Friday Flakes: Frost and Moos Attempt to Temper Unreasonable Expectations for Upcoming Football Season

I’ve said it again and again this off-season that we should fight these expectations for the upcoming football season as much as possible. Fortunately or unfortunately most of these increased expectations have actually come from outside of the state of Nebraska. For example, Tim Brando has Nebraska in his end-of-season Top 10.

Can we agree at least those are unreasonable expectations for a team that won four games last year and had one of the worst defenses in the country relative to their peers?

Nebraska has been making many other lists as well like Phil Steele’s most improved team. That list does not bother me as much but it is an indication of where a lot of people seem to expect Nebraska to end. In fact, he picks Nebraska to go 10-2 and end the season in the Rose Bowl.

Two quotes stuck out for me from Scott Frost and Bill Moos which I believe are meant to stamp down those expectations.

Coach Frost responded in a way to Moos saying that six wins should be an immediate goal saying that nobody would be happy with six wins. That is true. I would not be happy with six wins either. That however should be on the other end of the spectrum from Tim Brando’s Top Ten finish.

We can reason our way to 10, 11 or 12 wins. There is no problem with that as I could do that as well. That however, is different than expecting 10, 11 or 12 wins.

At this point I would say that my expectation is probably around seven to eight wins. I can hope for more and can actually see more happening.

I could be and likely will be wrong, and in fact Scott Frost thinks we probably are wrong as he revealed with this great quote when asked about the media picking Nebraska to win the west division:

I am glad that both Frost and Moos used Big 10 media days to push down the expectations. Contrary to the national narrative, I actually think Nebraska fan’s expectations are actually somewhat reasonable. Of course, you will find the exceptions. However, it appears that the national media has gone off the deep end at times.

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Local Sports Media May Be the Real MVPs

There are times I feel bad for our members of the Nebraska sports media. Big Ten Media days are one of them. They have to travel all the way to Chicago (which sounds awesome actually) but then spend their day standing around and interviewing their respective coaches for the institutions they cover (which still sounds awesome). Unfortunately, the majority of the answers they receive from those coaches generally revolve around the following:

• “I really like this team”
• “We understand the playbook better”
• “Players look stronger and faster than the year before”
• “Spent a lot of time in the weight room and in the offices studying film”
• “Our team is really is going to suck this year and I’m not even sure we are going to win a game”
• “The players have really bought in and the leadership has really shown it”
• “Players are finally starting to hold each other accountable”

Hearing those answers year after year would definitely get old, and I’m not even driving or flying all the way to Chicago to hear it

You’ve got sports! You’ve got sports! You all have sports!”

Frost pins Huskers' hopes on arm of QB Martinez
Heading into his second year as Nebraska's coach, Scott Frost appears to be very happy with where sophomore quarterback Adrian Martinez is entering preseason camp.

"I wouldn't trade our guy for anybody in the country at that position, at the quarterback position," Frost said at Big Ten media days Thursday. "On top of being a great player, he's just a great individual. Exactly what we're looking for to run our offense. We're probably going to go as far as he can take us this year."

One Athlete's Quest for a Perfect Night's Sleep | Outside Online
For my fortieth birthday, I decided to climb the Grand Teton, a 13,770-foot peak in my backyard of Jackson, Wyoming. The Grand is technical, requiring rock climbing and rappels on exposed faces with 5,000-foot drops. Make a mistake and you’re dead. I’d decided the ascent would help me feel less 40. I gathered the gear I needed and did all the necessary training, including steep, hourlong hikes wearing a 60-pound weight vest. The one thing I was missing to perform at my best? Enough sleep.

Moos embracing Husker hype, updates Revelle leave
Nebraska has been picked by many to win the Big Ten West in 2019 — hype around a program that has largely avoided it in recent years.

Count Nebraska athletic director Bill Moos among those who are embracing the buzz around the Big Red entering Scott Frost’s second year.

Big Ten Media Days: Huskers Coach Scott Frost talks about Martinez, the offensive line, recruiting, and more
We're about six weeks away from the start of the Huskers' 2019 football campaign. Close enough. Let's call it football season and get on with it.

Klatt eager for NU-CU; likes Huskers in the West
Joel Klatt is now regarded as one of the leading college football analysts in the game, and has become polished enough at his craft he’s respected by a good many Husker fans even though Klatt, um … cough … was a Colorado Buffalo.

He grew up 20 minutes south of Boulder, and, as you’ll see, it was a Nebraska-Colorado game that in its own way helped steer him to where he is now.

“That game is college football to me,” Klatt said Friday at Big Ten Media Days.

LeBron James offers up glowing scouting report of son
Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James has gone full dad mode on Twitter. James played the role of hype man Thursday, providing a glowing scouting report of his son LeBron James Jr.

James described his son as a team player who cares more about winning than individual statistics. He admitted that James Jr. will make mistakes, but is willing to be coached up.

Danny Ainge says he knew Kyrie Irving would bolt for Nets
He told Toucher and Rich that he believed during the spring that Irving wanted “to go home” to play with the Brooklyn Nets and preferred them to the New York Knicks.

"He did express to me on a couple of occasions between March and the end of [the season] that he really wanted to go home," Ainge said. "I got the impression at that point that he wanted to go play in Brooklyn more than he wanted to play in New York."

“STICK TO SPORTS!” Nah

Why On Earth Are So Many Millennials Becoming Nuns? - HuffPost
More and more young women are being called to the religious life, after 50 straight years of decline. What on earth is going on?

Physicists Wonder: Why Has No One Been Killed by Dark Matter?
The fact that no one has died from being struck by dark matter is enough proof to rule out certain ideas about the mysterious stuff, according to one new theory paper.

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The Art of Misdirection: Lessons from a Pickpocket Master

Corn Nation Book Club - Readers Recommendations

Like I said last week, let me know of any of your own book recommendations and I’ll forward them on a week later. Well here they are!

• Chronicles of Narnia - C.S. Lewis
• Any book by Paul Jennings
• The Foundation Series by Isaac Asimov
• The Nine Tomorrows by Isaac Asimove
• Dylan Goes Electric by Elijah Wald
• Finnegans Wake by James Joyce
• Everybody Poops by Taro Gomi
• Extraordinary Tennis for the Ordinary Player by Simon Ramo
• Doomsday Warrior by Ryder Stacy
• A Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
• Ulysses by James Joyce
• Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace
• Justice: What’s the Right Thing to Do by Michael Sandel
• Diary of a Very Bad Year: Confessions of an Anonymous Hedge Fund Manager by Keith Gessen
• Meditations by Marcus Aurelius
• The Gnostic Gospels by Elaine Pagels
• Reincarnation Blues by Michael Poore
• Leavings by Wendell Berry
• Circe by Madeline Miller
• The Only Story by Julian Barnes

The Best Things I Saw On The Internet This Week

I wish we could get more hot mics in sports.