throwback

3-0 in buy games - just 1 to go to a perfect season - haven't done that in a while.

Tim Brando and whoever was calling the game with him should be forced to watch Hoiberg's NU teams 30+ times per year like we have to, rather than once per year. I'm guessing he'd have a different tune on how much we're "building for the future." That was a brutal broadcast ... although it probably was what that abomination of a contest deserved.

NU 68 PB 58

SJ 86 NU 71

NU 81 Omaha 74

Yeah, me too. Those triple OT games where we made it to half a hundy were rare but pretty sweet.

NU 77 Maine 53 6 non-con 11 wins

I don't want Fred fired either, but reality is his teams the past 3 years have lost at a historic rate at a place that lost a lot before he got here. At least 95% of D-1 head coaches -- and a huge chunk of D-1 assistants getting their first head coaching job -- could've easily duplicated what he did here the past 3 years in the W-L column. And that's ultimately what counts. It's well past time to win at even a moderate rate, but I'd be stunned if this group can do it. Hopefully the new assistants have a huge influence. Regardless of the metrics, if it doesn't improve quite a bit this year, it's clearly time to give someone else a shot. Just not sure how dedicated Fred is anymore to the grind that's required.

When the AD decides it's obviously time to fire a coach & hire a new one, the buyout money & new contract money at a P5 school like Nebraska will always be available. It's never a problem.

World-Herald's preview of the bigs: https://omaha.com/sports/huskers/mens-basketball/position-preview-breaking-down-the-forwards-and-bigs-for-nebraska-mens-basketball/article_9ff62339-c813-57a4-884d-4a9c4614dbdc.html

I believe Trev said tonight he would've preferred to have Frost's metrics be "verbal" only, but Frost wanted them in writing. I took that to mean that Fred's metrics are probably verbal only, since Trev didn't discuss them in detail. Also, it's important to remember that Frost's 6 win/bowl game metric was just to return to his old salary. Not to keep his job (clearly). Assuming Fred's metrics are in a similar position, it only matters to the accountants in the athletic dept what those metrics are. They don't necessarily mean he keeps his job if he hits them.

Fred's transcript from B1G media days today: http://asaptext.com/asap_media/media/1025/1332/transcripts/125853.html

A few notes from Warren during B1G Media Days about USC & UCLA joining: Main remarks: One of our key focus points this year is to make sure that we flawlessly integrate both UCLA and USC into the Big Ten Conference. Our student-athletes have been our number one priority, and during this integration period, they will continue to be our number one priority. You'll be able to see it in how we schedule, how we handle multi-team events, the experiences they will be able to have by now being able to travel to play different institutions across the country. Q. When UCLA and USC join, how, if at all, the basketball tournaments, the season-ending tournaments would look any different? Where are you with football alignment? I'm guessing you don't know what you're doing, but what kind of stuff is on the table there? KEVIN WARREN: Regarding the basketball tournaments, quite naturally we have to look at how that works. We have individuals in our organization now who are working with those potential tournaments will look like. I know one thing, they'll be exciting. Now we have the flexibility to have them really anywhere across the country. So having two great basketball programs, the history and tradition. ... We'll look at ways to build that with our new family members in UCLA and USC, from a location standpoint. I think your question is about divisions, if we'll continue to have them in football. We're having meetings on that right now. The good thing about it we're in this what we're calling an integration phase. ... As I mentioned earlier, we're going to keep the health, safety of our student-athletes at the forefront of all of our decisions, but also provide our student-athletes with the excitement to be able to play some great teams. Q. The Pac-12 recently announced a legacy series with the SWAC, doing men's and women's basketball beyond the current format this season. Would the Big Ten think about doing something similar connecting with a black college? KEVIN WARREN: We've had some discussions about seeing what we can do to create some of these legacy series games. I know we've had some one-off games that have been played. But from a long-term standpoint, that's the beautiful thing about having UCLA and USC join us, there are some things we are working on now to continually afford our student-athletes the opportunity to play against Historically Black Colleges and Universities. I look forward as we bring that to life as far as what we could do from a scheduling standpoint. That's part of the many things on the table as we're looking through scheduling and expansion, what we can do from a unique standpoint. Q. What is the Big Ten's approach to expansion moving forward? Do you want to add programs? If you do, what are you looking for? KEVIN WARREN: The biggest thing right now and what we have come up with, what we're calling some of our can't miss priorities. One of them is to make sure we flawlessly integrate our new media partners, but the other one is to make sure we flawlessly integrate USC and UCLA into the Big Ten Conference. In the climate we're in right now in college athletics, you also have to be mindful of expansion. But our priority is just to make sure that we take care of our 14 member institutions now from a basketball standpoint, from a conference standpoint, and that we do everything that we possibly can to make sure we flawlessly integrate UCLA and USC. We have a lot of work to do. It's one thing to negotiate contracts, to make an announcement, but it's another thing to actually get the work done. That's what we're focused on right now. http://asaptext.com/asap_media/media/1025/1332/transcripts/125775.html

World-Herald previews the guards https://omaha.com/sports/huskers/mens-basketball/position-preview-breaking-down-the-guards-for-nebraska-mens-basketball/article_86a7452b-98c5-5854-9efc-af9a7bc82bf4.html Another position will be previewed next week.

I'm guilty - I was trying to figure out whether we'd be a 3 or 4 seed for the NCAA tournament by the time we hit the 10-minute mark in the second half of the Colorado game. This year, I'm going to have way more self-control. I promise to wait until the last under-4 timeout in the Colorado game before I over-estimate our NCAA seed.

I like it, but if we lose to Maine, Omaha & Pine Bluff out of the gate, Fred may not be around for the Creighton game. I'm willing to rethink that position if we beat Colorado in the exhibition by at least 15 points. I have a feeling that would be a very good omen for the season.

I think they're also looking at creating a "gathering place" in the south stadium - kind of like a patio where people can drink and still see the field. So we know where jay-skers will be hanging out with their backs to the game.

I'm not sure BTN would exist if it didn't have NU hoops to keep it relevant.

Sounds like we may be able to drink beer at PBA this season to make the schedule easier to deal with.

How we got here - zero player development, not enough setting of expectations for players, and an S&C program that, somehow, seems to make our players slower and less explosive the longer they are involved with it. It's pretty damning that the majority of the best players on this roster are newcomers who received most of their player development and S&C away from NU. Want to watch a well-coached team that makes the most of its talent and that has recovered from a dumpster fire relatively equivalent to where NU is at right now? Kansas. KU would beat us by 3 TDs next week, likely more. The reality is NU now is a complete program rebuild job. We are where Kansas was 2-3 years ago. For any of us who thought NU had a bare cupboard when Smilin' Mike was shown the door, Frost has carried us to another level of cupboard bareness hell that I would've thought wasn't possible for a P5 football team with half our resources, money, and fan support. Yet, here we are. Maybe Mickey can find some magic during the off week and steal one against the Hoosiers in 2 weeks. Indiana is pretty bad, but they are light years tougher than us mentally, unfortunately. Rutgers is almost identical to Indiana - a bad team that's still mentally tough. After those 2 games, I don't see another game on the schedule where we can stay within 2-3 TDs (or 7-11 safeties in the case of Iowa), outside of a Herculean turnaround.

I hope you're right, but I, unfortunately, don't think most of the problems with the front 6/7 are fixable. The defensive tackles simply aren't good. I think the LBs are panicking because they constantly have offensive linemen coming at them because the DTs are getting handled one on one. Plus the interior DL is getting pushed backwards 2-3 yards regularly, right into the LBs laps, which makes it nearly impossible for them to get clean looks at the running backs. Offensive linemen don't have to double anyone up front, and they rarely have to even chip before going to the 2nd level. So, to me, the LBs look like they're panicking by trying to get to the hole before an offensive lineman can block them. They're choosing the wrong hole a lot. Maybe we can pinch our DEs in tighter when we're running 4-3, rather than having them line up so wide, and make them more part of stopping the interior run game. We're then in trouble on the edges, so you might have to cheat up a safety. Chins loves that 2-high look, though. Maybe play bigger with more 3-4, and get the nickel out of there, although we tried quite some of that vs N Dakota, and it wasn't all that effective vs the 4-3 at stopping the run. We just don't have enough DT bodies to run 3-4 the entire game, unless you're going to play Nelson as a very undersized one of the 3. Maybe we need to slant our d line more or run more stunts - something to give them the ability to escape straight-on blocks, because they cannot disengage on their own. We tried a couple of slants vs Ga Southern, and it was just as ugly as the base run defense, but maybe they can clean it up by working on it more. The sad part is we really haven't played a team that wants to run the ball over and over, other than maybe NW once it got the lead. Those teams are still coming. Could be a loooooooong November. On the Ga Southern rewatch, we tried a lot of stuff Saturday with games up front to try to help the DL, but nothing worked. We got burned bad against N Dakota by trying to bring a safety up in run support, so I think Chins was leery of doing that vs Ga Southern, but they may have to go back to it. Maybe they have to let the LBs just focus on the run game and use the safeties more to cover slot receivers. Something, anything, to get some no-gains or TFLs vs the basic run game between the tackles on 1st and 2nd down. It just looks pretty hopeless up front to me right now, though.

If Trev and frost didn't negotiate something less than the $15M buyout -- when they could've waited 3 weeks and saved $7.5M -- there are some pissed-off boosters out there willing to pony up the extra that weren't willing to pay last November. Also probably means that there's $7.5M less to pay Fred's buyout, so probably means his leash just got significantly longer.

3 B1G home games on Saturday 2 on Sunday 3 on Tuesday 1 on Wednesday 1 on Thursday Wednesday, December 7Nebraska at Indiana Saturday, December 10Purdue at Nebraska Thursday, December 29Iowa at Nebraska Tuesday, January 3Nebraska at Michigan State Saturday, January 7Nebraska at Minnesota Tuesday, January 10Illinois at Nebraska Friday, January 13Nebraska at Purdue Wednesday, January 18Ohio State at Nebraska Saturday, January 21Nebraska at Penn State Tuesday, January 24Northwestern at Nebraska Saturday, January 28Nebraska at Maryland Tuesday, January 31Nebraska at Illinois Sunday, February 5Penn State at Nebraska Wednesday, February 8Nebraska at Michigan Saturday, February 11Wisconsin at Nebraska Tuesday, February 14Nebraska at Rutgers Sunday, February 19Maryland at Nebraska Saturday, February 25Minnesota at Nebraska Tuesday, February 28Michigan State at Nebraska Sunday, March 5Nebraska at Iowa Wednesday-Sunday, March 8-12Big Ten Tournament (United Center – Chicago, Ill.)

Welp, if you watched the first 20 minutes of the B1G basketball schedule reveal show, you wouldn't even know NU was a member of the league. (Minnesota or Penn St, either.) Doesn't look like we will be seeing the schedule any time soon, as they're talking football now.

At least it lasted multiple burnos. Progress!