Sorry for being captain obvious, but you need coaches that can evaluate and develop talent. They can be more focused on one or the other, but I'm not seeing much of either 3 years in.

Schematically, I think a school in our position needs an elite Xs and Os guy at HC who makes sure at least 1 side of the ball can be counted on. I don't know how much of it is a talent issue, but I don't see anything we do that puts much pressure on other teams. We're just boring on both sides of the ball

I am not worried about the defense long term. I think Rhule misevaluated how ready his Defensive Line and Linebackers were for this year to stop the run. I think Nebraska has good players, they just were probably a year away from being primary starters. Should have been more active in the portal there. Definitely Rhules fault, but I dont think it will be a long term issue.

For OL, Rhule and Co obviously knew they needed help and went after some top guys in the portal. They just struck out and had to get what they could in Pritchett. To me, this needs to be a lesson to Nebraska's boosters and money men that you cant play moneyball on this position. Overpay if you have to. Its crazy how big of a difference 1 guy can make.

You build your entire offense around Raiola being able to get the ball to WRs and then you can't block for him. Nebraska is at least 9-3 with a competent OL, maybe even better, and that is with all the defensive issues.

Hedley Lamarr said:

this goes back to identity, what is our identity? I know Rhule talks about it, but after THREE years what is it?

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Especially on offense. This program has been in offensive purgatory for a decade now although it is hard to establish any offense when you're OL is consistently dogshit. It's disgusting considering what the success of this program was built on for decades prior to that.

Juro said:

Its okay to be a developmental school, but you need developmental teachers/coaches/staff.

When you bring in coaches that have no real big experience and proof that they can develop certain positions, you only hurt yourself by having them teach and develop the roster.

-Butler had no real DC experience and proof that he could develop and run a defense at a P2 level.
-Bradden, while with some experience on the Chiefs DL, didn't have the proof that he could turn water into wine for a 3 man front.
-Dvoracek, while with some experience coaching LBers from the NFL, had no proof that he could get 3 coordinated in a 3-3-5.

I could go on, but you get the idea.

Bringing in one or two unproven assistant coaches is fine, but only when you have a strong core and identity to help develop those coaches.

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I get your point and agree but Dvoracek is an odd one to list. He's probably the best example for giving a young coach a shot. LB performance, development and recruiting has been pretty good. Bullock is the best example of development. I think Buddha has been great this season and Shavers is probably our best front-7 player.

I am curious how some of the converted safeties and a guy like Christian Jones is coming along though.

doublewing said:

Especially on offense. This program has been in offensive purgatory for a decade now although it is hard to establish any offense when you're OL is consistently dogshit. It's disgusting considering what the success of this program was built on for decades prior to that.

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I think your post is the main point of this thread, honestly. For the last atleast almost decade now, we've essentially tried to be Ohio State X's and O's wise, with a little more run game. I know this is a tired point and a tired conversation and whatever else anyone wants to call it, but we all talk about wanting to be tougher and being tired of teams being tougher than us and yada yada, but as a program/offense, we try to mimic the Ohio States, the Oregon's, the SECs of the country. And your second sentence, "considering what the success of this program was built on for decades prior to that". I don't know much, but I do know that this program was built on boring, hard, blood, sweat, consistent, dialed in, whatever you wanna call it, work. It's not flashy, it's not loud. It's walk in the room, and people say "oh shit". Guess who does that now days in the Big 10? Cockeye, Minnesota, Michigan. Indiana is the outlier at the moment and that's fine. We cannot out recruit Ohio State, USC, Oregon, Michigan, the powers of the Big 10. So what is our best shot IMO? Quit being fuckin flashy and study Minnesota and Cockeye, and maybe the Dantonio days of Michigan State. Study that. Because as much as we talk shit to them, they beat our asses when it matters, and that is infuriating, because we're not in the conversation with the others. Figure them out, and be better than them at that thing. And honestly, we all know what that "thing" is. No, I'm not talking option football. I'm just talking tough football, not flashy.

Tsakoi said:

I thought about this over the weekend, but had trouble figuring out a way to express it. I'm not certain this post will convey my thoughts but here goes.

Seems to me that Rhule hasn't had a consistent philosophy or a balanced roster.

Year one: Traditional college football approach. Recruit Texas. Recruit local. Endear yourselves to Nebraska high school programs and pick off some game changers from outside. Don't rely heavily on the portal. Build a program focused on development. Like I said a very traditional approach.

Year two: Scrap parts if the year one plan because a 5 star QB dropped in our lap and we need to recruit portal to give him something to work with. Money not there for the best of the best so look for bargains. Switch OC in the middle of the year because the offense is behind the defense.

Year three: We need to be good now. Spend on portal to give our QB some weapons because the defense will be hobbled by graduation. The development is off balance because of the departing seniors putting the offense ahead of the defense. Abandon Nebraska recruits because of the lack of ROI.

A common theme is roster imbalance and changing priorities each year.

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this happens when you either have:

a.) no real vision for the program you want to run

or

b.) no real conviction for executing said vision

Alcaus said:

It really is. Even in the games we've played this season. Michigan and Cockeye knock the shit out of you. There's just an aggressive, violent attitude our team lacks comparatively.

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I can't count how many times I've watched other games over the last decade and wondered aloud...WHY CAN'T OUR TEAM LOOK LIKE THAT!!

The aggression and violence other teams RTDB or block...or on the other side of the ball...tackle, break up passes. It's uncanny to me that Rhule will preach "tough people do tough things" yet our dudes roll out and play baby shit soft.

Boondock_St_Sker said:

I can't count how many times I've watched other games over the last decade and wondered aloud...WHY CAN'T OUR TEAM LOOK LIKE THAT!!

The aggression and violence other teams RTDB or block...or on the other side of the ball...tackle, break up passes. It's uncanny to me that Rhule will preach "tough people do tough things" yet our dudes roll out and play baby shit soft.

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This year it was only the defense. The offense is about as physical a unit we've seen in a long time.

djw004 said:

Will Tyson Terry be factor in 2026?

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Isn't he like 30 years old now?

king_kong_ said:

this happens when you either have:

a.) no real vision for the program you want to run

or

b.) no real conviction for executing said vision

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I think there was a vision, but staying with it in the face of losses and pressure takes real conviction. And I think that's where we have struggled over the last decade.

In an effort to win quickly we have lost focus on the foundation of whatever the real vision was to start with.

If the vision was to be tough, physical and aggressive. Then you don't experiment with a variety of things that tend to stray from those principles. ie... the 33 defense, spread offense, inferior recruiting along the trenches, long shots on flash in the pan skill positions etc... .

Bootleg11 said:

I think there's probably 3 or 4 kids on that DL that were a year away from being full time guys...Nebraska didn't seem to recognize this and didn't backfill their DL with experienced big bodies. Just a huge miss by them.

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Absolutely. Roster construction killed the defense this year. They asked a redshirt freshman, a redshirt sophomore, a true freshman, and a true sophomore to play significant reps in a big boy conference and that is never going to be a recipe for success.

The obvious hope here is that they retain them and supplement with some more experience and talent from the portal, but we will see.