I don’t see people here claiming a moral victory in any way, shape or form. I see people commenting on progress and improvement. Some here saw it, others say if you lose that isn’t progress.
No one in this thread is saying we are content with the loss, we are happy to beat the spread, or this was a moral victory. What people are saying is we got better yesterday. Good enough for a win? Obviously not. But we got better.
Clearly.
This. No moral victory. Just stating that progress was made. Frost says it in nearly every presser he has, day by day. While we still have a long way to go, we got better on Saturday night. There were flashes of greatness. There were a few sequences in the 3rd quarter where our defense looked fast and physical, getting off the field and the offense clicked and put together a nice scoring drive. When that can/does happen consistently this team is going to win a lot of football games, but we’re just not quite there yet.
I’ve said this at least twice before and I’ll say it again. I’m a business owner, and unless you’ve been through a process similar to what Frost is up against you really can never understand what a change in culture really looks like and the pains it takes to get through that process. Culture drives everything, and it’s the most difficult but most critical part of the process. Saturday results are only a fraction of what the culture actually looks like, and sadly, culture is not something you can fix on the practice field. It has to change little by little, day by day. That’s why Frost constantly talks about “riding with the guys who are doing things right.” That doesn’t mean just on the field. It means in every aspect of life, being intentional with every action. That level of intentional culture change will take at least a year, if not two to three. The reality is that Nebraska has had a toxic and/or apathetic culture for the better part of 20 years. Calahan and Bo (along with Stevie P) were toxic. Riley and Eichorst were apathetic. We now have a coaching staff (and administrative support) that understands culture and being intentional. Changing the culture is priority number one. And many times changing culture means you have to do one of two things you either change people, or you change people. Guys like Mo Barry, the Davis twins, even Lamar Jackson to a degree have changed. In the case of Gebbia, Lindsey, Bell, well we changed people. Since Frost got to Lincoln we’re looking at a nearly 50% roster turnover. Think of your own job, if you walked in on a Monday morning and half the people you worked with were gone and replaced by newbies, what would your Monday look like? It would be chaotic, and would take time to get everyone going in the same direction.
We have limited talent in key areas, and even in areas where we have limited talent we’re thin and or extremely young. Think of how many true freshmen, redshirt freshmen, or even true sophomores are playing and contributing. In some cases we’re starting/playing walkons who otherwise may have not made a P5 much less a D1 roster. We have a new coaching staff, with both a new offensive and new defensive scheme and one of the most difficult schedules in the country. I think even the most optimistic among us knew that 3 losses (Colorado, Michigan, and Wisconsin) was a very real possibility by this point in the season. Certainly no one expected 0-5, but the reality is we were snake bit by the weather in game one, we went into the Troy game with a back up Walkon QB and Purdue is a team on the rise, as is CU. You have to look for the positives because those are the foundations that greatness must be built on. Our fall from greatness is complete. It took the better part of 20 years. The rise will be slow, but if you’re in for the long haul it’ll be a great ride, and someday we’ll look back and realize the pains we had to go through in 2018 with a new staff were worth it.
We’re not talking about moral victories, we’re talking about progression and patience. Both must take place before victory can be secured.
