Revised 2024 W/L predictions - October addition
- Thread starter NCHawker
- Start date
SCHawkeye2
Well-Known Member
this team looks like 6-6
Fryowa
Administrator
Just need to beat nebraska. Everything else is noise. If they can come into town bowl ineligible and have Iowa send Rhule home on that I-80 bus ride questioning whether he wants to stay for the rest of his fat contract (in exchange for those glorious pressers), it'd be the best 18th birthday present my kid could have.
NorthKCHawk
Well-Known Member
Interesting move by Rhule to fire his OC and bring in a guy off the street who will immediately be calling the plays. The Omaha radio guys are debating whether its desperation or just realization that the current OC sucks. Either way, the transition will have bumps. Holgorsen is legit. No argument there. Its a timing thing.
USC is better than its record and has lost a lot of close games with some weird travel. That coaching staff is on the hot seat. I don't see Nebbie winning that game.
Who knows what Wisky team will show up. But, I would love to see the Iowa game be a play in for Nebbie making a bowl. Add some juice to that already juiced game.
NorthKCHawk
Well-Known Member
BTW, I see Iowa beating Maryland and then splitting the Nebbie/bowl game. 8-5. That's football.
Fryowa
Administrator
I think nebraska has a way bigger problem than their HC or OC can fix. It’s a recruiting issue that I hope we aren’t in waiting for at Iowa.
That being said, Rhule himself isn’t the answer. He’s never really done anything other than have a couple turn around years at Temple in a JV conference, and a couple good seasons at
I watch every Nebraska game and every post game presser, and Rhule is a broken man now like Frost and Riley. I didn’t think it’d take long and it didn’t. Rhule is completely lost when he gets asked what’s wrong and what he should do about it.
NorthKCHawk
Well-Known Member
I probably feel a bit differently about Rhule. Not much. I think he is a good fit and unlike Frost, is an adult and a leader. I also don't discount what he did at a very broken Baylor program and he turned things around at Temple, for what that is worth. Obviously, he fell flat on his face in the NFL. Overall, I think he is a good coach, not a great one, and about the best Nebraska could have done given its sorry state of affairs.
Is he broken? Not yet. Much like Iowa, these last few games are critical. The narrative on this season and Matt Rhule is not yet written for 2024. And, it will come down to one more win. He needs to get to 6 wins. Desperately. That is a bowl. That is 2 more wins over last year. That is 5 weeks of practice. That is a step to development and buys him some time with the Mouth Breathing Sand People to further build up his talent and get his Freshman QB better all around.
Anything above 6 wins, and beating Iowa specifically, is gravy.
If he doesn't get to 6, that means he lost out. Last 6 games. Not saying he gets fired, but there will be the discussion. If the Devil requires Rhule to wear a dress and walk across Memorial Stadium to get one more win this year, he should ask the Devil what color he prefers. It is that big of a deal.
Fryowa
Administrator
I said TCU and meant Baylor, my whoops. I'll strikeout and correct my post.
Fryowa
Administrator
I don't disagree that Rhule is a better football coach than Callahan, Riley, and Frost, and he's DEFINITELY a better man than Pelini.
But watching each of his post game pressers since he got hired (I'm a real boring guy who watches stuff like that on YouTube for fun) I've seen a shift from a guy who's confident that he knows the way forward and truly believes he's going to get it done, to a guy who's starting to come unglued a little and is flat out saying he doesn't know how to fix it. He's turned into a "we're going to try XYZ and hopefully it works, we'll find out..." kind of coach. Answering questions, "I don't know." Hiring outside consultants. It's not his fault. He's been 100% set up to fail in an impossible position. This tenure of failure will be the pinnacle of his coaching career and luckily for him he won't ever need another job again.
Accepting a HC job at nebraska is basically having a group of extremely rich people come to you and say, "Coach, we're going to pay you enough money for you and your next two generations to be set up for life; all you have to do is roll this here pair of dice and hope it comes up box cars. The catch is that once you sign your name and roll these dice, if it's not box cars you'll never work as a HC again and you'll forever be known as one of the post-Osborne era Failure Freddies, and that's how your career and life's work will be remembered forever."
I ain't proud, I'd roll them dice before you could say shit from shinola.
At this point there's really no shame in it, there's a sucker born every minute and the state of nebraska is full of hundreds of thousands of goobers waiting to pay the next Nick Saban in waiting bucketloads of cash. nebraska recruiting has so completely tanked that there's no building the program back up unless there's some one in a million lightning in a bottle thing but we all know that ain't happening. Especially in today's game. And I love it.
NorthKCHawk
Well-Known Member
That is exactly why the local media is questioning whether this is desperation. Rhule presented himself as a process guy. A program builder. No panic. Its about direction. Development. Etc. In other words, he is a version of KF, and I mean that as a compliment. Is there anything less KF than firing your OC 10 games in and hiring a new one off the street??? You could certainly be forgiven for seeing this as a desperate ploy.
Look, if he wins one more game, he has bought himself some more time to be that program builder he sold himself to be. If he doesn't, the wolves will be at the door.
Fryowa
Administrator
I think nebraska football is a program driven more by donors and fan revolt than Iowa and other schools like us. It was a donor who stepped up and paid for Frost's $16.4M severance on September 11, when waiting until the morning of October 2 would've been $8.7M.
$7.7 million for 21 days. Some donor lit $7.7M dollars on fire because he didn't want to wait 21 days. These people are absolutely insane. And what's the return on that money? Zero. It's just gone into thin air and they're right back in the same spot of facing the 7th year in a row not making a bowl. That program and their fans are total delusional idiots.
My money says one of their mega donors or a group of them went to their AD and said, "Listen up, here's what's gonna happen..." in regards to the OC change.
kicker22
Well-Known Member
The problem is Nebby has never wanted a process guy so if he follows that mentality they'll run him out of town like they have been doing the last decade. And I think while he wants to hold true to that belief he has to know better, because he's about as far away from a rational and logical fan base as he could possibly be.
NorthKCHawk
Well-Known Member
This has been discussed, but a lot of people on the ground here have said that the AD had no role in this at all. I don't see megadonors getting involved at the OC level midseason. Its too much of a micro approach. I honestly think after the UCLA game, and after seeing how his golden boy freshmen QB was regressing, Rhule realized there was a better than not chance that he loses out and does not go to a bowl game unless he tries something else.
I mean look, for as much as we wish KF was quicker to fix problems (ya know, like QB this year), you have to respect a guy for not standing on the bow of the Titanic as it sinks. Turn around and ram the iceberg!!
trj
Well-Known Member
Dana Holgorsen has a very good offensive mind, but can he make a difference in 3 games? Is Raiola broken? Because if he is, they lose the last 3 games.
@USC
VS Wisconsin
@ Iowa
Looking at the last 3 games I don’t trust Wisky @ Lincoln, regardless of where Raiola’s head is at.
@USC
VS Wisconsin
@ Iowa
Looking at the last 3 games I don’t trust Wisky @ Lincoln, regardless of where Raiola’s head is at.
Fryowa
Administrator
One of my our outside sales reps played TE for nebraska in the last 15-ish years, he's convinced that since the beginning of the season when the "fire Satterfield" uprising started that this was a donor thing but who knows.
One thing he's told me a few times that I thought was interesting was from what he saw there were always lots of big donor type folks in the buildings, even at practices watching, travelling with the team, etc. Different world in the sand dunes.
Fryowa
Administrator
It's the equivalent of a mechanic "shooting the parts cannon" at a car he doesn't know how to fix. I'm pretty convinced that Rhule is a way more competent coach than Riley or Frost, but after the past 7 years of nebraska being stand up comedy material I think it's simply a matter of recruiting. They can't get the athletes in the door who can make a winning team in the B1G. Which on a thankfully smaller scale is a part of what's happening to Phil Parker outside of the Iowa natives who were going to come here anyway. Guys like Higgins, Castro, Black, etc. were recruited before all of Brian's clown show started.
NorthKCHawk
Well-Known Member
Matt Rhule does not come across as a guy who would be managed like that. Nebbie went out and hired a guy who has run a number of different programs successfully, and had a sour cup of coffee in the NFL. I would be shocked if he took directions on how he staffs his program, runs things, calls plays, etc.
I have no doubt donors and VIPs get more access at Nebbie than Iowa, and I am not saying he does not have to give audience to those types. Perhaps they are suggesting changes and he takes those suggestions into account. But, I would bet good money that he made this decision. If a donor or AD dictated that he fire the OC (like Beth did to Brian), Rhule could smile and tell them to start the contract on his 8 figure buyout. Honestly, right now, Nebbie needs stability and driving Rhule out the door after two seasons, regardless of circumstance, would put them further down the laugh track (if possible).
Fryowa
Administrator
Like just about everything in life it's likely somewhere in the middle. I don't think Rhule is going to be driven out even if he doesn't make a bowl.
I could however see it being plausible that rich folks with some sway encouraged something to happen.
