Riley Calls Out Offensive Line

Mavric

Mavric

Yoda
Staff member
Pay attention to Riley’s comments on the Huskers’ offensive line. He put that group just a little bit on notice.

“It’s an experienced group, and I think there’s talent there,” Riley said. “My expectations are that this group will play well and frankly, they need to. We need to run the ball and we need to protect the quarterback.”

Later, Riley said the offensive line “is the focal point of our success.”

NU finished ninth in the Big Ten last season in rushing yards per game and tenth in yards per carry. Riley offered no deep praises of any one player on the unit. For those guys, it’s on.
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OWH

 
I like hearing this. But, it's cookie cutter pre season speak and not much action until proven otherwise.

 
Most would agree that the offensive line play last year, as a group for the season as a whole, was the weakest of all the position groups. We have not had great O line play for a long time. That being said, I would tend to think that this fall's line should be 'on paper' based on recruiting, experience, etc. the most talented we've had for about that same 'long time' as well. Not to say it should be 'great' but I think it has a chance to be one of the better we've had in the past 10 years. I have complained (many disagree with me I realize) that we have not played enough back ups in recent years and we just don't have any experienced depth. You have to build a great line over years of loading and reloading (back in the day this 'system' was called the 'pipeline' because we always had twos and threes who actually played meaningful game snaps and so we returned 'starter' type guys every year, no matter whether we had 4 seniors on the the starting five or not. Avoiding fatigue and forcing defensive linement to adjust to different types of blocks and blockers makes it harder and you wear the defense down with fresh bodies and so on.

Hopefully, Riley and Co learned something from Milt Tenopir and his time helping out. These coaches know a great deal about football but for most of his coaching life, Riley has likely never had enough overall depth (NFL teams don't have a three deep roster period and Ore State likely had about 1/3rd less players than NU period). We need to play and develop a THREE deep chart, not a two deep with names appearing in more than one position in order to make one. We have enough guys suiting up and they ought to be contributing more than just 'numbers to run out on the field during the Tunnel Walk' and for scout team practive opponents.

Bill Callahan's single biggest error during his time at NU was his dumping of the lower units (he needed to cull the not every gonna be ready for prime timers in the beginning and we had plenty of those) but he needed to triple down on the walk ons and replace them. He said frequently that having over a hundred on the team was a waste of time as coaches needed to focus on teaching those who will play. This is a NFL mentality and will not work to build a long term, successful college program. Callahan tried to run a pro type system in college, in my view, and it just won't work as you can't recruit ready to play starters like you draft and go out and buy free agents. Pro players are ready to play physically and by the time they hit the NFL they are the best of the best of the best. In college you have to teach the fundamentals and not just hone existing skills.

 
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84HuskerLaw said:
Most would agree that the offensive line play last year, as a group for the season as a whole, was the weakest of all the position groups. We have not had great O line play for a long time. That being said, I would tend to think that this fall's line should be 'on paper' based on recruiting, experience, etc. the most talented we've had for about that same 'long time' as well. Not to say it should be 'great' but I think it has a chance to be one of the better we've had in the past 10 years. I have complained (many disagree with me I realize) that we have not played enough back ups in recent years and we just don't have any experienced depth. You have to build a great line over years of loading and reloading (back in the day this 'system' was called the 'pipeline' because we always had twos and threes who actually played meaningful game snaps and so we returned 'starter' type guys every year, no matter whether we had 4 seniors on the the starting five or not. Avoiding fatigue and forcing defensive linement to adjust to different types of blocks and blockers makes it harder and you wear the defense down with fresh bodies and so on.

Hopefully, Riley and Co learned something from Milt Tenopir and his time helping out. These coaches know a great deal about football but for most of his coaching life, Riley has likely never had enough overall depth (NFL teams don't have a three deep roster period and Ore State likely had about 1/3rd less players than NU period). We need to play and develop a THREE deep chart, not a two deep with names appearing in more than one position in order to make one. We have enough guys suiting up and they ought to be contributing more than just 'numbers to run out on the field during the Tunnel Walk' and for scout team practive opponents.

Bill Callahan's single biggest error during his time at NU was his dumping of the lower units (he needed to cull the not every gonna be ready for prime timers in the beginning and we had plenty of those) but he needed to triple down on the walk ons and replace them. He said frequently that having over a hundred on the team was a waste of time as coaches needed to focus on teaching those who will play. This is a NFL mentality and will not work to build a long term, successful college program. Callahan tried to run a pro type system in college, in my view, and it just won't work as you can't recruit ready to play starters like you draft and go out and buy free agents. Pro players are ready to play physically and by the time they hit the NFL they are the best of the best of the best. In college you have to teach the fundamentals and not just hone existing skills.
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Do you have a tl;dr version?

 
Toe said:
I'd like to hear him call out his own coaches on that, too...
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That thought crossed my mind too. But I don't think he is in the habit of calling out individuals. He never specifically called out Banker or Reed last year but he did repeatedly talk about the need to be better in their areas.

 
yeah in my opinion this is about as much of a warning shot at Coach Cav as you're gonna get. If the O-Line struggles again this year I don't know how you go another offseason without making a change there.

 
seaofred92 said:
yeah in my opinion this is about as much of a warning shot at Coach Cav as you're gonna get. If the O-Line struggles again this year I don't know how you go another offseason without making a change there.
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We should know by mid season if Cav is on the chopping block.

 
If the offensive line struggles and I believe it will, we wont have to worry about a new oline coach as we will be looking for a whole new coaching staff!

 
1995 Redux said:
seaofred92 said:
yeah in my opinion this is about as much of a warning shot at Coach Cav as you're gonna get. If the O-Line struggles again this year I don't know how you go another offseason without making a change there.
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We should know by mid season if Cav is on the chopping block.
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I think Riley just said he's on the block game one. I like it personally. Davis better get the running game going or he might be gone with him. Year 3 without a 1000 yard rusher will SUCK.

 
Hopefully he is doing something about it in practice and with his staff. These passive aggressive comments to the press aren't going to effect a lot of change.

 
El Diaco said:
Hopefully he is doing something about it in practice and with his staff. These passive aggressive comments to the press aren't going to effect a lot of change.
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I'm going too go out on a limb, and say Riley knows that his comments aren't solving the problem. Although, sometimes a little public shaming does the trick (see: Bird's comments too his teammates in the press after a loss too the Lakers in one of those 80's Finals match-ups).

 
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Mavric said:
Toe said:
I'd like to hear him call out his own coaches on that, too...
Click to expand...
That thought crossed my mind too. But I don't think he is in the habit of calling out individuals. He never specifically called out Banker or Reed last year but he did repeatedly talk about the need to be better in their areas.
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Something like "we as a staff need to improve and put them in a position to succeed" would have worked without calling anyone out specifically.

 
I think it could be a strength but it's strange how many times Riley has singled that unit out. I don't know, maybe it's just his way of keeping them focused and reminding them how important they are.

The article also makes me nervous reading that the offense still has to find some identity and work out some issues. I probably shouldn't expect unstoppable execution through spring practices but I would think that side of the ball would be more of a well-oiled machine by now even with a new QB.

 
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