Hoke: Nebraska players "wrong" about offense predictability

He could simply say as a staff that they are looking into possible adjustments moving forward. That would not be throwing Al under the bus or singling him out. The bullshit coachspeak Hoke continues to use week in and week out, is getting tiresome to say the least. It may deflect some criticism of Al, but all it is doing is causing that to be redirected at Hoke himself. One of those guys has a higher chance of not being here next year.

Like I said, Hoke has to be smart enough to realize that spouting bullshit and insulting fans intelligence in the process is only going to make them angrier.

Not to mention there is a chance he does actually believe what he saying, considering the playcalling has pretty much stayed the same most of the season. It sure doesn't look like many adjustments have made behind closed doors. Actions normally speak louder than words. I do that is the less likely to be the case, but you can't rule out the possibility that he is being genuine entirely.

     My God, I hope this is the case.  Let's think this out logically.   From Hoke's own words, his mindset seems to be in one of these generalized frames:

1)  Completely Oblivious (They Don't Realize We Suck)

     I cannot imagine this is the case.  The statistics are right there.  These are not stupid men.  Rationalization might have gotten them past Akron and UConn, maybe past PSU due to a plethora of missed field goals, maybe MSU due to "hey, they've got one of the best defenses in the country."  But not Nebraska.  The fog of ignorance, if there ever was any, must have surely lifted by now.

2)  Stragetic Pain (Rip The Band-Aid Off/The Beatings Will Continue Until Morale Improves)

     In this scenario, Hoke along with AB, have just decided to stick with the new program no matter what, until the young squad "gets it" and is able to "execute."  They wanted to run their desiered offense from Day One, but due to the personnel and the dynamic play of Denard, they were forced to hold off for the first year or two. Everybody was waiting for an absolutely brutal transition the first year or two, but it wasn't as brutal as we all thought, especially after our hightened expectations after this year's Notre Dame game. But instead, it's just that the truly ugly ride was on time delay.  

     Perhaps Hoke promised AB that no matter what happened, in 2013 they would install their preferred offense come hell or highwater.  Maybe they knew the growing pains would be inevitable at some point anyway, and now it's time to pay the piper before the honeymoon is totally over and they still have a reserve of goodwill in Ann Arbor to pull it off. And by refusing to adjust, they know they are sacrificing stats and wins today, but in order to provide (in their eyes) a necessary baptism of fire for their very young roster to pick up the system.  In this scenario, they foresaw things would get worse before they got better, which is why they aren't hitting the panic button right now.

3)  Messaging Security (Thou Shall Not Air Dirty Laundry)

     Or maybe none of the above happened.  Or alternatively, either Scenario 1 or Scenario 2 started to happen, but Hoke has since seen fit to change course and is privately shaking things up.  In this scenario, there are many places he could elect to censor the messaging to preserve morale--between all Fort Schembechler vs the rest of the world; between his coaching staff vs the rest of the world (including the kids on the team); or between himself alone and the rest of the world (including his own coaching staff).  Where that line is drawn depends on his leadership style.  Some might be in the "for God's sake, do SOMETHING" camp, in which case the appearance of not doing anything would kill morale more than staff shake-up rumors flying around.  But there's definitely a leadership style out there that says, "praise in public; scold in private."  Maybe Hoke is one of those guys.  

     But again, that's a matter of opinion.  Folks have said before that Hoke has done a shake-up on his previous coaching staffs.  Do we have any idea on how that was accomplished? Did Hoke have a tendency to telegraph the shake up beforehand?  Or was it a stonewall of coach-speak all season, then a Bloody Sunday after the last game?  And how much of this might be Hoke just not trusting himself to maintain a nuanced information embargo against a news-hungry media?  

     How many of you have ever sensed a begging dog beneath your spot at the dinner table that you were determined not to feed?  Did you look at the dog and pet him, just to be nice, still knowing you'd never feed him a scrap of food? How did that go?  Or did you just stone-cold ignore him because you didn't want to invite more aggressive begging?  Or alternatively, because you didn't trust yourself and you knew that as soon as you saw his puppy-dog eyes you'd just break down and let the scraps spill from the table despite your better judgment?

     At this point this is all speculative of course.  Maybe we get to an OK bowl game after posting an 8-4 record---essentially what we originally expected out of this season anyway--and no major shake-ups happen.  Maybe it's a tire fire, we play in "Try Harder Bowl" at some point in late December, and we hear about a coaching staff shake-up.

     Only time will tell.