit. Callahan and Riley were rescue projects desperate to get out of their current situation and hired without due diligence. I don't know what to say about Bo, other than he proved you can be bad at many aspects of the job and still win 9 games at Nebraska. If nothing else, that should give you hope. The idea that Nebraska won't be able to attract a quality football coach is absurd. We just have to look...at more than one guy.
3. I agree with you on one thing. Memorial Stadium is a dump in a lot of respects. Are most of the seats still in the end zones? I won't sit in the end zones any more. If I can't sit in the East or West stadum, I ain't going. But the tunnel walk and other fan fare are fine. Win football games and you won't notice the peripheral stuff.
I'll close with this. Michigan State made the playoff. Washington made the playoff. Oregon made the playoff. Do you think it's impossible for NU to ever compete with those programs?
One could argue that BP's trajectory was that of Solich, with a prickly temper thrown in for good measure. His best player on D was a Cally recruit. His most exciting offensive player was originally slated to play safety. Only one QB he landed that panned out, and the cupboard was likely going to be bare at QB once TA departed.
It doesn't matter what systems you run, if the recruiting isn't there, you are screwed.
It doesn't matter what systems you run, if the recruiting isn't there, you are screwed.
Bolded.
1. Focus on fundamentals, yes. Not sure about unique, but especially on offense, you do need to take into account the probability of your scheme working given your recruiting base (don't run an offense that requires high quality specific WR types in a place where there are few of them). For NU, I would say being able to successfully run the football, with a playbook that contains several sets in which you do this well.
2. I think this is right, and that is why Eichorst is gone. When you fire a coach without a plan, you are rolling the dice. I hope our current administrative overlords take this into account as they proceed.
Last. In order to be considered for the playoff, we need to win our conference. Right now we are the third or fourth best team in our division. Last year with a healthy TA and a beat up Oline, we were one score in OT away from being the best in our division. Just goes to show how one player can change the fate of a team.
We didn't ever have a roster full of 5*. Recruiting only got better once we started wining those games vs. Oklahoma, Miami and Florida State. We did however without question see player development. Something we don't see the last 16 years. That is coaching folks. GBR
Considering it's been 20 years since we've won anything, I think people would be OK with 3 conference titles and 4 Top 10 finishes in 7 years. Especially if we were competitive in every game like Wisconsin has been (except for 2014 against OSU) and not losing to crappy teams like NIU and Purdue.
I think the big 10 network has hurt our game atmosphere. Endless number of timeouts and each seems to last 5 minutes. It's painfull to watch players constantly just standing around waiting for play to start again. I know I'm sitting in the stands saying lets go already.
This narrative that NU fans are expecting too much is just dumb. I dont think fans would be happy being Iowa but Wisconsin over the last 8 years certainly
I could look at it the other way. Unless they win a conference title this year, they will be looking at 5 straight years without a title. And the last title they won was against Nebraska. Not to mention that 2012 conference title team was 7-5 and finished 3rd in their division and only went to the title game because OSU and Penn St were on probation.
Nebraska fan would love the 2010-2012 results gladly, but the 2013-2016 results would be Yea but......where are the conference titles.
Bob is done coaching. And he's all OU. He built the empire, and for all we know, after he's had enough pina colada's, he might take over as AD.
Possibly. I've heard he was pushed out of OU, so not sure how keen he is on that school. My comment was more in jest, but I think you may see Bob Stoops back in coaching at some point. Who knows, but kind of a hunch.
Our game atmosphere sucks because of the product on the field period. I hate the TV timeouts, but that is reality. I think you'll see more atmosphere when we are good again.
I could see Notre Dame making a push at Stoops if Kelly doesn't right the ship this season.
Stoops isn't going anywhere for the next four years except traveling to see his sons play football. They are both decent ball players and seniors in high school this year. One may end up at Army. The other is in a battle between Frank and Bo.
hire the right guy, imho tcu's chris delconte. let him bring along a fine football mind, gary patterson is the right guy. and unl will quickly return to the top of the charts. y'all are in a weak division that nebraska should dominate. you have a great tradition. you have the best fans any program could ask for. someone needs to be wise now. get back to husker knitting. and stop trying to reinvent greatness. gbr.
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Well, first of all-stop the "we can't be great anymore" attitude. We're certainly not going to be great again if we convince ourselves that we can't be. Who has ever accomplished anything great that they had convinced themselves they couldn't do? Second of all-find the right coach. You can come up with all the ways in the world that college football has changed, but that hasn't and never will. Were we great from the 60s to the 90s just because we were Nebraska? No-we had two great coaches. Those that say we'll never get any great coaches to come here-not every coach was thought of as a great coach when they were hired. Of course, there is so much more media focus on college football now than there was 40-50 years ago, but do you think the rest of the college football world looked at TO and saw us having the incredible 25 year run we had with him? I've said it before, and I still believe it-any program, and I do mean any program can be great if they just get the right coach. Especially one with the facilities, support and desire to win that we have.
Outside of Saban/Meyer, my two choices have always been Peterson/Patterson.
I don't see the love affair for Kelly or Mullen, or even Briles. Two of those three guys you can guarantee wouldn't have the Blackshirts back.
But my opinion is not that helpful because I don't think Peterson/Patterson would take the job. Peterson's youngest son I think is a HS senior this year, so maybe if you waved a pile of money I guess.
I don't see the love affair for Kelly or Mullen, or even Briles. Two of those three guys you can guarantee wouldn't have the Blackshirts back.
But my opinion is not that helpful because I don't think Peterson/Patterson would take the job. Peterson's youngest son I think is a HS senior this year, so maybe if you waved a pile of money I guess.
There appears to be confusion about the status of the Nebraska job.
There is a difference between saying the job isn't what it was and saying the job can never be good again. The job could very well be great again. I don't read anything that really says anything different.
The other side of the discussion seems to center on who we can get and how much money it would take to get that person and if money is the reason that person would make a change. In 1998, if Nebraska had allowed Bill Byrne to do his job as AD, I would venture to say 100 FBS head coaches would have been interested in this job. Byrne would have had his pick of the litter so to speak. You had a retiring national championship coach and enough talent stockpiled to last a few seasons. That isn't the case now, wasn't the case in 2003, 2007 or 2014. With each misstep in hiring, firing and blown decision, the job became increasingly less desirable. That reduces the number of people that will leave their current stable position for a position that isn't as stable. That is a huge risk. With each new season, the amount of money coaches are making is becoming insane. Gauging the true interest a coach potential replacement has in a job becomes increasingly more difficult. Is a coach that has a stable job, but says I would talk to Nebraska, really interested in Nebraska or is he looking to get his current AD to pony up for a raise? Considering most of us, when we start looking for a new job, don't broadcast it to our current employers until we either have a new job, or unless we want them to think we are leaving to get a raise. Now, with the escalating salaries, how much we pay of the next coach is somewhat irrelevant to me. If we want a coach with successful P5 head coaching experience the going rate is going to be minimum $5.5 mil and above and another $4-5 million in assistant coaches salary pool. You don't have to come out and say we are going to pay at least $5.5 million a year for our next head coach, in fact its stupid to do that. If you reach out to Dan Mullen and he is making $4.25 million per year, he already knows you are going to make it worth his while to make the change. The rest is negotiation. In that same breath, if you reach out to Dan Mullen and he says no thanks, that gives you an idea on where your ceiling is. If Mullen says no, that gives you an idea on where you rank. This is where you have to look at what Pederson did in 2003, when candidate after candidate turned him down publicly. If that coach doesn't want the job, why do I want it mentality creeps in.
At this time, my opinion is that top level P5 coaches aren't going to be interested in making a lateral move to Nebraska. That doesn't mean the job will never be good, it just means there is no reason to offer Urban Meyer $10 mil a year to come here, because he isn't leaving for money. He knows Ohio St will pay him what he wants. There is no reason to be told no, publicly by a bunch of coaches. If a coach has interest in your job, their agents will figure out a way to let you know. You go from there.
We have to know where we are in 2017, who we can get as a coach in 2017 and provide the right atmosphere and support to make him successful.
Sorry for the rant.
There is a difference between saying the job isn't what it was and saying the job can never be good again. The job could very well be great again. I don't read anything that really says anything different.
The other side of the discussion seems to center on who we can get and how much money it would take to get that person and if money is the reason that person would make a change. In 1998, if Nebraska had allowed Bill Byrne to do his job as AD, I would venture to say 100 FBS head coaches would have been interested in this job. Byrne would have had his pick of the litter so to speak. You had a retiring national championship coach and enough talent stockpiled to last a few seasons. That isn't the case now, wasn't the case in 2003, 2007 or 2014. With each misstep in hiring, firing and blown decision, the job became increasingly less desirable. That reduces the number of people that will leave their current stable position for a position that isn't as stable. That is a huge risk. With each new season, the amount of money coaches are making is becoming insane. Gauging the true interest a coach potential replacement has in a job becomes increasingly more difficult. Is a coach that has a stable job, but says I would talk to Nebraska, really interested in Nebraska or is he looking to get his current AD to pony up for a raise? Considering most of us, when we start looking for a new job, don't broadcast it to our current employers until we either have a new job, or unless we want them to think we are leaving to get a raise. Now, with the escalating salaries, how much we pay of the next coach is somewhat irrelevant to me. If we want a coach with successful P5 head coaching experience the going rate is going to be minimum $5.5 mil and above and another $4-5 million in assistant coaches salary pool. You don't have to come out and say we are going to pay at least $5.5 million a year for our next head coach, in fact its stupid to do that. If you reach out to Dan Mullen and he is making $4.25 million per year, he already knows you are going to make it worth his while to make the change. The rest is negotiation. In that same breath, if you reach out to Dan Mullen and he says no thanks, that gives you an idea on where your ceiling is. If Mullen says no, that gives you an idea on where you rank. This is where you have to look at what Pederson did in 2003, when candidate after candidate turned him down publicly. If that coach doesn't want the job, why do I want it mentality creeps in.
At this time, my opinion is that top level P5 coaches aren't going to be interested in making a lateral move to Nebraska. That doesn't mean the job will never be good, it just means there is no reason to offer Urban Meyer $10 mil a year to come here, because he isn't leaving for money. He knows Ohio St will pay him what he wants. There is no reason to be told no, publicly by a bunch of coaches. If a coach has interest in your job, their agents will figure out a way to let you know. You go from there.
We have to know where we are in 2017, who we can get as a coach in 2017 and provide the right atmosphere and support to make him successful.
Sorry for the rant.
Well said. I get a kick out of how people in sports find an idea that sounds reasonable and then the damn thing goes viral and everyone starts repeating it like it's ironclad fact that can't be contradicted. And my favorite is this one: college football has changed since Nebraska's glory days, and all of those changes make it inevitable that a boring, landlocked State like Nebraska, out there in flyover country in the middle of nowhere, can never again be great. There are so many media outlets now, all covering sports on a 24-7 basis, that the need to generate "news" and "analysis" drives the production of these inane memes.
So you are spot-on Truehuskerfan when you point out that all it would take for us to be great again is a great coach. It really is that simple. People are ignorant of the facts if they think Osborne didn't change as the game changed around him during his 25 years. You think the college game he began with in 1973 was the same one he ended with in 1997? Of course not. He adapted. And the game hasn't changed so much that a great coach couldn't produce a great team, even now. Even here
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Tuco's got this right. The blame for the state of the program is with those who have been in the positions to make the hiring and firing decisions.
TO bigfoots the choosing of his successor.
Stevie P swears not let the program slide into irrelevance, then lets it slide.
TO's second pick wins with the players Cally couldn't, but couldn't put together a complete team (ex. 09 defense with 2012 TMart offense) and let's things slide when signs point to him headed out the door.
SE apparently assembles a finalist pool of one.
And with each step, we have gotten further away from where we want to be.
Not sure how you made the connection that I don't "want" it along with everyone else. A lot of people want things, I could make a huge list, but they aren't willing to put in the effort to achieve it. I have faced the challenge of changing a losing culture to a winning one and "want" is never evenly distributed nor is it universal in ecpected outcomes. Want all you can and see what happens.
It's about having the right attitude and refusing to lower the bar. Again, it starts at the top and extends all the way down to the fans. If we ever lose that...
So what happened over the last 20 years? Who let down on the "want to" responsibility? Who is responsible? Please pin it down so we can find out. We have had how many different AD's, coaches, players and fans as well. Where is the weak link of "want to"? Maybe, just maybe there was an inability to perform somewhere along the way. The fan mojo is so stinking over rated. Tell me a fan base in America that would not want a winning program. Isn't that the standard? They just have to want to right?
Leach went 3-9, 6-7 and 3-9 his first 3 years (starting 1-3 his first 4 games in his 3rd year). Leach would never have gotten past year 3 if at Nebraska.
He took over a team that went 2-1-2-4 in wins the previous 4 years. Stupid argument.
Those kinds of records in the Pac-12 get you hired at Nebraska (at least when Shawn Eichorst is A.D.)
Doesn't matter. Things should be turned around by year 3, no excuses. It's been said here.
only thing I don't get is the contention that we always have 'better talent by a mile' than the rest of the west. players to the next level and players on all-conf teams since we've been in the B1G just don't support this. * rankings from pay for click sites might, but for as many people that buy that junk, there are others that see them as bunk.
