Talent

[BigMacHusker]

Barnett, Decker and Gaylord as well as Brokop stuck with Riley but I think you could see Wilson, Raridon and Farniok in the mix as well. I also think we see Knevel left behind at RT.

Decker, Gaylord, Brokop and Raridon all committed to the former staff and many felt Farniok would as well. The only two OL I see as potential for PT next year who didn't commit to the former staff are Wilson and Farniok. Yes Cav kept them on board, the point is they aren't anything more than what the former staff recruited.

 

[huskrthill]

So, you are saying that nothing happens between the time a recruiting ranking is set and that class graduates? Why not just give the national titles to the winners of the recruiting rankings then?

There are many variables that come into play between the time a recruiting class steps foot on campus and the last guy from that class plays his last snap. Just because you have a highly ranked class (ala Bill Callahan's first class) does not mean that you will have a great class when it is all said and done. The final product is impacted by injuries, transfers, maturity, homesickness, and about 100 other variables.

In regard to the Huskers, again, show me where the all-conference players are? Gates, Westerkamp on offense? Maybe? Maybe Gerry and Chris Jones on defense? Who is going to play on Sunday?

By the numbers, Nebraska has recruited better than Wisconsin and Iowa. On the field, we have seen a different story.

At the end of the day, it all comes back to the coaching staff with time. They didn't recruit the right players, didn't develop enough guys to their potential, didn't create a winning culture, didn't execute on gameday.

Time will tell with Riley, but they have to be given the chance to build the program.

They've had two calendar years to get guys ready, but we still are struggling to beat lower-end conference opponents.

But, people who think there is any comparison to what talent Jim Harbaugh inherited at Michigan and Mike Riley inherited at Nebraska are sadly delusional.

Nobody is suggesting that, but we were outscored in conference play this season (average of 23.8 to 21.2). That's pretty poor.

 

[Greatest Fan of All]

Next year the front runners for LT, RG and LG will be from the former staff, Gates, Foster & Farmer. Decker will be in the mix at C and at RT Gaylord, Knevel and Brokop will be in the mix and all committed to the former staff.

We lost 4 players off the DL who were eligible to play this year. It doesn't seem like much of a coincidence to me that the only position group with defection issues was the group where the coach was fired. If we can't win the B1G West with players of the caliber of Stoltenberg and the Davis twins then we have issues recruiting won't fix. We will likely have a couple of Riley recruits in the mix on the DL next year, but those 3 along with Neal and King from the former staff will be there as well. Like it or not, recruits from the former staff will continue to play a very large roll on both lines.

Remember all the talk of these guys being "teachers", "coaching them up" and "beating you with your players" when this staff came in? The teams in the B1G that have been out recruiting us in recent years are in the East. This staff needs to be able to win the West with this talent. Looking at the W/L, this staff has under performed the former staff with the same level of players. Blaming talent for losses to teams we have out recruited isn't going to get it done. I believe this staff is better than that, apparently all of those blaming the talent disagree.

Linemen on both sides of the ball are almost always the upper classmen, unless you find a special gem. We have been living on the remnants of Bo's recruiting, which was lousy. Just as Bo lived on Cally's tremendous recruiting for most of his first 3-4 years. What is your point? That we/MR should be winning despite the lack of OL and DL's? That his freshmen should be starting in the trenches? Grow some patience...we waited 7 years on the fruitcake, give MR 3 or 4.

 

[husker6]

Decker, Gaylord, Brokop and Raridon all committed to the former staff and many felt Farniok would as well. The only two OL I see as potential for PT next year who didn't commit to the former staff are Wilson and Farniok. Yes Cav kept them on board, the point is they aren't anything more than what the former staff recruited.

Fair point. We still see the bulk of them starting to contribute more next year.

 

[HUSKER HOT SAUCE]

There truly are some sour Mother Texas wankers on here when we lose. It's a football game people, the sun will rise tomorrow, jumpin' jeezers.

Some of you guys need to just finish the bottle you've been drowning your Husker sorrows in, my gawd people. It's year two, we have won 4 more games this year than we did last year, we are still looking at a 10 win season, with a wealth of talent coming to Lincoln. We all know how long it's been, that doesn't change anything. Not one of us on here, has any say so in who the coach will be, or who said coach recruits, so stop the silly, dumb ass bitching already. Cheer up, the good news right now, we can't lose for at least a month. Bottoms up, you cranky bastards.

 

[HUSKER HOT SAUCE]

They've had two calendar years to get guys ready, but we still are struggling to beat lower-end conference opponents.


Nobody is suggesting that, but we were outscored in conference play this season (average of 23.8 to 21.2). That's pretty poor.

Which lower end conference opponents did we lose to this year? Iowa? Well, they did beat Michigan, so......

 

[husker6]

Some of you guys need to just finish the bottle you've been drowning your Husker sorrows in, my gawd people. It's year two, we have won 4 more games this year than we did last year, we are still looking at a 10 win season, with a wealth of talent coming to Lincoln. We all know how long it's been, that doesn't change anything. Not one of us on here, has any say so in who the coach will be, or who said coach recruits, so stop the silly, dumb ass bitching already. Cheer up, the good news right now, we can't lose for at least a month. Bottoms up, you cranky bastards.

Talking to yourself again?

 

[huskrthill]

And one full recruiting cycle. Again, recruiting misses and uneven classes in Bo's last couple years.

Edit: For that matter, Callahan gets 4 years and Bo got 7 but Riley gets 2?

Riley has had 2 classes, one full recruiting cycle, but 2 full calendar years to retain players (on both lines) and develop them into better football players. Isn't that why we hired an experienced head coach? We had a good core, just needed to get over the hump, and he had the experience to do it. Now this has somehow turned into a complete rebuilding process with a coach who is on the cusp of being eligible for full Social Security benefits. Something isn't right.

 

[husker6]

Riley has had 2 classes, one full recruiting cycle, but 2 full calendar years to retain players (on both lines) and develop them into better football players. Isn't that why we hired an experienced head coach? We had a good core, just needed to get over the hump, and he had the experience to do it. Now this has somehow turned into a complete rebuilding process with a coach who is on the cusp of being eligible for full Social Security benefits. Something isn't right.

Maybe it isn't, I don't know but I do think this is somewhat unreasonable considering that we improved from 5-7 to 9-3 and we knew coming into this season that the O line would be shaky at best without injuries.

 

[ColoREDo]

Riley has had 2 classes, one full recruiting cycle, but 2 full calendar years to retain players (on both lines) and develop them into better football players. Isn't that why we hired an experienced head coach? We had a good core, just needed to get over the hump, and he had the experience to do it. Now this has somehow turned into a complete rebuilding process with a coach who is on the cusp of being eligible for full Social Security benefits. Something isn't right.

The fact that so many freshman and sophomores are on the two deeps up front should let you know the story. Even a spinmaster like you should see what was left from Bo.

 

[HUSKER HOT SAUCE]

Talking to yourself again?

Might as well be. Some people on here act as if they know every thing about every thing. It's a "FOOTBALL" game. You guys get so bent out of shape over a game that you watch on TV or in the stadium, then cry like little bitches when we lose, deal with it, but quit acting like little bitches. I know I feel better now.

 

[Nehunter88]

Then that's on this staff for not getting scholarship guys prepared enough despite being in charge of the program for nearly 2 full years.

On the OL, which scholarship guys would those be? On the roster I see 5 F, 3 RF, 4 S, 3 J, and 3 S. I see a total of 6 OL that are juniors or seniors. You need scholarship guys on hand in order to prepare them.

Perhaps when you're willing to admit there were misses in recruiting on the OL, you won't have to spend so much time worrying about player quality. Yes quality is a factor, but it helps to have quantity too, and right now we're lacking in that department.

 

[huskrthill]

Maybe it isn't, I don't know but I do think this is somewhat unreasonable considering that we improved from 5-7 to 9-3 and we knew coming into this season that the O line would be shaky at best without injuries.

The fact that we went 5-7 in the first place is alarming enough. The fact that we were letting some pretty bad teams hang around late in games this season doesn't make me feel a lot better (a little better, but not much). And getting outscored in conference games makes me wonder if we really made big steps forward this year.

 

[huskrthill]

On the OL, which scholarship guys would those be? On the roster I see 5 F, 3 RF, 4 S, 3 J, and 3 S. I see a total of 6 OL that are juniors or seniors. You need scholarship guys on hand in order to prepare them.

Perhaps when you're willing to admit there were misses in recruiting on the OL, you won't have to spend so much time worrying about player quality. Yes quality is a factor, but it helps to have quantity too, and right now we're lacking in that department.

What is this staff doing to address quantity? Go look at how many linemen were on the roster in 2011-2014 compared to now. We've shrunk the available talent pool, regardless of scholarship vs. walk-on status.

 

[husker6]

The fact that we went 5-7 in the first place is alarming enough. The fact that we were letting some pretty bad teams hang around late in games this season doesn't make me feel a lot better (a little better, but not much). And getting outscored in conference games makes me wonder if we really made big steps forward this year.

That's probably a fair criticism but you can't discount a 4 game improvement.