Is Culture Still a Prob?

[Sodbuster]

And until we build our program around results, and we select players based on results, and we give playing time to players that produce results, etc., we won't have a program that produces results.

What comes to mind for me regarding results is execution. The Huskers very likely would have won the majority of the one score games they lost over the past 3 years if it wasn't for an ill timed penalty, or missed block, or turn over, or sloppy special teams, etc. I would guess there were backups on the sideline silently thinking if given a chance in live game action they could produce results. Those silent thoughts could easily turn into passive aggressive resistance that erodes a winning culture.

That said, it's a new year with new opportunities and I am optimistic there will be more wins than losses.

 

[NorthwoodHusker]

Old news. That article is about 5 months late. If it had come out after last year's Illinois game, it would have been timely.

Deontai talking with disdain about the guys who voted against a bowl game (and sounds like those guys are gone) is a good sign.

Are you saying culture should be player led?
I'm shocked

 

[Power of Corn]

Theres no question last yr was a very difficult year for student athletes. Some kids came early from Florida, and didnt get to play or practice until late summer. They had to quarantine in their rooms and couldnt even get on a plane to go home for the summer, (most of em). No one has done this before, and there were no instruction booklets for it.

Most people just did the best they could, some managed better than others. Some players coulda been gone from home for the 1st time of more than a week, and now were gone for a year. No one has been in a comfort zone in the last year, and has affected our younger folks worse than us guys over 40, no question about it.

 

[Venture]

It will be an interesting year to watch. I'm thinking that some of those seemingly painful transfers might have done a lot to improve the "culture".

 

[gazelle]

We still talking about this? Was surprised to see this...

Monday Morning Quarterback: Do you think Husker football has a culture issue that needs to be fixed before success happens?

Numerous defections by young recruits. Top offensive players transferring. A team vote to not play a bowl game. A trial-balloon […]

www.huskermax.com

IMO, if Frost is still having culture problems in year 4 he might as well pack it up and go home. If he doesn't win this year he can't use "Riley culture" as the reason for it.

 

[Scoob N Lincoln]

Theres no question last yr was a very difficult year for student athletes. Some kids came early from Florida, and didnt get to play or practice until late summer. They had to quarantine in their rooms and couldnt even get on a plane to go home for the summer, (most of em). No one has done this before, and there were no instruction booklets for it.

Most people just did the best they could, some managed better than others. Some players coulda been gone from home for the 1st time of more than a week, and now were gone for a year. No one has been in a comfort zone in the last year, and has affected our younger folks worse than us guys over 40, no question about it.

Spot on! It's tough enough moving half way across the country, let alone not seeing the field and pretty much not having a social life outside of your dorm room and practice field, especially when you are 18 years old. Strange times for everyone. Wash our hands of last year and move forward. Circumstances certainly didn't help Frost in turning this thing around but you have to play the cards that you are dealt.

 

[Scarlet Ripper]

I certainly hope culture isn’t a problem. To me, if culture is a problem by the end of year two, it’s not a culture problem at all. It’s a staff problem.

 

[Walztrent]

To some extent, given our schedule, not winning will probably have more to do with the level of competition than any cultural issues at this point. We have either finished converting our program into a B1G type and level of a program, or it is still a work in progress. We will know this fall.

If we aren’t competitive this year and at the very least winning more than we lose frost will have been a failure.

 

[Elwood von Kiowa]

I certainly hope culture isn’t a problem. To me, if culture is a problem by the end of year two, it’s not a culture problem at all. It’s a staff problem.

I get that, and certainly culture starts at the top. But in any organization of 100+ people, you can't eliminate all the bad attitudes immediately. Heck, Osborne had some "bad actors" on his team after 20+ years as HC. And I'm not talking about the ones getting in trouble with the law; I mean guys dividing up the team.

In 2017, the culture was absolute rock bottom (Thanks to the "Perlman effect"). Knute Snyder, Bill Rockne, or Woody Schembechler couldn't have turned that around in a year or two.

 

[Captkenny]

If we aren’t competitive this year and at the very least winning more than we lose frost will have been a failure.

LOL! That struck me as hilarious because it presumes success and failure are destinations. It presupposes that if you fail, you have reached the destination of “failure town” and that’s the end of your story.

I will be as disappointed as anyone if this team can’t improve in the win-loss column this year. But I am not going to “go personal” against the coaches if they don’t. Too much youth and inexperience on this team for this season to be a slam dunk, and the schedule is a bear.

 

[Walztrent]

LOL! That struck me as hilarious because it presumes success and failure are destinations. It presupposes that if you fail, you have reached the destination of “failure town” and that’s the end of your story.

I will be as disappointed as anyone if this team can’t improve in the win-loss column this year. But I am not going to “go personal” against the coaches if they don’t. Too much youth and inexperience on this team for this season to be a slam dunk, and the schedule is a bear.

Lmao four years and ur still trying to say youth. Sorry but frost has four classes that he recruited. Don’t like it take it up with him he’s the genius that recruited them wether they stayed or left. As for the schedule going five hundred or better isn’t asking for much. I was excited when frost was hired and am excited about this year. I truly believe that all these excuses u guys are trying to make are just that excuses. I haven’t wavered or wanted him fired yet but produce another losing season and I will be on the he needs to go side. But really I just don’t see him not hitting five hundred or better so think it’s pretty much moot and just like your excuses ur trying to make for him. I don’t care what the schedule or how young u think this team is. The qb is a fourth year starter and the oline returned everyone. Time for frost to earn his pay check and turn this around.

 

[NorthwoodHusker]

People dont want to hear how young we are.
Other teams are younger too, and lack of practices hurt some programs as well.
So, all teams lost game time, practice time, spring practice etc.
This is likely to hurt younger teams, just fact.

If healthy, can anyone really make the argument we wont be much better at the end of the year than the beginning?

Just ask yourself why that is

 

[Captkenny]

Lmao four years and ur still trying to say youth. Sorry but frost has four classes that he recruited. Don’t like it take it up with him he’s the genius that recruited them wether they stayed or left. As for the schedule going five hundred or better isn’t asking for much. I was excited when frost was hired and am excited about this year. I truly believe that all these excuses u guys are trying to make are just that excuses. I haven’t wavered or wanted him fired yet but produce another losing season and I will be on the he needs to go side. But really I just don’t see him not hitting five hundred or better so think it’s pretty much moot and just like your excuses ur trying to make for him. I don’t care what the schedule or how young u think this team is. The qb is a fourth year starter and the oline returned everyone. Time for frost to earn his pay check and turn this around.

I don’t make excuses. I just accept reality for what it is. You point out we have a four year starter at QB. That’s a very true statement. But it’s also true that this four year starter was a better QB as a freshman than he has been since. Mostly this is due to the fact that he plays injured most of the time. But if he goes down, there is no proven QB behind him. I don’t see the QB situation as a slam dunk formula for success.

Our RB situation is equally nebulous. There is no returning player that clearly showed the it factor that’s going to carry this team on his back and some of the guys you hope can make that happen are injured. I hope 2 or 3 of those guys step up and become difference makers, but right now, this is a big question mark.

Hopefully, the WR group will also make a name for themselves. We are told that they are the most talented ever on a Nebraska team. Hopefully that’s true. But again, an unproven group for the most part.

These aren’t excuses. They are just the reality we are in. Hopefully, this staff and the players have figured things out and this will be the year things turn around and miracles happen to appease those who don’t believe in realities and building of programs.

You shrug off the schedule as having anything to do with expected win-loss records. I disagree. When the only thing that matters is win - loss records a tougher schedule can be a significant obstacle to convincing fans that progress is being made.

For me, I have no idea whether progress is being made. We won’t know until play starts. Even then, something like our only experienced QB go down could disguise any progress that has been made. Hopefully, the O-line has developed into a B1G line. We need that piece in place to let the other pieces be successful.

 

[HuskerWeatherman]

LOL! That struck me as hilarious because it presumes success and failure are destinations. It presupposes that if you fail, you have reached the destination of “failure town” and that’s the end of your story.

I will be as disappointed as anyone if this team can’t improve in the win-loss column this year. But I am not going to “go personal” against the coaches if they don’t. Too much youth and inexperience on this team for this season to be a slam dunk, and the schedule is a bear.

If we can't produce a winning record in year four of any coach, I believe the criticism will be highly warranted. There should never be justification for a losing record in year four -- even more so if it's following three previous losing seasons under the same coach. No one would ever accept that upon hiring any coach, so in order to do so now requires a continual lower of the bar.

Sure, we have youth an inexperience in the offensive skill positions. Of course, when you lead the Big Ten West in number of transfers out over the past three seasons, you've added to that youth and inexperience.

In 2022, we'll lose a lot more of our defense than coming this season -- and we'll be starting a new quarterback for the first time in five years -- without any clear indication that we have a strong #2 quarterback ready to take over. So certainly, we can play the same game again a year from now in lowering expectations for why the season shouldn't be a "slam dunk."

 

[HuskerNash]

I don’t make excuses. I just accept reality for what it is. You point out we have a four year starter at QB. That’s a very true statement. But it’s also true that this four year starter was a better QB as a freshman than he has been since. Mostly this is due to the fact that he plays injured most of the time. But if he goes down, there is no proven QB behind him. I don’t see the QB situation as a slam dunk formula for success.

Our RB situation is equally nebulous. There is no returning player that clearly showed the it factor that’s going to carry this team on his back and some of the guys you hope can make that happen are injured. I hope 2 or 3 of those guys step up and become difference makers, but right now, this is a big question mark.

Hopefully, the WR group will also make a name for themselves. We are told that they are the most talented ever on a Nebraska team. Hopefully that’s true. But again, an unproven group for the most part.

These aren’t excuses. They are just the reality we are in. Hopefully, this staff and the players have figured things out and this will be the year things turn around and miracles happen to appease those who don’t believe in realities and building of programs.

You shrug off the schedule as having anything to do with expected win-loss records. I disagree. When the only thing that matters is win - loss records a tougher schedule can be a significant obstacle to convincing fans that progress is being made.

For me, I have no idea whether progress is being made. We won’t know until play starts. Even then, something like our only experienced QB go down could disguise any progress that has been made. Hopefully, the O-line has developed into a B1G line. We need that piece in place to let the other pieces be successful.

Good post but if you want my opinion it does sound like excuse making. This staff has failed to recruit a qb that to me will ever be any better than AM. Haarberg might get there but in my opinion our next hope is some high school kid that has yet to chose Nebraska for his destination. This staff has failed to recruit one bell cow type running back and I believe they still do not have one on the roster. By failing here I believe this played a significant role in losing the biggest playmaker this staff has recruited. We have been waiting on wide receivers to earn their stripes annually and every year hear about all the talent we have waiting to get their shot. Younger 4 star guys can't seem to beat out walk ons and the last two years we have lost our biggest playmakers each year. Oline seems to have higher hopes every year but can't seem to get out of their own way until about half way through the season. There are no excuses for this constant chaos in the offense, every year we bemoan the schedule that we have been given, and though the defense improved I chalk it up somewhat as very average offenses we played last year. Like @Walztrent NEVER been on the fire Frost bandwagon. Personally his style turns me off and I think his gaffs have been numerous but I can get on board with a well coached football team that I anticipate we will get this year.