Remember a few years ago when our PR guys were fielding punts with 5 or 6 guys around them. Someone posted a pic here, iirc.
Thought I'd never see that again here at Nebraska but I saw it again last Saturday.
What does Bruce Read really do for his HUGE paycheck?
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Thought I'd never see that again here at Nebraska but I saw it again last Saturday.
Maybe but I've heard it from a few independent places. Not normally a rumor mill guy but this might be an option. We know Riley values Read most as an evaluator and *does not* want to lose Tavita. The easy solution is to pay Read a little front office money to retire as an evaluator to make room for Tavita.
Agreed. It's like Riley got into a bidding war with himself for Read. Pay assistants (non-coordinators) huge salaries to keep them here. Williams and Bray fit that profile, but not Read. He doesn't seem to really do that much and for what he does do, the results haven't been there thus far.
People keep going back to the coaching and salary. Riley has already explained one reason he pays Read so much, ST isn't just a coach position, its essentially a coordinator position. We all agree he's not worth the money here.
The other thing that has remained relatively unspoken, Read is essentially "special assistant to the boss" when it comes to talent evaluation for the whole team, and laying the groundwork for recruiting, etc. Valued aides are generally treated well in all walks of life. (By contrast, Williams and Bray's jobs are rather narrow in scope and they are rather junior in overall experience compared to some of the old timers on staff when starting salaries were set).
I don't have a problem with his salary, NU is going to pay a bunch for a staff whether we suck or rock, but I would like to see us move on from Read and put him in a front office role if that is what he's mostly good at.
Its also worth noting that another Top 5 coach in the country, Stoops, runs basically a halfway house for any coach who he's friends with, related to, or has ever visited Youngstown, Ohio on his staff. If there's a "mother's basement" to hide in in the professional ranks, Bob Stoops is the owner.
The ONLY thing I care about is product on the field- and it obvious to anyone that special team units stink since last year (Brown and Foltz don't count as they are good no matter who is coach and they were not recruited by Read).
Sure, but its hard to rip apart Read from that. Obviously the ST product stinks.
When you are a key talent evaluator and the overall on-the-field talent picture is the best the fan base has seen in many years and many more redshirts coming online next year....its hard to argue he's failing at that particular facet of boosting the team on the field.
I say, get him in the front office, and off the field.
Edit: I'm also not concerned with Read's direct recruits. By any manner of specialty rankings, we are pulling in top punter's and long snappers. Lightbourn is a true frosh in essentially an emergency role, I'll give him a bit of a pass to get his groove on.
Did not stoops just over haul his staff due to poor results? I do agree he has the Youngstown thing going.
Honestly though stoops is a little past his prime
Sure but he's a championship level coach and probably still in the Top 5 available.
You expressed incredulation that a HC would offer folks he knows and is comfortable with, our staff has precisely one hole in it. Many staffs have at least that many holes. And many championship level staffs, aren't immune from this.
Maybe even Meyer and Saban, but I don't really have time to look up their current staffs outside of the normal folks everyone knows.
This has been my major problem with HCMR. When it comes to coaching, I think MR has it. When it comes to recruiting, I think MR has it. But it can't be just him. It has to be the entire staff. There is more dead weight on the this staff then just Whataburger Bruce.
And I don't care so much about the salary. I care that Reed takes up a spot in the staff. This isn't the NFL where they seem to have an assistant coach for the water boy. Coaching spots are too valuable to fill with buddies in college. If he was a lights out recruiter, I'd have no problem with him. But he's not. The truth is, Riley cant skate by too much longer with the liabilities on his staff, like he could in Oregon. It's already a red flag but eventually the pressure will be too much.
My hope is that Riley was giving BR a nice payday for a couple of years to retire on and then maybe, BR can take an admin job. This will either be the death to Riley in Lincoln or the death to Bruce in Lincoln. Either way, someone is going to die.
And I don't care so much about the salary. I care that Reed takes up a spot in the staff. This isn't the NFL where they seem to have an assistant coach for the water boy. Coaching spots are too valuable to fill with buddies in college. If he was a lights out recruiter, I'd have no problem with him. But he's not. The truth is, Riley cant skate by too much longer with the liabilities on his staff, like he could in Oregon. It's already a red flag but eventually the pressure will be too much.
My hope is that Riley was giving BR a nice payday for a couple of years to retire on and then maybe, BR can take an admin job. This will either be the death to Riley in Lincoln or the death to Bruce in Lincoln. Either way, someone is going to die.
that is not exactly what I said - I said I am against hiring Buddies then not holding them accountable to the same standard as everyone else. Also I think Banker is suspect. I think these two individuals were also on the hotseat at Oregon State.
I think is it fine that you are comfortable and get along with your coaching staff. I also think it is not fine that this relationship transcends performance or I shoould say lack of it
I was freaking out about that a couple times on Saturday, but then I realized they were playing "punt safe" to defend against a fake because there were a couple 4th and 1 in field positions that were fair game for a fake.
They seem to have faced a couple of garbage punters who hang up a really short ball. We'll see what they can do if somebody actually punts on 40-45 yds. I am a fan of having 2 guys back deep, and by default whoever isn't getting the ball can come up and hit that first gunner down.
Well they are all rich, and extremely close to retirement (Read or Riley). Riley has his pride like any man, but if he was being real with the fans in a coffee shop, he doesn't exactly *need* to succeed here. He can ride off into the sunset pretty much when he wants and sleep on a gold framed mattress and feel good about his career.
The pressure would be entirely different, if this was Frost we were talking about, simply because one doesn't usually recover from crashing at a Blue Blood in a short amount of time. (Well and for Frost with this being his school, he's basically Jesus. If Jesus fails, Husker nation loses any vestige of its sanity, there's no more Husker heroes going to time warp us into the glory days when all these passing guys roll out of town).
Edit: And don't twist what I'm saying here. Riley *wants* to win and win bad. He probably doesn't need it though. He's too established professionally to be defined by this one job, especially if it ends up being a short one. Doubly especially if we get rid of him on controversial terms like Solich.
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Ok, agree there. But I'm willing to give some flex room on when we move on. If he lets Tavita go for Read to stay on board and the ST silliness continues, major major concerns. If the ST gets a razor edge on it, then fine, but I'm willing to let it play out.
I will say this - A week or so ago there was a thread on when to go for it on 4th down - someone posted a link that basically said unless you are within your own ten yard line the odds are better if you go for it. I did not agree then but given our issues with punting I agree now
We currently have a net 24 yards per punt - almost dead last in the nation - I say with this why the heck even punt that 20 yards of fie3ld position does nothing really unless we are inside our own 30 I say go for it - By the way I know the punter is young but Read did do the talent evaluation on him correct? maybe its just nerves but usually punters start out a bit better - I mean certainly we did not offer a punter that could only punt 25 yards a pop
We currently have a net 24 yards per punt - almost dead last in the nation - I say with this why the heck even punt that 20 yards of fie3ld position does nothing really unless we are inside our own 30 I say go for it - By the way I know the punter is young but Read did do the talent evaluation on him correct? maybe its just nerves but usually punters start out a bit better - I mean certainly we did not offer a punter that could only punt 25 yards a pop
Caleb Lightbourn was one of the highest ranked punters in the country last year by multiple services. It's not like he was some unknown prospect that we somehow found by accident.
Why can't people just accept that he is a true freshman thrown into a situation that he never expected to be in and he has to be given time? Are people really so incredibly demanding that they have no sympathy whatsoever for his situation? I mean seriously-what about this do you not understand? A tragedy happened and we were put into a difficult situation in the punter position. What about that do people not understand?
I just looked-going back to the 90s(which is as far back as I could find), we have never had a true freshman punter. Every single punter we have had over that time was able to redshirt their freshman year and spend at least a year(and some a couple of years) learning under the previous punter. That was the plan for Lightbourn to learn under Foltz. Obviously, that is no longer possible. Ever since the tragedy with Foltz happened, people have been talking about how our punting game was going to suffer this year. Now it's happened over 2 games, and people are acting like they are surprised. Again, what part about this situation did you not understand? My goodness people, get at least a small modicum of understanding and sympathy and give the kid a break.
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See the main page.
Read was fired a long time ago, your hot takes continue to be as bad as bumber89.
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