After a 6 month or so hiatus, I have returned to Huskermax. (Not that anyone really cares) My departure didn't have anything to do with needing a mental break from the Huskers or anything like that. It was simple inertia and laziness. My wife lost the credit card which I use on the account so when renewal time came up I would had to have entered in the new one and simply didn't. Perhaps I was a bit ambivalent. Most of my personal surfing takes place on an ipad and the computing power on my ipad has degraded a bit and with the massive amount of adware on Huskermax it is next to impossible for me to participate on the message board given the bloat. But I made the decision to return, so I'll have to just tote my macbook to the couch.
The main reason for my return and willingness to overcome my own laziness is this season is so damn intriguing. I always put a pre-season prognostication together for my buddies. Not that they ask for it but they all know I am pretty darn opinionated and a couple like to screen shoot it and then give me the riot act post season when my predictions go awry. Heading into last year, I declared I was from Mizzorah as TO used to say. Show me I said. On paper, the Huskers appeared to be a 10 win season. 4 year starting QB, 4 returning starters on the OL etc. etc. But I had serious doubts about Frost. He had shown absolutely nothing in his first 3 years to make me think he could right the ship. It was obvious his offense and especially his staff were not working. Special teams were a mess. The obvious parallels to the John Blake era at OU were striking. Despite all that, given all the returning experience and talent, I didn't see how even Frost could screw it up. Boy was I wrong. The Huskers went 3-9. For you old dudes like me, let that sink in. Did you ever think back in the 70s, 80s, late 90s, 2000s or even 2010s Nebraska could have a 3 win season? I sure did not. Yet here we are.
So where are we at? Lots of discussion around will Frost get fired this year or not. I maintain he has already been fired. Not as HC but as GM and OC. We FINALLY have a competent AD to go along with a competent President and competent Chancellor (don't get me started with Harvey Pearlman). His role, power and decision making has been minimized. Trev is clearly making the decisions. Maybe not on the staff (though he surely had input and veto power), but I think the new recruiting coordinator and other moves on the admin side were TA decisions. While I thought Trev should have pulled the trigger on Frost I get why he did not from a financial perspective. We all have to exist in the real world, not the ideal world we all hope for. And I give Scott credit. He again delivered a winning off season. He executed well. I am NOT wild about Mark Whipple who reminds me a lot of Mike Riley. He passes a bit too much for my liking. But he was about as well as Frost could do captaining the Titanic. He actually sold the last 2 seats. Maybe Busch and Mickey fell into Frost's lap, but the bottom line is he closed the deal. The Raiola hire is the equivalent of promoting a GA. But the Vince Marrow hire has panned out well for Kentucky and the OL has only one direction to go. The transfers crop is really, really good.
Back to my opening paragraph, the 2022 season is extremely intriguing and I have zero clue where things go this season. The relatively easier schedule will help, no doubt. The ingredients are in place for a pretty decent season. The quality of the transfers is pretty unbelievable. While Casey Thompson is a great addition, even if he gets hurt from what I saw out of Chubba we could still be OK. RB will be better and better coached. Same with receivers. As mentioned, the OL only has one direction. TE is a question mark but we have some good young players. The secondary is shored up as is the DL through the portal. The LB room is good and experience though Rude needs to shuffle in some subs so the starters don't fade at the end of the year like last season.
The ceiling for wins is 10, given the incoming talent. The question is chemistry given all the free agents and organization. To date Frost has not been able to deliver on organization. His teams have been turnover and penalty prone. Sloppy. Given what I have seen the past 4 years, if everything is again as disorganized and the chemistry does not develop this could be a 4-5 win season. If I had to guess, he will deliver 7 or maybe 8 wins. Busch should see to it that STs are not the fiasco we have seen. My gut tells me Scott needs to win 7 and at least one win out of WI, IA and MN to retain his gig. As much as I have complained about Frost on a personal level I hope he can right the ship.
Looking forward, Trev et.al. has created the infrastructure to make this a number 10-25 program. That's about where our NIL program sits. Nebraska has been very innovative but with NIL but the shear dollars are not available to crack the Top 10 consistently. Maybe Buffett has a change of heart and tosses over a few hundred million but don't see it. If I had to guess, Michigan State could be the next elite program given $$ and Tucker but that's a topic for another day. Really look forward to engaging when I have the time and am not traveling on business. #Huskers #GBR/
The main reason for my return and willingness to overcome my own laziness is this season is so damn intriguing. I always put a pre-season prognostication together for my buddies. Not that they ask for it but they all know I am pretty darn opinionated and a couple like to screen shoot it and then give me the riot act post season when my predictions go awry. Heading into last year, I declared I was from Mizzorah as TO used to say. Show me I said. On paper, the Huskers appeared to be a 10 win season. 4 year starting QB, 4 returning starters on the OL etc. etc. But I had serious doubts about Frost. He had shown absolutely nothing in his first 3 years to make me think he could right the ship. It was obvious his offense and especially his staff were not working. Special teams were a mess. The obvious parallels to the John Blake era at OU were striking. Despite all that, given all the returning experience and talent, I didn't see how even Frost could screw it up. Boy was I wrong. The Huskers went 3-9. For you old dudes like me, let that sink in. Did you ever think back in the 70s, 80s, late 90s, 2000s or even 2010s Nebraska could have a 3 win season? I sure did not. Yet here we are.
So where are we at? Lots of discussion around will Frost get fired this year or not. I maintain he has already been fired. Not as HC but as GM and OC. We FINALLY have a competent AD to go along with a competent President and competent Chancellor (don't get me started with Harvey Pearlman). His role, power and decision making has been minimized. Trev is clearly making the decisions. Maybe not on the staff (though he surely had input and veto power), but I think the new recruiting coordinator and other moves on the admin side were TA decisions. While I thought Trev should have pulled the trigger on Frost I get why he did not from a financial perspective. We all have to exist in the real world, not the ideal world we all hope for. And I give Scott credit. He again delivered a winning off season. He executed well. I am NOT wild about Mark Whipple who reminds me a lot of Mike Riley. He passes a bit too much for my liking. But he was about as well as Frost could do captaining the Titanic. He actually sold the last 2 seats. Maybe Busch and Mickey fell into Frost's lap, but the bottom line is he closed the deal. The Raiola hire is the equivalent of promoting a GA. But the Vince Marrow hire has panned out well for Kentucky and the OL has only one direction to go. The transfers crop is really, really good.
Back to my opening paragraph, the 2022 season is extremely intriguing and I have zero clue where things go this season. The relatively easier schedule will help, no doubt. The ingredients are in place for a pretty decent season. The quality of the transfers is pretty unbelievable. While Casey Thompson is a great addition, even if he gets hurt from what I saw out of Chubba we could still be OK. RB will be better and better coached. Same with receivers. As mentioned, the OL only has one direction. TE is a question mark but we have some good young players. The secondary is shored up as is the DL through the portal. The LB room is good and experience though Rude needs to shuffle in some subs so the starters don't fade at the end of the year like last season.
The ceiling for wins is 10, given the incoming talent. The question is chemistry given all the free agents and organization. To date Frost has not been able to deliver on organization. His teams have been turnover and penalty prone. Sloppy. Given what I have seen the past 4 years, if everything is again as disorganized and the chemistry does not develop this could be a 4-5 win season. If I had to guess, he will deliver 7 or maybe 8 wins. Busch should see to it that STs are not the fiasco we have seen. My gut tells me Scott needs to win 7 and at least one win out of WI, IA and MN to retain his gig. As much as I have complained about Frost on a personal level I hope he can right the ship.
Looking forward, Trev et.al. has created the infrastructure to make this a number 10-25 program. That's about where our NIL program sits. Nebraska has been very innovative but with NIL but the shear dollars are not available to crack the Top 10 consistently. Maybe Buffett has a change of heart and tosses over a few hundred million but don't see it. If I had to guess, Michigan State could be the next elite program given $$ and Tucker but that's a topic for another day. Really look forward to engaging when I have the time and am not traveling on business. #Huskers #GBR/