JJ of Corn Nation - Who Would Want to Coach Nebraska Football? (If Scott Frost Is Fired)

[Cayman]

Moral victories are losses. Plus you are ignoring context. Yeah they lost to us by "one score" but it wasn't like it was a close game and they just didn't make the play. They needed a score, and onside and another score with a 2 point to win our game. They padded the stats with a late TD to make it look closer than it was...like when a hockey team scores an EN goal with 30 seconds left down 2.

Put it this way the Gophers wouldn't be getting any consideration as a "team on the upswing" if they had the same season.

Nebraska isn't Indiana, but they aren't Minnesota either at this point.

Moral victories are losses sure, and I don't think Nebraska fans would consider losing to Minnesota to be a moral victory, as we're not some juggernaut that they came a lot close to beating than they expected or something. They were favored to win the game after all.

I'm not really referring to the Minnesota Nebraska game in particular, and I'm certainly not apologizing for the win. I was disagreeing with the idea that losing a high percentage of close games is not a precursor to winning more games in the future, as, in the NFL, it generally is a precursor to winning more games in the next season. NFL teams aren't consistently winning or losing 80+% of their one possession games. Maybe it's different for college, as like I said, the NFL has salary caps and the draft to increase parity, while in college, winning more games makes you more attractive to better recruits, which then makes your team stronger in the future. And I thought I saw Nebraska is now like 5-17 in one possession games under Scott Frost, so maybe they're an exception where losing close games really is something they are going to continue doing year over year. But I'd love to see the stats for college football as a whole, or for other sports like basketball, if they exist.

 

[Schnauzer]

I hate say it, but Frost has them on the upswing.

Historically, how many other teams on an upswing have sunk to last place during their upswing?

 

[Dano564]

Moral victories are losses sure, and I don't think Nebraska fans would consider losing to Minnesota to be a moral victory, as we're not some juggernaut that they came a lot close to beating than they expected or something. They were favored to win the game after all.

I'm not really referring to the Minnesota Nebraska game in particular, and I'm certainly not apologizing for the win. I was disagreeing with the idea that losing a high percentage of close games is not a precursor to winning more games in the future, as, in the NFL, it generally is a precursor to winning more games in the next season. NFL teams aren't consistently winning or losing 80+% of their one possession games. Maybe it's different for college, as like I said, the NFL has salary caps and the draft to increase parity, while in college, winning more games makes you more attractive to better recruits, which then makes your team stronger in the future. And I thought I saw Nebraska is now like 5-17 in one possession games under Scott Frost, so maybe they're an exception where losing close games really is something they are going to continue doing year over year. But I'd love to see the stats for college football as a whole, or for other sports like basketball, if they exist.

I looked at close losses for all of the Minnesota coaches since Gutekunst.

Fleck and Kill (and Claeys) had a winning record in "close games".
Mason was a bit below at 0.500 at 15-21.
Brewster and Wacker had losing records in close games. (Brewster was 7-13)

Generally, the winning percentage of close games was similar to their overall record.
Mason was kind of the outlier where his close game winning percentage and his overall winning percentage varied the most. Mason was known for pulling out some awful last second losses.

 

[Dave H]

Moral victories are losses sure, and I don't think Nebraska fans would consider losing to Minnesota to be a moral victory, as we're not some juggernaut that they came a lot close to beating than they expected or something. They were favored to win the game after all.

I'm not really referring to the Minnesota Nebraska game in particular, and I'm certainly not apologizing for the win. I was disagreeing with the idea that losing a high percentage of close games is not a precursor to winning more games in the future, as, in the NFL, it generally is a precursor to winning more games in the next season. NFL teams aren't consistently winning or losing 80+% of their one possession games. Maybe it's different for college, as like I said, the NFL has salary caps and the draft to increase parity, while in college, winning more games makes you more attractive to better recruits, which then makes your team stronger in the future. And I thought I saw Nebraska is now like 5-17 in one possession games under Scott Frost, so maybe they're an exception where losing close games really is something they are going to continue doing year over year. But I'd love to see the stats for college football as a whole, or for other sports like basketball, if they exist.

The NFL is just a completely different animal for the reasons you mention but also because the talent level of the players themselves is just a lot closer. The NFL is like the Top 1% of all players so the difference between a mediocre team and a decent team might be a freak injury or a weird bounce. The worst players in the NFL were still top end starters in college. (usually)

CFB the talent of the players is way more variable. The difference between a starter and a walk on talentwise is huge. (again usually) There are more teams but the talent isn't spread out evenly. The margins for error are way different.

If this was an isolated season Frost would be talked up if he was in the NFL because yes signs are pointing up. The problem is that only works if this is a one year thing not a trend. Even the most lenient NFL team would fire him after this season if he finishes under .500 because sooner or later you actually have to win close games. Better coaches with better records have been fired in the NFL for failing to deliver.

 

[kisarazu]

Moral victories are losses sure, and I don't think Nebraska fans would consider losing to Minnesota to be a moral victory, as we're not some juggernaut that they came a lot close to beating than they expected or something. They were favored to win the game after all.

I'm not really referring to the Minnesota Nebraska game in particular, and I'm certainly not apologizing for the win. I was disagreeing with the idea that losing a high percentage of close games is not a precursor to winning more games in the future, as, in the NFL, it generally is a precursor to winning more games in the next season. NFL teams aren't consistently winning or losing 80+% of their one possession games. Maybe it's different for college, as like I said, the NFL has salary caps and the draft to increase parity, while in college, winning more games makes you more attractive to better recruits, which then makes your team stronger in the future. And I thought I saw Nebraska is now like 5-17 in one possession games under Scott Frost, so maybe they're an exception where losing close games really is something they are going to continue doing year over year. But I'd love to see the stats for college football as a whole, or for other sports like basketball, if they exist.

Pro sports, and especially, the top pro league in a sport, have the luxury of keeping the players they want/need around. In the NFL losing close games may well be a precursor to winning more games next season. In college, they lose 25% of their team and the best ones only stay for 3 years.