6 wins and 14 losses

[36Blast]

All good points. I do find it funny that we were applauding Frost for his roster turnover in the spring, but now it’s used as a reason we are struggling. I find it interesting that I’m being told he just needs his players, but we were better in 2018 than 2019.

That's only because expectations were not reasonable and too many bought into the hype and assumed the path to success would resemble Scott's time at UCF. It just was NOT going to happen and you stated some of those reasons in this thread along with the team losing all that talent to turnover. If the fan base was reasonable in their assessment from the get go, they would have realized 7 wins should have been considered a successful season.

 

[NUinID]

lol i always forget the specialists.... our kicking game is going to cost us one for sure (or count Colorado if you want).

Really worried about this game. We are beat up as can be, and Minnesota has the momentum. Time for the 5 million dollar man to get our available talent playing where it should be.

What, we got them right where we want them. Seriously though my vision of this game is leaning hard on Mills. I have heard several "experts" say the same thing. Lets see Mills get 25 carries.

The pressure is all on Minnesota IMO. I think Nebraska comes in and maybe has a bit of a chip on their shoulder. Keep the TO down and penalties to 4-6 and see what happens.

I think Vedral can play well in the game. Martinez big problem this year is being indecisive IMO. Part of that is on Frost and Coach V. They want their QB to be a distributor first and for most and not a play maker. I think he is trying too hard to be the distributor.

In Vedral's very limited time playing this year he seems to be making a quicker decision. I am not saying it is going to be the right choice every time. I liked how he ran hard and made the choice to run sooner than Martinez has this year.

 

[wcbsas]

I have no idea what you normally are, but you're putting a very negative spin, overall, on the above. If you're one of those who was expecting at least 10 wins this year and a shot at the CFP, then, yeah, you may want to temper your expectations. If you're one of those who was thinking 8 wins this year would be a good year, then, yeah, adding 1-2 more wins for 2020 seems about right.

I am generally an optimistic guy ... I predicted 10-2 in the season contest but believed 9-3 to be realistic.

I understand your point on the o-line playing together but that same point applies to this year and the o-line is simply playing worse this year than last year despite 3 returning starters. I just don't believe that this group can make incremental improvements this year to next. The only wild card is Jurgens and whether he and therefore the whole group can make a huge jump.

My optimism in general has taken a hit ... we are right now not as good of a team as we were at the end of last season. We are underdogs against Minnesota and will be against Wisconsin and Iowa. If the ball doesn't bounce our way - we could end up with a 6-6 season - maybe worse. And that would be regression regardless of how some optimist would try and spin it!

 

[coherbie]

what a depressing thread ... guess back to back 4-8 seasons have turned some folks.

the injury bug has bitten hard lately (#stillblamedobson) -seriously, just don't have the depth to overcome things quite yet.
No doubt that SF's the longterm answer & needs time, support & unwavering commitment from the fanbase to get us back where we belong. The '19 squad has a chance at the most program wins since 2016 & go to a bowl game for the first time in years (one more W makes 5, two = bowl bid)... pretty sad, but summarizes & speaks to how bad things have become recently on the plains. The program was more than just a HC away, no fix & flip, this is a complete renovation.

The boulder collapse remains a bothersome stumble - absolute choke, should be 5-1.. need to grow from those experiences. B1G remains a solid, physical, deep conference, have to earn it each week, this young squad is learning that & believe this staff is learning that as well. DONU will take the next step eventually, gotta walk (or in our current case limp) before you can run with the big dogs.

GBR!

 

[LurkSker44]

All good points. I do find it funny that we were applauding Frost for his roster turnover in the spring, but now it’s used as a reason we are struggling. I find it interesting that I’m being told he just needs his players, but we were better in 2018 than 2019. For all of the “how bad it was when I got here”, I promise it wasn’t much worse than what Callahan tried to create, yet Pelini won 9 games his very first year and went to the conference title game 3 of his first 5 years.

I think we have a super high ceiling with Frost here, but the year 2 development where our head coach said we would be dangerous is not very apparent to me right now.

Do you think our 2018 defense is better than our 2019 defense? I do like how the nose guard position has been improved.

 

[wcbsas]

That's only because expectations were not reasonable and too many bought into the hype and assumed the path to success would resemble Scott's time at UCF. It just was NOT going to happen and you stated some of those reasons in this thread along with the team losing all that talent to turnover. If the fan base was reasonable in their assessment from the get go, they would have realized 7 wins should have been considered a successful season.

I disagree ... this team right now despite its record just feels worse than the team that finished up last year. Its not about W's/L's as much as are we getting better? Do you think we are better today than we were November 2018?

Every facet of our offensive team is arguably worse than last year. Not one offensive position group is better. Our special teams are completely worse than last year ... and last year they were poor. Fortunately the defense is better, particularly the D-Line.

Do you think we are going to get to 7 wins - you sure Purdue, Maryland and Indiana are wins? Even so, if that happens we will have beaten everyone we should have and not won one game that we shouldn't have (or toss-up games).

 

[LurkSker44]

Even if nothing else changed, a year of experience playing together is incredibly important for entire position groups, starting with the O-line, then the WRs and QB working together, then the secondary, and then the LBs. Another year for Special Teams to work together also eliminates a lot of bad snaps, etc. You have to have a base level of talent, skill, fundamentals, etc., but it's hard to put a value on gaining a year of experience and cohesion for a team.

I can't imagine anybody who's ever played O-line at any level of football who would disagree with the idea that playing together for another year is going to lead to a lot of improvement in a lot of areas.

I played O-line for a bit (early), but I'm curious as to how big playing together really is. Don't they all need good individual performances in order to be a good unit? I feel like them gaining experience individually is more of an impact than how the guy next to them is doing. I'd like to here from you on this or another in the know like @ShortSideOption on the "why" this is important or from a technical standpoint. I guess I can't relate it to something like say a QB and receiver getting timing our route options down. I know they have to work together as a unit, but each guy has individual responsibilities that has nothing to do with the guy next to them right?

 

[wcbsas]

what a depressing thread ... guess back to back 4-8 seasons have turned some folks.

the injury bug has bitten hard lately (#stillblamedobson) -seriously, just don't have the depth to overcome things quite yet.
No doubt that SF's the longterm answer & needs time, support & unwavering commitment from the fanbase to get us back where we belong. The '19 squad has a chance at the most program wins since 2016 & go to a bowl game for the first time in years (one more W makes 5, two = bowl bid)... pretty sad, but summarizes & speaks to how bad things have become recently on the plains. The program was more than just a HC away, no fix & flip, this is a complete renovation.

The boulder collapse remains a bothersome stumble - absolute choke, should be 5-1.. need to grow from those experiences. B1G remains a solid, physical, deep conference, have to earn it each week, this young squad is learning that & believe this staff is learning that as well. DONU will take the next step eventually, gotta walk (or in our current case limp) before you can run with the big dogs.

GBR!

I am one of those depressing guys but ... it just doesn't feel like we are better this year.

And it has so much less to do with W's and L's and everything to do with are we playing better. The measure of our competition we've played at the moment is not really good.

 

[Elwood von Kiowa]

Really worried about this game. We are beat up as can be, and Minnesota has the momentum. Time for the 5 million dollar man to get our available talent playing where it should be.

This. I know we're beat up but I would hope we have a team of hungry guys who are going to look at this as a one-game season. Leave it all on the field Saturday, and use the bye week to get people healthy.

I know we don't look like a 10-win team this year, but I'm tired of losing to teams that we out-talent. Time for that noise to end.

 

[ShortSideOption]

What, we got them right where we want them. Seriously though my vision of this game is leaning hard on Mills. I have heard several "experts" say the same thing. Lets see Mills get 25 carries.

The pressure is all on Minnesota IMO. I think Nebraska comes in and maybe has a bit of a chip on their shoulder. Keep the TO down and penalties to 4-6 and see what happens.

I think Vedral can play well in the game. Martinez big problem this year is being indecisive IMO. Part of that is on Frost and Coach V. They want their QB to be a distributor first and for most and not a play maker. I think he is trying too hard to be the distributor.

In Vedral's very limited time playing this year he seems to be making a quicker decision. I am not saying it is going to be the right choice every time. I liked how he ran hard and made the choice to run sooner than Martinez has this year.

I don't think we will see much of a dropoff with Vedral compared to what we've seen from Martinez this year. I don't think he will be quite up to 2018 Martinez, but neither is our starter right now.

I again have to laugh when I think back to people writing Vedral off after his game and spring practice performance. Now we have people clamoring for him. Best QB depth in the B1G, we are lucky.

 

[ShortSideOption]

That's only because expectations were not reasonable and too many bought into the hype and assumed the path to success would resemble Scott's time at UCF. It just was NOT going to happen and you stated some of those reasons in this thread along with the team losing all that talent to turnover. If the fan base was reasonable in their assessment from the get go, they would have realized 7 wins should have been considered a successful season.

Agree, but some of this is on the staff. They did a good job tempering expectations for 2018 letting us know how bad things are. However, they came with "dangerous" for the 2019 season so I can't be too mad at people thinking we would have a shot.

The good news is, we still control our own destiny. Get thru this week so we can take a breath.

 

[ShortSideOption]

Do you think our 2018 defense is better than our 2019 defense? I do like how the nose guard position has been improved.

I do. I think our 2019 DL and DB is much better than 2018. LBs took a step back in 2019 but we can make up for that. Fisher is developing at a good level IMO.

 

[ShortSideOption]

I guess I can't relate it to something like say a QB and receiver getting timing our route options down. I know they have to work together as a unit, but each guy has individual responsibilities that has nothing to do with the guy next to them right?

For the record, I think this is a big reason for our offensive struggles so fare. Jurgens was out basically all spring and fall moving to a position he's never played. Spielman and Robinson hurt much of spring. Warner hurt. Noa not here yet. Washington going to trial. Mills not here yet. Our leading rusher on one team was Jaylin Bradley on one team and Brody Belt on the other, both are non-factors for 2019. Our leading receiver was MIles Jones and Todd Honas. We basically sat Martinez all spring because it made no sense to have him work on timing with Mazour and the guys mentioned.

Here's hoping everything I mapped out leads us to a second half like 2018 due to improvement.

 

[ShortSideOption]

I disagree ... this team right now despite its record just feels worse than the team that finished up last year. Its not about W's/L's as much as are we getting better? Do you think we are better today than we were November 2018?

Every facet of our offensive team is arguably worse than last year. Not one offensive position group is better. Our special teams are completely worse than last year ... and last year they were poor. Fortunately the defense is better, particularly the D-Line.

Do you think we are going to get to 7 wins - you sure Purdue, Maryland and Indiana are wins? Even so, if that happens we will have beaten everyone we should have and not won one game that we shouldn't have (or toss-up games).

Eyeball test this team isn't even close to 2018 Nebraska. I'll take 4-2 and controlling our own destiny to a conference title over 0-6 tho. This is going to be a tough game on Saturday, they have all the momentum in the world and we are limping in to an away game with backups everywhere.

 

[ShortSideOption]

This. I know we're beat up but I would hope we have a team of hungry guys who are going to look at this as a one-game season. Leave it all on the field Saturday, and use the bye week to get people healthy.

I know we don't look like a 10-win team this year, but I'm tired of losing to teams that we out-talent. Time for that noise to end.

This is a huge coaching game for Frost. We killed Minnesota last year. Year 1 to Year 2 is the biggest improvement teams and players make. No excuses. He can outscheme Minnesota, he's a better coach than Fleck. But time to get it done. Go earn that money in 48 hours.