Game Thread: Nebraska @ Iowa

[HuskerinBig10]

losses
62-3
40-10

Did not win the games that mattered, but won the games they should have. Wisconsin and Iowa mattered, Ohio State did not matter because of the previous loss to Wisconsin.

Not championship caliber football.
6-7 season
9-3 season with a possibility to be either 9-4 or 10-3. If it is 9-4, it sounds familiar with the usual blowout losses.

Wisconsin mattered because it was 8-0 and undefeated and first place in the Big Ten West.
Iowa mattered because of the outside chance of winning the Big Ten West.

All road losses. sounds familiar, does not play well on the road.

Special Teams is a disaster. No kickoff returns for anything exciting, no punt returns for anything exciting, punting is terrible, really bad.

I predicted 7-5 and the team surpasses my expectations. The defense played much better than I expected.

For me, it seems all Nebraska is, is a 9-4 team at best with this coaching staff. Which is better than the Callahan years but the same as the Pelini years with a much better temperament coach.

A good defensive coordinator could have a defensive game plan for a one dimensional running team(Iowa). Yet, Nebraska could not stop the run and could not stop the pass.

Probably time for me to quit posting on this board as I will be a Debbie Downer, I don't think this coaching staff is the solution. Banker and Read I am not a fan of.

 

[oaknightshockey1]

Those are all valid criticisms, @HuskerinBig10. What I don't get is how you think it can't get any better than 9-4 (I mean, we could easily do that THIS year). I know you saw the improvements from last year, because you've posted about them. You think that they will all of a sudden just stop improving? We're already seeing recruiting pick up (going up against the likes of USC and Oregon rather than Middle Tennessee State) and next year we will have a quarterback who is actually suited for the offensive system these guys want to run. The defense had a bad game but overall they've improved. We still don't have a great front 4, and knew that would be a struggle coming into the year. As far as special teams goes, someone can design me an embarrassing Bruce Read avi to wear all next season if he's still coaching. I'd guess he'll be around, but he won't be one of our coaches unless the NCAA adds an assistant slot. Riley has shown he is willing to make adjustments. Now we just have to watch what he does. I'm not going to jump off the train before he even gets his guys in place.

 

[HuskerInSecLand]

I'd just say that we know Riley will make changes when they are needed if they are not part of his inner circle. Which is good because it shows that he recognizes when change is needed and is not to stubborn to refuse to admit what he previously did is not working. I guess we will see if he can tell a friend he isn't working out though. Then there is the fact that he has defended the lack of blocking on returns because of a fear of the fake. He has admitted there is nothing good coming out of special teams but I don't know if he sees Read as the problem.

 

[Exorbitant]

Iowa is the 79th rated rushing team in America yet they rushed for almost 300 yds! Inexcusable and Bo and Cosgrove like. Eichorst had the chance to get something close to a home run hire, but he hired a coach who won't do any better than what we saw on Friday.

 

[Exorbitant]

Hey Oak, here are some stats that are mind boggling to me...
According to Rivals.com, Iowa's recruiting classes from 2012-16 were ranked 44th, 51st, 56th, 59th and 42nd.
During the same span, Nebraska's classes were 26th, 17th, 32nd, 28th and 26th.

You had mentioned before about how much better OSUs recruiting classes were so much better than Nebraska, and that was why our matchup with them was so one sided. Using your logic than shouldn't Nebraska have clobbered Iowa? Coaching was the difference between Iowa and Nebraska, and Ferentz is a better coach hands down, obviously.

 

[psaboy]

Isn't nine or ten wins and noncompetitive road loses something Huskers had before?

 

[it'sHuskers4me]

Isn't nine or ten wins and noncompetitive road loses something Huskers had before?

Do you mean it was a reason why a coach was fired?

 

[oaknightshockey1]

Hey Oak, here are some stats that are mind boggling to me...
According to Rivals.com, Iowa's recruiting classes from 2012-16 were ranked 44th, 51st, 56th, 59th and 42nd.
During the same span, Nebraska's classes were 26th, 17th, 32nd, 28th and 26th.

You had mentioned before about how much better OSUs recruiting classes were so much better than Nebraska, and that was why our matchup with them was so one sided. Using your logic than shouldn't Nebraska have clobbered Iowa? Coaching was the difference between Iowa and Nebraska, and Ferentz is a better coach hands down, obviously.

Our team didn't show up yesterday. Pretty sure Tommie Frazier said it best...they just looked spent. We had enough talent to beat Iowa but the combination of injuries and the especially long, emotionally draining season caused us to come out flat. The difference between this game and the OSU game was pretty drastic. Yesterday, we were consistently in position to make plays, we just couldn't finish them. Against OSU, we weren't in the same zip code. That's a little more nuance than I'd expect you to pick up on, though.

 

[NE1tm2nv]

Mark Banker "I'll bet their practices are like a bloodbath ya know; because both sides of the ball kinda emulate that".

So is he saying we practice soft, is that why we had so many balls batted down? Rather than engaging we just kinda scrape them off and ride.

Is this why both defense and offensive line play mirror one another?

 

[corn train]

I think what he's trying to say, without throwing players and coaches under the bus, is we were getting kicked in the balls repeatedly all day on OL/DL. Shouldn't be a huge shocker to anyone who's watched our games from the beginning of Oct and on. We've got better players RS on OL, not so much for the DL

 

[Jack_John_Mark]

Well, I woke up this morning and I'm even more concerned than I was yesterday.

The lack of heart that I saw, the busted plays, etc etc... I don't get it, I really don't. I think back to the team that beat Northwestern with ease, the team that should have beat Wisconsin.....both of those on the road.....both of those teams manhandled Iowa.

Yet it looked like we had nothing to play for. Guys just kinda going through the motions. In position to make tackles but missing them left and right.

I hope Minnesota wins today so those guys who had given up already before the 2nd quarter even started can think to themselves......"oh shit, we could have went to the Championship game."

 

[blkflagmafia]

This experiment isnt working.. gonna need to recruit like hell dogs to get OL and defense ready. this process is probably gonna take 5+ years. never a good sign to see a blowout this late with things on the line. thought we were threading up but the real mvp is the schedule 9-3 with best wins against Wyoming Minnesota . ...

 

[Exorbitant]

Our team didn't show up yesterday. Pretty sure Tommie Frazier said it best...they just looked spent. We had enough talent to beat Iowa but the combination of injuries and the especially long, emotionally draining season caused us to come out flat. The difference between this game and the OSU game was pretty drastic. Yesterday, we were consistently in position to make plays, we just couldn't finish them. Against OSU, we weren't in the same zip code. That's a little more nuance than I'd expect you to pick up on, though.

Iowa had injuries also like Nebraska did. Also, it was a long season for them too. OSU had much better talent than Nebraska did supposedly, and Nebraska had much better talent than Iowa has, so no excuses, the difference between the two teams is they have a smarter coaching staff than we do. As I type this I notice Michigan is moving the ball against OSU. I don't know if it would help or not, but Riley and his staff needs to watch games like that to try and learn how to become better coaches. Of course I won't expect you to pick up on what I said here.

 

[Exorbitant]

Well, I woke up this morning and I'm even more concerned than I was yesterday.

The lack of heart that I saw, the busted plays, etc etc... I don't get it, I really don't. I think back to the team that beat Northwestern with ease, the team that should have beat Wisconsin.....both of those on the road.....both of those teams manhandled Iowa.

Yet it looked like we had nothing to play for. Guys just kinda going through the motions. In position to make tackles but missing them left and right.

I hope Minnesota wins today so those guys who had given up already before the 2nd quarter even started can think to themselves......"oh shit, we could have went to the Championship game."

A great coaching staff, something that we very well could have right now if we had an athletic director who wasn't an asshole, would be getting more out of players than Riley has. As you know, there are quite a few teams in America that have new coaches who are doing pretty damn good, but Riley's team isn't one of them.

I'm with you about Minnesota winning today. That would be awesome.

 

[Exorbitant]

This experiment isnt working.. gonna need to recruit like hell dogs to get OL and defense ready. this process is probably gonna take 5+ years. never a good sign to see a blowout this late with things on the line. thought we were threading up but the real mvp is the schedule 9-3 with best wins against Wyoming Minnesota . ...

Nebraska the last four years has had recruiting classes in the twenties and one of 17th according to Rivals. Iowa in the last four years has had classes in the 40s and 50s, so that tells us that more talent won't get us to the next level with this coaching staff. The positive thing I guess is if Riley and his staff can recruit some decent talent the next few years, the next coach, if he isn't another Riley or Pelini type of coach will have talent to work with.

 

[tometom]

recruiting classes ranks show talent level but say nothing about whether that talent fits the system you are recruiting towards. That's the biggest problem right now, our O-line was recruited to play a spread system and we are trying to get them to play in a west coast. Iowa's system has been in place for a couple of decades, just like Wisconsin's. give MR time to build up the o-line and we should be able to get there. we had injury problems all year on that o-line and it never stood up when it needed to, it actually held up much better against Iowa then i expected, but TA only hit the open guys 37% of the time. i hardly ever remember him being under pressure and to only hit 37% is just plain horrible.

on defense, as others have said, we knew it would be a struggle on the DL. too young and outmatched against a lot of teams. I think the twins and Stolt got a ton better this year and have a bright future but still need more time, FA is getting better too. i think at times Banker hurt the defense by not playing tighter coverage and letting too many short passes go uncontested.

i do think that the practices need to get more physical. you can't teach that mentality to 18-22yos without doing it in practice. maybe they were trying to save our thin OL and DL, hopefully that won't be a problem next year and they start bashing some heads and get that worked out.

 

[Jack_John_Mark]

My biggest concern is that we'll recruit our linemen we need to hold up against pocket pressure, but they won't be able to create a running game for us.

As everyone knows, if you can't run consistently, you can't win Championships.

I'm fine with going to a pro-style QB and throwing out of the pocket, but I want a power run game with it.

 

[Jack_John_Mark]

Listen though fellas......

We have 46 Conference Championships.

But we have not won a single one of them this century. That is just damn ridiculous. There are teams accidentally winning their Conference and we can't do it trying.

We are not a scrub program. We are a powerhouse. We have good enough talent to play within a couple scores of any team in the country. At the very worst we should never get blown out. I could see losing by 28 points to Ohio State or something like that, but not 60 points. I could see losing by 10 to Iowa, but not by 30.

There is plenty more wrong than just the recruits. That's an easy excuse to make. I hope Riley figures it out, but I'll guarantee you right now he won't win the Big 10 with this current staff.

 

[oaknightshockey1]

Iowa had injuries also like Nebraska did. Also, it was a long season for them too. OSU had much better talent than Nebraska did supposedly, and Nebraska had much better talent than Iowa has, so no excuses, the difference between the two teams is they have a smarter coaching staff than we do. As I type this I notice Michigan is moving the ball against OSU. I don't know if it would help or not, but Riley and his staff needs to watch games like that to try and learn how to become better coaches. Of course I won't expect you to pick up on what I said here.

I must have missed where Iowa had a teammate die shortly before the season. I haven't sent my condolences. That's what Frazier was talking about, you fucking asshole.

 

[Exorbitant]

I must have missed where Iowa had a teammate die shortly before the season. I haven't sent my condolences. That's what Frazier was talking about, you fucking asshole.

Oh that excuses a coach for not having the team prepared to play then? Did you notice Minnesota had their team prepared to play today and they were over-matched by a wide margin too! Michigan State was prepared to play against OSU, and very easily could have won that game. How bout that?

By the way genius, if that had happened the week before the Iowa game, I could see that being a factor, but that happened months ago.

Also, a 3-8 Michigan State is prepared to play today and they are playing in front of a hostile crowd exceeding 100K at Penn State!!!

There are so many cases of teams around the country with new coaches that are ROARING! Actually, I am somewhat excusing Riley for the debacle in Columbus because of our QB situation demoralizing the team, but getting blown out by Iowa is ridiculous. Iowa has a ton of injuries too.

By the way, nice going with the childish name calling.