Pitchin with Pritch: Huskers finish with more losses than wins

Thanksgiving week was a little different than planned but it certainly was a good week and one that wasn’t too difficult to figure out a lot of things to be very thankful for,especially Thanksgiving day. 

First of all, the weather was a tad bit difficult to deal with at times, but we got through that in pretty good shape and got to Lincoln on Wednesday without a problem. 

We had plans for the few days that we were in Lincoln—we didn’t have football tickets; we didn’t have volleyball tickets; but we had a pretty good set up at our son’s home with a bunch of TV’s. 

There were a lot of good basketball and football games played and it is really nice to have a tech person as a son at times like this. He has a pretty nice basement with enough TV sets going that the only problem you have is trying to watch all the action going on at the same time. 

But for all the good things that went on, there was the Husker vs. Iowa football game that was the center of attention come Friday.

The game had some importance, as most football fans understood, because a Husker win would qualify them for a bowl game. 

I am sure the Husker team could use the extra practices that a bowl game provides and the extra experience players gain by getting that extra game-—but it didn’t happen. 

The more things change, the more they stay the same in many ways. A field goal in the final seconds of the game gave Iowa the three-point victory. It got social media fired up with all kinds of opinions and ideas to “Make Nebraska Great Again.”

A lot of people have ideas but very little coaching experience. It is pretty easy to make statements on how to fix things but if you are not in on the everyday practices etc. that go on, your suggestions may be just that, a suggestion. 

A former player for the Huskers made a comment, “It’s obvious that people believe in someone that can’t get it done.” 

I am not sure that is a true statement, but I would bet that there are more people questioning the coaching skills of Coach Frost right at this moment.

I have to admit there are some things that seemed to happen in most if not all the games this year that I would think you could change in a season, but I could be wrong. 

I have no idea what shape the overall football program was in when Coach Frost took over but apparently it was worse than most people thought. 

I would like to think that things like jumping off sides, illegal motion, lining up illegally, would be at a minimum by the end of the season but it didn’t seem to happen. 

A number of other things that caused problems this year were still going on at the end of the season. Maybe it is the need for better players that understand the value of discipline and how it affects your play in any sport. 

As a former coach, I don’t like smack talk that goes on with some of our players. When you are 4-8 or 5-7 or even 9-0, usually “talkin smack” usually comes back and bites you a little. 

I also think that if the program was in as bad of shape as the current coaching staff has said, then it will take time. I would like to think that next year the W’s would outnumber the L’s and then improve from there.

Volleyball team rolls

The volleyball team picked up two more wins and are a No. 5 seed in the NCAA tournament and will play Ball State in their first contest. 

The Husker women have a chance to get some wins in the tournament and hopefully they will play well, have a little bit of luck along the way, and make some waves in the tournament.