Home Athletics General Thread, Part 2

General Thread, Part 2

209

I see you guys broke the last thread. Well done.

An Arizona pre-game thread will go up some time tomorrow. Maybe start giving your thoughts on them and how that game turns out. My initial impression of Arizona is they’re soft. Playing Stanford and Michigan, plus coming off the bye, should help the Beavs out-physical Arizona (not sure this will be enough for a win, though). The start time and location are a problem…

Anyway, anything goes and we’ll get things back on track tomorrow afternoon.

209 COMMENTS

  1. The first four games for Husker Nation has been like a “Mike Riley for Dummies” book.
    Danny, Spanker, and Simple Jack have stepped up to give a graduate level course in how to lose football games. The Illinois game may have been MiR’s Mona Lisa. That was a masterpiece.

    • While lurking in the wee hours on Saturday, I ran across two comments that made me giggle. And both had the answer “Utah” (2008 and 2011).

      To paraphrase:
      1. Has anyone ever seen such a perfect storm of mismanaged clock, play calls and a for sure win just disappear like that before?
      2. Who has ever heard of an opposing coach criticizing another coach?

    • “Crusty Cavanaugh” has been able to fly under the radar so far. They are bound to have a game where the line falls apart and Cav has a fat, bloated meltdown.

      • Cav doesn’t do that.

        I honestly don’t know what the hell Cav does.

        He cusses.

        Yay?

        I feel like I’ve made this exact same post many times in the past. I feel like I’ve said like I feel that.

        At least we have a neat deal.

        • Cussing is the first step towards a meltdown, he just doesn’t know it yet! Nebraska will do terrible things to these numbnuts and they will soon be pining for that good ol’ boys retirement community on the Rio Grande or wherever the fuck it is!

  2. It’s a match up of two not very good teams. AZ has been spanked in their last two games. They are looking at osu as an easier game.

    At home, in the heat, the edge goes to Arizona.

    Keys to winning is basic football,
    Win the turnover battle
    Win the line of scrimmage

    • Thinking Tisdale wants RB, and Fla is loaded in the 2016 class plus another ATH commit this weekend. If we’re offering RB, then I hope that means we go power with a two back set.

      • You’re right, he’s being recruited for offense, although they’re calling him an Athlete. He and Pierce are pretty similar.

        One if the other guys Florida has committed is Mark Thompson, a guy I was hoping the Beavs would land months ago.

  3. Posted this in the Stanford thread after the last one kicked the bucket, but I’ll re-post here.

    Looking for feedback re: the twitter feed.

    More and more guys ask to have their film tweeted as time goes buy. The more I do it, the more requests come in. I’m totally fine with doing it, but wondering if it distracts from the readability/usability of the feed for fans? I’ve found on a few occasions, a coach or grad assistant starts following a player after the tweet goes out, so maybe it’s actually useful to them on some level?

    Just wondering if you guys think I should stop tweeting film, or tweet film only for guys we know are being recruited? Or maybe fulfill every request but only on a certain day of the week, like Sunday? Or just continue as is?

    It does bring new eyes/followers to the site, so there’s also that to consider

    • It doesn’t take away from the feed for me. I enjoy reading about current recruits as well as potentials and if we get one new recruit as a result of them being exposed to coaches via this feed, then it’s worth it. You’ve done a great job with this and I’m glad to see it’s growing in followers every day.

    • I usually skip the film tweets unless I know the Beavs are showing some love. I think it’s great that the kids want to try to catch the coach’s attention so from that perspective more power to them.

      My main concern is if there are a lot of film tweets will that result in “important?” tweets getting missed. I almost never click on “load more” so it seems like that could happen.

      Now if I’m having to plow through 50 film tweets…….. But let’s wait until that happens consistently and is actually a problem.
      .

    • I agree, with AKBeaver. If it has any positive effect on OSU’s recruiting efforts, then it is worth it. I really like learning about potential recruits. Excellent job on the twitter feed btw!

  4. Gundy at Nebraska is now following Tyrek Tisdale. Man, these guys want to so badly poach from OSU. Curious to see how much negative recruiting will come from that staff towards guys like Wallace and Tisdale.

    • Do you think they just didn’t know there is an actual Lewis and Clark college with an actual football team, already in this state?

    • That’s just obscene.

      Now we know why they didn’t get Braxton Miller in free agency. They could only afford VA after this slap in the face to Sacajawea.

      But at least when they stole the Lewis and Clark Baseball League’s logo they replaced the rifle in Clark’s hands with an RPG launcher… and Lewis’ tricorner with some Cavalier looking wide brim lid.

      I’m hoping these are also just black and whites. Because now it looks like they’re trying to steal KState’s colors next.

      • Still old.

        Ducks just suck. They are now the equivalent of the Texas School Board. History is made by them not by history actually being made by them. Instead, history is a story made by fucking idiots. And some of those fucking idiots are the lazy fucks who make Nikegon go.

        Congrats, you lazy fucking fucks. You managed to insult native Americans, Oregonians, explorers, history buffs (because nobody majors in history), Lewis and Clark themselves… AND THEY’RE DEAD….

        What the hell have you not done to insult life in general?

        You will display this. And you will be the laughing stock of all time and forever. And you will fucking insult native Americans forever and ever.

        I love you, you stupid fucking Ducks. You are so so so fucking stupid.

  5. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1l2T3pgiHk1WKiNvQZUzWzWYR3Oo5HoBxrxcCbnl2LcY/edit#gid=27

    Updated Power Spread Rankings (not a reflection of who should be in the Top 25, but who would be favored on a neutral field 1-128). Have fun ripping all my hard work because of that one anomaly that won’t go away :-).

    On another note, it appears that both Oregon State and Oregon will be wearing UCC Ribbon Decals on the backs of their helmets for the rest of the season to acknowledge the horrific events that took place in Roseburg last Thursday. Which is the right thing to do.

      • I looked. #6. If only that were the sole anomaly, but it is not. Would be interesting if his algorithms correct by week 12. For now they are wackadoodley at best.

          • I just see numbers that are fucking wrong… obviously so… numbers made aware to the tester… numbers obviously ignored by the tester.

            But hey! Buy my take!

            Really! I’m shiny, and I want your money.

            You’re better than I am. You know you are. Just make those picks which are just better than mine. Unless you’re… heh heh… fowl.

            If you’re a duck, don’t buy. Because you know you’re not a human. You know we’re here to make apologies for you. You are ducks.

            Storm storm storm.

          • No numbers are ignored, interestingly enough. My goal isn’t to pick who should be in the College Football Playoff with this spreadsheet, it’s a projection.

            The ranking number increases in value based on a good performance. The ranking number decreases in value based on a poor performance. It also increases and decreases with the performance of each team’s opponents. You can lose a game to a superior team and rise in the rankings. You can also win a game and drop like a rock if the opponent’s inferior. It’s looking at each team taking the W/L record out of the equation.

            For example: Notre Dame lost at Clemson last week, by 2 points. The computer expected them to win the game outright. Notre Dame dropped. By the same token, the computer upgraded Clemson slightly because they expected a very tight loss. At the same time: Texas, who Notre Dame destroyed in Week 1 was completely obliterated by TCU. So Notre Dame’s overall body of work took a hit and their ranking dropped further. It’s grading the whole season, not just the previous weekend. Oregon State’s ranking would go up if Michigan, San Jose State, and Stanford all put in monster performances last week, despite the fact they were on bye.

            Jack can’t get past the fact that Georgia Tech isn’t dropping like a rock, which I do find strange. However, I WILL point out that the same algorithm has hit on about 85 percent of the games as far as picking the straight up winner so far this year. Which is more what I use this for anyway, the ranking system is more to give me idea of where each team’s performance/expectation is in the pecking order. And I haven’t changed it for over a decade, so I see no point in altering it now, I’m letting it play itself out.

            It will be interesting to see what this ends up with at the end of the season.

            In the meantime, keep saying I don’t know a thing, it’s not like it ever stopped me before. :)

    • It’s like he’s in an interrogation. Riley should have just said, it’s on me, I need to make sure my players know the play in any given situation. Instead, he hung his players out to be cross examined by the press.

      Nebraska is in such a bad spot right now. they have a jr QB who is trying to learn Riley’s “complex” playbook. by the time Armstrong gets a handle on it, he’ll be graduating and they’ll have to bring in a new guy who’s totally green again, and that guy will have to learn from scratch. they’re 4 years out from having a QB figure out the playbook, at best. Should have started fresh with a 1st year QB this year and let him grow.

      • Imagine how uninteresting Beaver football would be this year with Riley at HC and Luke Del Rio throwing about 2.5 INTS for every TD, Banker’s flailing, no DBS looking for the ball etc. etc. etc.

        God I love progress.

        • Hey! Give LDR more credit than that. At some point a player must realize what does not work does not work. I think LDR was geared for truth.

      • I think the fact that the call came with 8 seconds on the clock and that players were not trained to be in the right spots were the true issues in the situation. So the biggest blame definitely lies with the coaches. To Riley’s credit in his most recent news conference he says something to the effect, “The play being a mess is on me, I need to get the players in better situation to have better execution. Armstrong was just reacting due to the play being executed poorly all together.” Quote not very close, but that is the gist of it.

        This play is a microcosm of many of the complaints of Riley. Poor clock management, Not tailoring plays to skill and knowledge of players, Poor play selection, Lack of proper training to reduce player mistakes, and did I miss any. This one play had it all. Quite funny.

        • Huh?

          “The play being a mess is on me, I need to get the players in better situation to have better execution. Armstrong was just reacting due to the play being executed poorly all together”

          Okay? We all have alternate Riley dreams?

          But you knew I would find this.

          • btn.com/Shows/videos/539026499733/Mike Riley and Tommy Armstrong Jr. On Final Minutes vs. Illinois

            I have not linked on this website before, so hopefully I am doing this right. This link shows the answer to your huh? If you wanted this footage of Riley’s words then here it is, if not then ignore it.
            I am not trying to be a Riley apologist, just figured it would be important to see the whole picture. His mistakes in the game were horrible and his comments after the game were not any better. His comments after he had time to evaluate seem to be better though.

    • I cant seem to log onto the forums with my normal site login, so I tried to re-register on the forum.

      I wanted to post in there why no one uses it. This blog is perhaps too popular for the format we are using? IF the blog posts weren’t replyable, and there was a forums section with each blog post title as a pinned thread for the week, and there were some side sections specifically for recruiting and mybe an “other sports” header, then there would be a searchable database of information. yes?

      • Forums are an afterthought. Nobody goes there. If chat was open all the time, most of my rants would die their ugly ends there instead of here. I do miss the old IRC days of logging in for 20 minutes here and there and finding friendly banter that disappears into the ether.

  6. I don’t remember the stance of Gary Horowitz of the Salem paper when MR was here, but he is up today with this(must not be aware of Brenda Tracy):

    “If Nebraska was looking for a nice guy who will never embarrass the university, they hit the jackpot with Riley. But if they wanted a coach to challenge Ohio State’s Urban Meyer, Michigan State’s Mark Dantonio or Michigan’s Jim Harbaugh for Big Ten supremacy, Riley likely is not the answer.”

    BTW, he mentions Riley’s contract as being 5 yrs at 2.7Mill per.
    http://www.statesmanjournal.com/story/sports/blogs/horowitz/2015/10/05/struggles-continue-mike-riley-nebraska/73401290/

    • Well… we once had Jake Gelakoska, David Ross and Reggie Dunn. I remember watching Dunn play for Utah a couple years later… and Ross going to PSU. Remember Jake? He was the reason Bikey big timed Kellen Moore.

      But getting James and Quizz… and I think Paea during that time… that made our coaches great evaluators of talent.

      • >Jake Gelakoska

        The number of flat out busts Riley had at QB is astounding, considering he was alleged to be some QB whisperer. Jake Gelakoska was bad, but we’ll never know if he was bad at football or just bad at playing school. I suspect both though. Kyle Kempt is 3rd string at a junior college. James Pensyl managed one D1 offer after mercifully de-committing from us, to one of the worst teams in G5. Brian Hildebrand was both stupid and bad. Ryan Gunderson was terrible at football and godawful at doing whatever make-work job he held at Oregon State after he used up his 5 years of sucking.

        Then there’s the guys he didn’t bother to offer. Jared Goff, Aaron Rodgers, Kellen Moore, Colin Kaepernick, etc, etc, etc.

        • I hear you. To be fair, Gundy was a smarty who showed potential in HS. You get a miss here and there. You don’t get to ditch your team for a second time and leave seven QBs on the roster, none of whom can play… and still be called a guru.

  7. I’d feel much better if there were some big uglies coming on board. Perhaps a few JC kids and have some of the current players transfer out.

    • I heard some pretty encouraging talk tonight about about 1 or 2 of the Chandler kids, as well as a potential guy who is on nobody’s radar. Sorry to tease, but it sounds like this wasn’t the end of it. No timeline given or anything like that, but there’s plenty to be optimistic about.

      Also, keep in mind, its a long ways till signing day. Beavs will be fighting off some bigger name poachers than we’re accustomed to

  8. Olive already has an article up. Thompson says he silently committed during his visit, but wanted to talk it over with the fan before making it official.

    We need to schedule San Jose State more often.

  9. I feel almost the same about football right now as I did about basketball in late November of last year. Things were trending well, solid recruits, team playing with a lot of fire. Just getting outplayed/outmuscled but looks like the coaches have the right formula.

    Anybody going to Tucson for the away game? I realize that we don’t have a huge Arizona diaspora but still worth asking I suppose.

    • I would love to go back to Tucson. I used to work for the athletic department shooting practice and game film. Spent many games under the basket watching Lute Olsen teams play as well. Some of my best friends still live there. Alas, travel is difficult for me these days.

    • You mean last year when they did something? Or do mean this year when they went back to doing what they normally do under our current coach?

        • Yeah… I realize Taras is respected in that world. But he’s an assistant at best. He’s not a leader. Last year was lightning in a bottle. He finds a way to open the bottle and let it out.

          On a brighter note, Simmons has turned an ugly team into something to be respected. I did not expect that. I’ve been to two games this year, and his team is fun to watch. They are constantly aggressive and active. I don’t know what he did, but he has that program on the right track. And I was calling for him to be canned after the o-fer a couple years ago.

          I’m thinking Bobby had a talk with him before he left. I’m gaining much respect for BDC in hindsight, with all frailties still intact. The man left on a great note.

          • I’m also conflicted in my schadenfreude for their players and their fans. I can’t wish this on anyone. We lived it for so long, and now it’s supposed to be funny that someone else lives it?

            I don’t even wish it on the Ducks. I know it’s an eventual occurrence for many teams. But I don’t wish it on anyone.

          • And if it is indeed true that BDC wanted Riley to dump Banker. BDC did leave on a good note – the problem was he did too much practicing with Riley and Robinson before changing tunes.

          • Coach Rob is an unfair target. He was a poor in-game coach. But he did elevate the program like nobody before him. And I will always be thankful to him for that. Tinks would not have sought this job if it was in the condition it was when CR took it. No good coach would. Credit CR for doing the good that he did do. He just couldn’t do the most visible thing he was hired to do.

            That was a great hire by Bobby D given the results. It just wasn’t supreme. Tinks might be.

          • And CR’s teams usually played well in the first half, signifying a good plan. It was just that he could not adjust in-game. Man! He was just frustrating sometimes.

          • You can also argue that if we axed Riley a year or 2 earlier we don’t end up with GA, but a Brady Hoke type.

            I think the timing of how it all played out (in both Football and Bball) were perfect.

            You think we offer Tinkle a year or 2 earlier, or is he still too unproven at Montana?

  10. More folks catching on over at the Boneyard. This, regarding Riley:

    Go back and listen to all of his losses at osu. He’s got this scripted. 30 years of experience with losing press conferences, still working on that first year of successful clock management and play calling.

    • While I hope for Bikey to fail because of his tendency to shit on his players, unknowingly… and so nicely… I suppose… do I need to relive our pain forever? Do we?

      All this schadenfreude comes with the memory of pain. I’m conflicted because of this.

      • Vindication is a nice antidote to pain, at least for me.

        Now, if I could just bitch-whip Ted Miller for trying to embarass me on an ESPN forum when I asked why Mikey should get a pass for his continual poor starts to each season.

        • Miller is a fair target. Don’t ask for better because you’re not going to get it is as poor a response as anyone can make. Lindsay is another tone deaf target. I believe airport will be a constant forever.

          But reliving every Bikey moment in this current season dredges memories of Bikey’s past seasons. And there are many instances which caused pain… beyond just watching a game that kids play.

          • Lindsay started the ‘who, other than Riley would come to OSU, (and if they did, it would be just a stepping stone) can’t recruit to Corvallis, middle of nowhere, dumpy town, no diversity’ drum beat. I find it galling that she is still around – at Beav press conferences and doing a program on the Pac-12 network.

            I rarely listen to the Joe Beaver program but whenever I do, she is mentioned as though she’s a guru.

          • Jaynes and that whatever dude don’t even merit mention. They’re bot about as ignorant as you can get. At least I think Ted and Lindsay watched football and understood the rules, if not the game.

          • It’s not worth anything in terms of how she shits all over OSU and Corvallis. One would think she would have grown up during her time there.

  11. Teacher vs pupil in Lincoln this weekend. Husker faithful are now terrified of playing Wisconsin
    after getting steamrolled the past few games. Their new, experienced head coach “with a staff of excellent teachers” (should have kicked the tires before buying) was supposed to rectify this.
    Told my bro that Simple Jack is usually good to pull one unlikely win out of his ass per year. Don’t think this is the one. Man, Chryst is one dull dude.

    • See… this is the point in the season where Banker’s D makes sense… where the O takes of or a few games… where the Pollyannas get to hit back at the realists. We know this. We lived this. Their season can be summed up in their game against Miami. They will be blown out to start. They will then mount a charge. And then it will all end in heartbreak.

      That is the way it always happened with his good teams. His poorer teams started out well then just gave up. And his worst teams just never showed up.

  12. Listened to a few moments of the Joe Beaver show yesterday.

    A Mike Parker segue went from Pontius Pilate asking Jesus Christ ‘Who are you,’ to asking RN ‘Who are you?’ Running back, etc.

  13. It’s not out of the realm of possibility that NU goes 4-8, right? One might project that Purdue and Rutgers are wins, but given what happened on Saturday is there a true lock on their schedule? I think Callahan went 5-6 one of his seasons, so Riley might be up for another milestone in NU history. Frank Solich put down the bottle and head west, you are needed. Crisis alert!

    • Remember the days of 1-3 starts and 0-1 conference starts? Bikey searches for an identity, and being up against it is his spur.

      It wouldn’t surprise me if he won his next six games.

      That is the magic of Bikey. That is what is so gawd damn frustrating about his teams. He will kill you with mediocrity while showing both excellence and stupidity. Both are constants.

  14. There’s another thread. Right?

    angry… you said John Butler was good at noodling in an offset way. I think I responded with something about you must not like Stanley Jordan. I’m actually interested in that answer. What do you think of players like Jordan, Pass and Montgomery? And what do you think of someone like Kottke?

    I am already biased in favor of all of them and in disfavor (if that’s a word) of many system artists. I think my last rant against went toward Bob Mould and his scribble solos and constant off-time (with no purpose… just off-time) rhythm. But be honest. I know you like delta and raw and lean away from boogie. I like the downbeat, which delta never forgets. So I want to know why some will give that up in order to think they love something they really don’t.

    Sorry… that wasn’t aimed at you… or me, now that I think about it. But you know the type who thinks only their band is great and all others suck just because of genre. We can freely play Johnny Cash or Thelonius Monk here and get no argument, and probably love. And that is totally understandable.

    I just think you’re a little more attuned to the punk scene now and in the past. And I think they’re as tolerant of different music as “country/pop” fans are of theirs.

    • @LSU and their 483 returning All-Americans?

      Yeah… call that TO when you can’t call that TO… and then make that an excuse.

      We should have known right there.

    • Do you think it’s possible Riley was just stoned all the time?
      -Super friendly guy
      -Nothing upsets him
      -Munchies (habitual gum chewing to satisfy him during games)
      -Issues keeping track if time
      -Memory problems

  15. Funny little conversation that I had today. Went into a store in Round Rock, TX today and was talking with the owner about football. He said that he is a huge Nebraska fan. I started laughing and he looked at me like I was insane. I told him that I’m from Oregon and that I am an OSU fan. I told him that all of fans were so appreciative of the Huskers taking this horrible coaching staff off our hands. I thought he was going to jump over the counter and try and choke me. He calmed down and told me he has never seen such horrible coaching. He finished up saying that he really does not believe that this staff will make it past this year. Those poor bastards.

  16. Don’t feel bad for us Husker fans any longer. Problems solved. He says so himself!

    .@Huskers’ Riley: Have a plan to help give players concrete evidence of how they can improve & get better; a lot of positive reinforcement.

    • Dear Lord…

      @HuskerExtraBR: Langsdorf said inconsistency of some runs early against Illinois “might have chased us out of (the running game) a little bit too early.”

      @HuskerExtraBR: Langsdorf: “We’d run power for 7 yards and then lose two on it. Then we’d run stretch for 20 and lose four.” #Huskers

      Btw ONE negative rush in first half and TWO in second half.

      • I saw the last 10 min of the game on BTN replay. Biley’s gotten even Biley-er since moving to Nebraska. These losses epitomize Biley soooooo well it’s not even funny. (Actually that’s a lie, it’s freaking hilarious since it’s not happening to us anymore)

        Sorry NEDOC and your fellow #poorbastards

        • And the reason it’s freaking hilarious is because most people would never admit it was happening. Nope, Riley’s a nice guy, nope, Riley’s the best you can do, nope, you’ll regret losing Riley, nope, Riley’s a great football coach.
          Well, guess what. I don’t regret “losing” Riley and that’s why this schadenfreude is so delicious. We didn’t do anything, he upped and bailed on us (yay!) and we have nothing to feel sorry for.
          If BDC pushed his hand, he’s a much better AD than I ever would have given him credit for.
          But I do remember how awful it was to be stuck in that predicament. Luckily for NEDOC it won’t last as long.

      • Well, you got more out of them than we did in so many years. Usually we just get, “Well, yeah, um, we need to run more.”

        And then more of the same.

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