Time for soul searching

[NUinNC]

Kelly at Notre Dame had a bad year several years ago. He told his AD the failure was on him, he knew how to fix it, and needed to make changes ; which he did.

it’s time for Frost to make changes. His offense does not work. He needs to make changes. That includes coaches in the offense and the offensive scheme.

if he doesn’t make the changes we are doomed to repeat next year with results similar to this year.

He needs a new offense and he and his “assistant OC” can’t fix it on their own.

TO reinvented his offense after his first few years. Frost needs to accept the the fact that his offense is a failure.

The recruiting is improving. The S&C is improving. The culture is improving. He’s getting his facilities improved. His team defense and staff are improving and working well.
Change the offense or continue to fail and ultimately loose your job.

 

[Huskergod84]

Well you dont know that he and his current assistant OC cant fix it on their own. Maybe they can. Are there changes that need to be made to the offense? Sure. Nothing is ever perfect. Can it be fixed? Sure. Can it be done by who is currently on staff? Thats a question none of us can answer but its a question Frost has to answer. He knows his staff and what they know about football. He has to figure out if the right guys are in place to make the changes that need to be made or if he needs to make staff changes to make the changes that have to be made. We all have our opinion on if the right guys are in place or not but NONE of us truly knows because we dont know the coaches or their knowledege of the game. But Frost does. Its on him to decide if the right guys are here or not.

 

[redfred]

Two opposing, but very insightful posts imo. The one constant in both tho is that something/s need to change.

 

[Jimbosc]

The scheme would work if they had the players to run it. They don't. Oline had experience and struggled badly in several games. No real production from RBs. WR1 is great - but we showed nothing from other WRs other than a few flashes. TE is workable. QB play is frankly terrible - and that has to get fixed first. Luke could help at a position other than QB - but I suspect he would transfer if they try to move him.

Even with the existing scheme/players - yes Frost's playcalling is lacking - but part of it is he does not trust his guys to run the full play book. For good reason.

 

[NUinNC]

The scheme would work if they had the players to run it. They don't. Oline had experience and struggled badly in several games. No real production from RBs. WR1 is great - but we showed nothing from other WRs other than a few flashes. TE is workable. QB play is frankly terrible - and that has to get fixed first. Luke could help at a position other than QB - but I suspect he would transfer if they try to move him.

Even with the existing scheme/players - yes Frost's playcalling is lacking - but part of it is he does not trust his guys to run the full play book. For good reason.

The OL was supposed to be a strength of the team this year. They could have started an entire line with experienced players, four of them seniors Instead we ended up starting two freshmen and a sophomore. That should have been a very positive thing that the freshmen beat out seniors with experience. They have recruited the players they want. They have implemented the strength and conditioning program and it has been in place for three years.

But yet, we could not control the line of scrimmage and we could not establish any kind of running game. I think Austin is a good OL coach. But I think the problem is the blocking scheme they are running. They don't try to take advantage of their size and strength to wear down opposing defenses. Something is very wrong. I'm not smart enough to offer a solution. But I can smell and see failure. This crap aint working.

 

[Jarhead Husker]

The scheme would work if they had the players to run it. They don't. Oline had experience and struggled badly in several games. No real production from RBs. WR1 is great - but we showed nothing from other WRs other than a few flashes. TE is workable. QB play is frankly terrible - and that has to get fixed first. Luke could help at a position other than QB - but I suspect he would transfer if they try to move him.

Even with the existing scheme/players - yes Frost's playcalling is lacking - but part of it is he does not trust his guys to run the full play book. For good reason.

Good points. We know the scheme can work, and really has worked in that we see wide open receivers, and holes that are open but close quickly. However, that means we are faced with a lack of talent/development as the cause of many of our issues. AM misses several wide open receivers, and the primary ability of a QB is to be able to throw. Unless we start a different QB, no amount of tweaking is going to get the Offense right. AM is a junior and is worse than he was as a Frosh. At this point, LM doesn't look like he can run the Offense either. QB development has been an epic fail. RBs are underwhelming, but Frost won't lean on them for many carries, so who knows. The OL has had poor execution for 3 years. We keep being told it's youth, but that isn't telling the entire story. This OL has plenty of starts under their belt. Bad snaps, and some of them just have lead feet and get beat in space, and use poor technique. The other issue, as mentioned by Rob Zatechka, is strategy. We have head scratching game plans and don't take advantage of the opponent's weakness (Gopher run Defense). It still points to coaching deficiencies way deeper than scheme for a lot of these issues, and it is a reason people are doubting "where this is going".....

 

[Removed Spleen of Jordan]

Luke could help at a position other than QB - but I suspect he would transfer if they try to move him.

I agree that there's probably a good chance that would happen. But to that I say so what? What's the use of having a substandard QB on scholarship. Are we just trying to keep the wow factor of having a McCaffrey on the roster? Move him to WR and be done with it. He certainly doesn't have a future at the next level playing QB. He'd be smart if he switched now.

 

[Nebraska99]

People are starting to put band-aids on a gunshot wound. Knee jerk moves like moving Luke to another position aren't good for the team or the player. With the small amount of experience he has gotten in a crappy situation we are just going to discard him? Why take away playing time and experience from a recruited WR? That would seem like a last ditch effort to me and says more about the staff than the player. It smacks of desperation.

He has shown flashes of very good potential. Why do people think he got recruited at QB? This highly unusual situation is sorely testing the patience of all us diehard fans but...deep breath....and beer, not necessarily in that order.

GBR

 

[OhioHusker]

The scheme would work if they had the players to run it. They don't. Oline had experience and struggled badly in several games. No real production from RBs. WR1 is great - but we showed nothing from other WRs other than a few flashes. TE is workable. QB play is frankly terrible - and that has to get fixed first. Luke could help at a position other than QB - but I suspect he would transfer if they try to move him.

Even with the existing scheme/players - yes Frost's playcalling is lacking - but part of it is he does not trust his guys to run the full play book. For good reason.

If in year 3 he doesn't trust his players to run his playbook, he's a poor teacher.

 

[kmillz]

Things are getting worse, not better. I question whether talent, depth, S&C, coaching, etc., is truly getting better. On the surface, it is all regressing.

Nebraska will continue to lose a lot of games until they get players that can play Big10 type of football and coaches that have the same philosophy.

 

[valiantsailor]

What Frost has been hired to do is win not necessarily highlight a duck/UCF offense that is jeckyl and hyde. IF this was Callahan or Smiling Mike, the pitch forks, tar and feathers and torches would already be on sale. Frost has to change and if he doesn't he will be replaced. Anyone thinking we need to give him 5 years or more is delusional. Look at what Campbell has produced at IOWA ST in 5 years. We aren't even close.

 

[GaPnt]

What Frost has been hired to do is win not necessarily highlight a duck/UCF offense that is jeckyl and hyde. IF this was Callahan or Smiling Mike, the pitch forks, tar and feathers and torches would already be on sale. Frost has to change and if he doesn't he will be replaced. Anyone thinking we need to give him 5 years or more is delusional. Look at what Campbell has produced at IOWA ST in 5 years. We aren't even close.

What Frost has been hired to do is win not necessarily highlight a duck/UCF offense that is jeckyl and hyde. IF this was Callahan or Smiling Mike, the pitch forks, tar and feathers and torches would already be on sale. Frost has to change and if he doesn't he will be replaced. Anyone thinking we need to give him 5 years or more is delusional. Look at what Campbell has produced at IOWA ST in 5 years. We aren't even close.

What Frost has been hired to do is win not necessarily highlight a duck/UCF offense that is jeckyl and hyde. IF this was Callahan or Smiling Mike, the pitch forks, tar and feathers and torches would already be on sale. Frost has to change and if he doesn't he will be replaced. Anyone thinking we need to give him 5 years or more is delusional. Look at what Campbell has produced at IOWA ST in 5 years. We aren't even close.

And he was the one we should have hired

 

[Cigarman]

Frankly, the offense is not the problem. This offense is nothing more than the spread with a couple of wrinkles. Most of the best offenses in college football are very similar. The problem is not the players either. There is more talent on this team than 70% of the teams we play. The real problems are how the offense is implemented and the play calling. Tom Osborne was able to make his offense work, not because it was that great but because he was a genius at play calling. He knew how to set up plays. He ran multiple plays off the same set ,the D was kept guessing the entire game. TO's coaching staff was made up of blue beards who knew what was happening and quickly made changes to stop the bleeding or take advantage of the situation. They instantly saw the mismatches and took advantages of them. Frost and his staff do not have that ability. In fact, they can not even make effective half time adjustments.

If you are going to succeed on offense, you either have to out execute your opponent or surprise them. A few of the elite teams can come out and out execute everyone they play, this team is not one of them. That means the have of surprise them. They can not become predictable. This team is way too predictable. On almost every play we see the entire defense running to the ball. This means there are keys that give away the play. This is why young coaches spend years in the AAC or the MAC. They need time to hone their skills and be ready for big time football.

Frost needs to bring in someone who understands Big10 football to run the offense. He also need coaches who don't need to watch film after the game to figure out what changes needed to have been made during the game.

 

[innmc]

What concerns me is every game I watch I find myself asking the question.. do these guys practice?
They just do not look like they do. How can they look so disjointed and clumsy?
Pathetic really.

 

[Cigarman]

What concerns me is every game I watch I find myself asking the question.. do these guys practice?
They just do not look like they do. How can they look so disjointed and clumsy?
Pathetic really.

I have noticed that too. They certainly are not a well oiled machine. I don't know if they are trying to put in too much and not spending enough time on basics or what. However, in several games this year I saw players running into each other or running pass routes to the same spot or missing coverage on a receiver. We see it in the number of penalties as well. They just are not prepared.

 

[Pavlov's Dog]

You practice to simulate the game. If we are constantly doing well in practice, but not in games' are we truly simulating a game?

Oh, and one more thing, Frost said it AGAIN that some guys aren't buying in! It's time to ask "What are you selling?" This is the end of year three and guys aren't buying in? With the transfer portal a somewhat painless option? Sticking around for THREE YEARS, but not buying in? Something smells here, it's a good way to lose the team.

 

[Husker99]

Maybe the real problem is that Frost and this coaching staff are coddling the players?

I'm not talking about coaches abusing players certainly, but maybe swearing at them, making them run stadium stairs, do up downs, money rolls after practice for every time they F up in a game? You know, putting the metaphorical foot up the metaphorical a**?

Because clearly, we're seeing the same mistakes, same gaffes, same head scratching idiocy week after week and clearly, nothing is getting fixed.

 

[Jimbosc]

Maybe the real problem is that Frost and this coaching staff are coddling the players?

I'm not talking about coaches abusing players certainly, but maybe swearing at them, making them run stadium stairs, do up downs, money rolls after practice for every time they F up in a game? You know, putting the metaphorical foot up the metaphorical a**?

Because clearly, we're seeing the same mistakes, same gaffes, same head scratching idiocy week after week and clearly, nothing is getting fixed.

There are not consequences for screw-ups - outside of swapping QBs after multiple turnovers. That is the biggest lever coaches have - playing time. Frost and Co. don't seem to comprehend if someone is a game day turd - you can't keep playing them and hope it gets better.

 

[Sgt Red]

and when playing time is withheld the modern player transfers out.

 

[valiantsailor]

Frankly, the offense is not the problem. This offense is nothing more than the spread with a couple of wrinkles. Most of the best offenses in college football are very similar. The problem is not the players either. There is more talent on this team than 70% of the teams we play. The real problems are how the offense is implemented and the play calling. Tom Osborne was able to make his offense work, not because it was that great but because he was a genius at play calling. He knew how to set up plays. He ran multiple plays off the same set ,the D was kept guessing the entire game. TO's coaching staff was made up of blue beards who knew what was happening and quickly made changes to stop the bleeding or take advantage of the situation. They instantly saw the mismatches and took advantages of them. Frost and his staff do not have that ability. In fact, they can not even make effective half time adjustments.

If you are going to succeed on offense, you either have to out execute your opponent or surprise them. A few of the elite teams can come out and out execute everyone they play, this team is not one of them. That means the have of surprise them. They can not become predictable. This team is way too predictable. On almost every play we see the entire defense running to the ball. This means there are keys that give away the play. This is why young coaches spend years in the AAC or the MAC. They need time to hone their skills and be ready for big time football.

Frost needs to bring in someone who understands Big10 football to run the offense. He also need coaches who don't need to watch film after the game to figure out what changes needed to have been made during the game.

I have preached this since day one when he never bothered getting anyone with Big 10 experience for his staff. It is bound to fail unless we keep him around long enough for him to absorb the skill but the only problem with that is we will have become bottow feeders in the conference. oooooops