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The START of this Husker Season is CRITICAL!

Doc Fumble

Doc Fumble

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Dec 15, 2017
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The Heart of Huskerland, Lincoln, NE
As we look back over our lack of success these past four years of the Scott Frost era, there are A LOT of things we could discuss: mindnumbing mistakes, turnovers and penalties...the Blackshirts on third-and-long situations....not finishing games...yadda, yadda, yadda. But one thing we haven't talked much about is our horrid starts to each season.

College football is a game of momentum and instead of building up some early momentum, we've started each season with mojo-sapping losses. Over the years, I've seen how a good Husker team has 'picked up steam' and gotten better-and-better each week as the early season wins kept coming. One of the things that has made Nebraska football special over the years is that when the team starts off well -- the fans respond big-time!!! The enthusiasm and momentum from players and fans just keeps building upon itself. By the time mid-season rolls around LOOK OUT! But that has yet to ever happen during the Frost era.

  • 2018: Frost's first game as the Husker's Head Man -- Akron the opponent. It's a night game with one of -- The Most Electrically-Charged Atmospheres I've ever experienced inside Memorial Stadium.....then--ugh!--the game's canceled. On to our new 'first' game where dumb mistakes lead to a heartbreaking loss to CU. :banghead:
  • 2019: After a tune-up game against South Alabama, the team travels to Boulder for revenge against the Buffs. After dominating the first half, 17-0...we blow our lead in the fourth quarter and lose to those guys again??!?. WTF? :banghead: We lost our Mojo in that game and, IMHO, never got it back.
  • 2020: We start the season at Ohio State and, after an encouraging first quarter, get our butts stomped. After our home game with Wisconsin game is cancelled...WTF? Why no Badger forfeit?... :banghead: ...we go back on the road and lose to Northwestern. Combine these events with the Covid virus and we're talking about another depressing start to the season.
  • 2021: We start off the season with high hopes...only to experience a mojo-shattering loss to Illinois!!! WTF? How does a poor team with a new coaching staff beat us??!? :banghead:
In a sport that's wired for momentum swings, could we have had ANY WORSE starts to a season??!? This history is why our game against Northwestern is so much more important than a typical season opener. We've GOT to come out swinging and get a Big W in Ireland.
 
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To make it worse, in any of those seasons, I don’t recall having a good middle or ending to the season (record-wise at least).
 
ATX_Husker said:
I am convinced we were cursed from the start with the way that Akron game got cancelled, I had never seen anything like that in my life.
Click to expand...

I don't get to many Nebraska home games, as I live just outside the 500-mile radius. But I was there that night. The crowd went nuts and the stadium shook when Frost came on the video board and said "there is no place like Nebraska." I had my adult daughter with me and she looked at me and mouthed "wow!" I say mouthed because it was so loud you couldn't hear anything.

I am convinced Nebraska would have rolled in that game. But like ATX says, I've never seen anything like that in my 50+ years of following Husker football.

This year, if Frost doesn't have at least four wins at the halfway point, he might be done before the season ends. I'm hoping for 5 of 6 so we can get a bowl trip and coaching search business put to bed for this year.
 
DrFumblerooski said:
As we look back over our lack of success these past four years of the Scott Frost era, there are A LOT of things we could discuss: mindnumbing mistakes, turnovers and penalties...the Blackshirts on third-and-long situations....not finishing games...yadda, yadda, yadda. But one thing we haven't talked much about is our horrid starts to each season.

College football is a game of momentum and instead of building up some early momentum, we've started each season with mojo-sapping losses. Over the years, I've seen how a good Husker team has 'picked up steam' and gotten better-and-better each week as the early season wins kept coming. One of the things that has made Nebraska football special over the years is that when the team starts off well -- the fans respond big-time!!! The enthusiasm and momentum from players and fans just keeps building upon itself. By the time mid-season rolls around LOOK OUT! But that has yet to ever happen during the Frost era.

  • 2018: Frost's first game as the Husker's Head Man -- Akron the opponent. It's a night game with one of -- The Most Electrically-Charged Atmospheres I've ever experienced inside Memorial Stadium.....then--ugh!--the game's canceled. On to our new 'first' game where dumb mistakes lead to a heartbreaking loss to CU. :banghead:
  • 2019: After a tune-up game against South Alabama, the team travels to Boulder for revenge against the Buffs. After dominating the first half, 17-0...we blow our lead in the fourth quarter and lose to those guys again??!?. WTF? :banghead: We lost our Mojo in that game and, IMHO, never got it back.
  • 2020: We start the season at Ohio State and, after an encouraging first quarter, get our butts stomped. After our home game with Wisconsin game is cancelled...WTF? Why no Badger forfeit?... :banghead: ...we go back on the road and lose to Northwestern. Combine these events with the Covid virus and we're talking about another depressing start to the season.
  • 2021: We start off the season with high hopes...only to experience a mojo-shattering loss to Illinois!!! WTF? How does a poor team with a new coaching staff beat us??!? :banghead:
In a sport that's wired for momentum swings, could we have had ANY WORSE starts to a season??!? This history is why our game against Northwestern is so much more important than a typical season opener. We've GOT to come out swinging and get a Big W in Ireland.
Click to expand...
I couldn’t agree with this post more. It nails just about everything I feel about our first game. As Whip said when asked whether it was a good, or bad, thing starting out with a divisional conference game……”It depnends on if you win it”
 
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Momentum isn't just some magical, uncontrollable potion that drops out of the sky. It is the culmination of knowledge and hard work. A raucous crowd may seem to have some influence but that applies only if the capability is there in the first place.

There is hopefully a true catharsis, a radically different mindset this year.
For four years we've seen the essence of poor preparation both in X's and O's and emotionally.
The Michigan State punt return well represents the past four years. A competitive, purely winnable game is trashed because of one of the most corporately incompetent things I've ever seen (in college football, not just Nebraska). Depending on a punter who shanked half his punts off the side of his foot to pinpoint his kick to a particular player and being so confident in something you're incapable of doing you leverage the entire team in this happening. Meanwhile one of the most dangerous players in the league is purposely left uncovered. That is on the coaches. People have been fired for less. Add to that not one player had the the wherewithal or field presence to adjust to the situation. I don't think even the MSU coaches or players could believe what happened. I know I've never seen anything like it.
That was an example of motivational deflation, self imposed.
Self imposed via poor planning and preparation and just plain not being capable of your job.
We fired and hired some new assistants but is it change for change's sake, mere window dressing? Or did Frost look into the mirror and clearly see the root cause of the problem and humbly acknowledge it?
Some are excited about Whipple but we could see the same dynamic. He wasn't brought in to bring our offense back to its roots but to continue a philosophy that has worked to destroy our former identity. Maybe it will have some mild success. We've been throwing the ball around with a qb who couldn't throw the ball around. Fail.
Can our offense be a collection of tough guys? I am not confident of that.
 
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I've said in a couple of other threads but I'll repeat it. As the Northwestern game goes, so goes our season.

I'm not projecting a 12 win season if we beat Northwestern; but I truly believe that if we lose to Northwestern that we are in for another rinse/repeat season and Frost is out of here. I don't even want to hazard a guess about what that would do to the Huskers.

30 days from right now, we'll be discussing where we go from here: whether it be good, bad or ugly.
 
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MRJFB said:
There is hopefully a true catharsis, a radically different mindset this year. For four years we've seen the essence of poor preparation both in X's and O's and emotionally.
Click to expand...
I sorely wish I could disagree with Mrjfb but the hard reality is, he speakith the truth.

As a CFB fan for over 50 years, I've seen enough football games to be able to see the difference between a well-coached team and the other kind. When you've grown up with Bob Devaney and Tom Osborne-coached teams, the contrast between the two is especially stark.

MRJFB said:
Momentum isn't just some magical, uncontrollable potion that drops out of the sky. It is the culmination of knowledge and hard work. A raucous crowd may seem to have some influence but that applies only if the capability is there in the first place.
Click to expand...
THIS! ^^^^^

It's not uncommon to see good teams occasionally struggle in their season openers (particularly with B1G teams over the years.) But four years in a row? And our early failures became a trend in how we 'finished' football games. Football is often characterized as a "game of inches." But as Mrjfb illustrated in his Sparty punt return example, when Frost's Husker teams have blown it, it's not been by an inch but a country mile.

I'm guessing part of my concern is simply my way of steeling myself in case it all falls apart again. But I keep telling myself that if we've got the right people in place now running the show, we SHOULD solidly beat Northwestern out of the gate. ...ah, but I was even more confident going into last season's Illinois game. :)
 
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I'm hoping to come across King Brian (Darby O'Gill and the Little People.) when I'm over there and get us 3 wishes.

I hate the thought of having to kiss the Blarney Stone for luck, I'm too fat and my son can't hold me upside down by himself and would probably let go.
 
If we lose to NW - especially if we don't play well - I tend to agree the season will be a duplicate of prior Frost seasons and losing record will be the result.

Is it possible the team suddenly "gets it" at some point in 2022 after getting snubbed in Dublin......yes....but the chance it happens seems very slim to me. We don't have to be perfect to get the W vs NW - but a solid game 1 performance is critical to the rest of the 2022 season.
 
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If the Huskers lose in Dublin, they will be a 3-9 team again. If they win they will be 7-5 or better. That's what I think this first game means.

p.s. I hope Northwestern doesn't try some defense that they aren't suppose to, that could ruin everything. :banghead:
 
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If Nebraska loses to Northwestern, the season isn't lost, folks. It's one of 12 games and it counts the same as all the others.

But I will say this: if they lose to Northwestern, Nebraska will have to find a way to beat Oklahoma to get back on track. With a couple of tune-up games after Northwestern, it's possible they'll fix the problems that beat them in Ireland and surprise the Sooners.

Speaking of Oklahoma, I was wondering the other day if Boomer Sooner is the worst song ever written. For my money, it noses out the Cha-Cha shuffle for the worst ever. Win or lose, we'll hear it 267 times on September 17.
 
We'll lose to NW and Frost will be gone by mid-season. His performance has been totally unacceptable considering the level of talent we have had for the last 4 years.
 
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