This team has turned the corner

[gabugeater]

The con-conf games, mostly the Buffs game are going to tell me a lot about this team going forward. I have good vibes from what we are hearing but let us see if it translates to Saturday come September.

 

[Hville]

The con-conf games, mostly the Buffs game are going to tell me a lot about this team going forward. I have good vibes from what we are hearing but let us see if it translates to Saturday come September.

That's probably the most popular opinion.

 

[Huskerthom]

The con-conf games, mostly the Buffs game are going to tell me a lot about this team going forward. I have good vibes from what we are hearing but let us see if it translates to Saturday come September.

The con-conf games, mostly the Buffs game are going to tell me a lot about this team going forward. I have good vibes from what we are hearing but let us see if it translates to Saturday come September.

I did not realize we moved to this Conf

 

[ksuhusker]

Thank you. Long time stalker since the ol' huskerpedia days... long over due getting on the forums.

Welcome, we were all stalkers on this board at some point.

 

[scotticus]

I'm guessing we are going to have at least another month of these discussions as some people are more comfortable arguing what we lost where others are more comfortable arguing what they think we have. I personally don't think losing a bunch of guys from a train wreck 4-8 season is all that bad. And I'm not saying they were bad kids but I think they had grown up in so many Nebraska systems and poor cultures that sometimes they just need purged.

To me everything is pretty crystal clear. Itt was clear to me under Mike Riley and right there in front of our eyes to see. MR didn't talk like SF and wasn't doing anything that appeared to be development. SF has told us exactly what we could all see. He came in and said the culture was bad, guys were out of shape, and they needed to learn how to win. He said it would be a struggle the first year but watch out in the second. From everything I am hearing and reading the culture is much improved, the S&C is greatly improved and so is the depth. SF knew turning over some of these players was the key. I still expect some growing pains this year trying to be a consistent top 10 team however it would surprise me if we didn't crack the top 15 at some point this year.

Objectively speaking, I think you both are correct from both sides of the fence. We dealt with players who had bad habits that couldn't break those habits. Some of those players purged themselves. Others did just enough to see the field. So I do not think we lost a lot in terms of that. I'll stab and say that losing Stanley and Gifford (or Griffin, ha) hurts the most but we should have enough incoming talent to make up for that. JD for Morgan and etc... Its not like we are taking a huge step back if the youth came in as prepared as we are told. And we had production behind those guys. Not a concern.

However, listening to Scott refer to his first year experience as more of a remodel than new construction actually should temper expectations (even though it wont). UCF was probably easier honestly just due to the fact that they had hit that ground 0. Breaking the habits and re-creating from a broken culture with resistance and partial buy in till half way through the season, puts us half a year behind the progress they had at UCF when you step back and really look at it. The only thing that bridges the gap is the initial talent level from which they had to work with.

Again, 2 more years and we should really start seeing the fruits of the process. The youth still needs to develop themselves. I'm most interested in seeing how much improved the interior lines play more than anything. If they can actually compete this year instead of getting manhandled, that is a win. To me, that means next year will be the year this thing would really take off. You can speculate all you want, but if we cant play competitive to the interior lines of wisconsins, iowas, michigans, ohio st, then there is no real point to talking about divisional championships yet. We have to get to the point where we can take them in the 4th quarter. I miss being conditioned to play 5 quarters and smoking them in the 4th when opposing teams were breaking down (if they lasted that long). This cant come soon enough. Some of these guys have finally had 2 winter conditioning's and we finally see some of it taking shape. Man.. if Duvall could build me 10 linemen with the speed and tenacity of a wistrom or a peter...

 

[Hville]

Come on man exaggerate much? I don’t think our schedule ended up being top 20 most difficult in the nation let alone number one.

I will say this about our schedule. On paper it looked very difficult last year especially when you look at where the games were played. This year is much different.

@ OSU compared to OSU @ home
@ Michigan compared to @ Indiana
Michigan State @ home compared to @ Maryland

Wisconsin at home instead of on the road
Iowa at home instead of on the road.
Northwestern at home instead of on the road.

Yes we do play Purdue and Minnesota on the road this year but at this point they mean nothing because they could fall apart this year similar to how some of the teams on last years teams fell apart and went unranked. Now does that make us look any better than any of those teams with a 4-8 record? No. But there is no doubt this schedule looks manageable compared to last years. On the surface we should be winning 2-3 more conference games. Add that to a pretty strong opportunity to win 3 more non-conference games and the 9 and 10 win prediction some are stating isn't out of line if...…..and I say this with a big question mark...…..we reduce mistakes, penalties and improve our defense.

 

[HuskerNash]

I will say this about our schedule. On paper it looked very difficult last year especially when you look at where the games were played. This year is much different.

@ OSU compared to OSU @ home
@ Michigan compared to @ Indiana
Michigan State @ home compared to @ Maryland

Wisconsin at home instead of on the road
Iowa at home instead of on the road.
Northwestern at home instead of on the road.

Yes we do play Purdue and Minnesota on the road this year but at this point they mean nothing because they could fall apart this year similar to how some of the teams on last years teams fell apart and went unranked. Now does that make us look any better than any of those teams with a 4-8 record? No. But there is no doubt this schedule looks manageable compared to last years. On the surface we should be winning 2-3 more conference games. Add that to a pretty strong opportunity to win 3 more non-conference games and the 9 and 10 win prediction some are stating isn't out of line if...…..and I say this with a big question mark...…..we reduce mistakes, penalties and improve our defense.

I agree, I think this years schedule should be much more manageable. The only point I was trying to make was that last year's schedule was tough but didn't end up anywhere near the most difficult in the country.