Why not Nebraska, Why not now?

It’s not often that you want a Husker season to end.  I find myself not wanting the season to end. When you get old enough, you realize that you won’t be around to watch football forever.  The way this season has been going, I hate to see it be over, even if it has been a huge disappointment.

You see some glimpses that the Huskers could have had a decent season if a few breaks had went there way.  Maybe if Chris Jones doesn’t get hurt last summer, the defense plays a little better and you win against Northern Illinois and things go a little different.

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Maybe doesn’t cut it around Lincoln though.  The entirety of Mike Riley’s tenure at Nebraska has been what if's, maybe's, could have beens or unrealized potential.  This last weekend against Penn State was that in a small window…surprise, again.  Nebraska gets posterized in the first half, makes a heart warming comeback in the second half when Tanner Lee gets hot, and yet they were so far behind, it didn’t matter.  You see it time and time again, Nebraska can’t get out of their own way.  They are young, they don’t have a lot of talent in the upper classes.  That can’t be an excuse though.  Teams are supposed to improve during the season.  Unfortunately, any improvement to this team has been offset by unbelievable bad play at the absolute worst times.

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All of this, and Iowa sucks too.  Why can’t Nebraska pull something together, for what will probably be Mike Riley’s last game at Memorial Stadium?  Do they have it in them to play hard in front of the home crowd for an entire game this season?  Nebraska has had some glimpses where they have really played well, but it has almost been at the antithesis of what Mike Riley has wanted on offense and they have played the best when they scratched the 3-4 and ran a 4-3 on defense.  On offense, they have done the best when they go at an upped tempo and spread the ball out, get the ball out of Tanner Lee’s hands and let the playmakers make plays. J.D. Spielman and Stanley Morgan are good football players. From the looks of it, Jalyn Bradley is going to be pretty good too.  Why can’t Nebraska get those guys the ball early and often on Friday?

We all know that Riley is probably going to be finished after this weekend.  Let’s just hope that he is able to rally the Huskers one more time.

Why not beat Iowa?  We all want to.  Let’s see if the players can summon the energy and stamina to knock the Hawkeyes into a lower bowl.  Make us all appreciate one more game this season.

ON WITH THE REWIND…

Our previous score prediction for the Penn State game was Nebraska 10 – Penn State 49.  The actual score was Penn State 56 Nebraska 44.

When you take a look at this game, sure it was a great scoring binge in the second half, but the first half was so bad, it’s hard to take much good from the game

Quick Notes:

The Season is almost over…. There will be no bowl game for the Huskers.  I hope that Nebraska treats this game like a bowl.  You get an opponent that you don’t like and get a chance to salvage a small bit of pride in this season.

What comes next?  There is enough speculation rolling across the plains about what happens when and if Mike Riley is let go this weekend.  I don’t have any inside information, but I have had some brief interaction with Scott Frost before, I know in the past he really wanted to be the Husker head coach at one time.  That has been years ago, but I have to think the chance to come home and lead the Huskers back to prominence has to be a draw.  I’d put it at about 70% that he returns.  I hope he does, he would be a great fit and I think having a young offensive mind would be a nice turn from what we have had recently.

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Score Prediction: Nebraska 34 – Iowa 30

I don’t like Iowa.  You don’t either.  I have no idea if the Huskers will win, but by golly, it’s my prediction and I say we come out and play well and shock them. Why not? Nothing else this season has made sense.  GBR!!

The Season Winds Down, so does the Riley Experiment

Man, what a year.  That’s what I hoped I would be writing when this season kicked off and we just beat Iowa to finish 9-3 at worst and just came up short on the Big Ten title game.  Nebraska, with Tanner Lee flourishing and a recruiting class poised to finish in the top 12 in the nation according to recruiting websites, looked to be the team on the rise for 2018.  Hard schedule wouldn’t matter I was thinking, Nebraska would be a fine tuned machine with Bob Diaco turning the Blackshirts into aggressive monsters! They would be a bending but tightening “D” in the red zone, to go along with forcing multiple turnovers per game.  2018 was going to be the year and Mike Riley would be on the way to restoring Husker Pride and Husker Nation would be ready to roll to a Big Ten title shot.

Whew…well that dream died about half time of the Oregon game.  I thought Nebraska would shake that horrible half off, and come back, take care of business against Northern Illinois and be ready to fire out in the Big Ten….and then Northern Illinois came into Lincoln and shocked not only the team, but the fans as well.  Nebraska has had its rough times against South Dakota and McNeese State, but we would never succumb to a loss to a non-power five team, right?

Having a 2-2 record seemed like not a big deal.  Then the Huskers get to three wins and you are thinking, bring in Wisconsin.  We were a bad non call in overtime away from maybe beating the Badgers in Wisconsin in 2016.  We have a better quarterback, or so we thought, surely we will be in it until the end.  Except for the last three possessions, when Wisconsin simply lined up and ran it down our throats like we are a high school program.  Aren’t we invincible at night?  What happened?  Ohio State is coming to town, surely the night time atmosphere will fire up the team, get them back to basics and at least give Ohio State a run.

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Yikes, we realized we are a long way from being at Ohio State’s level.  That much is clear.  First year for Diaco, but the team seems to be crumbling from the inside.  Mike Riley’s got this though.  Mike is a coach that has seen a lot, been around a while, struggled with less talented teams at Oregon State, but he can right the ship.  Purdue seems to be an up and coming team and we go to Indiana and win.  It was on a last second drive, but man, we have a chance to go 4-1 to end the season, salvage this recruiting class, reload and be ready for 2018.

We are up on Northwestern 24-17 with the ball in their territory, at home.  If we run the ball up the middle, let Drew Brown kick a field goal we probably survive and advance again.  We have this.  I told myself we had this.  We have a quarterback that really has played well with much fewer picks since Northern Illinois.  You can’t blame him for getting killed and tossing up a duck, right?  Right???

I feel like going to Minnesota, we have a shot.  They are struggling to score lately, our team has played better on the road.  We will be in a close game, their defense isn’t that great.  If we don’t stub our toe out the gate, we can do this.  Wait?  Was that an opening kickoff returned for a touchdown?  That escalated quickly.  What the hell just happened?

Those paragraphs are a microcosm of how I’ve coped with this year.  I keep thinking we are going to turn the corner.  I keep thinking Beautiful Bob Diaco is going to somehow recover that Notre Dame magic he had.  I keep thinking Tanner Lee makes NFL throws, it’s not a matter of if, but when he dominates.  Tre Bryant goes down, Mikale Wilbon keeps on running.  Down to our 3rd string safety?  No big deal, rated a four star by some services, recommended by Keyshawn Johnson Sr., kid’s going to be a stud.

And yet none of this has happened.  I’m an optimistic fan no doubt.  At this point though, even I have seen the writing on the wall.  It’s in a different print than the 2007 version.  That train wreck was clouded by great recruiting and the fact that Nebraska had just played in the Rose Bowl six years prior.  

Honestly, when Mike Riley was hired, I was a bit skeptical, but right away, he talked the talk.  The recruiting started off slow, but you could see the engine revving up as five star kids started to visit campus again.  Nebraska has a good, not great year in 2016, but man, I thought I could see some promise.  Bob Diaco was supposed to reinvigorate the defense to a new level.  Money was spent on assistant coaches that a person would think would really be beneficial to the team.

And now, after all of it, I’m just a tired fan.  I know there is nothing I can do different or better, that has to be handled in the North Stadium.  I know that in two weeks, a new coaching search will begin.  I will be in Scott Frost’s corner when he is hired.  I hope it’s Frost at a minimum, anyone with a lesser resume not named Frost will be a hard sell.

We will watch the team go to Penn State, I will cheer for them, even though I know that they will be lucky to get out of there without getting beat by 50.  I will go to Memorial Stadium to see us play Iowa, if for no other reason, by all that is holy, no one wearing that ugly black and yellow will get my seat.  I will continue to cheer.  I will hold out hope.  Because even when there is none left, I’m still a fan.  And at this point, that’s all I’ve got.  

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ON WITH THE REWIND…

Our previous score prediction for the Minnesota game was Nebraska 24 – Minnesota 21.  The actual score was Minnesota 54 Nebraska 21.  Not much more to say, this was the nail in the coffin for the 2017 season.  You can probably say that about Mike Riley’s career in two weeks.  

Quick Notes:

Hard season to watch…it’s about to get worse….  There aren’t many notes, positive to share. This season has been one stumble after another.  Like I said above, I will continue to watch, because I’m a die hard, but I don’t expect another win.  I’m not sure I expect another lead.  Penn State and Iowa are simply better than Nebraska right now.  It could be 3-4 years before that changes.  It’s a hard pill to swallow for multiple reasons.  Let’s just hope whoever his hired next makes it a more palatable rebuild for us all.

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Score Prediction: Nebraska 10 – Penn State 49

Penn State still has a few things to play for, namely a good bowl game.  They know they are going to beat us up, but I suspect they will want to get out of this game with no injuries.  This score may be best case scenario.  If there is any fight left in the Huskers, we certainly didn’t see it in Minnesota.  Where they go to find it, I don’t know.  I do know this…I will be in front of the TV, cheering….and possibly drinking.  GBR!!

Husker Fan Frustration

As Goals Evaporate, Bowl Eligibility Remains

As a Husker fan, it’s tiring watching this season play out.  Nebraska’s kids seem to play hard.  They are a really great group of kids too.  They say all the right things, they would be great kids to have as son in laws or as brothers or as friends or relatives.  They love Nebraska, they love Coach Riley and they want what is best with the program.  They come back every week and play really well for a brief period of time, although there have been a couple games that you wondered if they could play any worse.

That’s what makes this so exhausting.  I love these kids.  I love Chris Webber, Stanley Morgan, JD Spielman and Chris Jones.  I think Tanner Lee makes throws some weeks that make me wonder what this kids ceiling is and I keep wondering if he is going to play in the NFL.  Then you watch them and they go out, get more than a half dozen penalties, turn the ball over at inopportune times, fail to stop the run when they need to the most and you just wonder if this team is snake bit.

At this point I don’t think that bad luck is really the problem.  I think the bigger issue is, between roster mismanagement and players that don’t fit this coaching staff’s requirements, this team and this coaching staff are just on different pages.  You see it week to week, guys don’t know their assignments, they make boneheaded penalties or they just look lost when they are trying to cover a receiver.  That in a nutshell is coaching.  Whether it is the head coach, the coordinators or the position coaches, this team is not well prepared.  As Bill Parcels liked to say, “your record is who you are” and this team just isn’t very good.

We all can sit back and play Sunday Morning Quarterback and pretend we would know what to do to fix it. Play the backup more, throw when they run, pass when they throw, go for it on fourth down, don’t go for it on fourth down.  Everyone has an opinion on what happens on Saturdays, but the reality is, what is happening the other six days of the week have not helped this team since Coach Mike Riley has arrived in Lincoln.

I will be the first to admit, when Coach Riley was hired, I knew that he would be the opposite of Bo Pelini. Coach Riley on the surface is really a great guy.  I won’t claim to know him, my interactions with him have been next to nothing, but he couldn’t have been nicer when I have been around him.  He came in and sold the program to recruits, probably better than any coach since Bill Callahan and maybe better in a lot of respects because he respects Nebraska and he understands the culture for the most part.  The problem is, he maybe didn’t understand what he was getting himself into.

The culture under Pelini was surely and defensive at best and arrogant and vindictive at its worst.  There were players that were retained that had no business playing the first year Riley was here, that Riley had no idea that they would try to sabotage practices and possibly games just to stick it to whoever, (Pelini haters) they could just to prove that they could.  Then when a great number of those players left the following season, a large senior class brought everyone together and made a run at a conference title game appearance, but injuries and a shallow roster limited what they could accomplish.

Riley probably didn’t realize that he would have so little depth and I’m sure he thinks the best about people and probably didn’t think players would openly give up during games, just to prove a point about a lousy person (Pelini) that should have been fired a year earlier.

Riley also should have left more of his staff behind in Oregon when he left.  He was given resources to hire better assistant coaches and has replaced at least half his staff since he got here.  That tells me he shouldn’t have brought some of them to Lincoln.  

I think Riley would do things quite a bit different if he had a do over, but most of us would if given the opportunity.  Unfortunately for Riley, he probably won’t get that chance for multiple reasons.  Nebraska will be in the throws of rebuild once more.  That is a hard pill to swallow and will make us all a lot older and a lot more weary when it’s all said and done.  

ON WITH THE REWIND…

Our previous score prediction for the Northwestern game was Nebraska 21 – Northwestern 28.  The actual score was Northwestern 31 Nebraska 24.  I give up, Nebraska had the ball with a 24-17 lead in the fourth quarter, with a chance to go up 27-17 and putting themselves into great position for a bowl.  One more interception later and Nebraska ended up where we guessed they would, losing in overtime.  It just seems par for the course with this group of Huskers.  

Quick Notes:

Tanner Lee, CFL QB….  I know, they are college kids and they are allowed to have a bad game or two, but Tanner Lee goes from looking like a kid that can play on Sundays, to throwing three picks against Northwestern and looking like he will be lucky to finish the game.  Lee clearly had some rust at the beginning of the season, but he has enough experience now. Two of those interceptions were just awful throws.  Throw in a missed open shot down field, and it was a top 4 bad game as a Husker for Lee.

What are the offensive coaches thinking??? Nebraska has the ball, on the Northwestern side of the field, with a touchdown lead and chance to salt the game away.  They could have ran the ball, taken time off the clock and at worst, missed a long field goal.  Instead, they drop back and Lee gets hit and throws a crushing pick.  What makes their playcalling even worse, was the overtime call to run a screen pass.  That play should have been trashed after Tre Bryant went out for the season.  To pull that play out when you absolutely need yards just shows this playcalling by the staff is questionable at best and downright insane at it’s worst.

RIP Nebraska’s Running Game… I don’t want a return to the option.  Heck, I don’t even care if we don’t run the ball, if we are throwing it like an NFL team.  That being said, if you can’t run the ball at least a minimal amount when you want to, you aren’t going to win many games in college football.  Nebraska’s running game has a myriad of issues, but the identity of Nebraska being a hard nosed run the ball team has died.  Can it ever come back?

Can they get to a Bowl game? It is beginning to look very doubtful.  Nebraska could have gotten to six wins with a win over Northwestern and Minnesota, but it was going to be a longshot at best to beat Penn State on the road and now Iowa looks like they could blow the doors off Nebraska.  It may be a blessing in disguise if there is a coaching change, but it’s never good to miss a bowl, especially at Nebraska.

Score Prediction: Nebraska 24 – Minnesota 21

I don’t think Nebraska is very good, but I think Minnesota is worse.  They have next to nothing in the way of playmakers and are probably just a step up from Rutgers.  Nebraska is due for a little luck on the turnover equation.  I’m thinking the Huskers get three up north and steal one more win for Coach Riley before he leaves Lincoln. Wear Red, Cheer Loud, GBR!!

Last Second Comebacks and a Small Sliver of Hope

Just when you think the Huskers are done and Mike Riley’s job is probably finished, this group of Huskers comes back on a miserable night for the offense in the red zone and stuns Purdue in Indiana.  If you didn’t watch the game (and who could blame you for 3 quarters) Nebraska held serve when they needed too, probably for the first time this season and gave their offense a chance to win it at the end.

It wasn’t a pretty victory.  Quite honestly, beating Purdue isn’t really a monument victory either, but for this team and this coaching staff, all hanging by a thread, it keeps the Huskers in the Bowl hunt and maybe even propels them to finish the season on a high note.

As we say all of that, the reality is, it is a long uphill slide for Mike Riley and this staff.  Injuries are really starting to mount up.  Michael Decker, the best center on the team is out for the year and right guard Tanner Farmer will miss the rest of the regular season.  Tre Byrant has already been ruled out for he year, but Mikale Wilbon has been banged up and now Jaylin Bradley has a bum wheel after his breakout game.  Defensively, Luke Gifford continues to be hampered by a hip problem, and the safety position doesn't have a player in the group that hasn’t missed some time and will continue to miss time.

College football is a long slog, almost a war of attrition.  At this point, Nebraska is losing that war.  This is where one the of the biggest complaints of the Mike Riley era is starting to come to fruition.  For a staff that is so organized in recruiting, they failed to address some of the issues with the upper class and have undersigned the first three years they have been here.  It is killing depth and may cost Riley his job.  He has failed to recruit Junior College kids to fill holes and the transfer market, outside of Tanner Lee has yielded no fruit to speak of.  I understand Riley not wanting to add more dead weigh to the roster, but when you go after big time high school kids and finish runner up on a lot of them, you have to supplement that somehow.  You have some of the best JUCO teams in the country in your back yard.  If you fail to take advantage of that at Nebraska, that is your own problem.

Nebraska’s roster has holes and young players sprinkled throughout.  The good thing is, some of the young guys on the roster are delivering.  Coming back to beat Purdue on the road shouldn’t be sold short.  Purdue has improved immensely under new coach Jeff Brohm this season.  The problem is, the Nebraska bar had already been set way above Purdue, and Nebraska is playing at their level.  For Mike Riley, these last four games have to be above that if he wants to stay in Lincoln.

ON WITH THE REWIND…

Our previous score prediction for the Purdue game was Nebraska 24 – Purdue 18.  The actual score was Nebraska 25 Purdue 24.  You have to give Nebraska some credit, they hung in the game as long as they needed and Tanner Lee drove them to a last minute win.  For those who have criticized Tanner Lee as the starter, you wouldn’t have wanted anyone else throwing the ball that last drive.  

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Quick Notes:

Tanner Lee, NFL QB….  It sure didn’t look like it to begin the season, but the reality is if Mike Riley is let go at the end of the year, Tanner Lee is probably headed to the NFL draft.  Lee graduates in December, and let’s face it, without him in Big Ten play, Nebraska is probably 1-4 and in way worse shape than they are.  He has improved to the point that he is the best throwing quarterback in Nebraska history.  I know I beat the drum that he is the best I’ve ever seen in Lincoln to begin the year.  It’s too bad it took 3 or 4 games to shake off the rust, this season may have gone a bit differently.

The team answered the heart question…. There was a moment in the 3rd quarter against Purdue that the defense started to bull up a little bit.  They made a couple plays in the Boilermaker backfield and you could see their confidence rise.  I think this had an effect on the entire team.  If you can find that little bit of spark in the darkest hours, I think they can continue to play hard.  For this state and coaching staff let’s hope that continues.

Jaylin Bradley shows potential… Nebraska’s run game was down right awful last Saturday, but the freshman from Bellevue showed great potential, outrunning Purdue to the outside.  It’s clear that his speed is Big Ten worthy.  He has a banged up ankle and probably won’t play this weekend.  That is too bad, he might have been the horse that gave Nebraska’s run game a little pop in the last half of the season.  For whatever reason, the offensive line is no longer opening up anything in the run game.  Bradley showed that maybe he could make something out of nothing.

The final ride begins… I will just say that if Mike Riley wants to coach at Nebraska next season, he better hit the gas this weekend and keep it on through Minnesota.  If making a bowl game or finishing with 7 wins is the bar for staying, you can’t lose to Northwestern or Minnesota.  You win those two games and beat Iowa, you have a chance to stay.  Losing to Purdue would have sealed this staffs fate in my opinion.  They made it over that bar, but the higher bars start this week.

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Score Prediction: Nebraska 21 – Northwester 28

Since we have started doing this blog last season, I have rarely had to pick against Nebraska, outside of Ohio State and probably Wisconsin, I have felt like Nebraska could win the majority of their games.  That hasn’t really panned out and therein lies the problem.  Mike Riley has lost too many games he should have won in three years.  Barely pulling out the game against Purdue almost put me on edge.  With Northwestern’s ability to stifle the run and having a dual threat quarterback and superb running back, I just don’t like Nebraska’s odds against the Wildcats.  Nebraska needs physical play on both lines and I don’t now that they can do it, especially on offense.  I want Nebraska to win so bad, I’m afraid we all will be disappointed.  That doesn’t mean I won’t be at the game cheering loud, trying to turn the tide! GBR!!