JonDMiller
Publisher/Founder
are along the lines of: "You had one of your best decades, when this was one of our worst."
That is statistically accurate. However, let's look inside things a bit to find out why that is, and if it's reasonable to expect drastic change in either direction.
NEBRASKA: The nine or more win seasons from 1969 through 2001 will never be equaled. Ever. Maybe the greatest record in sports history. What is different now? There is no Tom Osborne/Frank Solich, and there is no wishbone attack. You were unique in the sport, with that attack. More unique in the 70's than you were in the 60's, more unique in the 80's than you were in the 70's and downright an oddity in the 90's compared to the 80's, because while the rest of the nation changed offensive philosophies, you became a departure from the norm..something unique to prepare for and something impossible to emulate.
Look at Georgia Tech right now, and the regular season success they are having in the ACC...it's tough to prepare for that style of offense in just four days of practice time, in season. Iowa had more than four weeks and made them look silly. But a regular season preparation setting is different, because no one else does what they do, and right now, no one does it better.
Nebraska had that, at a zenith, in the 1990's...and no surprise, they won two outright national titles and a sympathetic split national title in 1997, Osborne's swan song. Solich kept the same offense, and got fired after winning nine games.
Then came Bill Callahan and his west coast offense, and I said the day he was hired (on the radio), that he would last four years and be run out of there, and Nebraska's days of domination were over, because you were going to become just like everyone else...which you did...
Pelini has done a decent job, but I think that has been inflated. You went 3-4 against teams that finished with winning records last year. One of those was against an injury riddled Oklahoma team that was probably Stoops worst since his first year in Norman. It also came in the weakest BCS division in football, and in a league that doesn't play defense, except for you...which is why I look forward to your style in the Big 12.
Two years ago, you also went 3-4 against teams that finished with winning records, while mopping up on a weak division save Mizzou. That's 6-8 vs teams with winning records in Bo's first two years.
That's probably not an unusual formula for a lot of 8 to 9 win programs around the nation; not trying to single you out here...and you didn't have much of an offense last year, but did have the single most disruptive interior force I have ever seen at the college level.
This is to the point; you are not NEBRASKA any longer, and until you make yourself unique again, you won't be. That doesn't mean you wont go to bowl games and be a ranked team..it does mean that the swagger you have has a lot of dust on it, and is no longer relevant to today's reality, and the last decade has shown that.
As for Iowa...there have not been smoke and mirrors...Iowa's recruiting classes have probably averaged 38th to 45th over the last decade, in the national rankings. There is nothing fancy, just straight ahead football and execution...which is what I think Pelini is going to do...Iowa has flashed, just as you flashed last year. Building a program on fundamentals, as I think Bo will do with you, will allow a program that has resources to succeed, as Iowa has.
I dont think Nebraska is going to come into the Big Ten and stink it up, but just to say that Iowa had its best decade while Nebraska had its worst, that assumes that the glory days for Husker football are just a short time away...and I just don't see it, because you dont have the elements in place to be unique...and you don't have an ocean out front of the stadium, and you play in a winter latitude...
For the record, Iowa is 9-5 vs teams with winning records over the past two years, just to save you the time looking it up. Iowa also beat three teams last year that each won at least 10 games.
That is statistically accurate. However, let's look inside things a bit to find out why that is, and if it's reasonable to expect drastic change in either direction.
NEBRASKA: The nine or more win seasons from 1969 through 2001 will never be equaled. Ever. Maybe the greatest record in sports history. What is different now? There is no Tom Osborne/Frank Solich, and there is no wishbone attack. You were unique in the sport, with that attack. More unique in the 70's than you were in the 60's, more unique in the 80's than you were in the 70's and downright an oddity in the 90's compared to the 80's, because while the rest of the nation changed offensive philosophies, you became a departure from the norm..something unique to prepare for and something impossible to emulate.
Look at Georgia Tech right now, and the regular season success they are having in the ACC...it's tough to prepare for that style of offense in just four days of practice time, in season. Iowa had more than four weeks and made them look silly. But a regular season preparation setting is different, because no one else does what they do, and right now, no one does it better.
Nebraska had that, at a zenith, in the 1990's...and no surprise, they won two outright national titles and a sympathetic split national title in 1997, Osborne's swan song. Solich kept the same offense, and got fired after winning nine games.
Then came Bill Callahan and his west coast offense, and I said the day he was hired (on the radio), that he would last four years and be run out of there, and Nebraska's days of domination were over, because you were going to become just like everyone else...which you did...
Pelini has done a decent job, but I think that has been inflated. You went 3-4 against teams that finished with winning records last year. One of those was against an injury riddled Oklahoma team that was probably Stoops worst since his first year in Norman. It also came in the weakest BCS division in football, and in a league that doesn't play defense, except for you...which is why I look forward to your style in the Big 12.
Two years ago, you also went 3-4 against teams that finished with winning records, while mopping up on a weak division save Mizzou. That's 6-8 vs teams with winning records in Bo's first two years.
That's probably not an unusual formula for a lot of 8 to 9 win programs around the nation; not trying to single you out here...and you didn't have much of an offense last year, but did have the single most disruptive interior force I have ever seen at the college level.
This is to the point; you are not NEBRASKA any longer, and until you make yourself unique again, you won't be. That doesn't mean you wont go to bowl games and be a ranked team..it does mean that the swagger you have has a lot of dust on it, and is no longer relevant to today's reality, and the last decade has shown that.
As for Iowa...there have not been smoke and mirrors...Iowa's recruiting classes have probably averaged 38th to 45th over the last decade, in the national rankings. There is nothing fancy, just straight ahead football and execution...which is what I think Pelini is going to do...Iowa has flashed, just as you flashed last year. Building a program on fundamentals, as I think Bo will do with you, will allow a program that has resources to succeed, as Iowa has.
I dont think Nebraska is going to come into the Big Ten and stink it up, but just to say that Iowa had its best decade while Nebraska had its worst, that assumes that the glory days for Husker football are just a short time away...and I just don't see it, because you dont have the elements in place to be unique...and you don't have an ocean out front of the stadium, and you play in a winter latitude...
For the record, Iowa is 9-5 vs teams with winning records over the past two years, just to save you the time looking it up. Iowa also beat three teams last year that each won at least 10 games.
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