Sous Chef said:

Good question. I definitely understand the intent behind it. Shut up and be happy we made a bowl game. In a lot of ways you are not wrong.

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Poor_and_Stupid said:

I lost a lot of interest after Michigan sacked DR 8 times or whatever it was. It was obvious we weren’t near as good as we had been told. We’ve been getting manhandled regularly on both lines ever since. For me the season has been a failure for awhile. Nothing really to do with the record, but more the realization that our lines aren’t even remotely close to something an even semi serious football program should have.

Penn State’s d line looks almost alien compared to what we put on the field. Yet somehow they still managed to crumble and lose 6 games this year. You’d think they could sleepwalk through a lot of their games with those players. I’m rambling, but my point is we need some combination of elite players and good coaching, or very good players and elite coaching. We currently have shit coaching and players everywhere besides special teams.

So not only is this year a failure. Next year is already an even bigger failure. We may get some marginally better players to transfer. With what we currently have, a winter in the weight room isn’t going to transform our d line into what we watched kick our ass. The schedule sets up to where making a bowl is far from a guarantee. Why even get excited?

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BorWhiskey said:

The over/under was 7.5. Success is relative to each person, but success in the eyes of people handicapping all of CFB would be 8-4, and failure at 7-5. I know us fans hold the team to different standards.

This demarcation between success and failure based on record challenges the conversation. It’s probably the only way to gauge success but it removes the nuance that I think is important.

There has been a lot of good and a decent amount of bad. IMO the good this year has outweighed the bad (this is a team who found ways to win rather than to lose). And like has been pointed out, had DR not gotten hurt, we are 8-3 right now.

Not that SP+ is the end all, but I was curious so I checked it out. Last year, we were 47th (they were a 5.5 rating). Not really much of a change but about a field goal better this year. And last years team would rank 55th this year. It’s also interesting to see the group of teams we’re in.
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* He’s got Cockeye at 21st and a 15.4 rating. That would be close to a 5.5 point dog given we have home field.

So, if we are trending in the right direction, and there is reason to believe next year is a continuation of that trend then to me it’s a good year.

But back to me staring at the SP+ stuff… I got to thinking about how a rank means less than the tier you’re in. There is 67 points separating Ohio State to UMass. Im going to make each tier separated by 7 points and then lump the rest together.

Elite: 4 teams - OSU, Indiana, ttu, and oregon (32.4-26.6)
CC: 9 teams (24.3-19.3)
Good: 15 teams (17.5-12.4) <PSU, Michigan, USC, and Cockeye all in this tier>
Average: 28 teams (where we are along with Cincinnati) (11.7-5.1)
Bad: 22 teams (4.6- -1.5) <Minnesota, Maryland, Northwestern
Putrid: 58 teams (-2.5- 34.9) there are clearly tiers to this bucket, too, but I don’t care to figure them out. <Akron, Michigan state, ucla)

We are an average team. We’re a middle of the pack, middle of the pack team (intended to say that twice).

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Ext. 55 said:

I won’t go so far as to say shut up and be happy. I’m not happy. I’m not upset either. I do feel when he took over there was/is lots to do. The culture of this program has been toxic for a long time. A lot goes into that and it could be a thread all its own.

I do think many want to look back on past staffs and years with blurred vision. We haven’t had a real championship level staff and experience since Osborne. If we are honest with ourselves.

I think Bo had a shot at at, but let’s be honest that Bo was Bo’s biggest problem in so many ways.

Just want to know what posters think. Helps me with perspective I guess.

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Ext. 55 said:

So…honest question here. For everyone and maybe more specifically for all those who are preparing to light the torches.

When was the last season you felt we were ‘good’ and felt like the program was on the right track? Who was coaching and what told you we were a top 4 or the equivalent to what would be today a consistent playoff team?

Frost - 7 years of hell.

Riley - 3 years of sprinkles and shit.

Bo - the peaks and valleys were epic. Could argue 2010 was a great team…and yet still lost 4 games. Did finish ranked 21st…outside of that year it was a roller coaster AT BEST.

Bill Callahan - great recruiting, never delivered.

Frank Solich - fired for 3 losses and never had the program trending towards championships - 2001 played in title game…and we should have never been there.

So, now Rhule…will see back to back bowl games. Had to repair a culture at absolutely rock bottom with marginal talent on the team coming in. Expected a little more this year. Has made quick adjustments to staff. We still need talent gaps filled…will see what he can do in the portal this year with “everything he needs at his disposal”…

When was the last time you felt we had the staff that delivered results you were truly and honestly happy with?

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Turn Down for What said:

We didn't play Ohio State and Indiana this year and we might finish 7-5.

Rhule fell on his face this year.

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Blakejc said:

He didn’t fall on his face. We won every game we were supposed to win, been a long time since that happened. We also lost every game we were supposed to lose (I know Vegas said we should’ve whooped Minnesota, but everyone knows our struggles of playing there. Was going to be a hard game either way)

And we’ve got another opportunity this week to win a game we’re supposed to lose. Gotta get over that hump somehow. Beat Cockeye, finish 8-4, and the tone of the season changes considerably.

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Blakejc said:

He didn’t fall on his face. We won every game we were supposed to win, been a long time since that happened. We also lost every game we were supposed to lose (I know Vegas said we should’ve whooped Minnesota, but everyone knows our struggles of playing there. Was going to be a hard game either way)

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HerbRedman said:

While we're going down this road -- dead ass serious, I knew we wouldn't be shit when we almost lost the Cincinnati game. And I thought UC was good at the time. But they honestly should have won if they would have kept calling run plays at the end.


I legit expected NU to announce to the world "we're back" in that game. I thought we'd score 42. I thought Dylan would be a new Dylan. I thought our WRs would be unbelievable.

When we kind of puttered around all night and almost lost, that was a huge huge red flag for me. And then vs Michigan in our first offensive drive (they hadn't had the ball yet!) it was clear to me that our talent level was just a full notch below theirs.


I don't consider this season a failure. It was just a reminder that we don't have the horses yet. Could have lost to MD & NW. And we got to skip the 3 best teams in the league: OSU, Indiana and Oregon! Progress was we at least started winning some close games. And the recruiting for 2027 is going well. But on the field not a lot of positives TBH.

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Mavsker said:

We won every game we were supposed to win (as long as you don't count that game we were supposed to win big but instead got btfo'd)

Or Michigan, where we were 1 point favorites and got beat handily

And of course we had zero upsets lol

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Mavsker said:

We won every game we were supposed to win (as long as you don't count that game we were supposed to win big but instead got btfo'd)

Or Michigan, where we were 1 point favorites and got beat handily

And of course we had zero upsets lol

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Quint said:

Any overall review I do of the year has to include a review of the current roster and two deep as part of that evaluation.

Now I know most of the board thinks if the staff was any good, all they’d do is look at what we’ve got coming back from ’24 the day after the Pin Stripe Bowl, jump on the portal and order up an All Conference nose guard and defensive end, two starting offensive tackles, a runninb back who’s better than our likely HM All Conference back, a TE who impacts the game like Travis Kelce did in his peak and a Jack who can’t be blocked and can cover RB’s in the slot. Short of that we either A) Don’t know talent, B) Can’t recruit talent or C) Don’t want to spend or don’t have the money for talent. Reality lies elsewhere as it’s just not that simple and can’t be defined as ‘We didn’t go out and get’.

I look at what we’ve got and I see a ton of youth, and many of those True and RS Freshman played this year and played well at times. I don’t share the doom and gloom that we’re void of talent, though I see a few spots we’ve obviously missed at or misjudged how great the gap was between departing players and youth coming up. Talent is there, it’s just not ready to stand toe to toe with Penn State. I get it. Might not be ready to stand toe to toe with the Ditch Chickens either, but it’s there.

We’ve bettered our regular season W/L record from ’24 by one game with one to go. Should already be sitting at 8-3 if not for the complete failure by staff and players that was the Minnesota debacle. Win Friday and 8-4 is a definite improvement and reason for the sufferers of ’Nebraska Sucks’ fatigue to slow their roll a tad and maybe not demand firings all off season. Maybe. Lose and we still have a shot at 8 with the bowl, but it doesn’t hit the same.

Lots of youth on the roster and lots to be excited about for the future. You can look at it however you like, but that’s where I’m at.

Beat Cockeye.

GBR

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Blakejc said:

the line for Minnesota closed at less than a touchdown. No one expected us to win big.

Yes the line for Michigan shifted to -1. We lost by 3.

You might as well stop watching football if consider any loss in that situation to be a catastrophic failure and a coach falling flat on his face. I doubt you hold yourself anywhere close to that standard.

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Ext. 55 said:

Well said. By stars and ratings lot's of young talent. Hoping we see them actually develop.

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Mavsker said:

It's your claim, not mine. We didn't win every game we were supposed to.

You literally wrote off Minnesota as a game we weren't supposed to win when we were favored by 6.5 at kickoff, so that you could claim we won every game we were supposed to win. Completely absurd.

In reality, we've lost two games we were supposed to win based on the spread at kickoff, and won zero that we weren't supposed to win.

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