Reality Check: Nebraska

BSpringsteen

BSpringsteen

Well-Known Member
In the 80's and 90's, Nebraska became a CFB dynasty by running a system totally unique to them and way better than any imitators could. If you wanted to play this style, Nebraska was the place in the country to do it. That no longer exists.

Nebraska hasn't been Nebraska since 2000, or whenever they last played for a NC.

Their recruiting challenges are harder than Iowa. Kids they are recruiting now were 6 years old the last time they finished in the top 10. The surrounding states have almost less talent than Iowa.

On top of this, the fishbowl is worse than anywhere else in the country. Alabama has Auburn. South Carolina has Clemson. Georgia has pro sports. Nebraska has Nebraska football, that is it. Basketball at least for now is a low regarded afterthought.

With the access to top talent, USC, Tennessee, Florida, Georgia, Texas and Michigan all managed to stink. Some for extended periods of time. Florida State stunk for a while. Miami stunk for a while. Penn State managed to become a shadow of what it was even before Sandusky. Ohio State went through two years of 6-7 wins.

Fact. Nebraska is closer to Iowa than they are to Ohio State.
Fact: The fishbowl at Nebraska is the worst in the conference by far.

If you fire a coach who averages 9 wins a year after firing a coach who played for a NC and averaged 9-10 wins a year, you have just waved a huge red flag to any potential candidate.
This is not the job that it once was, it is a shell of it. No coach will ever be good enough for the vocal minority of that fanbase. Someone explain to me why this job is desirable, because to me, I would rank it as a bottom half of the B1G job with the unrealistic expectations.
 
Here is a perfect example of Nebraska.

Wisconsin went out and hired a guy without a lot of pub. He wasn't on anyone's hot list. He was just a good football coach and they seemingly hit a home run.

If Nebraska went out and hired the head coach from Utah State, they'd riot on the streets of Lincoln. They think that a coach should be leaving a good BCS school to come have the privilege.
 
With shared revenue, they no longer have a financial advantage over the other conference teams. Back in the old Big 8/Big 12 days the difference in $ was huge. They could have the facilities, money for travel for recruiting, extra coaches, big walk-on program, physician monitored steroids, the works that all the other teams could only dream of.
 
Nebby is still in a state of transition as they are learning the landscape of the B1G. Their premise upon joining was they were going to walk-in and dominate. They have had some good wins but had some spankings which rocked their foundation. They found out that even the programs like Minny, NW and Iowa can come to play and will punch you hard.

This move to this conference was actually a great deal for them. They do not realize this completely yet as they cannot compete with other programs in different areas of the country for the reasons listed in previous posts. They can compete in this conference if they can play good defense and get a much better o-line. Their old heritage will work in this conference with one exception. You have to be able to throw the ball just enough. They actually have learned to throw it a little already from days past.

My message to them is get back to your roots identity wise with a sprinkle of the passing game and you can have some success (but will not dominate).
 
They do seem to be running out of options, they have tried the continuation from past with Solich, step into the modern era with an NFL offensive minded guy in Callahan and gone with the defensive minded college guy in Pellini .... yet no matter what they try they can't get past the 9 win plateau.
 
trj said:
They do seem to be running out of options, they have tried the continuation from past with Solich, step into the modern era with an NFL offensive minded guy in Callahan and gone with the defensive minded college guy in Pellini .... yet no matter what they try they can't get past the 9 win plateau.
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Good point. Well they should be happy in this day and age if they can hang around the 8-9 win mark given their disadvantages. Then shoot for a magical run every 3-5 years when you have the right personnel and things break your way. That is way more realistic then thinking you are going to dominate the conference and CFB every year.
 
SpecialKHawk said:
Good point. Well they should be happy in this day and age if they can hang around the 8-9 win mark given their disadvantages. Then shoot for a magical run every 3-5 years when you have the right personnel and things break your way. That is way more realistic then thinking you are going to dominate the conference and CFB every year.
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That'd be realistic, but we're talking about a bunch of idiots from Nebraska, so they won't.
 
SpecialKHawk said:
Good point. Well they should be happy in this day and age if they can hang around the 8-9 win mark given their disadvantages. Then shoot for a magical run every 3-5 years when you have the right personnel and things break your way. That is way more realistic then thinking you are going to dominate the conference and CFB every year.
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Then their fan base, prominent alums, delusional local media would have to admit that that they are on par with Iowa and Wisconsin and that ain't happening anytime soon.
 
hawkfan340 said:
This. Nebraska will never be elite again.
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ELITE = 8-10 wins.... agreed totally with all of the above. No Lawrence Phillips types allowed anyone - can't throw your women down a fire escape by the hair and still play. Can't have your entire D-Line be suspended in the NFL for 'roids like you did at NU.

Equity of Big 10 isn't the inequity of the Big 8/12...

Reality takes longer to sink in sometimes....
 
teachercoach said:
ELITE = 8-10 wins.... agreed totally with all of the above. No Lawrence Phillips types allowed anyone - can't throw your women down a fire escape by the hair and still play. Can't have your entire D-Line be suspended in the NFL for 'roids like you did at NU.

Equity of Big 10 isn't the inequity of the Big 8/12...

Reality takes longer to sink in sometimes....
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Yes, reality is a hard to deal with sometimes.

They had it made before the landscape changed. The old Big 8, 11 games and no BCS match ups (old bowl tie-in instead could be a favorable match-up for them)

They would line up 3 patsies in the non-con and then play programs who were absolutely horrible at the time; ISU, KU, KSU, Missouri and OK State. Think about only having to beat one team a year in Oklahoma to win a conference title and every other year it is at home. How could you not be highly ranked every year.
 
SpecialKHawk said:
Yes, reality is a hard to deal with sometimes.

They had it made before the landscape changed. The old Big 8, 11 games and no BCS match ups (old bowl tie-in instead could be a favorable match-up for them)

They would line up 3 patsies in the non-con and then play programs who were absolutely horrible at the time; ISU, KU, KSU, Missouri and OK State. Think about only having to beat one team a year in Oklahoma to win a conference title and every other year it is at home. How could you not be highly ranked every year.
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Exactly. And now they are basically Uncle Rico, reliving that time they were all-state and thinking they can throw a football over that mountain.
 
teachercoach said:
ELITE = 8-10 wins.... agreed totally with all of the above. No Lawrence Phillips types allowed anyone - can't throw your women down a fire escape by the hair and still play. Can't have your entire D-Line be suspended in the NFL for 'roids like you did at NU.

Equity of Big 10 isn't the inequity of the Big 8/12...

Reality takes longer to sink in sometimes....
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I have no idea what you are trying to say, and apparently, neither do you.

SpecialKHawk said:
Yes, reality is a hard to deal with sometimes.

They had it made before the landscape changed. The old Big 8, 11 games and no BCS match ups (old bowl tie-in instead could be a favorable match-up for them)

They would line up 3 patsies in the non-con and then play programs who were absolutely horrible at the time; ISU, KU, KSU, Missouri and OK State. Think about only having to beat one team a year in Oklahoma to win a conference title and every other year it is at home. How could you not be highly ranked every year.
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Non-con patsies, like Florida State, Texas A&M, Pedo State, Auburn, UCLA, South Carolina, Michigan State, oh, and Iowa.

Oklahoma St had some good teams with Barry Sanders and Thurman Thomas. Colorado shared a NC in the early 90's. KSU (in the 90's) was better than 80% of Big Ten teams.

You should look at some of the teams that we faced in bowl games back then. A number of them finished in the Top 3 in the nation, the Miami's, Ga Tech's, FSU's, Clemson's, LSU's, etc. And we often had to play them in their backyards. Not exactly favorable.
 
74Hunter said:
I have no idea what you are trying to say, and apparently, neither do you.



Non-con patsies, like Florida State, Texas A&M, Pedo State, Auburn, UCLA, South Carolina, Michigan State, oh, and Iowa.

Oklahoma St had some good teams with Barry Sanders and Thurman Thomas. Colorado shared a NC in the early 90's. KSU (in the 90's) was better than 80% of Big Ten teams.

You should look at some of the teams that we faced in bowl games back then. A number of them finished in the Top 3 in the nation, the Miami's, Ga Tech's, FSU's, Clemson's, LSU's, etc. And we often had to play them in their backyards. Not exactly favorable.
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Yes, because we all know how awesome those Iowa teams of 1999 and 2000 were.
 
KSU in the 90's was coached, as it is now, by Bill Snyder, a Hayden Fry OC for many years. But all of that is moot. Take a look at the time stamp on those 'glory' years, sport. Lil Debbie ain't playing in a league with Kansas anymore, Toto. Evolve or suffer the consequences of mediocrity. National title? Not any time soon. Not as long as a thug from the Cardinal Mooney Mafia is running your program.
 
74Hunter said:
I have no idea what you are trying to say, and apparently, neither do you.



Non-con patsies, like Florida State, Texas A&M, Pedo State, Auburn, UCLA, South Carolina, Michigan State, oh, and Iowa.

Oklahoma St had some good teams with Barry Sanders and Thurman Thomas. Colorado shared a NC in the early 90's. KSU (in the 90's) was better than 80% of Big Ten teams.

You should look at some of the teams that we faced in bowl games back then. A number of them finished in the Top 3 in the nation, the Miami's, Ga Tech's, FSU's, Clemson's, LSU's, etc. And we often had to play them in their backyards. Not exactly favorable.
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Why is it so difficult for you to understand that times have changed, Nebraska is no longer one of CFB's "elite" programs, hasn't been for more than a decade and likely never will be again? Why?
 
The thing about Nebraska is their still stuck in the 80s & 90s its not the same program it once was.
 
Doublewide said:
Nebraska hasn't done anything since the Big 12 voted to get rid of partial qualifiers in 96.
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I've been saying this for years. People always love pointing to Nebraska as an example for why Iowa could become an elite program, but there's a reason Nebraska isn't that program anymore, and it'll prevent Iowa from taking the same path.
 
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