LJS: Several RBs Benefit from Reps/Break

Mavric

Mavric

Yoda
Staff member
Nebraska reserve running backs Mikale Wilbon and Adam Taylor spent the season bouncing back and forth from the scout team to the Husker offense. But this week, as the Dec. 26 Foster Farms Bowl nears, they're working exclusively with the main group -- hearing NU's play-calls, verbiage, et al.

"So far, so good," said Nebraska running backs coach Reggie Davis. "Since they hadn't been doing all of it all year, some of the terminology is still a little bit new to them. But for the most part, they're looking pretty good."

The 5-foot-8, 190-pound Wilbon, a redshirt freshman, had nine carries for 35 yards in the first two games, then was hardly heard from again. Davis shed some light as to why.

"Mikale has to get a real good grasp of the offense, to where the errors are not there and he's on top of the plays -- play in and play out," the coach said. "Consistency is probably the best way to say it."

...

Another veteran running back, Terrell Newby, has recovered well from an ankle injury that slowed him during the final month of the season, Davis said.

In Nebraska's most recent game, a 28-20 loss to Iowa on Nov. 27, Newby rushed nine times for 34 yards despite soreness. He carried only five times for 12 yards in the previous two games. On the season, he leads the team with 143 carries for 743 yards, or 5.2 per attempt.

"He's looking great," Davis said. "His ankle has healed up from what I can see. He's trying to push through it. Being a speed guy, a quick guy, (the injury) did hamper his production.

"We'll definitely want to use his speed. We're playing a fast team in UCLA. We need to get speed on the field as well. He will definitely have his chance to make an impact."
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LJS

 
Hopefully, some of Davis' comments helps ease the fans who were questioning why guys like Wilbon/Taylor weren't seeing PT. As a rule of thumb, if guys aren't grasping things in practice and the film room yet, some magic switch is not all of sudden going to flip on in games.

 
Wait, so Wilbon was so far removed from the team this season that he's not even familiar with the verbiage and play calls at this point? What the heck did he do? (Link won't open on phone.)

 
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I think that's a really nice way of saying "he has not been as well-versed in the offense yet as he needs to be."

Hope those two get back on track.

 
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Hujan said:
Wait, so Wilbon was so far removed from the team this season that he's not even familiar with the verbiage and play calls at this point? What the heck did he do? (Link won't open on phone.)
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Maybe I'm wrong but I thought his disappearance had to do with academics.

 
Hand them the ball and watch them work. This isn't an economics test - I get that some need to learn the playbook more but that is usually a load of BS when a coach says this. I know others will disagree on here, but Idc.

Friday All-Americans don't win you football games.

 
BIG ERN said:
Hand them the ball and watch them work. This isn't an economics test - I get that some need to learn the playbook more but that is usually a load of BS when a coach says this. I know others will disagree on here, but Idc.

Friday All-Americans don't win you football games.
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So, if he doesn't know the plays....oh hell....just give him the ball and it doesn't matter if he knows where he is supposed to go or what he is supposed to do.

Great idea.

 
BigRedBuster said:
BIG ERN said:
Hand them the ball and watch them work. This isn't an economics test - I get that some need to learn the playbook more but that is usually a load of BS when a coach says this. I know others will disagree on here, but Idc.

Friday All-Americans don't win you football games.
Click to expand...
So, if he doesn't know the plays....oh hell....just give him the ball and it doesn't matter if he knows where he is supposed to go or what he is supposed to do.

Great idea.
Click to expand...
There is a middle ground that can be found with coaches, especially ones who are imaginative on finding uses for all the talent on the roster. If Wilbon can't understand the entire playbook, then the coaches could work with him to create a package of plays that he can be successful in. Wilbon may have been the most physically gifted of all the RB's on NU's roster, but the coaches couldn't find any way to use him this year?

 
ColoradoHusk said:
BigRedBuster said:
BIG ERN said:
Hand them the ball and watch them work. This isn't an economics test - I get that some need to learn the playbook more but that is usually a load of BS when a coach says this. I know others will disagree on here, but Idc.

Friday All-Americans don't win you football games.
Click to expand...
So, if he doesn't know the plays....oh hell....just give him the ball and it doesn't matter if he knows where he is supposed to go or what he is supposed to do.

Great idea.
Click to expand...
There is a middle ground that can be found with coaches, especially ones who are imaginative on finding uses for all the talent on the roster. If Wilbon can't understand the entire playbook, then the coaches could work with him to create a package of plays that he can be successful in. Wilbon may have been the most physically gifted of all the RB's on NU's roster, but the coaches couldn't find any way to use him this year?
Click to expand...
Sooooo.....studying in the class room and keeping his grades up doesn't matter either?

I have heard he had grade issues.

 
ColoradoHusk said:
BigRedBuster said:
BIG ERN said:
Hand them the ball and watch them work. This isn't an economics test - I get that some need to learn the playbook more but that is usually a load of BS when a coach says this. I know others will disagree on here, but Idc.

Friday All-Americans don't win you football games.
Click to expand...
So, if he doesn't know the plays....oh hell....just give him the ball and it doesn't matter if he knows where he is supposed to go or what he is supposed to do.
Great idea.
Click to expand...
There is a middle ground that can be found with coaches, especially ones who are imaginative on finding uses for all the talent on the roster. If Wilbon can't understand the entire playbook, then the coaches could work with him to create a package of plays that he can be successful in. Wilbon may have been the most physically gifted of all the RB's on NU's roster, but the coaches couldn't find any way to use him this year?
Click to expand...
 
ColoradoHusk said:
BigRedBuster said:
BIG ERN said:
Hand them the ball and watch them work. This isn't an economics test - I get that some need to learn the playbook more but that is usually a load of BS when a coach says this. I know others will disagree on here, but Idc.

Friday All-Americans don't win you football games.
Click to expand...
So, if he doesn't know the plays....oh hell....just give him the ball and it doesn't matter if he knows where he is supposed to go or what he is supposed to do.

Great idea.
Click to expand...
There is a middle ground that can be found with coaches, especially ones who are imaginative on finding uses for all the talent on the roster. If Wilbon can't understand the entire playbook, then the coaches could work with him to create a package of plays that he can be successful in. Wilbon may have been the most physically gifted of all the RB's on NU's roster, but the coaches couldn't find any way to use him this year?
Click to expand...
Dismissal of this "excuse" by some fans is what I call BS. I know a certain hall of fame NFL QB who had his career end due to a certain ex Husker RB not caring about knowing what he was supposed to do and the QB got killed on a pass play and ended up with a bad concussion.

Serious question. Do people honestly really believe players don't need to know the plays? This argument from fans seems to me to be one of the most far out ridiculous arguments there is. Football is the most team oriented sport there is. Everyone has to be on the same page for plays to work no matter if you are on defense or offense. If you have someone constantly not knowing where he is supposed to be, that's bad.

We saw what happened in the Iowa game after Gerry was kicked out. The safety that replaced him was out of position and couldn't make the play on two long TD runs that killed us.

I honestly do not understand this line of thinking.

 
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BigRedBuster said:
ColoradoHusk said:
BigRedBuster said:
BIG ERN said:
Hand them the ball and watch them work. This isn't an economics test - I get that some need to learn the playbook more but that is usually a load of BS when a coach says this. I know others will disagree on here, but Idc.

Friday All-Americans don't win you football games.
Click to expand...
So, if he doesn't know the plays....oh hell....just give him the ball and it doesn't matter if he knows where he is supposed to go or what he is supposed to do.

Great idea.
Click to expand...
There is a middle ground that can be found with coaches, especially ones who are imaginative on finding uses for all the talent on the roster. If Wilbon can't understand the entire playbook, then the coaches could work with him to create a package of plays that he can be successful in. Wilbon may have been the most physically gifted of all the RB's on NU's roster, but the coaches couldn't find any way to use him this year?
Click to expand...
Sooooo.....studying in the class room and keeping his grades up doesn't matter either?

I have heard he had grade issues.
Click to expand...
If he has grade issues then I don't have a problem with the guy being benched.

But, going back to the playbook issue, there are many coaches around the country that can find a package of plays that can be run by certain players. It's called "finding uses for your talent". The coach is limiting his roster if he has the mindset of "he has to know the entire playbook from cover to cover if he is going to play with me".

I would go with the attitude of "what a player does know" rather than "what a player doesn't know".

 
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