Nebraska...not feeling Frosty anymore

[Hannibal]

You've got to ditch Pelini and go with somebody else. Too many embarrassments for a program like Nebraska.

[entropy]

the issue is not so much Bo but who would be the next guy. a few yrs ago, UNL, under different leadership, fired a coach who went 9-3. Bo has played in 3 out of the last 4 conference championship games and has won at least 9 games per year. He also graduates players, keeps them out of jail and has done good things with Team Jack and keeping his promise regarding a scholarship to a HS kid who may never play football again..

As fans, we look at the routes, recruiting, lack of identity, etc... and fans have varying opinions on success/failures. But when you look at it from another coaches point of view.. or an agents....... you see what I typed in above. Add to it the lack of fertile recruiting grounds around Lincoln and what I believe is one of the jobs with highest fan expectations..

we should be a better football team/program. But there are realities that have been created.

[THE_WIZARD_]

Yeah the feel good stuff will keep the sellout streak alive...

Sorry Ent...whilst all of that makes us feel warm inside...as a major power in FBS it is not going to cut it. Time for new blood. Pelini has raised us out of the Callahan swoon but not to the degree most NU fans and most CFB fans think we should be.

[entropy]

think you missed the point wiz

[entropy]

from espn:

Bo Pelini sees football as a series of basic decisions. Black and white. No room for gray area. He says it often.

To the sixth-year Nebraska coach, for instance, if you're not with the Huskers, you're against them. If you're not getting better, you're getting worse.

Why, then, does the same principle not apply to his starting quarterback?

Taylor Martinez is not helping Nebraska win.

Pelini's methodology would seem to suggest that he helped the Huskers lose on Saturday. In his first action since Sept. 14, the senior quarterback hobbled through a 34-23 loss at Minnesota, often appearing out of sync with teammates. From start to finish, the offense operated in disjointed fashion.

Nebraska made no move to capable backups Tommy Armstrong or Ron Kellogg III. For three games this season as Martinez was sidelined by injuries, Armstrong and Kellogg helped the Huskers win.

When one quarterback struggled, the other guy played. It's a strategy with flaws, for sure, but it worked.

Apparently it's not an option the Huskers want to explore with Martinez at the helm.

Why the double standard, a practice that seems so at odds with Pelini's overriding approach to the game?

The coach said after the game that Martinez was "the least of our problems."

"Let's not go there and act like Taylor Martinez lost this football game for us," Pelini said. "Our problems today were far beyond who our quarterback was."

He's right that the Huskers had big problems against Minnesota – the inability to win the line of scrimmage, poor tackling, mental errors, dropped passes, questionable distribution of the football, two turnovers lost and none gained.

But if Pelini really believes that the quarterback ranked as the least of Nebraska's problems, he's failing to pay attention or just trying to protect Martinez.

His play on Saturday, at a minimum, fits squarely in the middle of the items that require attention.

It's easy -- and typically too convenient – to blame the quarterback when things out of his control go awry. The quaterback makes an impact on every offensive play, so he gets too much credit and too much blame.

But Nebraska needs its quarterback to do more than avoid losing. When the Huskers built this team over the offseason and into August, it expected to rely on a quarterback who could win games, especially with a defense that needed time to mature.

It expected a guy like South Carolina senior Connor Shaw, who rallied his team from a 17-point deficit on Saturday to beat Missouri after the Gamecocks' win probability fell below 3 percent in the third quarter.

It expected Martinez to play the way he did last year in the Big Ten, leading four second-half comebacks from double-digit deficits.

He's not there. The Nebraska coaches must know it. And the statistics show it.

Total QBR is an ESPN-calculated metric that accounts for a quarterback's overall execution – a Pelini buzzword -- in relation to his team's performance. It rates quarterbacks on a zero-to-100 scale.

A score of 50 is average.

Martinez's QBR on Saturday was 19.6, the sixth-lowest single-game figure of his career. His opponent-adjusted QBR against the Gophers was 14.6, better only in his 43 career starts than against Michigan in 2011, a 45-17 Nebraska loss, and a 13-7 win over Iowa in 2012, a game played in horrendous weather conditions.

The least of Nebraska's problems?

That would be laughable, if not so painful for the 20,000 Huskers fans who converged on Minneapolis over the weekend.

And the decisions of Pelini and offensive coordinator Tim Beck are more puzzling in light of the performances over the past three games of Armstrong and Kellogg.

Against South Dakota State, Illinois and Purdue, the two quarterbacks combined to produce a QBR of 78.9, the 17th-best figure nationally over that time.

Good quarterbacks win games, period. The top five QBR figures of 2013 belong to Marcus Mariota of Oregon, Bryce Petty of Baylor, Jameis Winston of Florida State, Johnny Manziel of Texas A&M and Georgia's Aaron Murray.

Nebraska thought it had a quarterback in that category this season. They coached on Saturday as if they had a quarterback in that category. Clearly, in his current state of health, Martinez is not there.

Lest we forget the context, Martinez returned Saturday from six weeks off. Pelini has said since September that turf toe kept the quarterback out.

Martinez, after the game, disputed the assessment, describing the problem as a separate ailment to his foot in addition to a shoulder injury. He said he wasn't 100 percent, which was obvious, despite the insistence from Pelini and Beck that Martinez would not return until completely healthy.

Together, they're delivering a message about as muddled as the offense was disconnected on Saturday.

And now Pelini has this to consider: Among the masses in Minneapolis who watched in disappointment sat Chancellor Harvey Perlman, first-year AD Shawn Eichorst and many other figures important to the athletic department, including hundreds of the program's top donors who traveled on a once-a-year, school-planned trip for Memorial Stadium suite-holders.

Most will return to watch the Huskers on Saturday in Lincoln against Northwestern, which has lost four consecutive games.

For Nebraska, again, there's no gray area: Win this week or face the darkest hour in Lincoln since 2007, the season before Pelini's arrival as head coach.

[entropy]

http://www.omaha.com/article/20131027/HUSKERS/131028696/1685#mckewon-beck-s-plan-reactive-risky-unit-s-chemistry-was-missing

McKewon: Becks's Plan Reactive, Risky, No Chemistry

[Wild Hoss]

Yeah the feel good stuff will keep the sellout streak alive...

Sorry Ent...whilst all of that makes us feel warm inside...as a major power in FBS it is not going to cut it. Time for new blood. Pelini has raised us out of the Callahan swoon but not to the degree most NU fans and most CFB fans think we should be.

I think we all agree...but what kind of coach will we attract if our criteria is that three years of bowl appearances and rankings gets you fired?

Its not an issue of Pelini not doing well enough...its that he's not doing bad enough. We need to see the wheels come off. We need everybody to see the wheels come off, so the perception changes from Nebraska's expectations to Bo Pelini's failure. The, I think, we'll start getting calls from good coaches.

if we shitcan two 8-9 win coaches, this job will be looked at as a minefield.

[iam416]

It's the conundrum Ohio State faced with ol' 9-3 Earle. Eventually he lost a series of close heartbreakers and was 5-4-1 and after 9 seasons, that was it.

In the end, making the move was right, if poorly handled. Cooper eventually got the program back to elite (before eventually regressing). He paved the way for Tressel who paved the way for UFM.

I think 9-3, in and of itself, isn't bad or reason to fire someone. 9-3 as a CEILING; getting to (and not winning) CGs as a CEILING -- well, that's something you have to make a decision on. Implied in that reasoning is 5-6 years of opportunity. It's hard to figure out a ceiling after a season or two. For me, 9-3 as a ceiling isn't cutting it. Whether other stuff mitigates that performance, I can't say. From a pure performance standpoint, IMO, that's not good enough.

[Hannibal]

I think we all agree...but what kind of coach will we attract if our criteria is that three years of bowl appearances and rankings gets you fired?

Its not an issue of Pelini not doing well enough...its that he's not doing bad enough. We need to see the wheels come off. We need everybody to see the wheels come off, so the perception changes from Nebraska's expectations to Bo Pelini's failure. The, I think, we'll start getting calls from good coaches.

if we shitcan two 8-9 win coaches, this job will be looked at as a minefield.

Given how easy the competition is in the Big Ten I think that a very strong case can be made that 9-4 is underachievement, especially when so many of the losses have been in embarrassing fashion. I don't think that you would scare off a good coach this way. Nobody is going to come to Nebraksa believing that he is never going to lose less than 4 games in the weak half of a shitty conference.

IMHO one big thing to consider though is that this looks like a terrible year to hire a coach. Lots of major programs might be looking for a coach this off season.

[Wild Hoss]

Given how easy the competition is in the Big Ten I think that a very strong case can be made that 9-4 is underachievement, especially when so many of the losses have been in embarrassing fashion. I don't think that you would scare off a good coach this way. Nobody is going to come to Nebraksa believing that he is never going to lose less than 4 games in the weak half of a shitty conference.

IMHO one big thing to consider though is that this looks like a terrible year to hire a coach. Lots of major programs might be looking for a coach this off season.

9-4 in the Big Ten, with our soft OOC schedules and bad losses, is undoubtably underachievement. Any coach we hire would unquestionably expect to do better.

But here?s the problem...they have concerns of what happens if they don?t. In an era where Florida State can go 7-6, Ohio State can go 6-7, Texas can go 5-7 and Michigan can go 3-9, you?d have to be a fool to believe a couple 9-4 seasons weren?t possible, and even probable, at Nebraska. Why leave a school where that?s understood for one where it could get your fired?

This is why Bo has to crash and burn. If he flames out at 6-6, then I think Nebraska?s AD can make the case that this thing has been headed downhill for a while (It has) but you let it play out, and gave him a chance to pull the nose up. Even that might be iffy, but its enough to get return calls from the types of coaches we?re likely to end up with. Mid-majors, FCS guys.

[THE_WIZARD_]

If Pelini couldn't get us at least to the CCG this year with our soft schedule and a potent offense...then it will NEVER happen again. Period. Can we get someone better who will lead us to actually win a CCG...or even relevant in the national picture we HAVE to make a change.

[entropy]

Wiz... It is about perception. Coaches still see frank solich being fired when they see Nebraska.

[entropy]

I think Bo is back next year unless something happens off the field.

[iam416]

I agree with that.

[entropy]

I can't get over this stat.

Previous game: 49 RB carries. Dominated.

This game: 19 RB carries.