I hope you all had a wonderful Halloween weekend filled with lots of football! Husker fans, I'm going to put it plain and simple for us; this season sucks. This season has not been what we expected or wanted at all. HOWEVER, this is not the end of Husker football. I have seen countless Facebook posts, tweets, and articles on why Nebraska should fire Mike Riley on the spot right now. We cannot afford to do that, both financially and ethically. If we fire a coach after one disappointing year after firing a coach who won at least 9 games consistently, we will mark this University with a terrible skull and crossbones. Not the famous Blackshirt logo, but the true symbol of death. No coach would ever want to come to a school where you get canned if you don't win a conference title (or better) in your first year. Fans need to give this coaching staff time. Are they getting the job done right now? Hell no, but they can if given time. Changes need to be made for sure, my first one would be looking at new ideas within the offensive and defensive playbooks. Fans need to be patient, Rome wasn't built in a day, and neither were national title teams. Recruiting is heavily affected by the fans. When I meet these kids and talk to them, one of the big points is how great Husker fans are. We are the main support system for our team, there's no reason to bash on them. That only hurts us in the long run, so keep going to games, keep cheering, and keep being proud to be a Husker! The players on this team are some of my friends and my peers. They're just college kids who love to play football. They should never be hated on for not playing a perfect game. Improvements can always be made, but these kids have a lot on their plate. Supporting them is a big help, because with College Football, you're either with them, or against them. GO BIG RED!
As for the Purdue game, that was bad. That was worse than bad, that was straight up horrible. I honestly don't know what the game plan was going into that game, but I hope that it is crumpled up and burned. When you go on the road with your backup Quarterback who is a former walk-on and has only thrown 18 passes in his career, WHY WOULD YOU EVER LET HIM THROW 48 PASSES IN A SINGLE GAME?! Nebraska only ran the ball 29 times, which includes two sacks by the Purdue defense. Combine that with a few scrambles by Fyfe because of pressure, we're looking at under 25 legitimate rushes over the entire game. Under 25? I honestly could not believe my eyes when I read those stats after the game. The BIG 10 conference is built on balanced offenses based out of the run game. Throwing it over 50 times a game will get you stomped on unless you're Baylor or TCU. Nebraska can not afford to pass that many times in a single game. We have enough active running backs to run four-back sets, use them! If I could make a suggestion to Coach Riley and his staff, it would be to find a run game, soon. The Huskers honestly weren't doing bad in the run game against Purdue, but then we stopped. Yes, Newby went down, but we still have Cross, Ozigbo, Wilbon (who still hasn't seen a carry since BYU for God knows why) and Stevenson. I really didn't see the point in burning Stevenson's red-shirt, but if you're going to burn it, use the poor kid! We obviously have a lot of injuries at wideout with Alonzo out and DPE getting injured, so I say they should use the extra running backs on those jet sweeps. It has just baffled me to watch our offense with so much talent perform so poorly this season. Coach Riley is known for playing to the strength of his play-makers on offense, but he hasn't quite done that here. It's not all on the coaches though, at some point, the players have to make plays. The wideouts have been so hot and cold this season it's ridiculous. If you have your backup QB starting on the road, you better help him out and catch everything that hits your hands, no matter what kind of throw it is. Most of all, the line needs to protect. Fyfe was under pressure all game from a very weak pass rushing Purdue squad. Coaching only goes so far, the players need to start playing if this system is going to work.
Defensively, I really don't know what to fix first. You could spend all day coming up with a list to work on, and it still wouldn't be enough. The line needs more pressure, defensive backs need to play the ball and stick to their coverage, and everyone needs to work on their tackling. I know they were put into some tough spots with turnovers, but when you're playing a Purdue team that has won 5 games in the past 3 seasons, you should never allow 55 points.
The first College Football Playoff Rankings came out tonight, and their rankings are 1. Clemson, 2. LSU, 3. Ohio State, and 4. Alabama. Their first two teams out are Notre Dame and Baylor at 5 and 6 respectively. I'm a little annoyed that Bama has found their way back into the top four so quickly, but at least it'll only be for a week as they clash with LSU this Saturday in Tuscaloosa. Michigan State has been knocked down all the way to number 7 in the CFB Playoff poll, and I thought that was a little odd. In my opinion, they have played much better than the Buckeyes all season. Although neither has been the completely dominant teams anyone expected, I believe that if Michigan State was left out, then Ohio State should be as well. My top four would be Clemson, LSU, Baylor and Michigan State. Bama and TCU would be my first two teams out at 5 and 6. Yes, Baylor has yet to play a very strong opponent, but they have dominated everyone on their schedule. The back half of their schedule is loaded, and they'll have to walk through that gauntlet with their backup QB Jarrett Stidham, as Seth Russell is out for the remainder of the season with a neck injury. If there is one thing that I have seen with Art Briles and his system, is that there is only a sliver of a gap between his Quarterbacks running the show. He has his system set up so that anyone from the second string can step up and perform at a first string level when needed to. I think that we'll see something similar to last year with Ohio State where the backup QB leads the Bears through the rest of their season and into the Final Four.
If you have any comments or would like to discuss your own top four teams, please feel free to comment! Don't forget to sign up with your email to receive updates about my posts too. Thank you, and GO BIG RED! The Spartans better watch out this weekend, because Lincoln will be rockin'!
#CollegeFootballKnowItAll
Alex Fernando
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