Sam M - spring ball news
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Let's talk trenches then. Do the present D linemen fit what Aurich will try to do?
New Oline adds are exciting IMO. If the new coach can pull the guys together and see a shift similar to special teams last year our season will look very different.
It bothers me that the team is already chirping like they have improved sooo much.. No. It's only been a little over 2 months since the Utah game. Do you remember that asswhoopin'?
If I had to guess, the team isn't even average yet and coaches need to be telling the truth to their players.
The only way these players can improve is hard work and dedication. Put down your Xbox controllers and your hash pipes.. time to get to work.
If I had to guess, the team isn't even average yet and coaches need to be telling the truth to their players.
The only way these players can improve is hard work and dedication. Put down your Xbox controllers and your hash pipes.. time to get to work.
I've seen multiple reports that Jahsear Whittington
is undersized but Rhule claims it's not an issue.
"He's an explosive man," Rhule said when asked specifically about him. "Watching the film of him at Pitt and then seeing him out there now, no concerns about his size."
This feels like year 1 of a new coach, or maybe like Mike Rileys last year.
My guess is that Kong as well as the other Rhule haters would be overjoyed with a 10 win season. As we all should.
Owen Chambliss - discuss. Came with Aurich, knows the D, Mountain West all league. 110 tackles. He's no Watson-Trent, as he is 6-3/230.
Oh well thank God SM says so.... I place all of my viewpoints of Husker football squarely at the feet of such a knowledgable writer.
What have they been saying? I tune out during the offseason nowadays. I didn't even realize there were player interviews and stuff happening already?
More offseason hype of the kind we have seen before. No thanks. Our defensive line did not upgrade that much. Better be fantastic d line coaching that makes a difference or else we will see 5-7 or worse.
Really not much hype coming out. Somebody asked specific questions about individual guys and they answered them. I haven’t seen any predictions on performance from the staff. I’m glad they’re willing to give us some information on the players.
I am mainly reacting to the comments from Rhule and Jacory about the new QB and how he has "brought a new confidence and energy" to the offense. I think Jacory even called it a "swag" that the dude has. So we are already getting a bit of hype about Colandrea before he has played a down. And we are beginning to see hype about our WR room as being very athletic and impressive. We have heard that crap before. But I do agree with you that so far there has not been a ton of hype overall which is refreshing.
Has there been any team that hasn't had any off-season hype? I mean, you cant be working in the off-season and not get hyped up, right?
I get that us, as fans, don't need to buy-in to the hype though.
Of course it's just the MWC, but Coleandra was the POY in that conference. He started as a true freshman at UVa. As for the WR, I think this is the second time Sam M has stated that he really likes that room. The WR room was hyped last year and didn't produce. Raiola is a very talented passer, but his lack of any running cred made him very predictable for B1G D coordinators. The NU WRs were defended with this in mind.
Why shouldn't they, particularly Jacory in this example, be excited about their own team and the guys they're playing with? They're not robots. They put in a lot of hard work. There should be some joy for them about the process and the players around them.
Great point and I am not here to throw cold water on any young man who wants to praise his teammates. I am writing though from the perspective of a burned fan. I am all in favor of the players getting excited. Cripes, I would hate it if they weren't! But my point is that as a fan who has heard all of this before, I am not drinking the koolaid. Some will say, who cares what you think? And they would be right. I barely care about what I think! But this is a chat board and I am a rabid Husker fan and so I offered my two cents as a fan about not getting excited by ANY offseason comments. I want to see results.
And Raiola has more hype coming into the program than any player I can remember since Frazier. The hype was euphoric. And yet he turned out to be only an above average QB with major deficits. And then he was gone like a fart in the wind. Coleandra? He looks good on film from his days at UNLV. But I will not get any of my hopes up until he actually starts making a difference on the field of play. I think I speak for a ton of Husker fans when I say that we are tired of offseason feel good analysis. We won't be convinced that this program is back until we start showing it on the field.
Oh hell yeah, every team has this element. You should have seen the preseason hype for PSU last year out here in PA! And we all know what happened then.
To add to it, if there's an issue with the 2026 season, Coleandra may not even be the culprit. It could be Rhule/Holgorsen.
When Lateef played super well vs UCLA it was "see what Holgorsen can do with a mobile QB".
Then we could barely muster out a first down vs Penn St, Iowa & Utah. The offensive play calling was atrocious.
Interesting thing about Barney is that he seemed more effective his first season compared to 2025. Don't know what his injury situation was, but he did take some shots. The play calling seemed to go away from him and of course opposing coaches had a full year of tape on him.
Lateef was 21/37 against PSU. NU had three fewer first downs against PSU. He got beat up against Iowa. He was 15/28 against Utah. NU had 17 first downs. To compare, Raiola had 18 first downs against Northwestern and 13 against Minnesota.
I think Holgerson will be more comfortable working a game plan for either Coleandra or Lateef than he was with Raiola.
And this is why no one wants to talk football on here. Minds are already made up and there is no excitement from the fan base.
I have lost nearly all confidence in Rhule. No hype for me this off-season.
HOWEVER, I am optimistic about OL and DC coaches. Aurich should be able to produce a better D pretty quickly. Wade should be able to improve us as well. Do I have hope/confidence in Matt? No. But I will keep an eye on the good things happening in the program (Wade, Aurich, QB) and see if it comes together.
Relief for me = Almost zero expectations this season for Matt being the guy. This way, upside surprise will be such a welcome sight vs. prior years of hopes getting dashed repeatedly.
HOWEVER, I am optimistic about OL and DC coaches. Aurich should be able to produce a better D pretty quickly. Wade should be able to improve us as well. Do I have hope/confidence in Matt? No. But I will keep an eye on the good things happening in the program (Wade, Aurich, QB) and see if it comes together.
Relief for me = Almost zero expectations this season for Matt being the guy. This way, upside surprise will be such a welcome sight vs. prior years of hopes getting dashed repeatedly.
My bad for bringing up first downs. That stat can be skewed. We were getting chunk plays vs UCLA. We weren't really grinding out drives like we probably needed to do vs Penn St, etc.
I agree on your last sentence. Also, it was frustrating when Raiola would miss wide of receivers....
In a game where you're getting destroyed, it makes it so much for frustrating when you go 3-and-out a handful of times in a row.
Defense was a problem at Penn St was one reason why we were blown out. Lateef also was hurt in the herky game which handicap our offense the rest of the way.
Still would have lost but can’t blame all the offensive woes on Holgersen.
That's the open question. The move from White to Butler was a move to maintain the same general approach to the defense and Butler's acumen with passing D made that aspect look really good for a lot of games. But there was no real theory of how to play the guys we had upfront. I would think the 4-2-5 is immediately a better fit for our defensive players and Aurich is a coach on the rise, and he knows this defensive top to bottom very well. That was also true of White and the 3-3-5. And perhaps as important, no opposing teams have game tape of NU playing in this defense.
Can you blame anyone? It's pattern recognition.
"Year 3 Rhule" turned out to be a joke, roster and staff attrition probably a net negative, schedule going to be much harder, etc.
I think most everyone is just wanting to see before they dare believe again.