Langsdorf on Lee: 'Cool Your Jets'

Mavric

Mavric

Yoda
Staff member
Nebraska offensive coordinator Danny Langsdorf is aware how high expectations are for NU quarterback Tanner Lee, who has yet to start a game for the Huskers. He's leery of the hype, even as NFL scouts have rolled through town to watch Lee and he's been praised by national and local media alike. 

"I would say cool your jets a little bit," Langsdorf said. "I'm not being negative on that. It's a lot more than just Tanner. He's going to have to play well, but football being the ultimate team sport, there's ten other guys on that offense. He can't do everything — nor do we ask him to. It's going to be critical that everybody plays well. He'll be the benefit of everybody playing well, for sure. 

"But I think that the overhype is dangerous. Just laying in the weeds and being even-keel is a much better way to live and not riding the wave of the highs and lows. We have high expectations for him, but to say, 'He's a (NFL draft) first-rounder, he's a for-sure thing,' I think that's kind of silly until he plays some games for the Huskers." 

Langsdorf said he's "excited" to see what Lee can do, especially as it pertains to getting Nebraska out of bad plays and into better ones, but he expects some "rookie" mistakes from Lee, too. Lee hasn't played a college football game in roughly 20 months since transferring from Tulane. 
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OWH

 
You know how most fan bases are.....and I'm including Husker fans.  The best QB is the one standing on the sidelines watching the starter.  TL was the best till he became the starter.  Danny L is right though,  Tanner Lee can only be marginally better than the other 10 starters.  If they can up their game TL will have a good/great year.

 
knapplc said:
Yep.  If that O Line isn't good, Lee could be the second coming of Joe Montana and it wouldn't matter.

Don't get too excited about Lee, and don't get too down on him if the Offense struggles. It's not entirely on him, no matter what happens.
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Agreed. And to add to what Langsdorf said, it's not just about the other ten guys as well--coaching and offensive play-calling factor into an offense's success as well.

I understand that Langsdorf has had to work with an offense that isn't his bread and butter, but he's shown some tenancies in his play-calling in past seasons that aren't conducive towards a consistently successful offense. Hopefully that changes with an offense more suited to his talents. 

 
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"He's going to have to play well, but football being the ultimate team sport, there's ten other guys on that offense."

Maybe I'm reading too much into it, but I feel like this is a sneaky way of saying "Our O Line is suspect."

 
I think everyone agrees that Tanner Lee has the physical tools needed to be a really good QB. What will separate him from the pack is if he can do a few things the truly elite QB's do.

1. Make the correct pre snap adjustments. He has to be able to walk up to the line and read the defense and then check to the right play, or change the blocking assignments in order to take advantage of what the defense is doing.

2. Limit mistakes/turnovers. This is something that TA struggled with. His legs would wow us at times, but his stats against the Big Ten dropped significantly compared to the other teams we played.

3. Throw his targets open. Again this is something we haven't seen in quite sometime. Truly elite QB's have a knack for throwing to a spot that creates space for his targets.

If Tanner can do this then he will elevate the other starters and we could be in for a special year!

 
Husker from Kansas said:
I think everyone agrees that Tanner Lee has the physical tools needed to be a really good QB. What will separate him from the pack is if he can do a few things the truly elite QB's do.

1. Make the correct pre snap adjustments. He has to be able to walk up to the line and read the defense and then check to the right play, or change the blocking assignments in order to take advantage of what the defense is doing.

2. Limit mistakes/turnovers. This is something that TA struggled with. His legs would wow us at times, but his stats against the Big Ten dropped significantly compared to the other teams we played.

3. Throw his targets open. Again this is something we haven't seen in quite sometime. Truly elite QB's have a knack for throwing to a spot that creates space for his targets.

If Tanner can do this then he will elevate the other starters and we could be in for a special year!
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From what I gather, #3 is what people who have seen him at camps or in practice are impressed with.

#1 and #2 is what we needs to show he can do against good defenses this season.  

 
knapplc said:
Yep.  If that O Line isn't good, Lee could be the second coming of Joe Montana and it wouldn't matter.
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I don't think the offensive line has been given enough credit for protecting the QB.  They've been good at it, and there's no reason to suspect they'll get worse this year.  Unless Tanner Lee has worse pocket awareness than Tommy Armstrong - worse at reading defenses, worse at going through progressions, making decisions quickly, hitting check-downs, throwing the ball away, and so forth... I see no serious cause for concern.

 
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I think looking at sacks is a bit misleading when it comes to gauging how well the OL protected Tommy last season. 

Tommy was masterful at scrambling and evading pressure, something that I'm guessing Lee won't be as adept with. So I think a true gauge of the OL effectiveness lies in QB hurries statistic. In other words, how many times did Tommy have to scramble or was hurried because of the pressure. 

Even still you'd then have to attribute how many of those hurries were scheme related (i.e., right personnel, wrong scheme) or personnel related (i.e., right scheme, wrong personnel). 

On the surface i think our OL will be suspect this year, which will affect Lee more than it did Tommy. Tommy made our OL look better than it was, I think the opposite will be the case here. 

 
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