Time for the annual existential meltdown
- Thread starter eastbaycat99
- Start date
Yeah, these overthrows of deep routes and the overall team performance are reminding me of Gavin Hoffman and crew, 1998. I hope they prove me wrong.
This feels different.
Trajectory of the program feels a lot worse than at any time since Fitz became HC.
Trajectory of the program feels a lot worse than at any time since Fitz became HC.
I’m always an optimist when it comes to NU football and you won’t hear calling for Fitz’s head as he’s done so much for the program. Others may disagree.
That being said, I can’t stomach many the efforts coming several members of his current coaching staff and their respective position groups. I get that injuries are an issue, but as program, you CANNOT be in a position where those sink your chances against a FCS squad. That’s inexcusable.
2018 feels like a peak, and 2020 feels like a COVID fluke.
Nebraska might be the only win.
NU might go winless in September, October, and November.
But recruiting apparently looks great…
This is where I’m at. It’s apparent that fitz whiffed on both coordinator hires. We know he is stubborn and doesn’t like to admit mistakes. We could be bad for awhile.
Doubt if that class stays together if we keep losing like this
That's what worries me the most. We always had Hank as an anchor and knew the defense would be consistently excellent or able to reach that kind of level.
Bajakian was seen as a good hire; JON was not. But neither side of the ball has worked last year or so far this year.
It was always easy to be optimistic during the years we missed bowls before, but this just feels different now.
It's hard to look at any part of this and say; "that will get fixed by so-and-so". Fitz has come a long way as a gameday coach to the point of being good at that aspect of coaching. He's a solid head coach.
But there's huge problems below Fitz and it starts with JON and Bajakian.
It is easy for you to make your post sitting in front the television.
I actually take people games. This was down right embarrassing. After today's performance, I probably lost them. I am a non-alum fan who brings non alums to the games. NU keeps up with this crap and can and will stop buying season tickets. I told the staff at NU that if they kept Collins, I would not renew. After 16 years of basketball, I did not renew. These crap performances will have the same effect.
I almost forgot Bates was still there coming off injury in 98. I think he ran a Wildcat play in the Michigan monsoon game which was actually pretty close. But Hoffman couldn’t get the ball to an NFL WR, partly due to the OL and partly the same type of inaccuracy that is plaguing Hilinski.
Yeah, 2020 was a bit of a mirage. We got a great final year from Hank and then Ramsey was excellent in the Covid season.
Bajakian has just not worked out beyond that.
He has been conspicuously absent from both boards... Guess it's hard to call a bunch of us false fans and whatnot after days like this...
What exactly is Coach Jake supposed to do? He's dealing with an inconsistent QB who makes bad decisions and off-target throws. Plus WRs who can't really get separation, and a OL that can't get much push against a FCS opponent. And then a defense that's so porous that his offense is often playing from behind.
Recruit better. Coach better. Find a new career. There’s three options for you.
I think he’s supposed to develop a QB. We had 5* Hunter Johnson, high 4* Hilinski, Marty, now Sullivan - nobody developed enough to string 2 B1G wins together. Ramsey was already a finished product.
I think @FanatiCat has the right point. The most important part of his job is to find a way to get workable QBs. There's two ways to do that: transferring in already developed QBs or developing them himself.
If we're not seeing our QBs get demonstrably better over a multi-year period in his offense, that's a problem.
Regardless, I'd still give Bajakian another year. If he gets a competent QB, I think he can develop a workable offense, give him another year or two for that.
JON on the other hand was never qualified for the position he was given. He should not have been retained after the dreadful start to last year's defense. There wasn't a way to come back from that even later on in the season when Fitz decided to be more hands on with the defense.
Hilinski looked great against Nebraska. He managed the game well, made good decisions, and was accurate in his throws. Everyone was happy. Then against Duke, he started making mistakes. Yesterday, he was terrible. Was it Coach Jake's fault that the QB sailed a ball over the head of a wide-open WR, missing out on an easy TD? Is Coach Jake to blame for inaccurate passes and balls that are thrown to defenders? Last year, H. Johnson started out decent and then completely fell apart. To be successful, any O-coordinator needs a QB who can manage a game effectively and not make mistakes that put his team in a hole.
I'm not in any way defending JON. That's an entirely separate discussion.
I don't disagree with anything you said, and I think Bajakian should get plenty more time to try to find the next CT/Ramsey QB.
Even so, our offense was still below average in Division I. Make no mistake, we won on the strength of defense and genius of Mike Hankwitz alone.
What could have been had we had an offense to really match in terms of productivity and performance.
When Iowa wins some games this year, it isn't going to be because they play complementary football. It's because they have an awesome D period and they are winning in spite of a terrible offense.
True , True on Sunday NU was on page 3 of the Sun Times(Hardest working paper in America) as an NU professor found a way to gobble up forever plastics...!!!!!!!! How many points is that worth?
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