GRADE MATT RHULE YEAR 2 REGULAR SEASON

[Cash68847]

Oh right.

It was really three things:
1. Satterfield
2. STs
3. Tony White horror show vs RPO (UI, IU, UCLAbia)


Rhule fixed #1. I'm confident he'll address #2. I'm not sure what you do for #3 if you bring White back. He's got to fix it on his own. Maybe the offense doing better will help though.

Game management is another issue which is squarely on Rhule. He probably should hire someone to help him with it.

 

[doublewing]

Can you explain to me why you think this schedule was favorable? This was our second hardest schedule in the bowl drought era, according to ESPN, coming in at 19.

Illinois honestly should be a top 15 team and I think people would reconsider how “favorable” our schedule was this year, with three top 15 teams.

Next year is actually a favorable schedule.

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If you want to argue that Illinois should be top 15, then you should also consider that we had them at home for a night game on our 400th straight sellout. That is more than favorable for NU to win.

We won most the games we were supposed to, dropped some that we should have won and never punched above our weight.

For year two and the investment, we should expect better.

 

[gtlacey]

If you want to argue that Illinois should be top 15, then you should also consider that we had them at home for a night game on our 400th straight sellout. That is more than favorable for NU to win.

We won most the games we were supposed to, dropped some that we should have won and never punched above our weight.

For year two and the investment, we should expect better.

I agree that we should have won that game. We had two plays that we blew that would’ve won it.

But just curious, what about our schedule was favorable? Other than we had a 400th sellout at night.
Do you consider a 20th SOS “favorable?” Last year was 69th - that’s favorable. Our schedule next year looks favorable. This year was not favorable.

Also, we punched above our weight against CU. That’s a top 25 win. We’re not a top 25 team, but we dominated that game.

 

[DrinkItIn]

Nebraska Football has been going through its worst stretch since the Bill Jennings era, and yet so many people still can’t admit this season was a success. Maybe it’s because they hate Rhule and want him to fail. I don’t love 6-6 either—I predicted 7-5—but that doesn’t make this season unsuccessful. People keep claiming this roster should have won 8+ games, but why? Just saying it doesn’t make it true or factual.

The only undeniable fact about this team is that they hadn’t been to a bowl game in eight years, and their highest win total in that stretch was five. Add in the fact that this year’s schedule turned out to be significantly tougher than expected; they accomplished something previous teams and coaches couldn’t—whether you like it or not, that’s progress.

I can guarantee that if Frost had ever reached six wins, many people here would have been handing out A and B grades, celebrating it as a breakthrough. The narrative would have been all about progress and momentum. Yet now, for some reason, those same standards aren’t being applied consistently. It’s time to acknowledge that, even if not perfect, this season was a step in the right direction.

 

[dom91932]

Oh right.

It was really three things:
1. Satterfield
2. STs
3. Tony White horror show vs RPO (UI, IU, UCLAbia)


Rhule fixed #1. I'm confident he'll address #2. I'm not sure what you do for #3 if you bring White back. He's got to fix it on his own. Maybe the offense doing better will help though.

Game management is another issue which is squarely on Rhule. He probably should hire someone to help him with it.

I had originally thought the grade should be a "C". I checked "D" in the poll for the reasons mentioned above. Every one of these items was an issue at this time last season. Every one of these items, except Satt, remains an issue today and the OC issue lingered for three-quarters of this season.

The cherry on top was Rhule's comments about the standards not being enforced and accountability being established once Holgorsen came on board. A CEO type coach, or any type of coach for that matter, should be on top of those areas.

 

[gtlacey]

Nebraska Football has been going through its worst stretch since the Bill Jennings era, and yet so many people still can’t admit this season was a success. Maybe it’s because they hate Rhule and want him to fail. I don’t love 6-6 either—I predicted 7-5—but that doesn’t make this season unsuccessful. People keep claiming this roster should have won 8+ games, but why? Just saying it doesn’t make it true or factual.

The only undeniable fact about this team is that they hadn’t been to a bowl game in eight years, and their highest win total in that stretch was five. Add in the fact that this year’s schedule turned out to be significantly tougher than expected; they accomplished something previous teams and coaches couldn’t—whether you like it or not, that’s progress.

I can guarantee that if Frost had ever reached six wins, many people here would have been handing out A and B grades, celebrating it as a breakthrough. The narrative would have been all about progress and momentum. Yet now, for some reason, those same standards aren’t being applied consistently. It’s time to acknowledge that, even if not perfect, this season was a step in the right direction.

Preach on!

 

[doublewing]

I agree that we should have won that game. We had two plays that we blew that would’ve won it.

But just curious, what about our schedule was favorable? Other than we had a 400th sellout at night.
Do you consider a 20th SOS “favorable?” Last year was 69th - that’s favorable. Our schedule next year looks favorable. This year was not favorable.

Also, we punched above our weight against CU. That’s a top 25 win. We’re not a top 25 team, but we dominated that game.

It was more than favorable to surpass 6 wins.

 

[Ext. 55]

A lot of people here…

 

[Flabio]

I actually understand the disconnect in this thread now. This is like when we were getting classes ranked 20-30 every year in recruiting, and people would say "we are never going to be able to compete with Alabama, Georgia, and Ohio State unless we start getting top 10 classes" as they were frustrated with the recruits. When the reality of the situation is we weren't even competing with Cockeye, WiscyDicks, and Minnesota with the current state of Nebraska football. Why try to figure out how to beat teams on the national stage when you weren't even beating teams within your division?

Trying to keep perspective, my B- is based on where Nebraska currently is as a program. If we are grading Matt Rhule's season based on historical 70s, 80s, and 90s Nebraska dominance, he gets a D-.

The other thing people are missing is the roster was not good when Rhule got here and he has done a good job of building a base. It may be another two seasons before the roster is built up but we can’t just can coaches pending they are comically bad with

I actually understand the disconnect in this thread now. This is like when we were getting classes ranked 20-30 every year in recruiting, and people would say "we are never going to be able to compete with Alabama, Georgia, and Ohio State unless we start getting top 10 classes" as they were frustrated with the recruits. When the reality of the situation is we weren't even competing with Cockeye, WiscyDicks, and Minnesota with the current state of Nebraska football. Why try to figure out how to beat teams on the national stage when you weren't even beating teams within your division?

Trying to keep perspective, my B- is based on where Nebraska currently is as a program. If we are grading Matt Rhule's season based on historical 70s, 80s, and 90s Nebraska dominance, he gets a D-.

You nailed it. Some stuff is bs like not having a long snapper but the players he inherited weren’t very good save a couple and he has recruited at a good clip which will start to show over the coming years. He’s been to loyal to some staff but he’s making changes that need to be made (at least I think) going forward. The Dana OC move has given me a lot of hope for what the off season will bring. He’s made mistakes but it would be really dumb to flush him or hot seat him. Maybe after year 4 or 5 pending some kind of catastrophe.

 

[Flabio]

Nebraska Football has been going through its worst stretch since the Bill Jennings era, and yet so many people still can’t admit this season was a success. Maybe it’s because they hate Rhule and want him to fail. I don’t love 6-6 either—I predicted 7-5—but that doesn’t make this season unsuccessful. People keep claiming this roster should have won 8+ games, but why? Just saying it doesn’t make it true or factual.

The only undeniable fact about this team is that they hadn’t been to a bowl game in eight years, and their highest win total in that stretch was five. Add in the fact that this year’s schedule turned out to be significantly tougher than expected; they accomplished something previous teams and coaches couldn’t—whether you like it or not, that’s progress.

I can guarantee that if Frost had ever reached six wins, many people here would have been handing out A and B grades, celebrating it as a breakthrough. The narrative would have been all about progress and momentum. Yet now, for some reason, those same standards aren’t being applied consistently. It’s time to acknowledge that, even if not perfect, this season was a step in the right direction.

I think it’s at major programs no matter what you do regular fans who don’t know anything are going to complain. If we win 9 next year people will be up in arms that we dropped this game or that. It’s just the way it is. The coaches and players just need to ignore it and keep building.

 

[HughJanus]

Official letter grade tier rankings:

A+, F: strong, decisive, definitive. The best letters out there today.

A,B: really great letters, no nonsense, always feel solid getting these.

C+, C-: either side of the worst letter, shows an ability to weigh positives and negatives without coping out a neutral C.

B+, B-: good grades but what's the point? Too fussy, just give me a B

A-, D: just really not great letters, easily forgettable. So close to a better goal. Both hit with disappointment.

D+, D-: both mean the same thing as D. Splitting hairs. really no point in these. Should be relegated to a lower ranking system.

C: wishy washy, milquetoast, luke-warm, derivative bullshit! Take a stance damnit!

 

[gtlacey]

Nebraska Football has been going through its worst stretch since the Bill Jennings era, and yet so many people still can’t admit this season was a success. Maybe it’s because they hate Rhule and want him to fail. I don’t love 6-6 either—I predicted 7-5—but that doesn’t make this season unsuccessful. People keep claiming this roster should have won 8+ games, but why? Just saying it doesn’t make it true or factual.

The only undeniable fact about this team is that they hadn’t been to a bowl game in eight years, and their highest win total in that stretch was five. Add in the fact that this year’s schedule turned out to be significantly tougher than expected; they accomplished something previous teams and coaches couldn’t—whether you like it or not, that’s progress.

I can guarantee that if Frost had ever reached six wins, many people here would have been handing out A and B grades, celebrating it as a breakthrough. The narrative would have been all about progress and momentum. Yet now, for some reason, those same standards aren’t being applied consistently. It’s time to acknowledge that, even if not perfect, this season was a step in the right direction.

Got these numbers from https://www.sports-reference.com/cfb/schools/nebraska/index.html.

I think it backs up exactly what you're saying. The program was horrible, and Rhule has made two good years of improvement, producing probably the best team since 2014 in just two years. That's worth more than a D+!

 

[Poor_and_Stupid]

C-

Really should be a D but I’m being generous only because he made the move to get Holgs.

Got to remember 3 of our wins were against UTEP, UNI and Purdoodoo who have a combined record of 6-28 and we never really put any of those teams completely away.

Rhule doesn’t have the killer instinct to win in the B1G IMO.

Yeah we need to be throttling bad teams to get the killer instinct. Sure we had less injuries than normal, (I think that is part of the strategy with going conservative), but we are the kings of missing opportunities when we could put a team away. It would do the team some good mentally to clobber the cream puffs on the schedule.

We play like we are trying to be in a one score game. Rhule says “it’s good for us .” Get out of here with that shit. It’s the worst thing possible for our mental midget team.

 

[herbsinator]

Got these numbers from https://www.sports-reference.com/cfb/schools/nebraska/index.html.

I think it backs up exactly what you're saying. The program was horrible, and Rhule has made two good years of improvement, producing probably the best team since 2014 in just two years. That's worth more than a D+!

View attachment 45646

All of this…and we’re set up well to take another big step forward if we can retain some of the key pieces from this team (Dana, Raiola). Until he proves otherwise, Rhule is still on the same trajectory as his other CFB stops.

 

[gtlacey]

It was more than favorable to surpass 6 wins.

Quit goalpost shifting. First, you said it was a "favorable schedule." Now you're saying it was "more than favorable to surpass 6 wins."

Your first statement is incorrect. It was a pretty tough schedule. Just admit it.

Your second statement is correct. We should have won more than 6 games.

 

[doublewing]

Quit goalpost shifting. First, you said it was a "favorable schedule." Now you're saying it was "more than favorable to surpass 6 wins."

Your first statement is incorrect. It was a pretty tough schedule. Just admit it.

Your second statement is correct. We should have won more than 6 games.

Having Illinois and UCLA at home should have paved the way for 8 wins, thus a favorable schedule to surpass 6 wins. I don't know why that is hard to understand or WTF you mean by "goalpost shifting." I never said they should have won 9+ games. This team dropped 2 very winnable games at home (see favorable).

 

[Mavsker]

People keep claiming this roster should have won 8+ games, but why? Just saying it doesn’t make it true or factual.

There's a lot of different ways you can approach this

1. Rhule brought back Satterfield who had no business getting another year at OC. That decision almost certainly cost us a win and likely two. It's been proven that the roster is capable of a much stronger offense than we saw under Sat.

2. Special teams have been terrible since year 1 - this area wasn't sufficiently addressed by the staff this year. Directly responsible for at least two losses this season. You can't tell me our roster isn't capable of not making boneheaded decisions on special teams nearly every game in consecutive years.

3. Probably the weakest point, but we won zero games we were underdogs in, and lost two as touchdown plus favorites (Illinois, UCLA). It's not unreasonable to say a roster "should" win the games they're favored by 7+ in and lose the games they're underdogs in. That's just performance average to expectation.

 

[Ripping Lips]

None of us want to see Rhule fail, but going into this season, we were expecting our defense to take a step forward and be semi dominant while we experience growing pains with DR. Instead we saw our defense crumble when needed or get exposed against a mobile WB and our STs cost us games by not being able to hit FGs.

My gripe with MR is that he might be a good CEO guy, but I don’t think he gets the Xs and Os and it took Dana to make some basic corrections to get the offense going and not realizing he was tipping his plays. If he stays loyal to Satt and Foley and lose Dana this offseason, he deserves to be on the hot seat going into next season.

 

[gtlacey]

Having Illinois and UCLAbia at home should have paved the way for 8 wins, thus a favorable schedule to surpass 6 wins. I don't know why that is hard to understand or WTF you mean by "goalpost shifting." I never said they should have won 9+ games. This team dropped 2 very winnable games at home (see favorable).

Sorry for the confusion, I do understand (we both agree) that we easily could've won 8 games (although Colorado and Illinois both proved tougher than we anticipated at the onset of the season).

As for the goalpost shifting, your original statement was “this was a favorable schedule." After telling you we had the 20th hardest schedule, you shifted to "this was a favorable schedule to win 8 games." Those are two different arguments. The former is false and the latter is probably true.

Take Georgia for example.
Statement A: Georgia had a favorable schedule this year. This is false, they had the 2nd hardest schedule in the nation.
Statement B: Georgia had a favorable schedule to win 10 games. This is true, they won 10 games.


All that to say, it is becoming evident that I won't convince you that Rhule deserved a better grade than a D+ for the year, so we can agree to disagree at this point I think. Not that it matters, next year is really the important year.

 

[HerbRedman]

I had originally thought the grade should be a "C". I checked "D" in the poll for the reasons mentioned above. Every one of these items was an issue at this time last season. Every one of these items, except Satt, remains an issue today and the OC issue lingered for three-quarters of this season.

The cherry on top was Rhule's comments about the standards not being enforced and accountability being established once Holgorsen came on board. A CEO type coach, or any type of coach for that matter, should be on top of those areas.

I wouldn't really quibble with any of this. I personally would give Rhule D grade if he had an experienced QB this year but he did not. I think expecting 9-3 with a true freshman QB in this league is not realistic.

So I'll stick with 'C.' Your points are valid though.