tPB Official Cope Thread

[Mavsker]

As the title suggests go to the other thread for bitching, this one is for coping

1. This loss will light a fire under our asses. We were flat last night at home in a ranked matchup under the lights. We'll come out juiced for our 11 am kickoff at Purdue next week.

2. Similarly getting pushed around and physically manhandled on both sides of the ball gives us many "coachable moments". We had a lot of these from last week but now we have even more.

3. The team was buying into its own hype. The loss will actually be good in the long run, because the media will (in the words of Mazzcua) "get off our dicks" and we can now refocus on fundamentals.

4. Coach Rhule said we had our best week of practice this week. Trending up. And as we all know from the Frost tenure, great practices during the week will translate to great results on the field on Saturdays, sooner or later.

5. Last year after getting our asses waxxed by Michigan at home, we turned around and beat Illinois on the road by two scores, kicking off what would become a three game win streak against the bottom of the barrel of the Big Ten. Our next three games are Purdue, Rutgers, and Indiana, and three wins get us to bowl eligibility.

Did I miss anything?

 

[BingoDingo]

"I'd hate to be Purdue this week!"

 

[greybeardedchild]

6. This makes Colorado look all the more stupid for losing to us.

 

[Dawgsauce]

As the title suggests go to the other thread for bitching, this one is for coping

1. This loss will light a fire under our asses. We were flat last night at home in a ranked matchup under the lights. We'll come out juiced for our 11 am kickoff at Purdue next week.

2. Similarly getting pushed around and physically manhandled on both sides of the ball gives us many "coachable moments". We had a lot of these from last week but now we have even more.

3. The team was buying into its own hype. The loss will actually be good because, the media will (in the words of Mazzcua) get off our dicks and we can now refocus on fundamentals.

4. Coach Rhule said had our best week of practice this week. Trending up...

5. Last year after getting our asses waxxed by Michigan at home, we turned around and beat Illinois on the road by two scores, kicking off what would become a three game win streak against the bottom of the barrel of the Big Ten. Our next three games are Purdue, Rutgers, and Indiana, and three games gets us to bowl eligibility.

Did I miss anything?

Great post, and only one dick comment so far which is also positive. Also a great time to manage expectations which helps when things don't go N's way. Nebraska has a QB that every team would kill to have. Year 2 and 3 are going to be nuts. I also like that Rhule kept the sumbitch Mazzcua out. That is the tough calls a coach has to make to build culture which doesn't happen overnight. Honestly, if that kid doesn't get it together, he won't be here next year. He needs his ass kicked.
The Oline was whooped by OT, and needs more depth and N has to figure out how to stop the run. Great night for lessons as Mavs said, and I think we'll see better play next game as well.

 

[Mavsker]

This is a playoff caliber Illinois team and we went blow for blow with them. Year 3, after we lose half our starters to graduation, is when this thing really takes off

 

[2010sarenevercomingback]

We also lost 2 of the 3 players on our team to injury that everyone agreed were the most irreplaceable. Gottula played pretty decent for his age and experience, but losing a potential first round NFL draft corner probably affected our defensive calls and gave some openings that wouldn't have otherwise been there.

I haven't heard prognosis yet for Corc or Tommi. Getting them back would be a boon.

 

[Papa...Football]

We aren’t officially eliminated from bowl eligibility yet, so we got that going for us

 

[Mavsker]

Bump for transfer portal carnage cope

 

[Sous Chef]

 

[Kaladin]

Damn that reminds me I need to resume watching Black Sails on netfkix

 

[Tonkasker]

Bump for transfer portal carnage cope

My cope

I think we're experiencing a really sharp market correction as any industry would during what is essentially shock therapy in the labor market. I think the staff is making a really shrewd strategy shift toward what will be a cap-efficient model recognized by most programs in the coming years in trying to balance development with a true cap, which is a market force that hasn't had to be dealt with. Water is finding its level but the shift in market forces is making it look like a tsunami momentarily.

Take RBs for example since it's pretty relevant to us. Assume we keep a stable of four backs. I think this is how every position will be modeled financially on a goforward basis

RB1 - Transfer Senior from a lower level looking for a showcase role in draft prep (staff pursuing Ahmad Hardy for '25/Rahmir in '24)
RB2 - Developmental junior (EJ in '24/dowdell this year)
RB3 - freshman/sophomore to be developed (Dowdell in '24/Parker in '25)
RB4 - freshman to be developed (Booth)

I've heard some high end programs (specifically michigan) don't allocate NIL to freshman to the extent others do but instead sell them on pure development. It's a luxury due to having a great developmental situation prior to the market forces changing. Rhule definitely wants to be there eventually but you need to win and develop a competitive culture first.

Obviously if you hit on an underclassman early you can slot them higher etc.

You can see this playing out with Dane Key/player to be named in the receiver room as well.

It looks a hell of a lot like an NFL depth chart and cap allocation. Keep calm.

Edit to add a key point - when saban left alabama there was a lot of consternation over their NIL situation - Freshmen Downs and Proctor specifically left for OSU/Cockeye for a pay raise. Their pay scale was structured like michigans in that it was weighted heavily toward upperclassmen. They course corrected momentarily.

 

[Baron Winnebago]

My cope

Running backs should hit the ground running from day 1 if they're ever going to contribute so LFG Booth and Parker

 

[2010sarenevercomingback]

I think the basic cope at this point is that nobody really knows yet where this thing is going to end up.

You have a seismic change in CFB, where the top few dozen teams have a roster size of 130+, and are going to have to shed 25-35 guys. You can get some of that from walk-ons and other non-contributors/guys who haven't come along as well as they should, but it's absolutely going to to cut into the quality depth that coaches would like to keep, on top of the regular portal insanity where players have virtually no obligations, get tampered with, offered more money, lose their coaches or key influences, and/or don't see enough PT/the right kind of usage for their liking.

Every team pretty much every year sees guys leave that they'd have like to keep, and this year turns that up to 11. Now add to that some ongoing issues Nebraska has had with toughness/team mentality/finishing, and whispers of not all parts of the coaching staff being on the same page. That means some guys are going to have to go for those reasons too.

So knowing all that, it's going to be semi-controlled carnage. It's the same way at most places, slightly amplified here because of our larger roster, coaching turnover, and finding guys who'll create the right attitude about winning. Can't say for certain from the outside who's leaving for what reasons, and on the surface, I'd have preferred to keep at least some of these guys who left, but as much as we've been battered & are going to have to patch some things, we'll also be playing a lot of battered & patched teams next year. LFG.

 

[Tonkasker]

Well said @2010sarenevercomingback

Controlled carnage is exactly how it should be characterized. Imagine if the SEC put a salary cap on C-Level executives after decades of the labor economy NOT pricing that in? You’d see it play out similarly tbh. It’s a reckoning between laissez-faire economics and regulation happening with no ramp (which is a uniquely stupid facet of this, there should have been some kind of ramp but nobody had the stones to legislate it and the courts had to step in)

Nebraska seems to be uniquely nuked out here due to the cultural crossroads we find ourselves in, to your point