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Nebraska is defrosted


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27 minutes ago, aphilso1 said:

I see rumor mill topics popping up on the Nebraska Rivals message board today.  I don't have access to those boards, so can only guess what they mean.  New subjects include:

 

Matt Rhule -Thoughts?

Something Going Down Today?

Smoke in north stadium

 

Putting that together, and it seems people are expecting Rhule to be announced as the new football HC today.  Anyone hearing these rumblings?

 

Nebraska going out of its way to distract everyone from the lack of Derrick Walker updates

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19 minutes ago, basketballjones said:

When this happens - the split of who is happy about this hire and who is mad about it is going to be very interesting. Not your typical split that happens when these things go down. 

 

Not sure what side of the split you'd expect me to fall on, but here's my $0.03 (Should be $0.02, but inflation sucks)--

 

It sure would be nice to try hiring a coach with CFB head coaching experience in his prime.  Not the up-and-comer, not the NFL guy who you hope can find success in college, not the coordinator who you hope can be a good CEO, and not the guy who lost his fire a decade ago.  Just a real head coach with a real track record that you can look at and say "yeah, he knows how to be a coach.  He can build a program, sustain it, make good hires for his staff, and recruit and develop talent sufficient to run his system."

 

Chasing the next hot name in coaching can absolutely result in fantastic success (see Smart, Kirby and Swinney, Dabo). However, the result of a swing and miss on that type of hire is catastrophic. 

 

At this point I just want a guy whose floor is 6-6.  A guy who can make a run at a conference title once in a while, but more importantly can avoid the embarrassing seasons.  It seems like every time we go for a high ceiling/low floor hire we get burned.  So give me the guy with a high floor, even if it means a lower ceiling.  I'm over hiring a HC based on potential.  I want to see a resume with results that he can point to and say "I can do that again, and I can do it here at Nebraska."

 

Nothing against Mickey personally.  Perhaps he will be a great head coach someday.  But I'd rather hire someone who has produced results as a college HC before.  

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20 minutes ago, aphilso1 said:

 

Not sure what side of the split you'd expect me to fall on, but here's my $0.03 (Should be $0.02, but inflation sucks)--

 

It sure would be nice to try hiring a coach with CFB head coaching experience in his prime.  Not the up-and-comer, not the NFL guy who you hope can find success in college, not the coordinator who you hope can be a good CEO, and not the guy who lost his fire a decade ago.  Just a real head coach with a real track record that you can look at and say "yeah, he knows how to be a coach.  He can build a program, sustain it, make good hires for his staff, and recruit and develop talent sufficient to run his system."

 

Chasing the next hot name in coaching can absolutely result in fantastic success (see Smart, Kirby and Swinney, Dabo). However, the result of a swing and miss on that type of hire is catastrophic. 

 

At this point I just want a guy whose floor is 6-6.  A guy who can make a run at a conference title once in a while, but more importantly can avoid the embarrassing seasons.  It seems like every time we go for a high ceiling/low floor hire we get burned.  So give me the guy with a high floor, even if it means a lower ceiling.  I'm over hiring a HC based on potential.  I want to see a resume with results that he can point to and say "I can do that again, and I can do it here at Nebraska."

 

Nothing against Mickey personally.  Perhaps he will be a great head coach someday.  But I'd rather hire someone who has produced results as a college HC before.  

 

Considering Matt Rhule did previously have success in the college ranks but flamed out in the NFL, I'm assuming you'd be ok with that hire? I'd be fine with it. I had Aranda and Kiffin above him, but definitely could get behind Rhule.

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1 minute ago, OmahaHusker said:

 

Considering Matt Rhule did previously have success in the college ranks but flamed out in the NFL, I'm assuming you'd be ok with that hire? I'd be fine with it. I had Aranda and Kiffin above him, but definitely could get behind Rhule.

 

Yes, Rhule meets the criteria.  So does Kiffin.

 

I'd like to see a longer track record from Aranda, particularly since he inherited a stable situation at Baylor and thus has never built a program.  But it would admittedly be tough to turn down a coach with a Big XII title ring on his finger.

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40 minutes ago, aphilso1 said:

 

Not sure what side of the split you'd expect me to fall on, but here's my $0.03 (Should be $0.02, but inflation sucks)--

 

It sure would be nice to try hiring a coach with CFB head coaching experience in his prime.  Not the up-and-comer, not the NFL guy who you hope can find success in college, not the coordinator who you hope can be a good CEO, and not the guy who lost his fire a decade ago.  Just a real head coach with a real track record that you can look at and say "yeah, he knows how to be a coach.  He can build a program, sustain it, make good hires for his staff, and recruit and develop talent sufficient to run his system."

 

Chasing the next hot name in coaching can absolutely result in fantastic success (see Smart, Kirby and Swinney, Dabo). However, the result of a swing and miss on that type of hire is catastrophic. 

 

At this point I just want a guy whose floor is 6-6.  A guy who can make a run at a conference title once in a while, but more importantly can avoid the embarrassing seasons.  It seems like every time we go for a high ceiling/low floor hire we get burned.  So give me the guy with a high floor, even if it means a lower ceiling.  I'm over hiring a HC based on potential.  I want to see a resume with results that he can point to and say "I can do that again, and I can do it here at Nebraska."

 

Nothing against Mickey personally.  Perhaps he will be a great head coach someday.  But I'd rather hire someone who has produced results as a college HC before.  

 

By God that's Lance Leipold's music!

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2 hours ago, aphilso1 said:

I see rumor mill topics popping up on the Nebraska Rivals message board today.  I don't have access to those boards, so can only guess what they mean.  New subjects include:

 

Matt Rhule -Thoughts?

Something Going Down Today?

Smoke in north stadium

 

Putting that together, and it seems people are expecting Rhule to be announced as the new football HC today.  Anyone hearing these rumblings?

 

Just remember what Trev said at the very beginning. You're going to hear a lot of names and rumors throughout the process. It could mean that he's talking to them but it doesn't mean he's trying to hire them. It could just be him seeking advice.

 

With all that said, watch it turn out to be Urban as it was at the very beginning all this time :lol:

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15 hours ago, basketballjones said:

When this happens - the split of who is happy about this hire and who is mad about it is going to be very interesting. Not your typical split that happens when these things go down. 

 

Everyone was happy about Frost being hired and look how much that sucked.

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1 hour ago, hhcmatt said:

 

Everyone was happy about Frost being hired and look how much that sucked.

 

I wasn't.  I thought Frost was a potentially terrible hire.  He was the obvious choice given he was the hot name at the time and our Golden Boy.  But still a potentially terrible hire.

 

Now granted, I also thought Hoiberg was a fantastic hire.  So maybe the lesson there is just be pessimistic about every new coach, and you'll be right most of the time.

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26 minutes ago, Navin R. Johnson said:

So much for experience.  I would not have thought this.

 

 

 

Osborne was in a completely different era.  There was more loyalty in the game -- universities stuck with their coaches longer, coaches stuck with their schools longer, and players (generally speaking) didn't transfer.  For a program looking to SUSTAIN success rather than BUILD it, Osborne was the correct choice.

 

I'd make the same argument for Frank, just to a lesser degree.  If you are trying to sustain a program, then it is reasonable to promote from within.  He didn't live up to expectations but he was the right hire at the time.

 

Callahan and Frost were both shots in the dark.  Both had head coaching experience, but the relevance of that experience wasn't clear.  Could Callahan adjust to recruiting, limited practice schedules, and actual player development required in the college game?  Could Frost build a program from the ground up, rather than inherit a team that out-talented its conference and had routinely won 9+ games before his arrival? (note: everyone likes to point to the 0-12 season directly preceding Frost's UCF hire, but that season was an anomaly.  George O'Leary had built a solid program prior to that, and Frost inherited a great roster as a result of O'Leary's work).

 

Riley was actually the coaching hire I liked the most among the Bill/Bo/Mike/Scott revolving door era.  At the time I hoped that he just needed a change of scenery to recapture his old magic.  It quickly became apparent that he was not the same coach as he was in decades past though.  Lesson learned: make sure a coach still has the fire to be great.

 

So who is Mickey most similar to? He's a talented coordinator that players like to play for.  Bo is the obvious comparison there.  Mickey's a better recruiter than Bo, but then again Bo didn't have as big of a mess to clean up; Callahan left the cupboard full of talent, just never had the chops to develop that talent.  In contrast, Mickey would be inheriting a roster with very few building blocks.  Is that the right job for a first time HC?  My answer is no, but I guess we will have to wait and see.

 

 

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1 hour ago, aphilso1 said:

Riley was actually the coaching hire I liked the most among the Bill/Bo/Mike/Scott revolving door era.  At the time I hoped that he just needed a change of scenery to recapture his old magic.  It quickly became apparent that he was not the same coach as he was in decades past though.  Lesson learned: make sure a coach still has the fire to be great.

 

MR was the coach I liked the least of all the post TO retirement coaches. I knew he would be a failure the minute he was hired. He was on the downslide at OSU and was likely going to get just one more year with a re-worked contract. This was purely a money grab for him.

BC was a desperation hire after a prolonged coaching search where several candidates turned the job down. A couple of what could have been coaches in that list. This job was never more than a pit stop so he could go back to the NFL. Unlike MR I think he tried the best he could only because he wanted another shot at being an NFL HC. He was a NFL only coach who liked to smell his own farts. He was incapable of adjusting to the college game.

SF was though to our generations TO. That didn't work out so well. At least he cared about this place unlike those other 2.

BP loved coaching at Nebraska. I've listened to a few interviews since he's been gone and he talks glowingly about coaching here and about the fan base. Should have never been fired. We are paying the price for that mistake now. This solidified my hate for our own fan base.

FS suffered from following TO. He was never really giving a fare shot by the fans or media because he couldn't immediately replicate what TO had accomplished. Should have never been fired. FS has been so hurt by his firing that he will never return to Nebraska. Waning health concerns make that an almost a certainty. This is when I began to hate our fan base.

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On 11/4/2022 at 6:26 AM, hhcmatt said:

 

Everyone was happy about Frost being hired and look how much that sucked.

Tbh 100% honest… I have to be one of the very few Matt Campbell-ites when Riley was fired. I saw all the good stuff frost could be for sure, but I was pretty squarely in the Damon Benning camp of “this savior complex stuff is not good and could backfire very easily.” 

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After seeing our athletic department knowingly throw an entire season of football in the trash because they couldn’t stand up to the Tradition Coalition and fire Frost last year; I don’t have a lot of faith that they will make the correct hire. Wouldn’t be surprised if Trev was strong-armed again by the exact same people who ensured Scott got an additional year. 
 

I guess will see who they hire. I’m still hoping they make the right hire - and as Andy Dufresne once said, “Hope is a good thing, maybe they best of things, and no good thing ever dies.” 
 

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2 hours ago, Busch Light said:

After seeing our athletic department knowingly throw an entire season of football in the trash because they couldn’t stand up to the Tradition Coalition and fire Frost last year; I don’t have a lot of faith that they will make the correct hire. Wouldn’t be surprised if Trev was strong-armed again by the exact same people who ensured Scott got an additional year. 
 

I guess will see who they hire. I’m still hoping they make the right hire - and as Andy Dufresne once said, “Hope is a good thing, maybe they best of things, and no good thing ever dies.” 
 

I feel like it's kind of hard to say your first paragraph and then think he all of the sudden grew a pair and stood up to them firing 3 games in. 

I believe he wasn't fired at the end of last year because it wasn't obviously "clear" he should be. Even though behind the scenes it was quite evident. But what we did last year was one of the most fluky, strange, statistically impossible things ever. I think it's pretty fair to say he deserved a chance to figure it out. Trev risked losing serious fan and booster support by firing last year. 

That being said - it does seem pretty clear that Trev handcuffed him (purposefully and masterfully) this year. If he wanted to allow Frost a true "prove it or lose it" year this year, he wouldn't have forced some of the staff changes that he did, such as removing OC title and hiring who he did. I believe Frost would have made some staff changes - but he would have gone down with the ship as captain doing it his way. Trev either forced him or Jedi-mind-tricked him into thinking he needed to do the CEO thing and make certain changes. 

But allowing Frost to go down with the ship his way would have potentially created another scenario for Trev where Frost gets "close," and he can't rally support behind his decisions. Once it was "clearly evident," losing to Georgia Southern, Trev stuck like a skilled boxer. Just needed his moment. 

IMO - Trev Alberts has handled this near perfectly and set the next coach up with a super clean slate, and the highest percentage of acceptance of the new coach/boosters. 

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3 minutes ago, cornfed24-7 said:

Yup. This. So far 😉

I mean there's, what, at least 10 guys who would get a, "sounds good, not bad," reaction or above - right?

I'd only be disappointed if he hired the NC State guy, the Army guy, or Gary Patterson (dude is old and TCU is like instantly back in the mix after canning him, c'mon now). 

Petersen

Rhule

O'Brien 

Stoops

Kiffin
Leipold

Aranda

Kleiman

Campbell

Mickey

 

I mean, all those guys would make the majority of people pretty happy, I would think?

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On 11/4/2022 at 8:46 AM, Nighthawk said:

Any chance they can get Gene Hackman out of retirement? 

 

 

image.jpeg

 

Actually watched The Replacements this weekend.  Jimmy McGinty was a rehire (Pelini), described as "that coach from the 80s" (Riley).  He 'had a list of people I've been keeping my eye on over the years' (Eichorst). 

 

Could be considered the answer but really it would be an absolute nightmare. (Frost)

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6 minutes ago, basketballjones said:

I mean there's, what, at least 10 guys who would get a, "sounds good, not bad," reaction or above - right?

I'd only be disappointed if he hired the NC State guy, the Army guy, or Gary Patterson (dude is old and TCU is like instantly back in the mix after canning him, c'mon now). 

Petersen

Rhule

O'Brien 

Stoops

Kiffin
Leipold

Aranda

Kleiman

Campbell

Mickey

 

I mean, all those guys would make the majority of people pretty happy, I would think?

Oh totally. But I will never again underestimate the ability of the absolute worst outcome to be what happens at Nebraska 😁 I am intrigued by the Army guy 😀 

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