A terrible football season!

[Playa69]

What is up with the Huskers this season? They use to be a good ass team. Now they act like they never played football before. We need a new coaching staff. What do y'all think?

[Jam3768]

Nooo. Definitely not. The Shuckers should keep their coaching staff totally intact for the foreseeable future. This is almost as good as the Golden Years of Bill Callahan, but not quite because Mike Riley isn't remotely as arrogant as Callahan was.

You Shucker fans need to face reality. You do not have an elite program anymore. Elite programs have stability in the coaching staff and the athletic department. Since Bob Devaney passed away and Tom Osborne retired, you guys have had neither of the above. You people should realize you have joined the ranks of the Colorado's. Kansas State's and Iowa State's of the college football world and accept your lot in life.

I am an alumni of Iowa State and a life long Shucker hater. I am aware that statement may stir up some controversy in this forum, but that has never been something I have shied away from in the past. Nor will I now.

I get a huge kick out of every time I hear some 3 piece suit in Lincoln say how "We do things the right way here." Really. You guys fired Frank Solich after a season in which his team won 10 games and traded him in for Bill Callahan, who won 5 games the following season. Wouldn't you like to win 10 games this year? You fired the incredibly obnoxious Bo Pelini after he won at least 9 games in each of his 7 years there. Wouldn't you like to win 9 games this year? I also liked how some of you Shucker faithful that traveled to Minnesota were mad because the coaches weren't yelling at the players on the sidelines during the game. And some other suit in Lincoln responded to that by saying how that has never been the way Husker coaches conduct themselves on the sidelines. Hello? Wasn't one of your recent coaches the aforementioned Bo Pelini??? Who would scream at his own players while grabbing them by the face mask and get multiple unsportsmanlike conduct penalties on the same play because he couldn't stop screaming at the officials. Yes indeed. The Huskers always do things the right way.

The Golden Years of Bill Callahan ended almost all of your annoying streaks. Consecutive years without a losing season, consecutive bowl game appearances, consecutive seasons where all of you thought you were better than every other program in the country. He ended all of them but one. That one is the consecutive sellout streak. Callahan would have ended that one if he had one more year. So would Riley if he is granted another season, but that isn't going to happen either. However, after Scott Frost snubs you guys and takes the Florida Gators job, after Matt Campbell snubs you and decides to stay in Ames, after you spend most of the winter floundering around searching for a coach and finally end up getting some low priced mid range chump to agree to be your head coach, then it will finally be time for you all to do the right thing and stop buying tickets to these games. Why would you want to continue to spend your money watching them get blown out by the perennial bottom feeders of the Big 10?

Do the right thing and end this consecutive sellout streak. It is time.

I now open the floor to all you myopic Shucker fans who will no doubt take offense to what I have just written. It is now open season on Jam. Take your best shot.

[OmahaUser]

Ordinarily I don't care one whit about sportsball. None of it.

But I will say that the "Golden Years" of Nebraska football died 15 years ago when Solich was let go. It will take another Devaney or Osborne to get it back, and it will take 15 to 20 years to get there once you have that Devaney or Osborne. At this point, good luck getting one.

That said: Dammit people it's just a game. Put your passions into something more important.

[xfrankthetankx]

Life long Husker hater as well.

The sellout streak is in peril.

The ability to attain top 25 recruiting classes is in peril (the top recruit just rescinded his commitment).

Last National Title 1997 when Scott Frost was the QB no one remembers the name of.

Last Division Title 1999.

Without a good coach (and Matt Campbell is not going to leave Iowa State if you've read the Ames Tribune's multi part write up on him) and not a snake oil salesman like PJ Fleck the Huskers will finally attain irrelevance comparable to that of the Husker basketball team.

Look at what Brohm has done with Purdue and look at what PJ Fleck hasn't done at Minnesota. Fleck just wanted a Power 5 paycheck. Brohm wants to turn Purdue back into an NFL QB factory that churns out Drew Bree's types every few year. It's as simple as one is a coach and the other is a con man.

Is Scott Frost a con man looking for a paycheck?

Bilema might have kept his job at Arkansas today, so that's another name Husker fans can quit beating off to.

Welcome to the Big Ten basement Nebraska, it's too bad you're not a basketball school.

Iowa and Wisconsin have been out playing you with recruiting classes well outside of the top 25 for quite a while.

Where's the coaching? Where's the player development?

The Iowa game will be a big measuring stick depending on which Iowa team shows up. The Iowa that got exploited by Purdue or the Iowa that beat Ohio State like a red headed stepchild. Which team shows up?

Iowa "Fucking" State is looking like an actual Power Five football school. Repeat, the basketball school, the one Nebraska beat like a red headed stepchild nearly every game in the Big 8/12. The basketball school is playing Power Five football better than Nebraska.

Then again, I'm a lifelong Hawkeye fan and watching the Purdue game is the closest thing to feeling like a Husker fan I've experienced this year.

Need I continue to demonstrate the irrelevance of a program that died long before Husker fans realized their program sucked eggs this year?

I really hope the coaching hunt goes well, if not, good luck selling 90,000 tickets. Start keeping track of Illinois football sales, Memorial Stadium will be as empty as Illinois' stadium is every weekend soon enough.

Iowa built a player development program with 2 coaches in most fans life times. And guess what? Kinnick may only hold 70,000, but at least Iowa's fan base believes in the team enough to fill the stadium most weekends.

Memorial Stadium will be a ghost town and might gain the moniker of Kinnick West. For many years the Metrodome was known as Kinnick North. Yep, you're looking to be on the level of the mostly hapless Minnesota Golden Gophers who aren't even good at basketball. Although, Wisconsin would like to thank the Gophers for letting them teabag the state as they poach recruits on a regular basis.

Oh, and how are you losing the recruiting battle in Omaha and the rest of Nebraska to Iowa?

And why aren't the Huskers using their talented tight end more? Iowa makes a living off high quality and even mediocre tight ends. And one of those tight ends is from Omaha. Who screwed the pooch on that recruiting attempt?

The list goes on. Seriously, the Huskers are playing like a JV football squad. Mike Riley is just finishing up putting the nails in the coffin. Will the new coach bring a pry bar and find talent?

Or rest on his laurels because the Huskers pay their mediocre coaches like they're national champions. 5 million a year, really? No wonder, the program is becoming an abject failure. Any charlatan worth their salt sees the cash cow in a delusional program whose delusional fans are just now beginning to see the scam that has been perpetrated on them for nearing 20 years.

Husker fans are the worst fans too FYI. I'll take getting trampled at Camp Randall over listening to the delusions of grandeur present at the majority of Husker tailgates.

As Kirk Ferentz would say (paraphrased?), "A win is a win"

[Playa69]

They do suck! That's why I am disappointed. I love a good game of football, and that is not football. A couple of the players that do have potential will never get to showcase it because of poor coaching staff and lack of progression. They are still stuck on that old playbook, runnin the same shit they ran years ago! I would not really classify myself as a "Husker" fan, but I have been watching them for years along with a couple other teams and they have been on a downward spiral since Solich, as you said OmahaUser.

[tinman483]

Not sure if I should even chime in or not, but here goes.
I don't follow FB at all!

I just HATE when they kneel during the national anthem!
They can all go pound sand! I don't even know if college FB has followed this (so many names I can/could come up with) STUPID tradition. I will just leave it as disrespectful!
They are not even (allegedly) protesting the same thing! They kneel just to kneel and think it looks hip I duno/ Or do they!
Hope it ends come next season!

[Baconlover]

I always felt bad for ISU, all those games where NU would just take over your shitty little stadium and humiliate you. Anytime you get a coach with a pulse a real program comes along and takes him and you return to being the Big 12's doormat.

Oh Iowa. Before we joined the Big 10 the only thing I knew about you was that time Eric Crouch smoked your DB. My brother and I went to that game your fans were talking shit the entire time, at least Frank was nice enough to let you on the board at the end. You think we might overpay for a coach? That's rich coming from the program paying 4.5 million to a mid-tier (at best) coach that you've locked down until '26, I guess those two Big Ten Championships made him a hot item and you locked him down. I'm so glad you can sellout your tiny stadium "most" of the time.

NU is in the Pantheon of CFB, for decades we were the definition of dynasty and dominance. The weight of that era still propels us. When PSU was kicking our teeth in the announcers were lamenting Nebraska shouldn't be beaten at their own game, when Iowa gets boat raced no one really notices, par for the course. When it looked like the B12 was imploding, the Missouri Governor was very publicly stumping for Mizzou's petition to the Big Ten, our Chancellor called while driving to the airport and it was done. This program still holds sway around the country there is no denying it.

We are down, it's possible we are down for good, hopefully not. Football is a dinosaur and our area is a recruiting wasteland. Regardless of what happens in the next few years, at least we weren't the perpetual crap like ISU and Iowa is the kid from high school that always talked shit yet never really did anything.

[merz28]

i guess we know who has NU season tickets

[vicng84]

It's funny to watch Husker fans looking for Scott Frost to come rescue their pathetic program. Probably the same fans will run him out of town 3 years later.

Yes. I live in Nebraska, follow Nebraska football, and can't stand the self proclaimed best fans in college football.

From what I heard, Riley's wife is sick, and he's looking to retire by the end of this season.

[xfrankthetankx]

Husker fans would kill for those 10 win Frank Solich seasons and those 9 win Bo Pellini seasons now.

Go ahead and rag on Iowa State, they have literally never been this good ever.

Go ahead and rag on Iowa, who has actually sniffed or even won a division title in the Big Ten recently.

When was the last time the Huskers won a conference title even?

But hey, you're a true believer that will continue to pay ever increasing prices for season tickets as the program continues to spiral towards the label of basement dweller. Fans like you hold onto the successes of 20 years ago as evidence of their status as a "legacy" program that will always be relevant.

I'm a lifelong Hawkeye fan, I know what we are and the best you can do is bring up a one off game from the Solich era?

How about the "trophy" game of the last few years? What's the W-L record again?

I'm not going to spend all day digging up stats, so I could have some things wrong. We're all human and well we are hobbyists as well. We know what he spends his paycheck on the rest of the year. At least last time I looked mid tier to crap Husker season tickets ran about $3000 a season.

Set the mockery of ISU and Iowa aside and take an unbiased look at the once relevant program and see the ghosts of the past shambling off into irrelevancy like the zombies they are.

The next coach is literally make or break for Nebraska. And a 20 year plan coach is not the answer fans are looking for.

They're looking for a Brohm or Campbell who preach the fundamentals, scour the country for transfers to fill holes, have no fear of recruiting someone that Bama is looking at, and actually want to build a program that was never or once was great into a competitive program that isn't marked down as an automatic W every season or joked about constantly.

Or you can pay another charlatan $5 million a year to live off the past until the fans call for his head after a few years of basement dwelling.

Did Penn State take a 20 year break (no, they recovered from the Paterno scandal before anyone gave them a snowballs chance in hell)? Did Michigan take a 20 year break (no, they hired one of their former greats straight out of the NFL)? Has Bama ever taken a break?

Go up and down the list of traditional top 25 list of Power Five schools and name one that has taken a 20 year break and remained relevant. I bet the list is short, if not nonexistent.

Nebraska is at a crossroads. This is either hitting rock bottom, crawling out of the gutter to find greatness again, or this is the beginning of a long term stint in the basement of the Big Ten (a move to the Big 12 would not be advisable if you've seen how Iowa State and K State have been playing).

Player development is the future at Nebraska and in the Big Ten West. It's time to get on the band wagon, unless you want to continue to be left behind by Wisconsin and Iowa of course.

I sure hope the fans pick the right coach. You're coming up on recruits who have no idea that Nebraska was once a National Title contender or ran rough shod over the Big 12. Heck most them won't even know Nebraska was in the Big 12. And it would surprise me if any them even know what the Big 8 was. Player development and legacy recruiting (How do you think Iowa State got a 5 star WR to commit?) are the keys.

Simply put Mike Riley is the surest path to the basement. The path to avoid the basement lies in the right coach. The key for the new AD is to hire the right coach no matter if the fans are right (Scott Frost...I can hear the Husker faithful beating off at the mention of his name) or if the path out of the basement lies with another coach the fans may not believe in.

That's when the new AD goes to the Lincoln media and has a multi part write up done so the old fans who read the newspaper start believing in the new coach. You know, instead of yammering about how this new coach must be high. That must mean the AD must have been on something too to have hired this guy we never even considered while punching the clown to fantasy coaching possibilities.

Seriously take a page out of some recent playbooks used by former basement programs on the rise.

Or you can start hanging out with your new friend Illinois while the bully Minnesota beats you up and takes your lunch money.

Purdue, Indiana, and Rutgers have at least cracked the door and seen a way out. Burying your head in the past isn't the way out, it's the way to the basement.

And really, you're going to bring up Mizzou? The same Mizzou that seems to regret leaving the Big 12? Yeah, that Mizzou.

So the next argument involves the NFL and ignores the whole Eric Crouch Heisman bust thing is my bet.

I'll save digging up the Hawkeye vs. Husker draft history since Solich (seems Solich leaving is the beginning of mediocrity among fans).

Or the how many starting NFL QBs has Nebraska had since Solich versus Iowa and I bet Iowa State can even get in on this and might even do better than Iowa.

Current Huskers in the NFL versus Hawkeyes in the NFL.

The lists and stat possibilities are endless.

But go ahead and get out your worn VHS copy of the 1997 National Title game and beat off to it Husker fans. And try to remember that the QB is the guy everyone and their pet cat wants to hire away from a successful Group of Five program.

2001 was a long time ago, you're well out of contention for the best record in CFB now. After this season you'll be lucky to be in the Top 25 for all time W-L record.

[Baconlover]

I'll be glad when the door hits MR on the way out. Great guy, shit coach for the reasons you listed. Do not confuse my fandom with me supporting him. I dont know who will come next. Is SF the last hope, who knows, I'm not the one being paid to figure it out. I know other forums are all in, the last time we did that we got a lunatic and that didn't work out to well.

I have no idea how much season tickets go for. When I had them I was on the 35 and it was 5k plus cost of tickets and I'd be shocked if the cost has gone up, I stopped donating bought a huge TV and happily watch in my basement. The expansion was a huge mistake and they are taking seats out of North Stadium to compensate for weakening demand. Two things happened once the expansion was approved, Nebraska went right on sucking and people stopped going to games. The first is obviously a local issue while the second is being felt across the nation both CFB and NFL.

Here are some fun stats that will impact us and all schools around here. Football participation is down, way down across most the country. Nebraska alone is down 20% since the peak in the 90's. The only place to show an increase are the Southern States. Northern and Coastal schools in populated areas will suffer less than schools like Nebraska. You mention Penn State roaring back, their 500 mile zone covers some of the richest recruiting zones in the country, Michigan, Notre Dame etc... All close to talent, Nebraska not so much.

Who ever comes here will have a huge mountain to climb, demographics are stacked against them and broad trends are pushing kids away from the game.

[xfrankthetankx]

Oh yes, recruiting is an entirely different discussion. Not to mention that Penn State is the school to go to in Pennsylvania if you want a chance at going to the next level. How they weathered the Paterno scandal that well is unknown. But I've heard plenty of suspicion about NCAA violations.

Rural school districts are getting smaller and combining. Even combined schools are having to move to 8 man football (it's happening all across Iowa, especially SW IA).

The baby booms are statistically over in many small towns. They're eliminating positions and no longer need things like junior high wings because of multiple classes that are double the average historical class size.

Nebraska needs to look at trying to poach in Colorado (Denver), Kansas (KC), Missouri (KC), Illinois (Chicago), and Minnesota (Wisconsin, NDSU, SDSU, and others are filled with Minnesota kids cause their recruiting and facilities suck...the Minneapolis metro is huge...).

They have to win at recruiting in Nebraska.

Minus a few exceptions Iowa, Iowa State, and UNI lock down nearly every highly ranked recruit in Iowa. Iowa has great (and fairly new) facilities and Iowa State's are now on par with the majority of the Power Five.

And updates to the North (?) end zone at Kinnick begin after the season ends. I'm lucky enough to have been given a full tour and the improvements over time have been amazing at Kinnick.

But yeah, Nebraska is not well located for talent anymore.

They need to develop relationships with the JUCO power schools that are nearby (IWCC and there's one or two in Kansas that turnout JUCO transfers on a regular basis).

But to make all this happen there has to be a motivated coach, that is the key to turning around a failing program.

Matt Campbell took Iowa State from basement dweller to best season of all time in two years. So it can be done. It's going to take a lot of transfers, grad transfers, JUCO transfers, no holds barred recruiting (seriously, Matt Campbell is getting Bama recruits to consider Iowa State as a top school), and a competent staff of coaches experienced in player development.

The days of 5 star and 4 star recruits are coming to an end. It's time to settle in to building the future off of 3 star recruits.

But I'm just a fan, so what do I know.

We all know that the AD has the ball, is the right guy the hand off, the check down, the perfect route, or the Hail Mary. We'll just have to see if he makes the right call or if it results in a fumble, sack, TFL, goal line stand, a few yards, several yards, a first down, a big play/run, FG, or a TD.

In general all sports are suffering and losing out to video games becoming sporting events.

It's an uphill climb, but a real coach will find a way. Why did the kids from warm weather states that invited all kinds of accusations of NCAA violations stop coming?

Other schools have had easy times creating funnels of talent for hot bed states like Texas and Florida where there literally are not enough scholarships for every desirable recruit. Who can Nebraska bring in with those connections?

It's an easy sell for parents, trouble isn't as easily available in Lincoln as it is at other schools. Yes there's drinking, partying, and promiscuous women, but it's not available on every block of town near campus like bigger areas. Selling to parents is big now, they still worry, but if you can bring down concerns that can be the difference between the top 2 school choices.

I have a relative who played in the NFL and a work colleague whose son recently went through the recruiting process at the Power Five level. So I'm somewhat familiar with the process.

You may not be able to be a sexy position developing school (QB type positions), but what positions can you develop talent for the NFL? Nebraska was known for offensive line, right? That's where the whole black shirts thing came from, right? It's not sexy, but look at the pipeline to the NFL that Iowa and Wisconsin have made for O Line draft picks. And look at the Wisconsin running backs since Ron Dayne ended up being an NFL bust.

How many Iowa TEs are in the NFL?

This list of questions is endless, the answers are the hard part.

[hobbyistinomaha]

It's been a great football season so far. The Steelers are 8 - 2 and the offense is finally clicking. Only a matter of time for that 7th ring this year.

And the Blue Jays are looking good.

[Jam3768]

When I made my first comment to this thread, I expected to be bashed by numerous myopic Husker fans. And to my surprise that really hasn't happened.

Oh you poor Shuckers. You act like you have no idea what to do from here. You may wax nostalgically for the good ole days when you were at the top of the mountain. But the truth is, you got lucky. Twice. The first time was when Bob Devaney was hired. He was basically a no name from Wyoming of all places. And 4 other coaches turned the job down before it was finally offered to Devaney. The second time you got lucky was in 1978 when Colorado almost hired Tom Osborne away from you. Yes that actually almost happened and he came close to accepting their offer. So don't be too critical of other programs when you could have easily been in the same boat all these years.

You will have to get lucky again with your next coach. You can't afford to hire a big name coach because you will be paying 2 other coaches and an athletic director to be someplace other than Lincoln next year. Iowa State finally got lucky after years of swinging and missing. Iowa got kind of lucky and is spending a lot of money to make sure he doesn't go elsewhere. But you will spend that kind of money next year on your last 2 coaches.

You have nothing to be proud of right now. Nothing. Perhaps you will get lucky with your next hire. The current crop of recruits weren't even born when your teams were dominant, so he will have to convince them to come to Lincoln and develop them. Then you will have to pony up and pay him big bucks to stay in Lincoln. Just like every other team in the country does.

You are no longer anything special. And haven't been for 2 decades.

[hobbyistinomaha]

Neither was Alabama for 2 decades after Bear Bryant retired. It wasn't until they hired Saben that they got it turned around. Can it happen here? I doubt it. It's not warm here.