Thought crossed my mind as well. The fact that none of us had ANY idea how involved he was makes it even more of an idea. Roster was better too however.
Stakes are too high. Braun/Lujan CANNOT lead us into the New Stadium world
- Thread starter olsh
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I am back after finally getting my account in order.
IMO, Braun did not have a super high bar to clear to remain the HC. He needed to show an improved team overall, and hopefully an improved record.
That being said, I am not sure I saw an improved team yesterday. Maybe it is just early season issues that will get worked out, but if things do not look better, I would agree with the sentiment of the thread title.
IMO, Braun did not have a super high bar to clear to remain the HC. He needed to show an improved team overall, and hopefully an improved record.
That being said, I am not sure I saw an improved team yesterday. Maybe it is just early season issues that will get worked out, but if things do not look better, I would agree with the sentiment of the thread title.
Bajakian also was a solid OC when he had a good experienced QB, like in 2020 & 2023.
Lujan was not a good hire. He is Braun’s JON.
At that point would anyone worth anything sign up with Gragg and Schill as your bosses???
Now that Fitz’s lawsuit is settled… do you really think they’ll keep Gragg around in his expensive bullsh!t job?
Time to clean house after the season and before the new stadium opens. Clean house. Fill the building with Winners.
The thing is the good times only lasted about a decade as the game has changed dramatically since Fitz was made HC, and not for the better. Football in reality is entertainment for the masses. When the entertainment value goes poof, so will football. When the Boomers and Xers start tapping out, it will be interesting to see how long it will last as is.
We all enjoyed the 2023 year as far as going to a bowl game and winning.
As far as everything else that is all on Schill. He panicked and caved to the media mob and canned Fitz. In retrospect maybe the worst thing that happened was that we had a successful season in '23 and hired Braun who through no fault of his own just does not have the experience to run a Power Five football program..
The problem back in '23 was who was going to lead the search for a new football coach. Gragg the worthless AD at the time. Schill who shitte his pants with the Fitz debacle.
At least now with Jackson we have a fighting chance to hire a good HC. And let's see if this administration backs the new HC if it comes to that. Maybe Braun will surprise us all and we end up with a decent year, otherwise the hiring of a new HC will be the most important decision this program will have faced in a long time. Get the new hire right and have the administration back him and we will be in business. Get it wrong and we will be in a decade long down cycle new stadium not withstanding.
As far as everything else that is all on Schill. He panicked and caved to the media mob and canned Fitz. In retrospect maybe the worst thing that happened was that we had a successful season in '23 and hired Braun who through no fault of his own just does not have the experience to run a Power Five football program..
The problem back in '23 was who was going to lead the search for a new football coach. Gragg the worthless AD at the time. Schill who shitte his pants with the Fitz debacle.
At least now with Jackson we have a fighting chance to hire a good HC. And let's see if this administration backs the new HC if it comes to that. Maybe Braun will surprise us all and we end up with a decent year, otherwise the hiring of a new HC will be the most important decision this program will have faced in a long time. Get the new hire right and have the administration back him and we will be in business. Get it wrong and we will be in a decade long down cycle new stadium not withstanding.
This is absolutely one of the most critical points in NU football history. We either do a full reboot (entire program and loosening self inflicted restrictions) or we risk being left behind and become Stanford.
He WAS a good DC in his first year at NU. Braun served as HC and DC. The defense has suffered since he removed himself from DC and the offense has suffered since he let a number of our offensive coaches go.
This fascination with Skip Holtz is hilarious.
Your Uncle didn’t turn them down. That’s simply not true. Barnett was the #1 choice. He was head and shoulders above Earl Bruce and Paul Schudel.
Well I heard wrong then, but how was he head and shoulders above Earle? Earle is one of 5 coaches that took 4 different teams to bowls. Barnett was a great coach, but head and shoulders above Earle?
Barnett almost turned them down. But they may have reached out to Earle and been flatly rejected.
Most coaches would have said “no”, and not politely.
My favourite Earle Bruce phase was when, at OSU, he started to dress like and resemble the old Mayor Daley. That cracked me up.
If you can coach UConn to ten wins, East Carolina to nine wins twice, South Florida to eight wins and Louisiana Tech to ten wins twice, you are a very good coach in my opinion. None of those programs have been as good since he left, not that he wrecked them, they are just all very tough places to coach and win. A resource to keep on board. IMO. Three UFL championships with the pro Spring ball too. It's certainly not the NFL but don't kid yourself, it's not weekend flag football, those guys take the competition seriously.
Skip Holtz - Wikipedia
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Woah! Check out his record in the USFL. 33-7 in a league with minimal resources.If you can coach UConn to ten wins, East Carolina to nine wins twice, South Florida to eight wins and Louisiana Tech to ten wins twice, you are a very good coach in my opinion. None of those programs have been as good since he left, not that he wrecked them, they are just all very tough places to coach and win. A resource to keep on board. IMO. Three UFL championships with the pro Spring ball too. It's certainly not the NFL but don't kid yourself, it's not weekend flag football, those guys take the competition seriously.
Skip Holtz - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
Maybe we should hire him to replace Braun?
Bajakian when he had an experienced QB still could not field a top quartile offense and maybe barely top half. Mediocre at his best, downright awful and the worst in D1 at his worst. Hes also responsible for recruiting and developing QBs
Lujan is an objectively worse OC than Bajakian. 2020 & 2023 showed that mediocre was good enough to get to and win quality bowl games
A bad hire by Braun which likely sealed his fate this coming offseason.
Problem is NU can't afford to have "punt" years. We are getting further and further behind in recruiting. With NU admissions, pretty hard to turn over a roster in a year or even two as it can be done at other programs. Also NU basically contracted to get recruits to graduation so hard to move them on as easily as can be done at other programs. And to make things worse, I imagine there will be plenty of poaching of our better players
The problem is that the lower level recruiting classes he is bringing in with go through the program like a big meal goes through a snake. Cannot move out the non performers like you can at other programs and in the mean time our better players will be poached. Even if we are lucky enough to get THE guy for the next HC FB, it could take several years to get back to respectability
If that is $20 mill per year, maybe but over that whole period? Sorry but no. Supposedly True NU raised $25 mill (and I would guess at least some of that was from the Ryans)
Plus having enough good players to get the job done. That was still a Fitz program, roster. That team was set to win. Braun held serve and that was great. Since then guys have graduated, other guys poached and what we have now not competitive in BIG
Wilde descent enough but hard to say anyone else made an impact
Agree here. He’s in over his head. These other programs are hiring former HC from big programs and NFL coordinators with tons of experience. We are way behind everyone in terms of coaching and it’s very evident
Exactly. And anyone that did would likely be looking for the door almost as soon as they got here
He has what remains on his contract although at this point they might as well just pay him the rest of it and send him on his way. He has been sidelined into another pretty much non existent role. Aggravating that he is still at NU in any role but reality is he really isn't. He will never get such a paycheck again. Especially now that DEI is becoming a smaller focal point
Does that mean they signed him to a five year contract? WTH were they thinking if that was the case? A guy who had nothing spectacular in his resume and matter of fact left the AD biz to join the NCAA. Let that sink in....
Disagree. Where have you been? Teams can absolutely turn over almost their entire roster in 1-2 seasons. You think Indiana and Colorado slowly turned over bad recruiting classes bit by bit? Not a chance.
New coach comes in with several of his own players following him, and lets many of the overmatched players on the current roster know they are going to see little if any playing time moving forward. Just as easily as you can bring in new talent, existing subpar talent will head for the exit once they know they are not a part of the future of the program.
It’s a good thing we hold the line and have real academic standards. If we lower those then we become like the rest of the garbage that has become “college” sports.
My uncle was the late Earle Bruce who coached OSU from 1979-87.