A Little (Big) Something

I posted this on a Nebraska message board but I think it bears repeating on here as well for you to read. Those of you that are still around anyway. Don't worry, I think I've got my juggling act down to a science so I should have time now.

After five games, it looks like we are all hitting the panic button, myself included to a certain degree. Saturday night was sickening. If there are people that didn’t feel that knot in their stomach when we were on the receiving end of one of the worst beat downs in recent conference history, I might question just how much people are paying attention.

Unless recruiting picks up and we make significant strides, this team is in for a long and painful few years. The teams that are in recruiting hotbeds will make strides within their borders and where they are showing a significant presence. Success breeds interest, and with our culture quickly becoming “what have you done for me lately,” the more we lose, rebuild and struggle to get back to the top of a now powerful conference, the further we slip behind Missouri, Kansas, Texas, Oklahoma and even Colorado. The more distant our success gets in the minds of the kids we are recruiting, the harder it will become to convince kids to come to Lincoln. When our head guy says the process never interested him much, I think that’s a problem.

Just to give some perspective, a 17 or 18 year old senior in high school was 11 or 12 the last time we had a player win a Heisman or play in a national title game. The last time we won the Big XII conference they were 10 or 11. And, the last time we won a national title they were six and seven years old. We have a ton of advantages built in at Lincoln, we all know that. But when those same advantages are becoming more even around the nation at big existing programs and upstart programs who are on a winning streak the past couple seasons I think that creates another big problem. We have a ton of tradition, but who does that mean more to? The fans and supporters who have been with this program for years and decades? Or to a kid from Southern California who has maybe seen a few of our nationally televised games from the last few years where we consistently get dominated? The team their parents tell them was dominate before they watched football.

This brings us to another argument I’ve seen here lately. What should appeal to big name recruits is that they will be able to come in, start early and help turn around the deficiencies they see on the field while on their visits. Right now if the staff is using that approach for selling something very intangible and something that is very hard for a high school senior to wrap his head around. If this were the case, then why have some teams been consistently bad? Why haven’t recruits flocked to programs on a backslide because they’ll be able to help restore a winning tradition and attitude?

This staff deserves more time, at least most of it anyway. Repairing the damage from the last several years can’t be solved in a spring practice session, fall camp and five games into their first season. It takes time, patience and some tolerance from the fan base. Look no further than at the team that beat us Saturday night. Pinkel has had his head called for too many times to count down in Columbia. But they stuck with him and now look where they are. Say what you will about him being a poor coach, but the Tigers are firing on all cylinders at this point.

2001: Pinkel’s first season, they went 4-7 with a 3-5 conference record. Not much to say other than this looks like what we could possibly be in store for this year. But they did beat their big rival, although KU still was a poor program at the time. The notion of comparing our situation now to that of Oklahoma’s when Bob Stoops entered seems almost laughable at this point. Hey, I’ve seen the parallels drawn on here.

2002: 5-7, non conference wins a against Illinois, Ball State and Troy State. They lost to Bowling Green on the road. Missouri beat their rival Kansas for the second year in a row.

Other than that it was a less than stellar conference record. They went 2-6.

2003: Enter Brad Smith as a major player. They lost to Kansas but had wins over rivals Illinois and Nebraska. Finished 8-5 (4-4 Big XII) falling in their first bowl game under Pinkel to Arkansas. They finally get over the hump against Iowa State and beat Texas Tech for the first time also. It took them three years just to have a winning record and not have a losing one in the conference. Three years to get to a bowl also.

2004: Disappointing loss to Troy State on the road in their second game. The Tigers regressed and finished 5-6 after their first bowl appearance in years. They finished 3-5 in the Big XII and had a five game losing streak in the conference and lost to Kansas. They barely won in Ames in overtime. Had they not won they would have been 4-7 and 2-6 in conference, dropping their final six.

2005: The Tigers got back to a bowl game in Smith’s final year at Missouri. They lost at home to New Mexico. Imagine that happening here. They finished 6-5 with a conference record of 4-4. Keep in mind that 4-4 is the best conference finish they’ve had in Pinkel’s first five years. They pull out their first bowl win in decades against South Carolina in the Independence Bowl.

It’s important to note that at this point the spread is the norm, Pinkel is splitting time between Smith, who was seen as the best shot for the Tigers to win, and true freshman Chase Daniel. I remember Tiger fans that I knew having a fit when he would do this because they felt they could have won more games with Smith “under center” most of the time. As we now know, preparing Daniel was paramount to his progression as a player. Also, their now vaunted spread offense was still working out it’s growing pains. Pinkel’s record is also 28-30 overall, 16-25 in the Big XII and 1-1 in bowl games. Does any of this look remotely familiar? I’m not saying we should have retained Callahan, because at this point Pinkel had some signature wins, but this data does deserve a look.

2006: Daniel’s first year on his own. This season, in my opinion, was the major turning point when you could tell something was going on down in Columbia that was for real. The Tigers start the season 6-0 and beat Texas Tech for the first time in Lubbock since the Big XII formed. They get their first win over Kansas State since Pinkel’s started. They get to their second consecutive bowl game but lose to Oregon State finishing 7-5 and 4-4 in the Big XII. Once again, no winning record in conference play. Six. Seasons. In. A. Row. Keep that in mind.

2007: This is the season where it finally came together for the Tigers. Rucker and Coffman step up and become probably the best tight end tandem in the country, Maclin returns and Daniel is in this third year and second as a starter. The Tigers go 11-1 in the regular season and rank as high as #1 in the entire country. Pinkel finally gets over the hump and goes 7-1 in conference and the Tigers win their first Big XII North title in their history. They would lose to Oklahoma for the second time, but went on to defeat Arkansas soundly in the Cotton Bowl. The Tigers registered wins over Nebraska, Kansas, Kansas State (first time in Manhattan in like 25 years I think).

We all know how this year is stacking up. If Missouri can avoid dropping the trap game this weekend against Oklahoma State and beat Texas in Austin, they have a chance at something bigger than last year. If (and probably when) they get to the Big XII title game in Kansas City they’ll have to get over a hump they couldn’t do last year. I don’t think it’s likely they beat OU, but they are in line for a big time bowl game. I know the Big XII championship game loser is supposed to be relegated to the Cotton Bowl, but I think with their offense and the fact that Daniel seems to be the frontrunner for the Heisman, they could possibly pick up an at large bid if the only loss is to OU in the conference title game.

My point with all this Mizzou talk is that building a program takes time. You have to break a few eggs to make an omelet, as the saying goes. Sure, they had a losing tradition and mild fan support to say the least, but they do have a good pipeline into Texas and they are locking down their borders with each passing year, which is full of talent. You can change your losing tradition and mild fan support easier than generate home grown talent. We can counter our lack of top notch in-state talent (not to say we don’t have any, because we do) with our tradition, facilities and fan support, however we need to build on that tradition we have and look to the present and future for answers, not the past. Just because something worked in the infallible days of the 90’s doesn’t mean it applies today. You adapt or you become irrelevant, bottom line. Our facilities will continue to be a step above most of the country, but if we continue to lose (and support starts to decline) this could be compromised. And, the worst possible scenario would be losing the support of the fans. It’s hard to imagine, but how many people will continue to shell out a good chunk of change to watch our team lose? Especially for how impatient our fans are.

So, what happens if we go 4-8? Or what if we don’t win another game the rest of the year? What if it takes us seven more years to get a winning conference record again? Or we don’t get to a bowl game until 2010? What happens if we turn into Iowa State? How many of you will tell yourselves, “hey, we’re Nebraska that can’t happen to us.” Really? Why not? Sure our traditions will be different, but what about right now? Personally, I’d rather watch us win now than watch my DVD sets from our national title years. How many of you will stick around? How many will still donate to the school and drive hundreds of miles every weekend to Lincoln? How many of you will still care if it takes us just as long to get to the top as it did for Missouri? How many lives does Bo have? Because I can tell you this, if we run him out of town if he doesn’t turn things around to our timeframe, we could be in for a lot of trouble. He could prove to be in over his head, but I’m willing to sit and watch it play out for several years if we have to. Life is full of risks.

Will the rest of the Nebraska faithful be as patient? This is my final point, and something I’ve seen here for awhile that causes me my biggest bone to pick with my own fellow Husker fans. A bit of self-loathing, if you will. Where do we get our sense of entitlement? Because we are Nebraska we will be back? For a group of fans that prides itself in being honest and humble, these are not the words of a man that expects little in return for his hard work. We deserve to be on top of the Big XII. Why? Why do a great deal of Husker fans feel it is their God given right to have their team be top dog in a conference they can no longer compete in? If you don’t go out and earn it every year, every game and every down that talk of rights amounts to a steaming pile of BS. Some of us need to temper our expectations with a healthy dose of reality. Because if we don’t, we will become a forgotten entity. They’ll talk about the ghosts at Memorial Stadium and talk of a time when you could win in a state like Nebraska, but no more. We’ll no longer be relevant, then in my mind the unthinkable will happen. We’ll lose our identity and we’ll lose our record as fans. Think about it.

Also, if you made it to the end of this, congrats, I have a tendency to be a little “wordy” as my wife puts it. To those that construe this as whining and that I should give them my season tickets (I’ve seen this posted on here today) because I’m voicing my opinion on an internet message board, you need to step off and check yourself before you get a verbal beat down. I put my money where my mouth is every year, and it’s a damn good amount of money too. So the next time you rail on someone who shells out over a grand or much, much more each year in donations, game tickets, gas money, hotel fair, the money spent on campus for merchandise and Runza’s at the game, you best think about clicking that “Post Message” button below the text screen you’re probably drooling on. Anyway, end rant.