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We’re close...

So the question is what is “we are close” or “we are back“ means? If that is a winning record, then next year is possible. If we are talking beat OSU, win Big10, and play for a National Title, I don’t see that happening soon (4+ years).


FullbackSympathy said:
I’m not sure what everyone was expecting this season from a W/L standpoint.

We’ve lost most of the games we were supposed to lose—3 of the losses were to ranked opponents. 2 of those games came down to the final possession, including one on the road to what will likely be a Top 10 team by next week. Illinois was trash, and we were favored big, but we were also picked to lose to Penn State and won that one.

What I saw today is more of what I saw in every game outside of Illinois—stronger line play and young talent. Martinez played well today. We had a couple of goofball plays, but we lost to a good team, on the road, on the last possession.

The main difference I see is that our talent matches Northwestern and Iowa up front. We aren’t better yet, but we match up. I felt like our past two Iowa battles were WAY flukier than this one. We should’ve been blown out in both. This was different. We’re just about as good as Iowa and NW. We played NW a lot tougher than Wiscy did.

Frost is definitely not a polished product as a head coach, but he’s showing me he can recruit, and that’s really really important. It takes time (5 years to fill it out across a program) to get a pipeline going up front in a conference this big and physical. Just ask Indiana.

Under Allen:

5-7
5-7
8-5 (if we win out this season—and I think we will—our record might’ve been quite similar to this with a full season)
4-1 and top 15.

I’m not a Frost apologist, but I saw a pretty well coached team today with a lot of guys stepping up to make plays. Martinez was pretty darned good against a top 10 defense, and our defense was tough.

When you lose games you’re not supposed to lose, the pitchforks should come out, but when you’re in year 2.5 of a dumpster fire reclamation project, it’s pretty hard for me to be upset about taking two ranked opponents, on the road, down to the last possession.

Finally, the system Frost is attempting to run on offense is ballsy for the B1G. I’m sure we could ho hum our way to Iowa status running power and chewing clock and be decent a lot quicker, but there’s most definitely a ceiling to that system. Frost’s system is a gamble because it requires elite talent. But if he gets it here—if he continues to win recruiting battles, a whole lot of people are going to be eating crow. Two freshmen and a sophomore on the Oline and a fairly dominant freshman on the DLine is giving me enough patience to enjoy some of what I’m watching.

I still think Frost gets it done here.
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Jud Crandall said:
It's like @FullbackSympathy says. We would have more wins if HCSF installed the Iowa offense from day one . . . but we are going for a higher ceiling.
Click to expand...

This is directed at anyone who kNows but, out of curiosity; couldn't they have installed Iowa's or any B1G offense and slowly transformed into the offense Scott wants?
pondering-and-thinking-smiley-emoticon.gif


Wonderboy said:
We are in year three and we have walk ons filling key positions as starters.
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I thought that's why we go after walk-ons. It's good to see them work hard enough to start, I think. :Smile:

huskrthill said:
I don't know. It's hard to keep up with everything. You want upperclassmen starting, others want the youngsters starting. Everyone here has the right answers.
Click to expand...

No answers from me; I only have questions. :Biggrin:
 
JeremyHahn said:
So the question is what is “we are close” or “we are back“ means? If that is a winning record, then next year is possible. If we are talking beat OSU, win Big10, and play for a National Title, I don’t see that happening soon (4+ years).
Click to expand...

Good clarification. I’d say close means “close to seriously competing for West Division Championships.”
 
huskermike said:
This is directed at anyone who kNows but, out of curiosity; couldn't they have installed Iowa's or any B1G offense and slowly transformed into the offense Scott wants?
pondering-and-thinking-smiley-emoticon.gif




I thought that's why we go after walk-ons. It's good to see them work hard enough to start, I think. :Smile:



No answers from me; I only have questions. :Biggrin:
Click to expand...
No complaints from me with walk ons starting. Look at husker history and the many gems.
 
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Got it. So Nebraska has to consistently beat Iowa, Wisconsin, and Northwestern to do that. This year with 0 wins against anyone in the West (Minnesota and Purdue left), not being competitive the last two years against Wisconsin, and not being able to beat Iowa, its going to be a while.

FullbackSympathy said:
Good clarification. I’d say close means “close to seriously competing for West Division Championships.”
Click to expand...
 
Good coaches adjust to their players talents until they can get the players they want. havent seen that with this staff. plus development has not shown itself with either the existing or new players.
 
JeremyHahn said:
Got it. So Nebraska has to consistently beat Iowa, Wisconsin, and Northwestern to do that. This year with 0 wins against anyone in the West (Minnesota and Purdue left), not being competitive the last two years against Wisconsin, and not being able to beat Iowa, its going to be a while.
Click to expand...

I was very curious to see how we would’ve done against Wiscy. I think it would’ve been similar to the Iowa game: competitive, but not quite better. We’re close to being as good as them. I think we’re about even with Iowa and NW and beat them both at home next season.
 




Well I know one thing....Frost better "adjust" to the Big 10 because they have pretty well "adjusted" to us, haven't they Coach?
 
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MiniDisk said:
Good coaches adjust to their players talents until they can get the players they want. havent seen that with this staff. plus development has not shown itself with either the existing or new players.
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Sometimes... You may not have the capacity of previous experience in coaching a different systmem to change to the skill set of the players but have to teach your system. I have a question for you about development. Why doesn't Bootle turnaround for the ball consistently in a game. He has said that he needs to start doing it at the beginning of this year to get more INT? Is Fischer not coaching, practicing, trying to develop it? I see it occasionally but it not consistent. Is it only coaching or is it player ability to learn?
 
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@huskermike: Could we have gradually built up to the Oregon offense, using the Iowa offense as a base? Good question.

John Wooden said something like: "Sometimes you have to know when you are building a Ferrari, and sometimes you have to know when you are building a Ford." He was talking about his first teams at UCLA, before Kareem and everybody else.

We have a ways to go before we are even a Ford. But I think Scott will figure this out.
 



Beareye said:
That is the first step. Certainly not the end goal. The first step really should not be taking 3+ years to accomplish. It's not that high of a standard.
Click to expand...

I’d argue that when you inherit upperclassmen linemen who didn’t lift until you got there, you’re looking at 4-5 years before your young o and d line can develop into contender-quality. Strength and strong weight is more important in this conference than any other conference. We have some VERY good young linemen who need to add weight. Corcoran is going to be special alongside Jurgens, Benhardt, and Piper for years to come, with more help on the way. It’s impossible not to see overall improvement on the defense.
 
FullbackSympathy said:
I’m not sure what everyone was expecting this season from a W/L standpoint.

We’ve lost most of the games we were supposed to lose—3 of the losses were to ranked opponents. 2 of those games came down to the final possession, including one on the road to what will likely be a Top 10 team by next week. Illinois was trash, and we were favored big, but we were also picked to lose to Penn State and won that one.

What I saw today is more of what I saw in every game outside of Illinois—stronger line play and young talent. Martinez played well today. We had a couple of goofball plays, but we lost to a good team, on the road, on the last possession.

The main difference I see is that our talent matches Northwestern and Iowa up front. We aren’t better yet, but we match up. I felt like our past two Iowa battles were WAY flukier than this one. We should’ve been blown out in both. This was different. We’re just about as good as Iowa and NW. We played NW a lot tougher than Wiscy did.

Frost is definitely not a polished product as a head coach, but he’s showing me he can recruit, and that’s really really important. It takes time (5 years to fill it out across a program) to get a pipeline going up front in a conference this big and physical. Just ask Indiana.

Under Allen:

5-7
5-7
8-5 (if we win out this season—and I think we will—our record might’ve been quite similar to this with a full season)
4-1 and top 15.

I’m not a Frost apologist, but I saw a pretty well coached team today with a lot of guys stepping up to make plays. Martinez was pretty darned good against a top 10 defense, and our defense was tough.

When you lose games you’re not supposed to lose, the pitchforks should come out, but when you’re in year 2.5 of a dumpster fire reclamation project, it’s pretty hard for me to be upset about taking two ranked opponents, on the road, down to the last possession.

Finally, the system Frost is attempting to run on offense is ballsy for the B1G. I’m sure we could ho hum our way to Iowa status running power and chewing clock and be decent a lot quicker, but there’s most definitely a ceiling to that system. Frost’s system is a gamble because it requires elite talent. But if he gets it here—if he continues to win recruiting battles, a whole lot of people are going to be eating crow. Two freshmen and a sophomore on the Oline and a fairly dominant freshman on the DLine is giving me enough patience to enjoy some of what I’m watching.

I still think Frost gets it done here.
Click to expand...
I appreciate your non-passion compromised observation. I think any of the Husker teams the last 10 years might lose in a similar way, even with winning records.
Frost has not done a good job explaining the lack of progress on long running issues; nor has he bothered to help us understand why all the young talent is not ready. Fans want to know why the team is not getting better.
 

SantaKlaus said:
I appreciate your non-passion compromised observation. I think any of the Husker teams the last 10 years might lose in a similar way, even with winning records.
Frost has not done a good job explaining the lack of progress on long running issues; nor has he bothered to help us understand why all the young talent is not ready. Fans want to know why the team is not getting better.
Click to expand...
If he goes into detail, he'll be criticized for making excuses. Or criticized for being to "wonk-ish." Or criticized for not having the answer someone wants to hear.

It's a no-win situation for him right now with many fans. The only thing that will fix it is winning, but some fans will even minimize that.
 
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