I got one of those feelings the other day. The feeling where I just know we are going to win something specific. I used to get these “premonitions” often in regards to Nebraska football, but I haven’t had one since just before the 2005 Alamo Bowl.
On the day of that Alamo Bowl (12/28/05) I was working at my office (here in Eugene Oregon) trying to get stuff done so I could go home and watch the bowl game. A co-worker came up to me, had no idea about the bowl game that I was planning on watching, and he hands me a block of Husker Cheese. It turned out that his uncle was a professor at UNL and sent him some cheese for the holidays. I knew immediately that we were going to win the bowl game that night.
This isn’t a logical thing; I’m just saying that I got that “premonition” feeling the other day. Nothing in particular caused it. We are going to beat Oregon.
And yes, I’m buzzed and have had a couple glasses of red wine.
I really feel like Riley and his staff are going to outwork and out coach the Willie Taggert staff. Riley REALLY wants to walk into Autzen Stadium and win. He’ll have more Autzen Stadium experience than the entire Oregon staff when he walks in there.
I’m envisioning the Husker staff working very hard down in the laboratory, developing a game plan and Diaco is dialing in a significant scheme to incapacitate Taggart’s offensive tendencies (more on this in a minute).
Thanks for entertaining my Nostradamus like capabilities.
I’m going to keep going now with a bit more fact based information, which I find interesting.
There is a contingency around here that calls Mike Riley a mediocre coach and some even go so far as to call him a “.500 coach.” Well, what about Taggart? The guy is 40-45 as a head coach and he’s 0-1 in bowl games. Impressive!
He is definitely from the Harbaugh lineage. Taggart played for Jack Harbaugh at Western Kentucky as QB. After graduating, he stayed at WKU to coach under Jack Harbaugh and coached with Jack’s son, the d-bag known as Jim Harbaugh. Taggart worked his way up to co-OC and QB coach. When Jim Harbaugh took the head coaching job at Stanford, he brought Taggart over to coach the RB’s (think Toby Gerhart). So there is some quality apprenticeship going on, no doubt.
Taggart has been a coach since 1999 (17 years). He became a head coach in 2010 at Western Kentucky. While there…
2010: 2-10 (lost to Huskers in season opener, beat Ark St… NU’s season opening opponent THIS year)
2011: 7-5 (lost their first 4 games, not invited to a bowl game)
2012: 7-5 (didn’t coach in the bowl game because he took the USF job)
So Taggart takes over at USF for the 2013 season and…
2013: 2-10
2014: 4-8 (beats UCONN 17-14, after the season he guts his staff)
2015: 8-5 (beats UCONN 28-20, started the season 1-3, lose to WKU in the Miami Beach Bowl)
2016: 10-2 (beat sUCONN 42-27, does not coach in bowl game because he takes Oregon job)
That’s 7 years of head coaching experience, 4 winning seasons, 3 losing seasons, 40-45 overall record. I get that he was coaching for teams that have no history of winning and he was probably overachieving. However, I see a couple of patterns: His first year at a school results in a lot of loses and his teams seem to start seasons off slow.
Here’s a story line, for the Oregon game, that I haven’t heard anyone talking about…
Taggert and Diaco went head to head the last three years and Taggert’s USF teams won all three times. Seems like USF won by running the ball at UCONN. Here are the stat lines: 2014, 2015, and 2016
There is no question that Diaco has a good idea what to expect from Oregon’s offense. Likewise, Taggert may have a good idea what Nebraska’s defense is going to look like.
I think the “I know what you are going to do” edge goes to Oregon. Diaco’s defense is probably Diaco’s defense. Meanwhile, Taggart brought in two coaches as Co-Offensive Coordinators. Marcus Arroyo was the running backs coach at Oklahoma State and Mario Cristobal who was the OL coach at Alabama, under Saban for 4 years.
But all that doesn't matter. We are going to beat Oregon!
And lastly, here is the 2005 Alamo Bowl as an ESPN Classic. It’s a super fun game to watch and it gives a glimpse of what a Nebraska team, with a real passing QB, looks like.
On the day of that Alamo Bowl (12/28/05) I was working at my office (here in Eugene Oregon) trying to get stuff done so I could go home and watch the bowl game. A co-worker came up to me, had no idea about the bowl game that I was planning on watching, and he hands me a block of Husker Cheese. It turned out that his uncle was a professor at UNL and sent him some cheese for the holidays. I knew immediately that we were going to win the bowl game that night.
This isn’t a logical thing; I’m just saying that I got that “premonition” feeling the other day. Nothing in particular caused it. We are going to beat Oregon.
And yes, I’m buzzed and have had a couple glasses of red wine.
I really feel like Riley and his staff are going to outwork and out coach the Willie Taggert staff. Riley REALLY wants to walk into Autzen Stadium and win. He’ll have more Autzen Stadium experience than the entire Oregon staff when he walks in there.
I’m envisioning the Husker staff working very hard down in the laboratory, developing a game plan and Diaco is dialing in a significant scheme to incapacitate Taggart’s offensive tendencies (more on this in a minute).
Thanks for entertaining my Nostradamus like capabilities.
I’m going to keep going now with a bit more fact based information, which I find interesting.
There is a contingency around here that calls Mike Riley a mediocre coach and some even go so far as to call him a “.500 coach.” Well, what about Taggart? The guy is 40-45 as a head coach and he’s 0-1 in bowl games. Impressive!
He is definitely from the Harbaugh lineage. Taggart played for Jack Harbaugh at Western Kentucky as QB. After graduating, he stayed at WKU to coach under Jack Harbaugh and coached with Jack’s son, the d-bag known as Jim Harbaugh. Taggart worked his way up to co-OC and QB coach. When Jim Harbaugh took the head coaching job at Stanford, he brought Taggart over to coach the RB’s (think Toby Gerhart). So there is some quality apprenticeship going on, no doubt.
Taggart has been a coach since 1999 (17 years). He became a head coach in 2010 at Western Kentucky. While there…
2010: 2-10 (lost to Huskers in season opener, beat Ark St… NU’s season opening opponent THIS year)
2011: 7-5 (lost their first 4 games, not invited to a bowl game)
2012: 7-5 (didn’t coach in the bowl game because he took the USF job)
So Taggart takes over at USF for the 2013 season and…
2013: 2-10
2014: 4-8 (beats UCONN 17-14, after the season he guts his staff)
2015: 8-5 (beats UCONN 28-20, started the season 1-3, lose to WKU in the Miami Beach Bowl)
2016: 10-2 (beat sUCONN 42-27, does not coach in bowl game because he takes Oregon job)
That’s 7 years of head coaching experience, 4 winning seasons, 3 losing seasons, 40-45 overall record. I get that he was coaching for teams that have no history of winning and he was probably overachieving. However, I see a couple of patterns: His first year at a school results in a lot of loses and his teams seem to start seasons off slow.
Here’s a story line, for the Oregon game, that I haven’t heard anyone talking about…
Taggert and Diaco went head to head the last three years and Taggert’s USF teams won all three times. Seems like USF won by running the ball at UCONN. Here are the stat lines: 2014, 2015, and 2016
There is no question that Diaco has a good idea what to expect from Oregon’s offense. Likewise, Taggert may have a good idea what Nebraska’s defense is going to look like.
I think the “I know what you are going to do” edge goes to Oregon. Diaco’s defense is probably Diaco’s defense. Meanwhile, Taggart brought in two coaches as Co-Offensive Coordinators. Marcus Arroyo was the running backs coach at Oklahoma State and Mario Cristobal who was the OL coach at Alabama, under Saban for 4 years.
But all that doesn't matter. We are going to beat Oregon!
And lastly, here is the 2005 Alamo Bowl as an ESPN Classic. It’s a super fun game to watch and it gives a glimpse of what a Nebraska team, with a real passing QB, looks like.
