Bigger, stronger, faster ... thoughts
- Thread starter catch54
- Start date
I thought this was a six million dollar man thread. Dammit. I didnt know we were back to football
Ben Stille came in as a freshmen at 255, he is now at 295. I think it will be safe to say he will be at 300 to 305 as a senior next year. That kid is a warrior. Big Ben Stille fan. Great character kid and real good football player.
"Personally, I’d love to someday mix a lot of the concepts that Oregon runs with some of the aspects Nebraska used to run. . . . The one thing I wish we could do at Oregon is be a little more physical. I don’t think that’s a secret. I think everybody on our staff wishes we could be a little more physical on offense. That’s what Nebraska’s calling card was. If we could play fast and physical, I don’t think there’s anybody in the country who could stop us.” - Scott Frost
Frost said this in 2011...he was a lowly WR position coach and Oregon had lost the NCG just a few months prior in gut-wrenching fashion. Very bold critique of a great program under those circumstances. Regardless, anyone who thinks Nebraska won't soon be a fast, physical team is in for a hard lesson learned.
Frost said this in 2011...he was a lowly WR position coach and Oregon had lost the NCG just a few months prior in gut-wrenching fashion. Very bold critique of a great program under those circumstances. Regardless, anyone who thinks Nebraska won't soon be a fast, physical team is in for a hard lesson learned.
Last edited:
RT if you cried
Stille has come a lot way. I saw some pictures of him from high school and as a freshman. He was much thinner. And he used to smile. But his serious demeanor now is A-OK.
I think it was 2 years ago during the B1G bus tour, that DiNardo mentioned something to the effect of the NU Lines didn't look the part and there was huge separation between them and teams like OSU, Wisc, PSU, Mich and MSU. I also seem to remember him saying something to the effect last year that our guys looked much more the part. Again, I'm paraphrasing. Very anxious to see what they say this year.
I also want to believe that the full year in the SF/ZD regime will breed more confidence, which can go a long way in close games and now actually believing you can win, instead of hoping or waving the white flag.
I'm going to have a sip of Kool-Aid for lunch.
GBR
It's possible that he wasn't a "good" 235 and his 225 is much better proportioned this year.
IMO, the difference was noticeable when they came out of the tunnel for that first came. Obviously there were some guys with some work to do yet, but we looked like a B1G team at least. I'm interested to see what they look like this fall. More importantly I'm interested to see how they play. I have no doubt that Frost's staff has made a huge difference physically and mentally in this team.
Saw a photo of Honas at the Husker Road Race, he had some serious guns man. He looked stout.
Lets see, all I have left on my preseason hype checklist is an article about the new team leadership being stronger than ever and them stepping up to the plate to hold each other accountable...did I miss that one? I kid I kid, Im sure they have made big improvements, they definitely look good without pads on.
But damn these hype stories...just when I think Im done with them...
But damn these hype stories...just when I think Im done with them...
I think what we see is almost a uniform improvement among all the players. In the past as they were not held accountable some would improve, others stay the same and some regress - I think that will be a trend we do not see happening again
Lets see, all I have left on my preseason hype checklist is an article about the new team leadership being stronger than ever and them stepping up to the plate to hold each other accountable...did I miss that one? I kid I kid, Im sure they have made big improvements, they definitely look good without pads on.
But damn these hype stories...just when I think Im done with them...
Did we cover how the team is closer than ever?
And...wait...are they like a family yet?
I have said this before I think the collapse the first 6 games was 100% mental. Yes we weren't where we needed to be on a physical standpoint. We were enough, where we should have been able to get to 5-1 4-2 not 0-6. After what happened the previous 2 years with dip **** Riley. These kids were mentally and emotionally fried. Then we saw the mental side of things get better and we saw drastic improvements the 2nd half of the year. However losing to Iowa and Ohio St showed we weren't there yet from a physical standpoint. I think this year we will have both areas pretty dialed in. Going to be a fun year.
I think there is a lot of truth to that. Sometimes you start losing and you just can't get out of your own way. It just seems like no matter what you do it won't work.
Agree 100%. The 2017 season was demoralizing. You could literally see in the demeanor of players and coaches alike, week in and week out we were beat before the opening kickoff. Riley was a dead man walking in the first 3 games of that season. That mentality is extremely difficult to overcome. I think they took the first step in overcoming it after the Purdue game. The swagger slowly began to return. I think mentally they will be dialed in this year, and that will make the physical aspect all the better.
IMHO those first 3 losses had more to do with not having Martinez than anything Riley did to poison the well.
Winning against Colorado, lost the game after Martinez goes down. Lost to Troy with a back up QB that was at best the 3rd QB coming out of the spring. Then you go on the road against Michigan with a less than 100% Martinez and boom you’re 0-3 going into Purdue. Again IMHO Nebraska was over confident going into that game, Frost even made comment to the fact that Purdue was a “winnable” game. Again not sure if that was 100% Riley’s fault, but he clearly has some blame. At that point you are 0-4 and I am still not sure much of that had to do with the previous year’s team and mentality. But it’s low hanging fruit so let’s go with that. From that point on the team was 4-4.
Those seniors had been through an interesting period. Bo and his firing, Riley and his hands off approach and then a new head coach, 3rd OC and 4th DC. I would say 3 completely different coaching styles, attitudes and personas.
Some continuity would certainly help. I think it’s finally here which is all the more reason for hope.
Coach speak from bad to great.
1. We're taking it slow (4-8)
2. We made great gains (8-4)
3. We're not going to beat anybody with this sort of focus(10-2)
4. We might win some games this year (12-0)
I can't wait until Frost rips into his teams knowing they are physically at their peak and just need to clean it up mentally.
You prepare for a month of fall camp, you think you have a great team, guys are excited to show the other team how good they are.
Then they get into a game and things change. They get hit in the mouth and they find out they aren’t the giants they thought they were. They start making mistakes. Reality sinks in, they are not ready to compete physically and mentally. When you find out you can’t whip a guy at least part of the time, it gets inside your head.
No doubt losing Martinez was a huge factor. Something changed half way through the season, they didn’t have enough time to get stronger. They did get their QB back, had some other personnel changes (Bell gone, Ozigbo steps up) and they were over the mental shock of getting clocked by the guy across from them.
To me it wasn’t one or the other, it was both. But what do I know?
Then they get into a game and things change. They get hit in the mouth and they find out they aren’t the giants they thought they were. They start making mistakes. Reality sinks in, they are not ready to compete physically and mentally. When you find out you can’t whip a guy at least part of the time, it gets inside your head.
No doubt losing Martinez was a huge factor. Something changed half way through the season, they didn’t have enough time to get stronger. They did get their QB back, had some other personnel changes (Bell gone, Ozigbo steps up) and they were over the mental shock of getting clocked by the guy across from them.
To me it wasn’t one or the other, it was both. But what do I know?
People forget there are 60 other teams doing exactly what we are doing. They are stocked with equal or better talent and have coaches that are just as hungry. Some get stuck with Mike Reilly as coach but most programs have beasts running the ship and that is why when we get into games it is competitive and more often than not we have had our hands full with power 5 programs over the last 8 years or so. Bo was something like 3-26 against top 25 teams and then that was followed up with 5,4,4 win seasons in 3 of the last 4.
I agree, however of those 60 there is probably only about 10-15 who can consistently become the next Clemson, Alabama, or 90s Neb good. I would like to believe Nebraska is still in that 10-15. It takes a perfect storm of facilities, coaches, fan support, money, recruiting, timing, and talent to make every thing click just perfectly. There are only so many school that can check all those boxes.
I don't think we are to that point just yet. We have all the boxes checked but talent. So we could be closer than some think, or want to believe. We need to be able to get top 10 recruiting. Perfect example is Wisc, they had all the boxes checked and were a very good team for a decade or so. They just couldn't bring in top talent consistently enough. We will see if Frost can bring in the talent. If he can't, we won't fair much better than Wisc. Good but never great.
P.S Bo was 9-17 vs top 25 teams. Not much better, no. I believe even worse vs top 10
Bo was winless against top ten in the sagarin ratings anyway.
Looking at wiscy, theyve done well in recruiting where theyve done well on the field.
Theyve consistently gotten top rbs, and their O linemen are also very good,some highly rated.
But its very one dimensional, but this year, they now have another potentially top qb, but wheres their wr? Or their TEs?
They are very one sided, run run run, and it shows in their recruiting.
Thing is, even with their very highly rated qb, its still unproven how well or how much having one will actually help them, again, being so one sided, run run run.
Is their coaching staff capable of game plans utilizing superior talent at qb? Thats unproven, and top wide outs and TEs ,they dont have much of.
SF and his track record of recruits, play calling, scheme, has allowed him to get top prospects at rb, wide out and some decent TEs. Advantage us, in a huge way.
If SF can't bring in that talent, its because Nebraska has lost its luster, because he certainly brought em in at Oregon.
But he will
I was sitting in a Nebraska alum sports bar, in WA, for our first game under Riley. Ironically, an Oregon State alum, sat next to me. I asked what his thoughts about the hire were. He said, "You can have him!" I should have known then, that we were in trouble. Couple that with hiring a S&C coach from a struggling USC team and it had disaster written all over it.
Once you find the right formula, it's not really that difficult to win. Alabama has found a formula for success and they're dominating teams consistently. I think we're already recruiting good enough that if we find the right formula for coaching and development, we can consistently be a top 10 team.
Frost said while he was at UCF that he was frustrated at Oregon because they went fast but lacked the physicality to overcome teams like Auburn and Ohio State. His goal at UCF was to combine what he learned at Oregon about speed and tempo with what he took from Nebraska in the 1990’s about S&C and physicality. He blended it well in year two at UCF. If he can successfully blend the two here at Nebraska then there is a good chance the talent will follow. Combine all three with solid coaching and you have the formula to win at very high levels.
Phillip isn’t a bad S&C coach. When the football coaches don’t make it a priority, don’t penalize those for not showing up etc, it undermined any authority he had.
Mike Riley is like that "friend" parent. The parents are not in charge. Kids run all over them. Short term the kids love it. Long term they are F-ing them up. Same thing with Riley. He did more harm than good.
Oregon State fans don't know sh*t. They've won 9 games in 4 years since Riley left.