(09-03-2017 10:00 PM)prairiedawg Wrote:  

(09-03-2017 09:51 PM)Rabid Squirrel Wrote:  The positives are being overwhelmed by the tidal wave of negativity this program has built up over the last two seasons. It's funny, my girlfriend of the last two years is a trooper and watches or goes to all the games with me. She has no experience with the great things prior to 2015, and she's now like - "how do you endure this? Its so depressing."

This program needs something to get excited about. Some positivity. And while there are some things I loved about friday - Pugh! Smith! both lines and Beebe, I too was resigned to a "how are we going blow this" mentality. Graham has become the symbol for Huskie futility and seeing him put into the line up has become dispiriting and almost exhausting.

Carey and the coaches have ZERO confidence in Graham. Rod is such a wuss it makes me sick with the 3 straight runs then the kneel down after giving up the TD before the half. It's an amateur football game ya sad sack...man up and play the game and quit being a bltch.

I was really pulling for Graham before this game. But man, I swear the wrs where shaking their heads and shrugging their shoulders after some of those passes. Dude has to be an island in the locker room. I have to think hes lost this teams respect...if he ever had any.

Maybe Graham gets gameday jitters really bad or something.

NIU should have won.

How many balls were thrown at WRs feet? Really pathetic that's our best option at qb.

(09-03-2017 10:32 PM)NIUHuskie4life Wrote:  How many balls were hit at WRs feet? Really pathetic that's our best option at qb.

Sloppy Rod loves the kid.

(09-03-2017 10:10 PM)NIU32 Wrote:  

(09-03-2017 10:01 PM)7 Wrote:  

(09-03-2017 10:00 PM)prairiedawg Wrote:  

(09-03-2017 09:51 PM)Rabid Squirrel Wrote:  The positives are being overwhelmed by the tidal wave of negativity this program has built up over the last two seasons. It's funny, my girlfriend of the last two years is a trooper and watches or goes to all the games with me. She has no experience with the great things prior to 2015, and she's now like - "how do you endure this? Its so depressing."

This program needs something to get excited about. Some positivity. And while there are some things I loved about friday - Pugh! Smith! both lines and Beebe, I too was resigned to a "how are we going blow this" mentality. Graham has become the symbol for Huskie futility and seeing him put into the line up has become dispiriting and almost exhausting.

Carey and the coaches have ZERO confidence in Graham. Rod is such a wuss it makes me sick with the 3 straight runs then the kneel down after giving up the TD before the falf. It's an amateur football game ya sad sack...man up and play the game and quit being a bltch.

Because this board is beaming with confidence for him or...?

That's the frustrating part though. If Graham is Carey's guy and he went out and won the job with no doubts then Carey needs to be fully confident in him. It's clear he isn't. If Graham isn't that guy, then why not take some lumps and go through the growing pains with Santa or Childers? I just want the staff to be confident with their guy and play to win.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

Because the fact of the matter is there is a serious void of talent in the QB room. Ask anyone who attended a practice in the fall and Graham was clearly the guy.

As I've said before, the issue with Carey is the fact Graham is the best option, but I just don't see how you can watch Carey/U to coach aggressively with a QB you, me, them, and everyone else isn't good.

As for Graham, he wasn't great but I don't agree with this seemingly overwhelming thought he was god awful. I can think of four Hare games off the top of my head which were easily worse (Ohio State, Boston College, CMU 2015, Kent State 2014).

Better QB play and "we" win, yes, but we saw Hare go up against the same opponent two years ago when they went 3-9 and 2 of their wins came against FCS teams and Graham played far and away better than Hare did.

I guess I'm talking myself in circles here, but they have a QB who we know isn't great, they outgain an ACC team and have a FG to send it to OT and the first reaction is to the fire the coach? I understand the frustration of the end of 2015 and then last year play into it, but come on.

The only words I have for it is unrealistic and illogical. There's no way anybody who watched that game objectively would sit there and go "wow, NIU was obviously outcoached."

(09-03-2017 10:40 PM)7 Wrote:  

(09-03-2017 10:10 PM)NIU32 Wrote:  

(09-03-2017 10:01 PM)7 Wrote:  

(09-03-2017 10:00 PM)prairiedawg Wrote:  

(09-03-2017 09:51 PM)Rabid Squirrel Wrote:  The positives are being overwhelmed by the tidal wave of negativity this program has built up over the last two seasons. It's funny, my girlfriend of the last two years is a trooper and watches or goes to all the games with me. She has no experience with the great things prior to 2015, and she's now like - "how do you endure this? Its so depressing."

This program needs something to get excited about. Some positivity. And while there are some things I loved about friday - Pugh! Smith! both lines and Beebe, I too was resigned to a "how are we going blow this" mentality. Graham has become the symbol for Huskie futility and seeing him put into the line up has become dispiriting and almost exhausting.

Carey and the coaches have ZERO confidence in Graham. Rod is such a wuss it makes me sick with the 3 straight runs then the kneel down after giving up the TD before the falf. It's an amateur football game ya sad sack...man up and play the game and quit being a bltch.

Because this board is beaming with confidence for him or...?

That's the frustrating part though. If Graham is Carey's guy and he went out and won the job with no doubts then Carey needs to be fully confident in him. It's clear he isn't. If Graham isn't that guy, then why not take some lumps and go through the growing pains with Santa or Childers? I just want the staff to be confident with their guy and play to win.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

Because the fact of the matter is there is a serious void of talent in the QB room. Ask anyone who attended a practice in the fall and Graham was clearly the guy.

As I've said before, the issue with Carey is the fact Graham is the best option, but I just don't see how you can watch Carey/U to coach aggressively with a QB you, me, them, and everyone else isn't good.

As for Graham, he wasn't great but I don't agree with this seemingly overwhelming thought he was god awful. I can think of four Hare games off the top of my head which were easily worse (Ohio State, Boston College, CMU 2015, Kent State 2014).

Better QB play and "we" win, yes, but we saw Hare go up against the same opponent two years ago when they went 3-9 and 2 of their wins came against FCS teams and Graham played far and away better than Hare did.

I guess I'm talking myself in circles here, but they have a QB who we know isn't great, they outgain an ACC team and have a FG to send it to OT and the first reaction is to the fire the coach? I understand the frustration of the end of 2015 and then last year play into it, but come on.

The only words I have for it is unrealistic and illogical. There's no way anybody who watched that game objectively would sit there and go "wow, NIU was obviously outcoached."

Did you watch the terrible ending to the 1st half? This dude's #'s below probably had a lot to do with the impotent play calling.


C/ATT YDS AVG TD INT QBR
Ryan Graham 15/38 190 5.0 2 1 41.3

Try SOMEONE NEW!!!!!!

I don't remember you mentioning Pugh or Smith that much in practice.
How did they get over looked?

(09-03-2017 11:20 PM)huskie1stdown Wrote:  I don't remember you mentioning Pugh or Smith that much in practice.
How did they get over looked?

You can't hit people in practice lol

Plus there's a reason I'm posting on a message board

Fair enough.

(09-03-2017 10:40 PM)7 Wrote:  

(09-03-2017 10:10 PM)NIU32 Wrote:  

(09-03-2017 10:01 PM)7 Wrote:  

(09-03-2017 10:00 PM)prairiedawg Wrote:  

(09-03-2017 09:51 PM)Rabid Squirrel Wrote:  The positives are being overwhelmed by the tidal wave of negativity this program has built up over the last two seasons. It's funny, my girlfriend of the last two years is a trooper and watches or goes to all the games with me. She has no experience with the great things prior to 2015, and she's now like - "how do you endure this? Its so depressing."

This program needs something to get excited about. Some positivity. And while there are some things I loved about friday - Pugh! Smith! both lines and Beebe, I too was resigned to a "how are we going blow this" mentality. Graham has become the symbol for Huskie futility and seeing him put into the line up has become dispiriting and almost exhausting.

Carey and the coaches have ZERO confidence in Graham. Rod is such a wuss it makes me sick with the 3 straight runs then the kneel down after giving up the TD before the falf. It's an amateur football game ya sad sack...man up and play the game and quit being a bltch.

Because this board is beaming with confidence for him or...?

That's the frustrating part though. If Graham is Carey's guy and he went out and won the job with no doubts then Carey needs to be fully confident in him. It's clear he isn't. If Graham isn't that guy, then why not take some lumps and go through the growing pains with Santa or Childers? I just want the staff to be confident with their guy and play to win.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

Because the fact of the matter is there is a serious void of talent in the QB room. Ask anyone who attended a practice in the fall and Graham was clearly the guy.

As I've said before, the issue with Carey is the fact Graham is the best option, but I just don't see how you can watch Carey/U to coach aggressively with a QB you, me, them, and everyone else isn't good.

As for Graham, he wasn't great but I don't agree with this seemingly overwhelming thought he was god awful. I can think of four Hare games off the top of my head which were easily worse (Ohio State, Boston College, CMU 2015, Kent State 2014).

Better QB play and "we" win, yes, but we saw Hare go up against the same opponent two years ago when they went 3-9 and 2 of their wins came against FCS teams and Graham played far and away better than Hare did.

I guess I'm talking myself in circles here, but they have a QB who we know isn't great, they outgain an ACC team and have a FG to send it to OT and the first reaction is to the fire the coach? I understand the frustration of the end of 2015 and then last year play into it, but come on.

The only words I have for it is unrealistic and illogical. There's no way anybody who watched that game objectively would sit there and go "wow, NIU was obviously outcoached."

Sure Hare had a few bad games. But they were mixed in with some really good games around those bad ones. What's really scary about Graham is that his play has steadily declined since his first decent appearance in '15.

He was terrible last year, but I'm not willing to concede Friday wasn't a step in the right direction. He may be a pud, probably is really.

Let's see how he does against EIU and really the big test will be San Diego State.

If he's bad against EIU, I'll be with you. And if he's bad against EIU I think you'll see santa.

I am willing to bet the best QB on this roster wont even get a serious look until he is a junior or senior, in other words, when he outranks everyone by being an upperclassmen. I wish Childers would have been given a chance, his skill set is best suited for the offense.

Sorry, I disagree with 7 100%. The board is usually worse than this, but that 's because the fans' expectations have been lowered significantly since we found out that Graham was anointed the starter even though his upside is more limited than anyone else at the QB position. Where is the reason for optimism? I understand that the rest of the team LOOKS good but realize that BC is inept on offense and half the MAC will have a better and more experienced QB than BC has right now. I do think the offensive line did well, but what good will it do if Graham can't hit anyone even with all the time in the world. The defense looked pretty good but we'll see what happens when they're faced with a better QB.

For me, the issue in the BC game wasn't necessarily that Carey was too conservative. For me, the issue was that when we got close to field goal range we decided to launch a deep throw that we had to know by that point had little chance of succeeding, even if the WR was open, instead of trying to get a first down or closer in for an easier field goal range. We all knew that every point was going to be critical against BC but we seemed to not care whether we could kick a FG or how far it was.

I think most people on here are just being realistic.

(09-03-2017 11:50 PM)NIU007 Wrote:  Sorry, I disagree with 7 100%. The board is usually worse than this, but that 's because the fans' expectations have been lowered significantly since we found out that Graham was anointed the starter even though his upside is more limited than anyone else at the QB position. Where is the reason for optimism? I understand that the rest of the team LOOKS good but realize that BC is inept on offense and half the MAC will have a better and more experienced QB than BC has right now. I do think the offensive line did well, but what good will it do if Graham can't hit anyone even with all the time in the world. The defense looked pretty good but we'll see what happens when they're faced with a better QB.

For me, the issue in the BC game wasn't necessarily that Carey was too conservative. For me, the issue was that when we got close to field goal range we decided to launch a deep throw that we had to know by that point had little chance of succeeding, even if the WR was open, instead of trying to get a first down or closer in for an easier field goal range. We all knew that every point was going to be critical against BC but we seemed to not care whether we could kick a FG or how far it was.

I think most people on here are just being realistic.

I don't think people are being realistic at all. Honestly, the majority of the posts on here are the same "blame the coach" posts after just about every loss no matter who the coach is. Look what most of the complaints are in this thread, not being aggressive enough, too many QB runs, etc. No offense to anyone, but if you think Graham is bad (and like everyone does) and in the same time you want Carey and company to be aggressive at the end of the half, that's just stupid. Common logic would tell you if you don't trust your QB to be conservative and protect him. Statistically, we can literally look at the stats and see Graham running was far and away NIU's most effective play. It's just true.

Your post I can respect because it's more than just your typical blah blah blah not aggressive enough. Throwing a low percentage pass to the end zone in that situation I can totally see you ripping the coach for. Not for not being aggressive though, that is being aggressive.

Go back to the sequence I talked about to start the 4th. They threw a bomb to Blake on 3rd and 2 and then went for it on 4th and 2. Is that not being aggressive? Sure, the jet sweep to Beebe was a terrible call but then rip Coach U for it because Carey doesn't call the plays.

If losing on a missed 33 yard field goal to an ACC team and calling for the coach to be fired is "realistic," I'm sorry, I can't agree with that. As I said, even at their peak NIU has always struggled to beat P5 teams, including a Kansas program which was way worse than BC is now.

Sure, they'll play MAC teams with better offenses/QBs than BC. Toledo for sure and probably WMU (although their QB threw for like 50 yards against USC), but that is also going to be easily the best defense they will play all year.

It was a game they could have won that they didn't, which sucks. Be upset about it, you should be. But NIU went 5-7 last year and they preformed better than they did against BC two years ago. So what's there to lose your **** over?

I feel like I'm making posts with legit facts to back them up in this thread and being met with nothing but hysteria, and maybe I should know better than trying, but I just don't get it.

IMO, NIU looked like a better team last night than they did in the opener against Wyoming last year. Both sides of NIU's line got dominated against Wyoming last year, and that was far from the case last night.

The QB issue is an issue that is not going away, but IMO everything other than that was a positive.

I guess the last thing I'll say is, before the game everybody would have expected this game to be a close, low scoring game. That's exactly what it was. NIU ended up losing because their kicker missed a FG he should have made.

Hitting the panic button over that? Nah, not realistic at all.

Again, they'll be fine. Not 10-2 fine, but 7-5 and make a bowl fine. I get the feeling that won't be good enough for this place either.

I guess it's probably the same place as always but there's just more losing now than there used to be. People were calling for Carey to be fired after the damn Marshall game because they lost a bowl game.

Just come with more substance than "be more aggressive" and "stop running the QB."

Pretty sure it was a 39 yard FG that Hagan missed, not 33. He should have made it, but 39 is not a gimme. What's bad is that we didn't seem to care about getting closer to increase the chances. Especially with the ridiculous clock management wasting all that time.

Wyoming was a very different story. We had to travel out west, play at 7000 feet, very late at night, and they had a good, experienced QB. And that Wyoming team was pretty good. Not the same.

IMO they should have done high percentage throws or runs to get the first down at the end of the game - i.e. they would have had 2 tries at it instead of 1. They had enough time, and timeouts to try to get closer, and once you're closer you can try to get the TD.

Also, we don't know that BCs defense is as good as the last couple years. That remains to be seen. The O-line and TEs/RBs did a good job with Landry, that is true.

(09-04-2017 12:17 AM)NIU007 Wrote:  Pretty sure it was a 39 yard FG that Hagan missed, not 33. He should have made it, but 39 is not a gimme. What's bad is that we didn't seem to care about getting closer to increase the chances. Especially with the ridiculous clock management wasting all that time.

Wyoming was a very different story. We had to travel out west, play at 7000 feet, very late at night, and they had a good, experienced QB. And that Wyoming team was pretty good. Not the same.

IMO they should have done high percentage throws or runs to get the first down at the end of the game - i.e. they would have had 2 tries at it instead of 1. They had enough time, and timeouts to try to get closer, and once you're closer you can try to get the TD.

Also, we don't know that BCs defense is as good as the last couple years. That remains to be seen. The O-line and TEs/RBs did a good job with Landry, that is true.

It was 39, you're right. Keep in mind the throw to Blake in the end zone came on 3rd and 9 from the 22. On 2nd and 10 they did run a high percentage pass to Beebe and the BC DB made a really nice tackle to save what would have been at least a first down if not TD. Now, maybe you run a draw or run a short pass and hope you get some YAC for the first down, but if you do that aren't you being conservative then?

And as somebody who was at the Wyoming game, your point on the conditions are valid, but they were an 8-6 MWC with a 52-17 loss to Nebraska, and losses to EMU, and 4 win UNLV. I don't think they were any better than the Boston College team NIU faced last night.

Side note but Josh Allen is ridiculously overrated lol.

As you alluded to with BC's defense, I guess we will find out how good they are and how good (or bad) NIU is soon enough.

(09-04-2017 12:10 AM)7 Wrote:  I guess it's probably the same place as always but there's just more losing now than there used to be. People were calling for Carey to be fired after the damn Marshall game because they lost a bowl game.

Just come with more substance than "be more aggressive" and "stop running the QB."

Come with more substance than Beebe breaking tackles was the difference in the game, give me a freaking break

(09-03-2017 09:57 PM)7 Wrote:  All I'm going to say is if you're expecting NIU to win 10+ games every year and beat every P5 team they play, you are going to drive yourself absolutely insane. Look at the future OOC schedules, NIU is going to lose A LOT of non-conference games in the coming years. That's going to happen whether Carey, Doeren, Kill, Novak or whoever is the coach.

Compete for the MAC and spring the occasional upset vs a P5 team. Adjust your expectations back to the pre-Lynch days.

The "Fire Carey" stuff is a nauseating waste of time too. If they don't go to a bowl game this year, he'll be fired. If they do, he won't. And with the recruiting class NIU has coming in next year, if you find yourself rooting for Carey to get fired I seriously questions your fandom.

Losing to an ACC team has never gotten an NIU coach fired and never will.

If you find yourself rooting for him to stay, I seriously question YOUR fandom.

Coach Carey has torpedoed the program into mediocrity. He has become so largely unpopular with our fanbase that the program has to move on if we want to move forward.

As our Huskie program fights dwindling attendance and fan attrition, the last thing we need is to continue to retain a head coach that doesn't produce results and is loathed by our fans and community.

And yes, Seven, I realize I cued you up for your tired rhetoric about how wonderful Coach Carey was when he played with Coach Doeren's recruits on the Orange Bowl team he inherited.