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Next two games an audition for Coach Jake?

Because you are going to want him to coach through the bowl game. Why fire him before that? The Bowl game will be after the first signing day.

Because he’s been terrible at his job for multiple years and it’s critical to have your long term OC in place for recruiting purposes. Can also use bowl practice as a “mini spring ball,” giving the new OC a chance to evaluate personnel and start planting seeds of his own scheme.
 
Because he’s been terrible at his job for multiple years and it’s critical to have your long term OC in place for recruiting purposes. Can also use bowl practice as a “mini spring ball,” giving the new OC a chance to evaluate personnel and start planting seeds of his own scheme.
That assumes the new OC is available at that point. That’s possible but not highly likely.
 
Cough Sean Lewis cough
What are the odds Braun wants him and that he wants NU? Also I’m not sure I’d be thrilled with him as an OC. He has not run a balanced offense at CU this year. NU needs to be able to run the ball successfully to be competitive in the Big Ten.
 
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I may have missed it but he hasn't been able to recruit QBs. At all.

Get fresh blood.
Is that at least partly because NU doesn't do NIL signing bonuses for high school recruits? I'm fine with moving on from him, but let's not overlook some of the disadvantages he's had at NU.
 
I was all for giving Bajakian a chance, but he just can't ramp up the production and that is against the pathetic teams in the West no doubt. Illinois is going to be a really tough game and I doubt we put up anything more than 24 points on them. It would be nice to see, but I doubt it. With Washington, Oregon and, the So Cal teams coming on board, we need real innovation, real soon. If our schedules look like 2024 every season, we will have 3-4 automatic losses. Only way to keep the bowl games a regular occurrence is to land a real innovative OC, that is hungry.
 
What are the odds Braun wants him and that he wants NU? Also I’m not sure I’d be thrilled with him as an OC. He has not run a balanced offense at CU this year. NU needs to be able to run the ball successfully to be competitive in the Big Ten.
Well, 3 of the 4 schools joining the conference next year are top 5 nationally in points scored, passing yards, and yards/play, so I don't know that running the ball is going to keep being the measure of success going forward.
 
What are the odds Braun wants him and that he wants NU? Also I’m not sure I’d be thrilled with him as an OC. He has not run a balanced offense at CU this year. NU needs to be able to run the ball successfully to be competitive in the Big Ten.

Almost like it’s tough to run the ball when your offensive line sucks.
 
In 2020, we scored 24.7 points/game, good enough for 93rd of 128 nationally and 10th of 14 in conference. That was the high water mark!!

To equal that for this year, we'd need to score 39 points/game in the last two plus bowl game, or 58 points/game if we don't make a bowl. He's not good!
While true for 2020, that team was focussed on D and the O was tasked with not making mistakes that put D in bad position. I suppose you could also say that he has been handcuffed with a substandard OL during his time here
 
Well, 3 of the 4 schools joining the conference next year are top 5 nationally in points scored, passing yards, and yards/play, so I don't know that running the ball is going to keep being the measure of success going forward.
NU, apparently, has a defense again.
 
Because you are going to want him to coach through the bowl game. Why fire him before that? The Bowl game will be after the first signing day.
He's had his chance. Bring in a young aggressive coach with creativity. We need to score more points, period. He's not getting it done.
 
Well, 3 of the 4 schools joining the conference next year are top 5 nationally in points scored, passing yards, and yards/play, so I don't know that running the ball is going to keep being the measure of success going forward.
Have you seen the D in that conference? Not really that good
 
What are the handcuffs? The OL?
Sounds like Braun has given Jake total control of the offense this year so I don’t know what the handcuffs are. The OL is not good much of the time. Mainly an Anderson problem. But could also be a Jake problem in how he designs the plays and protections?
 
Sounds like Braun has given Jake total control of the offense this year so I don’t know what the handcuffs are. The OL is not good much of the time. Mainly an Anderson problem. But could also be a Jake problem in how he designs the plays and protections?
Braun is a defensive guy with no real offensive experience, He was forced to give control of the O to Jake. As far as the OL, last week people we bouncing between praising the OL and that BB for making quick decisions as there was only one sack. Today with that same QB and OL, back to giving up 6 sacks. Fact is the OL is a pretty big set of handcuffs.
 
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Well, 3 of the 4 schools joining the conference next year are top 5 nationally in points scored, passing yards, and yards/play, so I don't know that running the ball is going to keep being the measure of success going forward.
Nonsense. Being able to run the ball effectively is a foundational building block of a successful football team. That will never change, particularly when we are talking about Midwest, Big Ten football. Even during the hey day of NU’s spread offenses, running the ball with Kustok and DA were key to those team’s successes. These west coast teams will adapt to the Big Ten, not the other way around.
 
He's had his chance. Bring in a young aggressive coach with creativity. We need to score more points, period. He's not getting it done.
No one is arguing he should stay next season. I just don’t see a high probability he is replaced before the bowl game.
 
Nonsense. Being able to run the ball effectively is a foundational building block of a successful football team. That will never change, particularly when we are talking about Midwest, Big Ten football. Even during the hey day of NU’s spread offenses, running the ball with Kustok and DA were key to those team’s successes. These west coast teams will adapt to the Big Ten, not the other way around.
Lots has changed since 2000…and, of course, the 2000 offense was an unapologetically run-first offense. We spread ‘em out so we can run the ball.
 
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Lots has changed since 2000…and, of course, the 2000 offense was an unapologetically run-first offense. We spread ‘em out so we can run the ball.
Perhaps. But I remember Penn State and Nebraska having some good offenses before they joined, and similar predictions for how difficult they would make things for the stodgy old Big Ten teams.

How did that work out for them?

Northwestern competes in the ‘Winter is Coming’ division of college football. The run game will always be critical.

Beat Illinois.
 
Perhaps. But I remember Penn State and Nebraska having some good offenses before they joined, and similar predictions for how difficult they would make things for the stodgy old Big Ten teams.

How did that work out for them?

Northwestern competes in the ‘Winter is Coming’ division of college football. The run game will always be critical.

Beat Illinois.
The best new teams will usually be if PSU caliber, not OSU or Blue. That’s pretty good, but I think the two traditional powers will remain. I think the West Coast teams will occasionally get picked off by mid tier B1G legacy teams while the big 2 have mostly avoided this.
 
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The best new teams will usually be if PSU caliber, not OSU or Blue. That’s pretty good, but I think the two traditional powers will remain. I think the West Coast teams will occasionally get picked off by mid tier B1G legacy teams while the big 2 have mostly avoided this.
My fear is USC. If they can lock down their home recruiting ground (taking advantage of east coast sportswriters finally staying awake to watch their games,) they have the best chance of becoming the third ‘Big’ in the conference.

But then there is this (per a quick google search) :

USC's last rain game was versus Notre Dame at home in 2016. The last time USC played in snow was Nov. 30, 1957 at Notre Dame. It was 20 degrees.

Hehehehe. We will see if the thoroughbreds can race with the mudders.
 
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OK I've mostly stayed out of this, and the offense is still not good, but...it FEELS like we have more big pass plays, and not just L'il Joe on huge screen passes. Maybe I'm just beaten down, but it feels like Bryant and Sully have had a lot of long ones where they just chuck it up deep to Kirtz/Cam/AJ and they are on target and caught. Anecdotal, but encouraging. Still needs to be fired but that part "feels" different
 
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