Outside Perception of the Nebraska Job

[wcbsas]

Wisconsin's HC job is not open, contrary to what the media think, unless Leonhard gets hit by a train next week.

Lance Leipold is getting a lot of love for the Wisconsin job ... and people in Wisconsin believe that they have the inside track to getting him (if wanted) over Nebraska.

 

[wcbsas]

Wisconsin's HC job is not open, contrary to what the media think, unless Leonhard gets hit by a train next week.

I agree that Wisconsin has coach they want! Don't believe they wanted to lose him to Nebraska

Jim Leonard is currently the favorite but this year's defense is a big part of the problem this year ... in large part because of the personnel losses from last year's team but also because they did not have any talent in waiting behind those that left.

Wisconsin plays:
@ Northwestern
Bye Week
@ Michigan State
Purdue
Bye Week
Maryland
@Iowa
@Nebraska
Minnesota

Currently UW is favored in two of those contests - Northwestern and Nebraska.
I honestly believe there's a built in excuse for potentially losing to NW (a team that plays them tough) given the short turnaround after firing Chryst BUT ... they could go 0-fer the rest of the season. If that happens there is no way Leonard gets the job.

I like that they play NU after the Iowa game - I hope the Hawkeyes defense just physically abuse them.

If they end the season 0-4 or 0-3 ... Leonard might not get the job.

 

[LoneTreeHusker]

Listening to Wisconsin sports radio this is the feeling of most of the commentators and callers:

1) Leonard is the odds-on favorite to be next UW head coach.

2) He has to show, during his interim tenure, improvement in the program in the form of consistency. He doesn't have to win a lot of games but most feel there is two certifiable wins left on their schedule - Northwestern and Nebraska. If he were to go winless then he might not get the job.

3) Most feel Wisconsin in the better program ... higher floor, consistency in performance the last 20 years. Most think Nebraska is a complete tear-down and Wisconsin is a fine-tuning/tweaking endeavor.

4) Most feel Wisconsin's issues have been recruiting and a very bland offense. Assuming they do not have a huge exodus of players they have a decent foundation in the trenches.

Man this sure sounds familiar. Didn’t work out so well for previous team that followed this pattern.

 

[Cornhuskers7]

CBS Sports did a ranking of the current job openings yesterday.
They listed Wisconsin #1 and Nebraska #2.
This was mostly based on Wiskey's success over the past 20 years.
Personally I think Nebraska is a better job because I think with the history, the financial commitment, the new facilities, NIL, etc. there is a higher ceiling at Nebraska (for the right coach).

College football coaching carousel: Ranking best Power Five jobs available after Purdue opens

Scott Satterfield abruptly left the Cardinals program on Monday to fill the vacancy in Cincinnati

www.cbssports.com

Wisconsin job has a hirer floor, lower ceiling. For the reasons you mentioned, the Nebraska job definitely has the potential to be better than the Wisconsin position. Problem is it might require more effort/labor pains to get it there.

 

[Skers4life]

Wisconsin will not let Leonhard go, he is the guy, I don't care what anyone says. That administration saw his name pop up on potential HC jobs including ours and pulled the trigger on Chryst.

 

[Cornhuskers7]

Living in the South, I get an almost exclusively outsiders perspective on Nebraska football when I discuss with others. Most still regard Nebraska as a really good job. You used to get playful jabs about us being down. Now it is more pity than playful. I would assume you'll find similar sentiment among coaches. Good news is that, unlike recruits, coaches are old enough to remember when Nebraska football was good and what it can be. While it might not be held in the same esteem it would have twenty years ago, there is still going to be some level of reverence for the history of the program and what leading us back would mean for their legacy.

 

[Cornhuskers7]

Wisconsin will not let Leonhard go, he is the guy, I don't care what anyone says. That administration saw his name pop up on potential HC jobs including ours and pulled the trigger on Chryst.

It would certainly make more sense firing Chryst, if you already had Leonhard locked in. The struggle with getting rid of someone who was successful is that you aren't guaranteed that you will find someone better who wants to come. If they feel like Leonhard is a guy who is better, why risk losing him elsewhere?

 

[DIHRDHskr]

I am really confused by the love for Leonard,. You all seem to want an experienced head coach but Leonard has never been one. Can one of you fawning over Leonard please explain?

 

[Skers4life]

It would certainly make more sense firing Chryst, if you already had Leonhard locked in. The struggle with getting rid of someone who was successful is that you aren't guaranteed that you will find someone better who wants to come. If they feel like Leonhard is a guy who is better, why risk losing him elsewhere?

Precisely.

 

[Skers4life]

I am really confused by the love for Leonard,. You all seem to want an experienced head coach but Leonard has never been one. Can one of you fawning over Leonard please explain?

I have no love for him, I am just saying that Wisconsin AD and their admin do. They know him better than I do. I don't have him top 5 on my wish list at this point, for the record.

 

[Cornhuskers7]

I am really confused by the love for Leonard,. You all seem to want an experienced head coach but Leonard has never been one. Can one of you fawning over Leonard please explain?

For the record, I was never on that bandwagon. I do think the appeal is that he is defensive focused (which is one of our big issues), has coached in the B1G as an assistant for a number of years, and is young enough that if he were successful you could see it turn into something really special.

I don't personally know if he has shown the characteristics necessary to be a head coach, but it sounds like the administration might feel like he does. He'll get an opportunity to showcase that over the next few weeks.

 

[BigRedAvenger]

I am really confused by the love for Leonard,. You all seem to want an experienced head coach but Leonard has never been one. Can one of you fawning over Leonard please explain?

I do not get the hype. His entire coaching section on Wikipedia is 6 sentences long, and two of those sentences are about him before he was a coach:

In his year off between retiring from the NFL and being named DB coach for the Badgers, Leonhard spent his time studying college film with then-Wisconsin Defensive Coordinator Dave Aranda and familiarizing himself with schemes that exist in college football that aren't prevalent in the NFL, such as the zone-read option offense. Prior to UW DB coach Daronte Jones leaving UW for an assistant coaching position with the Dolphins, Leonhard had been asking Paul Chryst about joining the Badgers staff.[14]

Jim Leonhard - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[XCHusker]

Wisconsin will not let Leonhard go, he is the guy, I don't care what anyone says. That administration saw his name pop up on potential HC jobs including ours and pulled the trigger on Chryst.

Agree.

 

[Phillysker]

Living in the South, I get an almost exclusively outsiders perspective on Nebraska football when I discuss with others. Most still regard Nebraska as a really good job. You used to get playful jabs about us being down. Now it is more pity than playful. I would assume you'll find similar sentiment among coaches. Good news is that, unlike recruits, coaches are old enough to remember when Nebraska football was good and what it can be. While it might not be held in the same esteem it would have twenty years ago, there is still going to be some level of reverence for the history of the program and what leading us back would mean for their legacy.

Bingo

 

[NorthwoodHusker]

Do we really know the NIL setups at each school enough to be able to rank and compare?

The schools I'm most familiar with NIL -- Texas and Texas A&M -- are far ahead of the bits and pieces of NIL news that's come out of Lincoln. But maybe those Texas universities are far ahead of everyone else -- not sure.

Regarding the Big Ten ... you can find this sort of thing from Wisconsin, for example:

Wisconsin launches dedicated NIL marketplace for student-athletes | Wisconsin Badgers

Wisconsin Athletics has announced the launch of a dedicated NIL marketplace built to specifically serve the Badgers.

uwbadgers.com

There's a lot more detail at the link.

My point being, do we really know that Nebraska's NIL program is superior to Wisconsin's (or Iowa, or another Big Ten West school)? Or are we just guessing based on fan bias?

Here's some of Wisconsin's NIL deals, including Pepsi for Mertz and Allen: https://www.on3.com/nil/news/wiscon...aelon-allen-nil-deals-pepsi-college-football/

On3 does a great job of tracking NIL: https://www.on3.com/nil/deals/

If you include fan bias or Iowa fans,then yes. Wiscy is more nebulous