• last year
Transcript
00:00 [Music]
00:07 Welcome to the Carriker Chronicles, the people show.
00:11 Checking the pulse of Husker Nation brought to you by DPS Concrete Construction.
00:14 Check them out, dpsconstruction.net
00:17 Ladies and gentlemen, it is a frustrated, it is an angry Husker Nation.
00:21 That's pretty clear, and it's hard to blame people.
00:24 Alright, now, full disclosure, real quick, this is Saturday that I'm recording this show.
00:29 So, the further away we get from the games, the less raw the emotions are.
00:33 So the emotions for me are still very, very raw, even though this show isn't going to go out until Sunday morning.
00:38 Okay, these are my final grades for the offense, defense, special teams, coaches over year one,
00:43 after the first season under Matt Rule's tenure.
00:46 Okay, but I'm going to try to be as fair as I can, despite the emotions still being raw from that Iowa game yesterday.
00:53 Real quick, again, I know there's a lot of frustrated, angry people after that disgusting loss to Iowa.
00:59 Okay, but a little positivity real quick.
01:02 I appreciate my wife, who edits every single show that I have.
01:06 Okay, so if you want to show my wife, alright, who loves editing this show,
01:11 but if you want to show her some love for editing this show,
01:13 and my kids for coming on the show throughout this year, every Prediction Thursday that we had,
01:17 okay, they won't come on again until next year or our next Prediction show.
01:21 If you want to show her some love for editing this show, I want to personally tell her thank you,
01:24 and/or if you enjoy my kids coming on the show, then smash that like button.
01:28 Alright, ladies and gentlemen, these are the final year one grades for Matt Rule,
01:33 after his first season here at the University of Nebraska.
01:35 As you know, Nebraska ended the season 5-7.
01:38 There still is an outside chance to go to a bowl game.
01:41 We'll cross that bridge if we get to it.
01:43 Alright, I did do mid-season grades earlier this year.
01:47 These grades are going to be a little bit different.
01:50 I am going to try to look at the season as a whole and not be a prisoner of the moment, okay,
01:55 whether it be the last game or the end of the season,
01:57 although that is going to be weighted quite heavily, but I'm going to try to look at the season as a whole.
02:03 It doesn't help that we lost the last four games in a row and probably not go into a bowl game, okay.
02:10 Alright, now, the Huskers only scored 216 total points this year.
02:16 They averaged 18 points per game.
02:18 However, Iowa is letting go of Baby Ferenc, their offensive coordinator,
02:22 whose offense averaged exactly 18 points per game through their 12 games this season.
02:27 Now, he's been Iowa's offensive coordinator since 2017.
02:31 And as we know, the Hawkeyes had 10 wins this year.
02:33 Now, to be clear, okay, there are games that are going to be played after I record this show,
02:38 before it goes out on Sunday morning, but most of these stats should be fairly accurate, okay,
02:43 but just a heads up and disclaimer.
02:45 Four games Nebraska played in November, they lost them all.
02:50 After an undefeated October, okay, they had three games in October, including a bye week,
02:55 but during those three games, they averaged 23 points per game that they won in October,
03:00 in which they never lost a game.
03:02 In November, they did not win a game, okay, and their four straight losses in November,
03:06 they averaged 13.5 points per game, so quite the drop-off in points production,
03:10 and only 5.75 points in the second half of those games.
03:16 Now, in the second half of our last two games versus Wisconsin and Iowa,
03:20 we had a combined 6 points in those two second halves put together versus Iowa and Wisconsin.
03:28 Now, the coaches said throughout this year, rules said they wanted to get the ball to Emmitt Johnson more.
03:34 Versus Iowa, he only had 11 carries, and once again, our quarterback was our leading rusher,
03:39 the Huskers did only average 2.5 yards per rush versus the Hawkeyes.
03:44 Now, three times this year, Nebraska lost on what was basically a walk-off game-winning field goal,
03:50 okay, where the score every time, how does this happen, was exactly 13 to 10.
03:55 Minnesota, Maryland, and Iowa.
03:57 Twice, we think it's fair not to point this out, the facts are what they are, okay,
04:02 the last two times were following a Chubba Purdy interception, which ended the Huskers' last scoring opportunity,
04:09 which then led to the opponents' game-winning field goal.
04:13 Okay, not entirely on him, but it is what it is.
04:16 Versus Minnesota, our last two drives, and I'd actually forgotten this, we were up 10 to 3, okay,
04:22 and our last two drives, the second to last one was the Anthony Grant fumble,
04:26 Minnesota capitalizes, goes in and scores, ties it 10 to 10.
04:30 Then, Jeff Simms throws an interception on our last drive of that game,
04:34 Minnesota capitalizes, kicks a game-winning field goal, wins 13 to 10 as we know.
04:40 Alright, now, Nebraska has lost, just a quick update, you'll love this,
04:45 Nebraska has lost 31 score games over the last six years.
04:49 That's just painful.
04:52 Alright, ladies and gentlemen, okay, I'm going to get to the grades shortly,
04:56 but real quick, I want to give a shout-out to our sponsor, DPS Concrete Construction.
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05:20 Alright, now, back to the grades.
05:23 I got quite the build-up leading into these grades, don't worry, I'll get into them.
05:26 Ladies and gentlemen, real quick, I have 13, I just lost a bunch of my papers,
05:31 I have 13, and there's three more on the floor right there, I just lost, 13 pages of notes here.
05:37 Okay, I don't think I've ever done this much research or watched this much film preparing for a show
05:45 going on 10 years now, come January, that I've been doing the Chronicles,
05:49 the five years that I did Carriker Live, I also do the Big Ten show, The Ticket, all that stuff.
05:53 I don't think I've ever prepared for a show as much as I've done this show.
05:56 Now, back to the topic at hand.
05:58 Part of me kind of wonders if Matt Rule, and I know he wanted to win,
06:02 we're all sure that he was trying to win these games, he wanted to win,
06:05 but I kind of wonder, because he mentioned something at a press conference at one point
06:10 about kind of just getting through year one.
06:12 Okay, I kind of wonder if he just wanted to get through year one, part of him,
06:17 I know he wanted to win, to be clear, I'm not saying he didn't,
06:20 but like he did at Temple and Baylor, just kind of get through those years to build to year two
06:24 and year three is what I'm getting at.
06:26 The difference here is every game matters, and every season matters to a large, passionate fan base.
06:31 Nebraska's following isn't like Temple or Baylor, I say that with all due respect,
06:36 but that's why we set world records here.
06:38 That's why we set consecutive sellout game records, easy for me to say, but you know what I mean.
06:44 There truly is no place like Nebraska, the passion, the following, okay.
06:49 Again, I'm sure Rule wanted to win, but I can't help but wonder if maybe he overlooked that just a smidge.
06:56 Now I got some tweets, I'm interactive with the people on Twitter, I'm interactive with the people on Facebook,
07:01 I thought these were some interesting tweets, my wonderful wife's going to put them up on the screen,
07:05 so I'm going to read them quickly because you can see them on the screen.
07:08 This is @huskerwave, because I was curious what other people had to say.
07:11 "We started 5-3 and couldn't make a bowl," and he puts in quotes,
07:14 "but we are so much further than expected."
07:17 I wouldn't say further than expected. Progress, yes.
07:20 I have no choice but to trust in Rule, but he is the only reason we didn't win 6.
07:25 Rule cost us the bowl, that was their take.
07:27 @GregSmithRivals on Twitter, "Progress was made this season, that's a fact, but Nebraska must do two things.
07:33 Keep Tony White and spend up to a million dollars on a transfer quarterback."
07:38 Alright, @HusGuys, these next three tweets are all from @HusGuys.
07:41 "We were 5-3 with 4 games to play and we didn't make a bowl game. I am in complete shock."
07:46 Alright, next one, "I realized that I guzzled the Kool-Aid, and this is all in my own head,
07:50 but 3 weeks ago we controlled our own destiny to win the Big Ten West and we somehow finished 2nd to last,
07:56 and I have complete whiplash because I never could have predicted that outcome."
08:00 Final tweet from @HusGuys, "We had the ball with a chance to tie or win the game against Minnesota,
08:04 Michigan State, Maryland, Wisconsin, and Iowa and all 5 drives ended in turnover and losses.
08:08 We have got to focus on pressure-packed situations this offseason to get better and break.
08:13 This one score loss decade long occurs."
08:16 Now this next one is from @MitchSherman, speaking of Tony White,
08:20 "Tony White told Nebraska defenders that he didn't plan to do much coaching today."
08:24 Talking about the Iowa game.
08:25 "Defensive lineman Ty Robinson said, 'White just wanted to let them play and trust their training.'
08:30 We'll learn more soon on White's future plans, no matter he's made an impact this year."
08:35 That's per Mitch Sherman.
08:36 One more from Mitch, "Another 13-10 loss, that's the third of the season for Nebraska.
08:40 It just ends like it began. So how to find progress in the madness?
08:44 Oh, and by the way, the Huskers' -17 turnover margin equals their worst mark from the past 20 years."
08:51 Alright, I read those quick because they were up on the screen.
08:54 Alright ladies and gentlemen, here's my final thoughts before I give the grades.
08:57 The beginning of the year, I thought we had an identity on offense after the first few games.
09:01 I really did. I thought we were going to run the ball, pound the rock, wear you out,
09:06 it might be ugly, it might not be pretty, okay, and as turnovers aside,
09:10 because we've had those all year, we were going to be the better second half team.
09:13 I don't know where that went, honestly. It didn't last as long as I would have liked.
09:19 And maybe I was just fooled.
09:21 We lost our offensive identity, in my opinion, to a degree anyways, a bit throughout the season,
09:26 and we regressed somehow. At least, that's what I think.
09:31 Okay, not winning any of our last four games, all winnable games, and not earning a bowl game
09:36 weighs heavily on some of these grades, even though I'm trying to look at the season as a whole.
09:40 As mentioned before, I don't particularly like doing grades.
09:44 If you watch my mid-season grade video show that I did during the bye week,
09:48 I don't do grade shows very often. I don't like them. I just don't.
09:52 Okay, but it felt appropriate, so here I am.
09:56 Okay, I don't particularly enjoy these shows. I do find them challenging for me,
10:01 but let's light this candle.
10:03 And here's what I'm going to lead with.
10:05 If you've watched this show before, it ain't the first time you've heard me say it.
10:08 It won't be the last. Facts don't care about feelings. In other words, facts over feelings.
10:12 Let's light this candle.
10:14 The pass offense. Nebraska was 126 in the country. You know who we were in front of?
10:18 Iowa at 127. Army at 128. Navy at 129. Air Force at 130.
10:24 Four teams who don't even know what a forward pass is, and I say that with all due respect.
10:29 Okay, Huskers had 10 passing touchdowns on the year and 16 interceptions.
10:34 A 52% completion percentage and 3 interceptions this year, as I mentioned before,
10:39 that led directly to an opponent's game-winning field goal.
10:42 Alright, now what you want is a 2-1 touchdown to interception ratio.
10:46 For every interception you throw, you want at least two touchdowns.
10:49 That's considered pretty good.
10:51 And as far as your completion percentage, somewhere in that 60-70% range.
10:55 And for a college quarterback, we weren't even close.
10:58 My grade for the passing offense is an F.
11:01 Rushing offense. Now, coming into the Iowa game, we had the #1 rushing offense in the Big Ten.
11:09 Versus the Hawkeyes, we ran the ball 30 times for 75 yards.
11:14 We also lead the nation in fumbles, and fumbles lost with 15.
11:19 I gave our rushing offense a grade of a B-.
11:23 Now, I debated between a B- and a C+ for such a long time, simply because of the fumbles and the turnovers.
11:31 I ended up going with a B-.
11:34 Alright, the final offensive grade, I gave a D-.
11:38 I felt like I was kind of being kind with that a little bit. Maybe you'll disagree.
11:43 It doesn't help that Nebraska is near the bottom in red zone offense as well.
11:47 Now, Rule did say that Marcus Satterfield is coming back next year.
11:51 Okay, cool. He was very clear about that.
11:54 Here's what I think. Let me be clear.
11:56 He needs to be evaluated hardcore next year.
11:59 Alright, pass defense. I'll be honest with you.
12:02 Our pass defensive stats were better than I thought they would be.
12:05 Now, we're 44th in the country in pass yards allowed per game, giving up 210 pass yards per game.
12:10 But the most surprising thing to me was we're 17th in the country in pass efficiency defense, right ahead of Alabama at number 18.
12:17 I didn't see that one coming.
12:19 So I gave our pass defense a C+.
12:21 I felt like some teams passed the ball on us better than they should have,
12:26 especially when you think about a game like the Michigan State game, just as an example.
12:30 But not every team, because look at the Maryland game.
12:33 Wasn't he the number one passer in the Big Ten, Tyga Viola?
12:36 And look how well our defense played that day.
12:39 But for the most part, we played some bad offenses this year.
12:42 So I feel like our defense played well but benefited a little bit from that.
12:47 So again, pass defense, I gave him a C+.
12:49 Run defense. I know we missed some tackles versus Iowa.
12:52 But we have currently the 8th best rush defense in the country, allowing 92.9 rush yards per game, right behind Oregon,
13:02 who's the 7th best rush defense in the country.
13:04 I gave our rush defense an A-.
13:06 Now the defense, the overall grade I gave the defense was a B+.
13:11 Originally, I had it just a straight B.
13:13 But when I took into account the tough positions our defense was constantly put into,
13:19 and they're the 17th ranked scoring defense in the country,
13:23 and they were constantly put in brutal positions all year by turnovers and a struggling offense,
13:28 we're really not that far behind when it comes to scoring defense in the country.
13:32 We're 17th, we're not too far behind Florida State, Texas, and Alabama.
13:36 That's why I gave our defense as an overall hole a B+.
13:39 It seemed fair.
13:41 To me, special teams, I was mixed on special teams.
13:43 We had two blocked field goals versus Iowa, which was a major reason we had a chance to win that game.
13:49 Our coverage units have been pretty good all year for the most part, I'd say.
13:53 But an inconsistent kicking game, and Tristan Alvano's a young man with a bright future.
13:58 Very bright. He's going to be good.
14:00 But inconsistency in the kicking game, including Brian Boushini, our punter at times,
14:05 which frankly, I didn't see that one coming, along with absolutely no return game.
14:10 I gave our special teams a C-.
14:12 I almost gave them a C, but even we had some fumbles on some of the punts that we did return this year.
14:19 Maybe that's why I ruled and didn't want to do it more.
14:21 But I gave the special teams a C-, not a C.
14:23 Alright, coaching, this was the toughest one.
14:26 I have to take into account a plethora of things.
14:29 Yeah, there's that word. Here we go.
14:31 I took into account, here's the list.
14:33 Okay, the season as a whole, the fact that it was an easier schedule this year,
14:38 it's year one under Matt Ruhle, and I know people are sick and tired of hearing that.
14:42 I said in a previous video we've got to let go of the ghost of Scott Frost, the coach,
14:47 and I know that's easier said than done.
14:49 Alright, we have to take into account how badly the quarterback situation was handled or mishandled this year,
14:54 from the preseason all the way up until the last couple of games.
14:59 We have to take into account how we lost some of these games, which was like a nauseating déjà vu over and over.
15:05 Okay, I have to take into account, as bad as this is, that five wins is tied for the most amount of wins we've had over the past seven years.
15:13 In 2022, four wins. 2021, three wins. 2020, which was COVID, we had a three and five record.
15:18 2019, five wins. 2018 and 2017, both four win seasons.
15:24 Alright, I do have to weight some things more than others.
15:27 The end of the season matters a little bit more than the beginning, at least to me.
15:30 We lost the last four games of year one and couldn't find a way to win just one.
15:35 Okay, and that includes three games against three teams on bad losing streaks at the time,
15:41 and the last team, Iowa, we were actually favored to beat.
15:45 That, that right there is the most damning thing in my very humble opinion.
15:51 I gave the, now, look at the grades as an overall whole, okay, before I give the coaching grade.
15:56 I gave the defense a B+ and the special teams a C-, but I gave the offense a D-.
16:01 So when you take all that into account, when it comes to the coaching grades,
16:05 the absolute highest grade I could possibly give the coaches knowing those grades was a C or a C-.
16:11 Alright, now I tried to keep in mind that Matt Rule's teams make a big jump in year two.
16:17 Okay, happened at Temple, happened at Baylor, because he likes to build the program.
16:22 Okay, build it up, and they typically take another jump in year three.
16:26 But this is year one, and as of right now, that's all I have to go on.
16:30 It came down to this. I've said for months that my bar for success cut and dried, bam,
16:36 was six and six, and at least going six and six, if not better, and earning a trip to a bowl game.
16:43 I've been very consistent with that.
16:45 A successful season. Not achieving that, to me, was not a successful season.
16:52 Okay, now also to me, anything grade-wise in the C range, I just think back to my school days,
16:58 C-, C- to C+, to me that was average.
17:02 Well, we have a below average record, and we're not going to a bowl game,
17:07 so how can I give a grade that's something in the C range right now?
17:10 I just don't see how I can do that.
17:13 I gave the coaching as an overall hole for the staff, Matt Rule and his staff, a D+.
17:20 I'm well aware that'll probably anger some people, and I'm not even saying that I'm right.
17:24 What I'm saying is it is my opinion, and it's my opinion after a crap load of research,
17:30 and a crap load of watching film.
17:32 Now, let me be clear. I really hope we get that Rule Year 2 jump,
17:37 and my opinion is much, much different at the end of next season,
17:41 and the grades are much, much different this time next year.
17:44 Hopefully we get that Matt Rule Year 3 jump, and I look back on this video in a couple of years,
17:49 and this show in a couple of years, and I just laugh.
17:51 Until then, I want to leave you with one final thing.
17:55 Ladies and gentlemen, I don't call this the People's Show for marketing, for a tagline.
18:00 I call it the People's Show because when I was growing up,
18:03 I would have given anything to be able to interact with people that I watched,
18:07 athletes that I watched, show hosts that I watched.
18:10 Now that I feel like I might be in a little bit of that position,
18:13 I want to reciprocate what I wish I could have gotten when I was watching shows like this,
18:18 or some of the athletes that I grew up watching.
18:21 So I simply want to share an interaction that I had on Facebook with a fan in the comments.
18:26 Scott Galindo, and I hope I said that right, commented and said,
18:29 "How much longer do we endure until next year, Adam?"
18:32 And I'm an optimist, okay?
18:35 I said, "Scott, I wouldn't advise it, but you could always stop being a fan. It is an option."
18:40 I know people who are avid, lifelong Detroit Lions fans.
18:44 Other than Thanksgiving Day, I couldn't be happier for how this season is going for them so far.
18:50 Alright, ladies and gentlemen, here are my questions for you fine folks at home.
18:53 Let me know in the comments below your answers to these questions.
18:56 The offense had a ton of injuries and young players play this year on offense.
19:00 Does that change how you view the offense's performance this year, and how you view it going into next year?
19:05 #2, do you agree that the top two offseason priorities are finding a transfer portal quarterback and keeping Tony White?
19:13 I believe that was Greg Smith's tweet that I read earlier.
19:16 And #3, what are your final grades for this season?
19:19 Was I too harsh, too kind, or was I fair?
19:22 Alright, ladies and gentlemen, if you enjoy what I do here on the Carriker Chronicles, do me a favor and hit that subscribe button.
19:27 Support the YouTube channel. Check out CarrikerChronicles.com.
19:30 I'm doing a ton of offseason content.
19:33 This season ain't over for me. Go Big Red and always remember to throw the bones.
19:38 [no dialogue]