Nine Biggest Reasons

[Bean]

Nebraska Deserves Its Middle-of-the-Pack Status in Big Ten Football

Those “way-too-early” rankings, by definition, are drizzled with uncertainty. That aside, two national rankings have Nebraska football right in the middle of th

www.si.com

Agree with SI:
"The Huskers desperately need a new defensive identity, and the ability to stop teams in the red zone. Nebraska ranked 133rd (out of 134 teams) in red-zone defense. Opponents scored on 37-of-38 red-zone trips (30 touchdowns and seven field goals).

Nebraska also needs to better protect the quarterback (33 sacks). Colandrea will bring mobility to help the offensive line, keep plays alive and gain much-needed yards on the ground.

The biggest question about Colandrea: How will the Mountain West Offensive Player of the Year in 2025 perform in the unrelenting, imposing Big Ten? It’s a fair question.

Nebraska can improve in all three areas, but with its difficult schedule — Indiana, Ohio State and Oregon — the Huskers still might not have a breakthrough, eight-win season."

Will have to Wait N See how they on the field!

 

[Cornhuskers7]

Posted on the main page ...

The Nine Biggest Reasons Nebraska Football Has Been Mired in Mediocrity the Last 10 Years

From 1962 to 2003, Nebraska football never once had a losing season. Even after the dynasty fell to pieces, the program didn’t. They posted three losing seasons

www.si.com

1. Upgrading of the B1G
2. Dysfunction at the top
3. Stepping backwards in S&C (Riley)
4. Lack of special teams
5. Failing to develop
6. Recruiting and retention
7. Psychological fragility
8. Neglecting the run game
9. Poor assistant hiring

Upgrading of the B1G is a massive reason. Since Nebraska has arrived, the B1G has added four teams that shift the needle significantly in a positive direction (could be three, depending on your feelings on UCLA). During that same time, you've seen significant improvements from programs like Michigan, Penn State, Indiana, Illinois, Minnesota (probably others). The B1G we walked into in 2011 is not the B1G that exists today.

Dysfunction at the top derailed us multiple times. It got us in the Solich/Callahan debacles. It caused the strife that led to Pelini getting canned. It caused the lack of accountability that made Frost's time here a dud.

Points 3 and 4 are problems, but are quickly reversible if you get the right people in place. S&C was an edge in the Osborne days, but we were never going to maintain the edge we had in that. We were at the cutting edge of that stuff back then, but eventually people were going to figure that side of things out.

5 and 6 go together. I'd honestly say recruiting has been our biggest issue post-Pelini. Go back through your mind and think about the best Huskers since Pelini. There have been solid recruits, by recruiting ranking standards, but how many of them panned out (here or elsewhere)? You've got guys like Adrian Martinez and WanDale Robinson who performed well while they were here, but for every success story you have a slew of failures. Our hit rate I'd argue is much slimmer than other schools our size. It seems like there has been a failure to not just develop, but discern guys that can develop.

7 is a product of losing. It is incredibly difficult to pull people out of the mindset that bad things are going to happen to them.

I'd agree to a certain extent with number 8, although I think that gets overstated. Without fixing a lot of the other issues mentioned, it doesn't matter how much we try to run the ball. If you don't have an edge in the trenches, you can run the ball all day and it will do no good. That said, I'd agree that some thought needs to be given to the fact that a quarter of your season is going to be played in subpar weather conditions (windy/cold/wet).

 

[wcbsas]

5 and 6 go together. I'd honestly say recruiting has been our biggest issue post-Pelini. Go back through your mind and think about the best Huskers since Pelini. There have been solid recruits, by recruiting ranking standards, but how many of them panned out (here or elsewhere)? You've got guys like Adrian Martinez and WanDale Robinson who performed well while they were here, but for every success story you have a slew of failures. Our hit rate I'd argue is much slimmer than other schools our size. It seems like there has been a failure to not just develop, but discern guys that can develop.

I would argue recruiting was fine … retention and development are what suffered.

Kind one the other side of a coin but I do think the distinction is notable.

 

[Cornhuskers7]

I would argue recruiting was fine … retention and development are what suffered.

Kind one the other side of a coin but I do think the distinction is notable.

My argument was how many of those players that were big name recruits went on to have success elsewhere?

Luke McCaffrey made it to the NFL, but after finally giving into a position change, which he supposedly refused to do in Lincoln. Malachi Coleman went to Minnesota and saw less production. I'm sure there are some exceptions, but a lot of the guys who we are upset never delivered, do very little elsewhere.

 

[wcbsas]

My argument was how many of those players that were big name recruits went on to have success elsewhere?

Luke McCaffrey made it to the NFL, but after finally giving into a position change, which he supposedly refused to do in Lincoln. Malachi Coleman went to Minnesota and saw less production. I'm sure there are some exceptions, but a lot of the guys who we are upset never delivered, do very little elsewhere.

Wandale Robinson, Adrian Martinez, Nate Boerkircher, Jamari Butler, Princewell U, Keona Davis, Malcolm Hartzog, Dylan Raiola, Omar Manning …

I agree the list of those who left and didn’t leave a mark is longer but I could add that to my lack of development argument as well.

The number of high profile high star recruits on the O-Line who have failed to me is extremely aggravating.

 

[Kilgore Trout]

Steve Pedersen started the slide. Frank had a role also but that is another story. But Pedersen started the huskers whistling while they walked by the cemetery. In his mind he saw himself becoming above even Bob Devaney in terms of effectiveness in the Husker machine. He wanted to be on a level as Tom Osborne. Native of North Platte (I think) he wanted to make changes for the sake of change but that would allow him to point to and say it was his genius that got the huskers back to a National Championship. Everything from getting away from the option and ground attack to new uniforms. He hired the absolute wrong head coach, a guy who didn't even respect husker fans to say nothing about the Husker culture. He saw college football as little league football compared to his preferred NFL. If Pedersen had done his home work he would have found that his NFL players hated him and they won a super bowl despite Calahan. When that whole thing fell apart Nebraska University leadership found the selves running around with boxes of bandaids trying to stop the thousand cuts causing the death of a great program. The rest has been a series of "If we get the right guy all will be well" with little patience. I don't know if Matt Rhule is that guy but I do know that the common belief that under his leadership everything will magically turn to championships after three years was a fantasy and wishful thinking. The Big Ten is more complicated than reducing it to a matter of time. And obviously the factors have changed during his tenure with NIL and the portal, both of which were factors in driving Nick Saben and probably Urban Meyer out of the game.

 

[KSBV]

5. Failing to develop
6. Recruiting and retention

I agree with the inclusion of these, but with the current NIL/Transfer situation, I am not sure we could have continued what we did in these areas in the past. Under Bob and Tom, there was a rational and purposeful progression and development program, where there were walk-ons, and players were willing to sit out a red shirt year and then progress through the ranks and hopefully become starters sometime over the next three years. Now, no one wants to start out at the bottom and work their way to the top. If they aren't starting by the end of year two (if not sooner), they go somewhere else. Clearly, these days the pendulum is swinging toward more players acquired via the transfer portal than recruiting them right out of high school.

 

[NorthwoodHusker]

I cant compare a perennial top 10 teams talent to todays talent. The structure of recruiting and redshirting has changed, but then the alternative is you need plug n play or close to it.
You can also easily argue that todays athletes are more bodily mature and can play earlier than players of yesterday. Our S&C isnt that much further than many HS's today.
So the answer is recruit better, coach very well. Develop tops it off.

 

[Cornhuskers7]

Wandale Robinson, Adrian Martinez, Nate Boerkircher, Jamari Butler, Princewell U, Keona Davis, Malcolm Hartzog, Dylan Raiola, Omar Manning …

I agree the list of those who left and didn’t leave a mark is longer but I could add that to my lack of development argument as well.

The number of high profile high star recruits on the O-Line who have failed to me is extremely aggravating.

And that's the paradox in it. The guys that stay you question if they'd suck elsewhere or magically get good. I'd argue that most of the guys, if not all, on that list were really productive in Lincoln. My point is we don't have a lot of examples of flame outs in Lincoln that magically get developed into great players elsewhere. If we really sucked at development, you'd see guys go to schools that are good at development and flourish. My hypothesis is that we have done a poor job of picking guys that can be developed and that's a big reason why our development has been poor across the board.

 

[Bleed Red]

Wandale Robinson, Adrian Martinez, Nate Boerkircher, Jamari Butler, Princewell U, Keona Davis, Malcolm Hartzog, Dylan Raiola, Omar Manning …

I agree the list of those who left and didn’t leave a mark is longer but I could add that to my lack of development argument as well.

The number of high profile high star recruits on the O-Line who have failed to me is extremely aggravating.

Kind of stretching the list in my opinion. Raiola and Hartzog haven't done anything anywhere other than NU, AM was about the same player at KSU as he was at NU. Same for Boerkircher....he was drafted but he didn't really explode statistically. I'm not even sure Manning transferred...no stats anywhere after NU. Butler had 25 tackles at LSU with 2 sacks....22 tackles with 2 sacks at NU....not exactly an explosion of production.

So, the list is pretty much WR (who was misused at NU, not under developed) and Princewill, who took the money.

 

[BlueTurfHusker]

Regression toward the mean is a common trap that can lead to false conclusions. It is frequently misinterpreted in business, education, and medicine, where people mistakenly attribute the return to average performance to an external intervention.

Credit TO for much of Nebraska's long run of above-average, but recognize that regardless of others who came later with every hope and expectation of sustaining that success, a return to the average was the statistically likely outcome.

 

[wcbsas]

Regression toward the mean is a common trap that can lead to false conclusions. It is frequently misinterpreted in business, education, and medicine, where people mistakenly attribute the return to average performance to an external intervention.

Credit TO for much of Nebraska's long run of above-average, but recognize that regardless of others who came later with every hope and expectation of sustaining that success, a return to the average was the statistically likely outcome.

This presumes that all of the entities have the same strengths, weaknesses, assets and limitations.

Not true. Alabama, tOSU, Michigan, Oregon are on a different level. Nebraska’s advantages were neglected and not protected.

If S&C is a strength, why willingly share it with others? If the walkon program was a strength why allow your conference to limit it? If partial qualifiers helped why allow it to be restricted?

Why allow leadership to be so loose with the product in the field?

 

[CO4NU]

Just my opinion.

Nebraska does well ( well enough ) in the recruiting realm.

It just seems ( to me anyway ) in the last few decades when Nebraska recruits a talented High Schooler, in the subsequent 4 years he is still remains a talented High Schooler.

Development....development....development.

Hope that changes soon.

Just my

 

[MHKHusker]

I think the main reason Rhule has failed here thus far boils down to a couple things:

Retaining Donovan Raiola to get Dylan

Retaining so many of Frost's players to try and change their mindset

No explanation needed on point one

Rhule didn't come from a college so he didn't get the opportunity that a lot of coaches get. Typically they can bring players with them that have already been in the system to speed boost the process of flipping the program. Not only did he not get that opportunity, he also took over Nebraska at its historical worst. A locker room full of losers, and that isn't something that can just be knocked out of their minds. I know he preferred development and didn't prefer the portal, but I would have told a good chunk of Frost's guys to get to stepping and gone hard in the portal after contributors on winning teams from lower conferences. Had Rhule come from Baylor in 2019 to Lincoln and brought a whole bunch of those guys, where would we be today?

 

[wcbsas]

I think the main reason Rhule has failed here thus far boils down to a couple things:

Retaining Donovan Raiola to get Dylan

Retaining so many of Frost's players to try and change their mindset

No explanation needed on point one

Rhule didn't come from a college so he didn't get the opportunity that a lot of coaches get. Typically they can bring players with them that have already been in the system to speed boost the process of flipping the program. Not only did he not get that opportunity, he also took over Nebraska at its historical worst. A locker room full of losers, and that isn't something that can just be knocked out of their minds. I know he preferred development and didn't prefer the portal, but I would have told a good chunk of Frost's guys to get to stepping and gone hard in the portal after contributors on winning teams from lower conferences. Had Rhule come from Baylor in 2019 to Lincoln and brought a whole bunch of those guys, where would we be today?

I agree somewhat with point #1. Retaining Donovan to get Dylan made some sense, especially the momentum it gave our recruiting. I’m not sure we get some of the skill position players we got without Dylan being on the roster. I’m not sure we get Dylan without Donovan.

I would have hired a second OL coach earlier than MR did, maybe after his first year … after he had a read on Donovan’s skill set. Retain OLCDR as the #2 but we’ve had too many highly rated OL recruits who have failed to achieve their potential dating back to the start of the SF era.

I disagree with your second point. Players who stay just want to be coached. Maybe they fit, maybe they don’t but especially when MR was hired, maintaining a competitive roster was necessary. Everyone has different personalities and priorities … I’m sure generating a cohesive locker room is a challenge during a coaching change. I also agree if MR went from Baylor or James Madison to NU that he could’ve brought some locker room culture guys with him.