I think the physical talent is there. Seems like we have a fair number of UDFAs stick on rosters. Widespread development and production not so much.
Spring Practice reports?
- Thread starter Charlie Marlow
- Start date
We took some shots. Defense dictates some things but Coleandra is going to make some plays. Very vanilla play calling.
The good. Jamaal Rule looked the part. Mozee had a nice run. Dipped inside then popped out to get the edge. Likewise Booth. The bad. Nelson limping. Sidelined after a good run.
Coleandra looks like the clear #1. Love his mobility. Hated the one int. Had some great throws. Kaelin looks like a good #3. O line looks like a B1G O line finally. Ran it fairly well against a D that often stacked the box. Bounced some runs outside and blocked it well on the edge. The bad, our D lost contain too many times on those runs.
Hopefully Nelson’s ankle isn’t bad. Seemed to stay healthy. O line looked better IMO. Is that them or does our D front 7 suck?
Coleandra looks like the clear #1. Love his mobility. Hated the one int. Had some great throws. Kaelin looks like a good #3. O line looks like a B1G O line finally. Ran it fairly well against a D that often stacked the box. Bounced some runs outside and blocked it well on the edge. The bad, our D lost contain too many times on those runs.
Hopefully Nelson’s ankle isn’t bad. Seemed to stay healthy. O line looked better IMO. Is that them or does our D front 7 suck?
We are even worse if you look at active players in the NFL. Below the top 10 and again in the Rutgers, and Purdue territory. This makes sense because our schedule has been a bit weaker the last few years, hence why we were able to get into a bowl. Replace Colorado and Cincinnati with Texas or Alabama, replace Maryland with Oregon and the program would really be in the dumps despite not being any better or worse. But the one saving grace is the transfer portal, we didn't rate highly but maybe, just maybe we will hit the literal jackpot on a couple of guys. I mean that is the difference between winning a losing...NFL talent, and sometimes when you have poor recruiters, you just have to get lucky.
Nobody can tell me that we can’t win 8 with the recruiting classes we’ve had. That’s a failure of development. Its one of the reasons I was interested in watching our young O linemen today.
Obviously we need to develop better. Donnie’s gone. We should be improved up front right?
It is hard to be worse
but we will still reflect our head coach (soft) like every football team does
I don’t think calling a coach soft is a legitimate criticism. I get criticizing the game management and player development. Calling a player soft means something. I don’t see it with a coach. Call him incompetent if you want.
Coaching and system makes a big difference. Developing talent apparently is a thing too?
Osborne's staff did talent evaluation too. Would offer guys and say, "if this kid lived in Dallas, they would have had 40 offers". Then that guy would usually play and possibly go to the NFL. These days, in state kids go elsewhere and make the NFL, but no one blames the staff cause we care more about offer lists than talent evaluation. The Payton kid will get drafted in the second round. Could have played for us in multiple positions. But who can blame the staff cause, you know, he didn't have a lot of offers.
I absolutely believe the "be careful what you say" talk about the DC was based on his own personal experiences. I agree about letting your work speak for itself but I don't think that's something HCMR just magically figured out. He's caught enough **** from fans/media for exaggerating/lies/ wrong statements from enough of you guys that I believe he's simply said NO MORE. Better to under promise and over deliver than vice versa lol .
Holla
Apparently nobody can give you basic objective data. The objective data says we are at the bottom of the big 10 in terms of players drafted and even lower in terms of active NFL players. The best indicator of talent is beating talented teams...we haven't done that in a decade, and guys playing in the NFL, and we have few doing that. I also think there is a choke complex with non-talented players struggling with the expectations or at least fan support. There is a huge gap between skill on the field and fans in the stands and this tends to lead to guys playing tight, playing as if under pressure. They might appreciate people not caring until they actually start winning some real games.
He literally fired his DC this year because the guy wasn't "positive" enough. Can you imagine any of the good coaches in college football firing a position coach because they were negative....have you ever been around football coaches? Guys ***** and fight and problem solve, Rhule just gets a new yes man, that is the definition of soft. And if our DC and OC are great coaches they are going to see through him, there will be conflict, and they will be gone just like our DL coach, DC, ST coach...any competent coach we have had. And apparently he is lazy as well because one of his yes men had to publicly call him out to get in and actually coach a little bit..which lead to the Matt the Hat incident. I appreciate your positivity and respect but you are just wrong, if you can find an area to be positive about that has some merit I will gladly accept it.
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I love wade. I hate that he showed up year 4 instead of year 1. After watching the scrimmage if nothing else I could see improvements in how the OL moved and attacked. Might be too late but I think he's a keeper.
I also like aurich but not sure if he has enough talent to get it done.
I said it last year before he hired his dC that it would be the decision that got him back on track or got him fired. When he scoured the country and then "settled" on Butler my immediate reaction was that was a horrible hire and would get him fired. If not for the PSU firing and bad decision to extend I think it would've happened. Now he likely gets two years to make it right.
A HC is only as good as his staff is. Matt might have stuck with the some duds a bit longer than he should've. Also probably shouldn't hired some to begin with.
Deep hole for sure....I'll be cheering for US regardless of who the coach is. I don't get the warm fuzzies with Matt and company at all. But compared to watching the "Frost show" and "nice Mike" it hasn't been as bad imo. Definitely not what is wanted or expected.
Holla
You cant truly believe that he fired him because he wasn't positive enough do you?
Cmon now ...its one thing to think MR is *** and not like him. But it's stuff like that that shows a narrative. There are plenty of negatives to use about coach. Choose something legitimate and be taken serious. That's just...I don't even know what you call it lol. BAD maybe...
Holla
He fired his DC because his unit looked confused and ill prepared last fall. Not because he was too negative.
Do you think Cignetti could have won 8-9 games with our talent last fall? I sure as he11 do.
Cig could probably win a few with a roster full of this board’s posters
Great post. I always appreciate your thoughts. This post is rational and seems on point.
I consider myself rational as well - but admit that Rhule is bringing out a lot of negativity in me. And the more he talks, the worse it gets. So yes, he needs to zip it and he seems to have toned it down for sure.
Better than Frost and Riley? I agree on Frost for sure and Riley had one year that was better than Rhule's best. But overall, yeah Rhule is a little better. I think some of the negativity for a lot of fans comes down to Rhule's bluster. Kong called him Preacher Rhule years ago and it rubbed a lot of people wrong. I stayed in the background and watched. Kong was right - the guy is a gas bag and his sermons get really old because he doesn't deliver.
I agree with you the DC and OL coaches will improve us, but the All-Conference talent is nowhere to be found so far. Hopefully they can develop for what feels like the first time in years
For sure (and Rhule should have). Some of that is weak schedule in '25. A better question is could a good coach like Kirby win 9 with this team in '26 with our schedule? It would be brutally difficult (I left Cigs out because he's a pink unicorn of coaches. I'd rather use a "normal" quality coach.)
I just think we need a full upgrade in talent AND development IMO. Development is so poor that that is the #1 priority (beat the .500 teams first) then talent upgrade to compete with the OSU's.
My metric has been beat the sub-.500 teams in B1G standings. They would have achieved that last year if they had beaten Penn State. Minnesota only finished plus-.500 by beating us. So that standard equated to 8-4 or 9-3 last season. It equates to 6-6 next season, but only if we can meet a standard we haven’t in a decade.
Ain't that the truth. In politics you can brag, promise, exaggerate and say whatever you want, then point the blame somewhere else and happily move on. Sports ain't politics.
Is Nebraska’s fan interest much better than Iowa’s? It was certainly hard to get a ticket to any of Iowa’s home Big 10 games the last few years.
