quote:
My point was that it’s funny to hear “but the spread” from SEC folks when the guy coached in the Big 12 for 3 years and had good defenses at a bad program.

I mean I'm not going to label Nebraska a "bad program", especially when Pelini arrived.

Solich
2000 : 10-2
2001 : 11-2
2002 : 7-7
2003 : 9-3

Callahan
2004 : 5-6
2005 : 8-4
2006 : 9-5
2007 : 5-7

Pelini
2008 : 9-4
2009 : 10-4
2010 : 10-4
2011 : 9-4
2012 : 10-4
2013 : 9-4
2014 : 9-3

The 8 years before Pelini got there they went 64-35 (65%). That's an average 8-5 season, which is just slightly worse than what Pelini consistently put out. Now, since he left? Yes - bad program. Hiring Riley as his replacement was a disaster.

There is also some revisionist history on the talent level at Nebraska. They had the highest recruited talent in their division while in the BXII - without a real close 2nd.

Year - National Rank (B12 rank, B12N Rank)
2007 - #13 (#2, #1)
2008 - #21 (#5, #2)
2009 - #27 (#4, #1)
2010 - #24 (#5, #2)

They were competing against Kansas State, Kansas, Missouri, Colorado and Iowa State. The only other team in that division that recruited at a somewhat similar level as them was Missouri and Colorado here and there.

This post was edited on 1/28/20 at 12:27 pm

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Posted by lostinbr

Baton Rouge, LA

Member since Oct 2017

9682 posts

Posted on 1/28/20 at 6:30 pm to SummerOfGeorge

quote:
I mean I'm not going to label Nebraska a "bad program", especially when Pelini arrived.

That’s fair, maybe I shouldn’t have called it a “bad program”. It all depends on the time frame you look at. Bo won 71% of his games there while his predecessor won 55%.

Regardless, I don’t think his win % as a head coach matters in the context of a discussion about his defensive coaching ability. My larger point was that I’ve seen a lot of LSU fans on Tiger Rant (maybe some people around the SECr as well) saying “but it’s a different era now!” As if he’s never coached, with success, against up-tempo/spread offenses before.

Maybe some of the RPO concepts are newer developments. But there seems to be a perception that, since LSU and Alabama just started spreading things out, it must be “new”.. it’s not.