ADVERTISEMENT

Nebraska

Glad Cougar

Hall Of Fame
Apr 2, 2003
5,334
1,990
113
Aberdeen SD
How much patience will Bill Moos have with Scott Frost. It's year 3 for the coach and they seem to be going backwards from the Mike Riley regime. Getting crushed by 17-point underdog Illinois can't be a good thing in Lincoln. I know this year can't really be taken seriously for any team, but the Husker program appears to be in total shambles.

Oh by the way, how much patience will Cornhusker fans have with Bill Moos?

Glad Cougar
 
Nebraska is done. There was a time when UN could roll into Texas and get some ballers. Then A&M, Baylor, TCU, LSU and Oklahoma State all got more $ and started winning more games. Less and less kids matriculated north. Then they leave the Big 12 and they are mostly forgotten in Texas.

I guess they could be a Chicago, Kansas City team. But those cities have kids that need more cooking. You have to develop them over years cause they arent as ready as the Texans.

What is the brand of Nebraska football? They used to be an option offense and black shirt defense and all of it hard nosed, bruising football. What are they now???

Fwiw, I think Tennessee is going thru the same thing. The rise of Georgia and Clemson hurts them. Mack Brown at UNC may be the final nail in their coffin.
 
Nebraska is done. There was a time when UN could roll into Texas and get some ballers. Then A&M, Baylor, TCU, LSU and Oklahoma State all got more $ and started winning more games. Less and less kids matriculated north. Then they leave the Big 12 and they are mostly forgotten in Texas.

I guess they could be a Chicago, Kansas City team. But those cities have kids that need more cooking. You have to develop them over years cause they arent as ready as the Texans.

What is the brand of Nebraska football? They used to be an option offense and black shirt defense and all of it hard nosed, bruising football. What are they now???

Fwiw, I think Tennessee is going thru the same thing. The rise of Georgia and Clemson hurts them. Mack Brown at UNC may be the final nail in their coffin.

Just looking from a distance, I think Biggs' point about lack of a brand is significant. Recruiting today is about identifying with a brand. You can pick almost any brand and find kids who will identify with it, but having no brand at all is the kiss of death...it equates to having no reputation. When they left the conference that included the Texas schools and moved to the conference that includes Chicago there was somewhat of a shift in their audience. I don't know if they shifted recruiting efforts to match. And sure, everybody goes to Texas and they can, as well, but they don't have the program visibility there that they used to have.

Frost may be a good coach but a poor recruiter. Or maybe he doesn't hire enough recruiters on his staff. It's not like he has no budget for assistants, so it has to be more about the choices that he has made than the financial limitations with which he has to work. It is even possible that he is not that good a HC. I am not close enough to know, but I suspect that after this season his seat will be very hot, and if there is not improvement there will be a lot of calls for him to be replaced. Moos may avoid that...given that a condition of his hiring in the first place was that he would immediately hire Frost. Time will tell.
 
Just looking from a distance, I think Biggs' point about lack of a brand is significant. Recruiting today is about identifying with a brand. You can pick almost any brand and find kids who will identify with it, but having no brand at all is the kiss of death...it equates to having no reputation. When they left the conference that included the Texas schools and moved to the conference that includes Chicago there was somewhat of a shift in their audience. I don't know if they shifted recruiting efforts to match. And sure, everybody goes to Texas and they can, as well, but they don't have the program visibility there that they used to have.

Frost may be a good coach but a poor recruiter. Or maybe he doesn't hire enough recruiters on his staff. It's not like he has no budget for assistants, so it has to be more about the choices that he has made than the financial limitations with which he has to work. It is even possible that he is not that good a HC. I am not close enough to know, but I suspect that after this season his seat will be very hot, and if there is not improvement there will be a lot of calls for him to be replaced. Moos may avoid that...given that a condition of his hiring in the first place was that he would immediately hire Frost. Time will tell.

They are a big school in a rural state. With a celebrity coach that has no brand other than being a young guy that played there. They dont do anything on offense or defense that kids can identify with. They have lots of $ and a sell out crowd. That helps. Otherwise, why would you go to Nebraska when you could go to Wisconsin?

Wisconsin looked at what Nebraska was doing and stole their ideas. They kept what they liked and canned what they didn’t. Big OL, well coached and tough defense, usually has a big time back and a play action passer... Looks like they stole what Michigan used to be too...
 
  • Like
Reactions: cr8zyncalif
They are a big school in a rural state. With a celebrity coach that has no brand other than being a young guy that played there. They dont do anything on offense or defense that kids can identify with. They have lots of $ and a sell out crowd. That helps. Otherwise, why would you go to Nebraska when you could go to Wisconsin?

Wisconsin looked at what Nebraska was doing and stole their ideas. They kept what they liked and canned what they didn’t. Big OL, well coached and tough defense, usually has a big time back and a play action passer... Looks like they stole what Michigan used to be too...
You mention brand. When I was a kid (almost 56 now) Nebraska and football were synonymous to me. Mention Nebraska athletics to me now and the first thing that pops into my head is, they are a volleyball school.
 
They are a big school in a rural state. With a celebrity coach that has no brand other than being a young guy that played there. They dont do anything on offense or defense that kids can identify with. They have lots of $ and a sell out crowd. That helps. Otherwise, why would you go to Nebraska when you could go to Wisconsin?

Wisconsin looked at what Nebraska was doing and stole their ideas. They kept what they liked and canned what they didn’t. Big OL, well coached and tough defense, usually has a big time back and a play action passer... Looks like they stole what Michigan used to be too...

It’s also important to mention that Nebraska’s decision to leave the Big12 was one of the worst moves in the history of collegiate athletics.
 
Nebraska is done. There was a time when UN could roll into Texas and get some ballers. Then A&M, Baylor, TCU, LSU and Oklahoma State all got more $ and started winning more games. Less and less kids matriculated north. Then they leave the Big 12 and they are mostly forgotten in Texas.

I guess they could be a Chicago, Kansas City team. But those cities have kids that need more cooking. You have to develop them over years cause they arent as ready as the Texans.

What is the brand of Nebraska football? They used to be an option offense and black shirt defense and all of it hard nosed, bruising football. What are they now???

Fwiw, I think Tennessee is going thru the same thing. The rise of Georgia and Clemson hurts them. Mack Brown at UNC may be the final nail in their coffin.
Nebraska also used to pluck some blue chippers from places like California too. When you are irrelevant for as long as they have been with the conference change which hurts you in your main recruiting grounds it’s gonna be an uphill battle. Sad really, I always liked the Nebraska program, the battle with Oklahoma every year was epic. Plus my understanding is they have a really classy fan base.
 
Nebraska also used to pluck some blue chippers from places like California too. When you are irrelevant for as long as they have been with the conference change which hurts you in your main recruiting grounds it’s gonna be an uphill battle. Sad really, I always liked the Nebraska program, the battle with Oklahoma every year was epic. Plus my understanding is they have a really classy fan base.

Without a doubt, Nebraska screwed up when they left the Big 12. A big part of the recruitment from Texas was the promise that kids would get to play close to home at least twice a year against teams that are relevant to the people in Texas. They lost that when they bailed on the Big 12.

As far as "really classy fan base" goes......that's a matter of perspective. They are certainly polite to visiting fans, but they are classy in the same way that a rich baroness is classy. She's very polite to the poor trash that might come to entertain her, but she has no respect for them and she will lose her cool if things don't go her way. And in their eyes, everyone was trash compared to UNL back in their heyday.
 
They are a big school in a rural state. With a celebrity coach that has no brand other than being a young guy that played there. They dont do anything on offense or defense that kids can identify with. They have lots of $ and a sell out crowd. That helps. Otherwise, why would you go to Nebraska when you could go to Wisconsin?

Wisconsin looked at what Nebraska was doing and stole their ideas. They kept what they liked and canned what they didn’t. Big OL, well coached and tough defense, usually has a big time back and a play action passer... Looks like they stole what Michigan used to be too...

The "brand" is the same brand that Frost had at UCF. Seemed to work OK there. Of course, competing against Ohio State, Michigan and Penn State is a wee bit different competing against ECU, Tulane and Temple.
 
  • Like
Reactions: earldacoug
Nebraska also used to pluck some blue chippers from places like California too. When you are irrelevant for as long as they have been with the conference change which hurts you in your main recruiting grounds it’s gonna be an uphill battle. Sad really, I always liked the Nebraska program, the battle with Oklahoma every year was epic. Plus my understanding is they have a really classy fan base.

Miami and Florida State were unbeatable back in their heyday too. So were ND, USC and Michigan. Alabama was too, and now is again.

Coaches will come and go. Cycles will be cyclical.
 
  • Like
Reactions: cr8zyncalif
I think they were trying to get away from UT. Texas does its best to hold its thumb on the scale in everything it does.

Well, now they’re in no mans land. They’ve lost their historical rivalries, and are competing against more modern powers in Ohio State and Wisconsin, with Penn St. and Michigan lurking.
 
Last edited:
Nebraska also used to pluck some blue chippers from places like California too. When you are irrelevant for as long as they have been with the conference change which hurts you in your main recruiting grounds it’s gonna be an uphill battle. Sad really, I always liked the Nebraska program, the battle with Oklahoma every year was epic. Plus my understanding is they have a really classy fan base.
That is a message board call out from UW fans from their alleged mythical HALF national title team in 1991 when they won at Nebraska.

That applause from Nebraska fans was probably a matter out of respect from one rogue program (with sanctioned steriod use, violence against women, and academic fraud) to another.

The proper response to a massively corrupt program winning on your field is to throw bottles of urine at them.
 
Bigger question without hyjacking the thread is how long will they put up with the old has been Moos. He has hired a lot of dud's....
 
Well, now they’re in no mans land. They’ve lost they’re historical rivalries, and are competing against more modern powers in Ohio State and Wisconsin, with Penn St. and Michigan lurking.

Nebraska has the $ to be competitive in that league. What they don't have is the brand and identity. They should be able to turn it around with a good plan. Who knows what that is.

A lot of guys are good coaches. Where they lack is the business sense. At that level you are running a business that manages people, assets and makes decisions with tens of millions on the line. To boot it is also a revolving door of staff and talent. The inability to do one or any of those things ruins a program pretty quickly.

For example, one of the smartest things Leach did at WSU was can the tight end position. You tie up roughly 10% of your offenses scholarships into 1 position that might get 60-70% of the snaps. Why??? He put that $ into the OL and look what happened....

Nebraska needs to figure out what it is going to be and invest accordingly. I don’t know that they can stockpile the talent they need to be a multiple set offense. They would be better off being decisive.
 
Bigger question without hyjacking the thread is how long will they put up with the old has been Moos. He has hired a lot of dud's....

He hired who Nebraska wanted. I have a hard time seeing him be fired for Frost’s hire.

Moos does one thing well. High end, in demand coaches will work for him. Why is that important??? Who tf wants to work for Jim Sterk??? There isnt any coach that wont take his call. Sterk??? Straight to voicemail...
 
Miami and Florida State were unbeatable back in their heyday too. So were ND, USC and Michigan. Alabama was too, and now is again.

Coaches will come and go. Cycles will be cyclical.
Nebraska seems to be one of the blue bloods that hasn’t had any resurgence since they went downhill. FSU has a title or close to one under Jimbo after a some rocky post Bowen years. Notre Dame has come back a couple times. USC has been off and on but you know at some point they’ll be back. Nebraska has done nothing since Osborne have they? And that was ages ago.
 
Without a doubt, Nebraska screwed up when they left the Big 12. A big part of the recruitment from Texas was the promise that kids would get to play close to home at least twice a year against teams that are relevant to the people in Texas. They lost that when they bailed on the Big 12.

As far as "really classy fan base" goes......that's a matter of perspective. They are certainly polite to visiting fans, but they are classy in the same way that a rich baroness is classy. She's very polite to the poor trash that might come to entertain her, but she has no respect for them and she will lose her cool if things don't go her way. And in their eyes, everyone was trash compared to UNL back in their heyday.
You’d know better than I would regarding the fans. Every fan base has their AHoles. I’d take that vs Oregon’s don’t know how to win cuz they’ve never been their before fans for example. I’ll just say that those who I’ve heard from who’ve been to a game there as a fan from the opposing team all said their fans were welcoming.
 
  • Like
Reactions: HCoug
Nebraska has a population equal to Idaho’s, and they share a border with places like South Dakota, Iowa and Kansas. Kids in high school can’t remember them ever being good. There’s no reason to think they’re going to be anything better than average again.
 
You’d know better than I would regarding the fans. Every fan base has their AHoles. I’d take that vs Oregon’s don’t know how to win cuz they’ve never been their before fans for example. I’ll just say that those who I’ve heard from who’ve been to a game there as a fan from the opposing team all said their fans were welcoming.

I went to the game in Lincoln in 1995 and had an absolute blast. My company had an office there and some of my long distance co-workers took me out and it was great. Lots of free beer and food and it was a blast. However, it was also obvious that they viewed Washington State as an inferior program that was not really worthy of sharing the field with the mighty Huskers and I, as a WSU fan, should be honored to have the opportunity to be in the presence of their great program and great fans.

I didn't let it keep me from having a good time for sure. Anyone who didn't take it personally when they talked down at you would have had a great time. I've heard that their polite demeanor isn't as common today as the fanbase is getting chippy from being irrelevant so long, but I can't say that I've seen that personally.
 
Nebraska seems to be one of the blue bloods that hasn’t had any resurgence since they went downhill. FSU has a title or close to one under Jimbo after a some rocky post Bowen years. Notre Dame has come back a couple times. USC has been off and on but you know at some point they’ll be back. Nebraska has done nothing since Osborne have they? And that was ages ago.

Frank Solich was quite successful at Nebraska. Getting rid of him was a mistake as they've never been able to get the same success since.

The challenge is expectations. We've seen seen the same schools make the CFP year in and year out with a few exceptions. Oklahoma, Clemson, Alabama, Ohio St with a guest appearance by Oregon, Georgia, LSU, Notre Dame, FSU, or UW if one of the blue bloods doesn't have things align for them. It makes it difficult to evaluate the ability of some of these other coaches.

Jim Harbaugh is exhibit A. He's been much more successful than Hoke or Rich Rod. Michigan games matter again. But he hasn't won many big games. The Michigan boosters have tired of him and he might be getting walking papers soon. Is it reasonable? I don't see how the next coach is an improvement over Harbaugh.

Clay Helton at SC is perennially on the hot seat despite being an improvement on any coach post Carroll. Firing him might feel good but it doesn't accomplish much unless you can improve with the next guy.
 
Picking the next HC is a tough job at any school. Moos scored with Leach because Leach was viewed as damaged goods and Bill felt that he could make it work...plus Leach felt that he could work for Moos, because Moos would not be over his shoulder. I believe that Chun scored with Rolo...this time because he was not yet on a lot of P5 radar screens, but his 2 wins over PAC teams and offense that was different enough to give us both a chance to win and something to sell was clearly a fit for Pullman. When Moos went to Nebraska, he was told during his interview who he was going to hire as football coach. Frost will make it work, or not, and due to covid he will probably get 5 years to make it work. He won't, and after that he is gone. At this point, I think that a HC at a smaller program who beat expectations is probably the way to go (though that did not work with Frost). If the new HC from the smaller school's recruiting connections overlap with your existing territory, then that is gravy.

And etown, while I agree 100% with your comment on Helton, Helton will never be another Carroll. Or even close. He can manage (not lead, but manage) a program that will be 7 wins in a really down year and 10 wins in a good year...probably average almost 9 over time. That won't be good enough at SC. SC is one of the handful in the country that can take a successful P5 HC from another school. The fact that they have not managed to do so is more a result of their AD incompetence than anything else. I suspect that the next coach after Helton will be somebody who can move them to the next level, unless we are blessed by more incompetence in the SC athletic department.
 
Nebraska is done. There was a time when UN could roll into Texas and get some ballers. Then A&M, Baylor, TCU, LSU and Oklahoma State all got more $ and started winning more games. Less and less kids matriculated north. Then they leave the Big 12 and they are mostly forgotten in Texas.

I guess they could be a Chicago, Kansas City team. But those cities have kids that need more cooking. You have to develop them over years cause they arent as ready as the Texans.

What is the brand of Nebraska football? They used to be an option offense and black shirt defense and all of it hard nosed, bruising football. What are they now???

Fwiw, I think Tennessee is going thru the same thing. The rise of Georgia and Clemson hurts them. Mack Brown at UNC may be the final nail in their coffin.
Notre Dame figured it out and got bigger coffee cups.

Nebraska still thinks they can do it with 8oz cups and the name on the jersey.

Im always happy so watch blue blood schools destroy themselves, Nebraska is no exception.
 
  • Like
Reactions: cr8zyncalif
Notre Dame figured it out and got bigger coffee cups.

Nebraska still thinks they can do it with 8oz cups and the name on the jersey.

Im always happy so watch blue blood schools destroy themselves, Nebraska is no exception.

The funny thing is that Nebraska prob could be chugging along running the option with corn fed bruisers and a well coached tough guy defense. They fired Solich to bring in a guy that threw the ball... then Pelini who was a total red ass.... Riley came in and prob was run out of town because he had to deal with the fallout.... now they have their favorite son Frost.

If Im the HC at Nebraska we are a RPO team or a true zone read option team or even a pistol team with a 34 defense made to draw NFL teams to my school for draft picks.
 
The funny thing is that Nebraska prob could be chugging along running the option with corn fed bruisers and a well coached tough guy defense. They fired Solich to bring in a guy that threw the ball... then Pelini who was a total red ass.... Riley came in and prob was run out of town because he had to deal with the fallout.... now they have their favorite son Frost.

If Im the HC at Nebraska we are a RPO team or a true zone read option team or even a pistol team with a 34 defense made to draw NFL teams to my school for draft picks.
Yup getting away from power football was almost as dumb as moving to a conference up North. It’s Nebraska...big farm boys, eating steaks and corn, and wrestling. Why you’d take that formula and turn it into backpedaling OLineman and spread offenses is mystifying. They should be doing the same thing Wisconsin and Iowa are still doing and have always done, starting with Road graders and running downhill. Both sides of the ball.
 
Yup getting away from power football was almost as dumb as moving to a conference up North. It’s Nebraska...big farm boys, eating steaks and corn, and wrestling. Why you’d take that formula and turn it into backpedaling OLineman and spread offenses is mystifying. They should be doing the same thing Wisconsin and Iowa are still doing and have always done, starting with Road graders and running downhill. Both sides of the ball.
It's not just the local talent compatibility. It's also the climate. Building a team around power football that plays games in the cold and wet is the way to go if you can get the horses up front to do it, for the same reason that if you want to throw the ball in Pullman it always helps to have a kid with a big arm to throw into that wind. Crappy weather can be rough on a passing game, but come the fourth quarter with a team of bulldozers, road teams will be feeling that weather, especially if they're behind.
 
ADVERTISEMENT