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The most unlikely staff member

Maybe Raiola is a good coach. I don’t think he had much to work with.
Disagree 1000%. Minnesota, Wisconsin and Notre Dame recruited some of these guys … the weakest link on the starting unit was a walk-on center who couldn’t handle one-on-one blocking if Taylor Swift was across of him.
 
This is also a concern, talent evaluation has been sorely lacking for years.
I wonder more if its coaches just not sure of what type of player they want.
DT had no choice, but certain systems require certain types of players and it doesnt end before you get to the O line.
 
Disagree 1000%. Minnesota, Wisconsin and Notre Dame recruited some of these guys … the weakest link on the starting unit was a walk-on center who couldn’t handle one-on-one blocking if Taylor Swift was across of him.
When Teddy and Henry were passing up elder statesmen, and bringing in guys like Nouili, there is some truth to it.
But, adding in poor development, it fits too
 



Disagree 1000%. Minnesota, Wisconsin and Notre Dame recruited some of these guys … the weakest link on the starting unit was a walk-on center who couldn’t handle one-on-one blocking if Taylor Swift was across of him.

The other thing Raiola didn't have was time.

He had one pre-season and one in-season to coach and develop.

Austin had what, four or five cycles with this group?

Frost waited too long to change the things that needed changing. And that's not to suggest that Austin was necessarily the problem. Might have been a whole host of issues. Only the football gods know for certain.
 
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Scott Frost getting off the phone telling Matt Rhule that he should keep Raiola

View attachment 91391

It was interesting that HCMR made it a point to highlight that he and SF were friends, and that he thought highly of SF as a coach.

I'm assuming he's trying to broker unity within the fan base, but I'd tell him 'ok, you said it once. people heard you. now let's ease up talking about scott. people might start wondering about your common sense.'
 
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Rhule knows O-Line coaching and philosophy so I'm going to trust him on this - But we've got to get to the point where guys aren't starting/playing significant minutes until year 3 in the program. I think we've got some good kids but they haven't been developed and some continue to play out of position. development of the oline is probably what will slow our "turnaround" the most.

Every year in the Frost era I anticipated the first game of the year to see if the Oline could at least play to a draw. And every year AM would drop back and have company in the backfield with him within 2 seconds, or our running backs consistently get stonewalled at the line of scrimmage. I haven't seen a good O-line push from NU in at least a decade.
 
No, talent is good. These guys were wanted by Minnesota, Wisconsin and Notre Dame. Issue is S&C and coaching (Greg Austin).
This premise does not hold up when looking at the number of first and second team all conference awards. Getting an offer from another team does not automatically equate to on field performance or football talent.
 



Rhule knows O-Line coaching and philosophy so I'm going to trust him on this - But we've got to get to the point where guys aren't starting/playing significant minutes until year 3 in the program. I think we've got some good kids but they haven't been developed and some continue to play out of position. development of the oline is probably what will slow our "turnaround" the most.

Every year in the Frost era I anticipated the first game of the year to see if the Oline could at least play to a draw. And every year AM would drop back and have company in the backfield with him within 2 seconds, or our running backs consistently get stonewalled at the line of scrimmage. I haven't seen a good O-line push from NU in at least a decade.
One thing that the Mike Riley and Scott Frost eras have in common is that rushing yards declined each season.

Riley: 2015 (180), 2016 (169), 2017 (107.5)
Frost: 2018 (209), 2019 (204.5), 2020 (201.4), 2021 (181.2), 2022 (123.3)

This is not a trend indicating positive offensive line development for either era.

Matt Rhule has publicly stated that he wants 200 rushing yards per game. When he was at Baylor he said he wanted 100 by the RB, 50 by the QB and 50 by WR/TE. It’s a worthy goal with today’s pass-heavy football. Personally, I prefer 300 but I’m old and remember things like the wishbone, the veer, the wing-T and Osborne’s option ‘I’. It’s interesting to note that neither Bill Callahan nor Mike Riley ever had a Nebraska team that rushed for over 200 yards. Bo Pelini didn’t make 200 in the first two years (with Callahan’s OC), but was over 200 every year with Tim Beck as OC. Frank Solich was never under 200 (at Nebraska) and neither was Tom Osborne. Osborne’s 1983 team rushed for over 400!!! Before Bill Callahan became Nebraska’s coach, the last Nebraska team to rush for under 200 a game was the 1969 Huskers.
 
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This premise does not hold up when looking at the number of first and second team all conference awards. Getting an offer from another team does not automatically equate to on field performance or football talent.
The premise does hold up … (1) those institutions cited have a good history (recently) of OLine development. (2) The sheer fact that they were desired elsewhere suggests that talent is sufficient and that something else might’ve been amiss.
 


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