Normally, I'd dismiss this kind of sentiment as standard "good old days" bias. We've been hearing that RSS "isn't what it used to be" for well over a decade now. Most of the time, I disagree. Things change, but it's generally maintained a pretty high standard in varying forms--less true "insiders" but certain content improvements and some generally funnier posting. I think now is actually different. Here are the reasons that at least prima facie make sense to me:
1) The offseason craziness--basically no spring practice, the season being called off, the controversy over how the B1G reached that decision, reinstatement with ass-fucking schedule and stringent protocols several weeks after other major conferences start, etc.--has generally led to a pretty damn chafed set of posters and staff. Dean even came out and said the toil of being "on all the time" for the B1G reinstatement took a lot out of him. So everyone is in a bad mood to start, both from COVID-19 generally and all the football stuff.
2) We got basically no spring practice and all the hype-inducing updates that produces. We weren't sure what was happening when we'd normally be hearing about summer conditioning and fall camp. We've had very little access, even relative to past Frost seasons, to their practice efforts now. Moreover, the coaches do seem to be going out of their way to really tamp down on any sort of praise that could bite them in the ass like it did last year. Put all of that together and you have very little fat to chew, which is what that board thrives on when there aren't games or a great deal of recruiting news.
3) But there isn't a great deal of recruiting news. Sure, we went on a little run in August and September, including landing our #1 overall target in Fidone. Nonetheless, I think it's clear that COVID-19 has really had a negative effect on what Nebraska has been able to do this year. We're probably the P5 school that is most dependent upon bringing guys in for visits and having fall gamedays as a means of selling the program. We've had none of that since March. It's fucked us, and honestly this staff should be commended for doing as well as they have in spite of the circumstances. Nonetheless, it means that there have been long stretches, including now, where there's been very little to almost no recruiting intrigue. We got Carnie today, which is nice, but it's been pretty barren outside of some now largely debunked rumors that Dickerson was looking to flip. RSS needs recruiting drama, and it's not getting it.
4) In addition to causing recruiting problems, COVID-19 also seems to clearly be hurting the morale of some of the team. It would shock me if we didn't lose a lot of the Florida kids based on that, either because of family problems with the disease or finding Lincoln a shitty place to be when mostly locked down and without the true football atmosphere. It's been one bad hit after another, and the Manning thing has really been a huge hit for many (myself included, obviously).
5) I'm putting this last, because it's still new enough to be uncertain and I don't want to be too arrogant about it, but there very well may be some direct tradeoff between the quality of RSS lately and the emergence and apparent staying power of tPB. You've got many of the best RSS posters spending some or even all of their time here now. RSS relies upon quality posters, and they're being siphoned off to this elite gathering.
Put those all together and I think there are actually legs to RSS getting shittier lately.
