I’m very curious to hear some of the personal expectations that posters have of the football program. It seems that there are vast differences among older posters and younger posters. Personally I think Nebraska should be winning 9-10 every year and winning the division at least every 3 years. Winning the conference once every 5 would be nice but I’ll be happy as long as we are making it to the conf champ game. That at least means that we are competing for championships. This is basically where Bo had us. If Frost can get us back to this level, and not have the emotional baggage Bo had, then I think we’ll have found our long term answer. Curious to hear the boards thoughts.
Your expectations for Nebraska.
- Thread starter LPTC1
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Be a team that matters nationally.
I don't love the win x games every year or win the conference every x years, personally. I think the days of Dr. Tom winning 10+ games and being in the Top 10, every year are done. I think we need to compete for the division almost every season and be competitive in the B1G Championship game when we get there. We should be organized, disciplined and tough. But we will have to stick with a coach through a tough season or two (like ND and MSU recently). Even if we are competing for division titles, almost every season, we will still have the occasional disappointing season and I think standing by the coach and team during that season could be a real challenge for this fan base.
Conference Championships, period. Do that and we'll get our playoff chances and NC shots. It doesn't have to be EVERY year and I'm realistic enough to know it won't happen every year, but we should at the very least be winning the West 50% of the time and at least have a chance to win the B1G at a regular rate. I'm sorry but our only competition in this division should be Wisconsin, not the Purdue's or Iowa's of the world.
We haven't won a conference this century. Sure would be nice to at least get that feeling back every once and a while.
We haven't won a conference this century. Sure would be nice to at least get that feeling back every once and a while.
I'm 34 years old and grew up watching the powerhouse Husker teams of the 90s. I understand fully that time is long gone. There is just to much parity in college football anymore. But what I want from the team is to be competitive in almost every game. I understand your going to have a game where you get beat soundly as those things just happen, but we have been on the wrong end of those for types of beat downs to many times recently. I'm not on the fire riley train but I'm also not trying to defend and make a point for keeping him. I leave that to the higher ups to determine what is best for our program. I will cheer for the team no matter who the coach is or what their record is. I just want the Huskers to be competitive and respectable. If you had asked me at the beginning of the season I would have said at worst we go 7-5 with losses to Oregon, Wisconsin, Ohio State, Penn State, & Iowa. At best we are 10-2 with losses to Ohio State & Penn State. I might still be right at 7-5 but there needed to be some drastic changes in the bye week if we are going to win 4 of the next 5. Anyway, I hope that the boys are ready to go on Saturday night for a much improved Purdue team.
Win the West most years. Win the B1G once every five years. Play in the national title playoffs once every 5-10 years
On those down years we should still be able to expect to beat who we should beat and be competitive with the rest. It is embarrasment both on and off the field that is hard to swallow
I basically want to quit cringing every Saturday.
My expectations are fielding a team that is respectable, not laughable. Exceed off-season expectations instead of crapping them.
Parity explains why NU started losing to KU, ISU, Northwestern, occasionally. Parity does not explain losing to NIU, and failing to put up a fight in so many games.
- 8 wins average
- top 10 finish twice every five years
- top 25 finish twice every five years
- major bowl game every third year
Agree, though I think I'd ratchet up to winning the B1G twice every five years. B1G West is not very strong so this should be within reach if we're "back".
I don't agree your statement, "There is just too much parity in college football anymore". Is there? It seems to me that you can pretty well pencil in the same 20 teams or so in the Top 25 every year. That is where I would like to see Nebraska again. If the Huskers get back to being included in the Top 25 every year like they use to be then everything else will follow.
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Parity hurt Neb more than any school in the country, I believe. A couple of West titles every decade. I use to say a BIG title every decade, but I’d say every 12 to 15 years. It’ll take that T Martinez type QB or person that nobody wants that fits our system and have the one year every 10 to 15 years. If they shake up the BIG and we have to play the big boys or top 20 programs like PSU, OSU, Mich. then I’ll say a conf title every 15 to 20.
A big factor in overall college football parity today is the advent and evolution of the spread offense. It can be a major schematic equalizer. Sure, the GREAT teams can stop the spread and the power/pro sets but there isn't more than a couple of those teams that have been consistent in doing so over the last 15 years.
My expectations: to realistically have a change to win every game on our schedule. Easy to say and very, VERY hard to do. You have to have both talent and coaching and most important, the ability to execute in high level manner. I realize we're no where close to this, and that this expectation is very difficult to attain, but that's what I expect from Nebraska football.
GBR
My expectations: to realistically have a change to win every game on our schedule. Easy to say and very, VERY hard to do. You have to have both talent and coaching and most important, the ability to execute in high level manner. I realize we're no where close to this, and that this expectation is very difficult to attain, but that's what I expect from Nebraska football.
GBR
Excellent reasonable post. Some of our fan base is just delusional. IF we get lucky maybe we someday get to their expectations but I'm probably not going to live to see it.
At this point my expectations are low. As mike says I want it to look like(good)football. When we reach that consistently expectations will go up.
Graduate players, compete EVERY year for the west division (no lower than second), win the B1G occasionally which will let you play for NC.
I'm curious as to how old you are. Not in a negative way, but just wondering if it's the younger people that never experienced just how good we were in the 70's through the 90's that think this way. I'm 42 so I grew up in the 80's and 90's so my expectations might be higher than some of the younger people around here.
A monkey could win our division 3 out of 7 years and win at least nine games a year at Nebraska. So win the division half the time and average 10 wins/more is a minimum expectation. Especially when we consider that our recruiting is waaaaayyyyy ahead of our division rivals this should not be that difficult.
Let’s say our next coach is a home run hire (Frost), my expectations for the next 10 years would be:
5-6 Big 10 West titles
2-3 conference titles
1-2 years playing in the playoffs.
5-6 Big 10 West titles
2-3 conference titles
1-2 years playing in the playoffs.
Should be 8-9 wins average, not sure what happened. The extra conference game compared to a fourth OOC game makes a difference.
I'd like to see a fundamentally sound football program. If Nebraska played well on a more consistent basis then a lot could be accomplished, perfect the basics. Sounds simple and there's more to it than that but having it down and playing as a unit goes a long way. We're a jumbled mess at times, sorry but that isn't fundamentally sound to me.
I don't expect titles all the time but being "a team you need to beat" isn't exactly unrealistic.
I don't expect titles all the time but being "a team you need to beat" isn't exactly unrealistic.
I would be OK with winning 9 games a year (including the bowl game) and winning the West every 2 or 3 years. Since we are one of 4 or 5 blue blood programs in the B1G, win the B1G every 4 or 5 years, and make it to the playoffs every 6 or 7 years. I know, if we win the B1G we will generally be in the playoffs, but it's not an absolute guarantee.
100% correct.
It's amazing how so many posters can instantly dream 10,000 excuses for MR's massive failure. A trained monkey can win 9 games at Nebraska.
Blowouts will happen. I get that. Sometimes you might be on the wrong end of one of those games. I am sick of being on the wrong end of those as a norm. I want NU to be competitive again against good to great competition at first. Prove that they belong on the same field.
After that building block has been put in place, start winning some of those. WIN the games you are supposed to....the majority of the time. And....the majority of the time, those games should not be in doubt late in the game.
Next step, as ADBM said, be the hunted. Make NU the game on every opponent's calendar one that is circled as a tough one.
Then, be the team to beat in the West BIG. This might take 3-4 years under a mew HC. That will then give you a shot at not just conference titles, but a shot in the playoff.
Consistently being the team to beat in the West should be the norm after 3-4 years. If that happens, all of the expectations most people have thrown out there in this thread will take care of itself.
After that building block has been put in place, start winning some of those. WIN the games you are supposed to....the majority of the time. And....the majority of the time, those games should not be in doubt late in the game.
Next step, as ADBM said, be the hunted. Make NU the game on every opponent's calendar one that is circled as a tough one.
Then, be the team to beat in the West BIG. This might take 3-4 years under a mew HC. That will then give you a shot at not just conference titles, but a shot in the playoff.
Consistently being the team to beat in the West should be the norm after 3-4 years. If that happens, all of the expectations most people have thrown out there in this thread will take care of itself.
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Your expectations are way too low!!! A conference title once every 15 to 20 years??? Think we can have a higher level of success ! I’d say BIG title once every 3 or 4 years. Division title every other year. Play for a National championship once every 4 or 5 years.
Um...you do realize that top ten finish twice every five years means we are probably winning our conference at least one of those five, which is the most consistent expectation I see here.
Sometimes I think your eyes don't works
If the team reaches points 2, 3, and 4, I would think our average wins a year would certainly be higher than 8, right?