Hail Varsity's take on the game and other thoughts

[lo country]

A decent article that hits in what most of the board has been saying.  Highlights some statistics on the OL.......After reading them, I'll admit I was wrong about AM.  He must have been hesitant to play behind these guys since spring ball.  And the fall and 6 games has done nothing to change his mind....

From the article:

This group is 109th in the country in stuff rate; 26.9% of Husker runs are stopped at or behind the line of scrimmage. They’re 104th in allowed sack rate; 8.5% of pass plays end with a sack. On passing downs, that number jumps to 15.6% (121st). 

The Huskers had 13 runs for 10-plus yards against Illinois on Sept. 21. They have 11 in the three games since. They had 11 passes that gained at least 15 yards against Illinois and only have six such passes since. 

“This stretch is solely on us as players,” Farniok said. “We’ve got to find a way to make it work.”

And if this current five-man unit can’t, Nebraska needs to find a combination of lineman that can.

SOME POSITIVES:

On Nebraska’s only touchdown drive of the game against Minnesota, Warner saw three targets, caught all three balls, and supplied 38 yards, including a 26-yarder over the middle on the second play of the drive. 

https://hailvarsity.com/s/8043/attitude-ol-adjustments-vedral-and-more-huskers-gophers-thoughts

 

[cheekygeek]

Glad to see Kade back on the field. Hope he continues to be used. That penalty on Noa (on the big Wan’Dale gain) was a bullet in the foot.

 

[lo country]

Glad to see Kade back on the field. Hope he continues to be used. That penalty on Noa (on the big Wan’Dale gain) was a bullet in the foot.

I'm glad as well.  I think he will be that "go to" sure handed receiver we have been missing.  

Very few teams (and we are not one) can over come the penalties we have per game and win....

 

[Ziebol]

It really is unbelievable how bad this line in. Cam is the best blocker on the line and right now I don't think it's close. I thought our tackles were bad, but after last game it is definitely the guards. Hixson should not see the field unless we are up 4 scores. It is really sobering that Foster and Farmer, who many and myself have criticized numerous times were much better than what we are seeing today. Austin needs to shuffle some things up in this bye week or we are gonna be in for another long game against an Indiana team who looks much improved.

Jaimes- Wilson- Jurgens- M. Farniok- Benhart 

 

[Nebfanatic]

It really is unbelievable how bad this line in. Cam is the best blocker on the line and right now I don't think it's close. I thought our tackles were bad, but after last game it is definitely the guards. Hixson should not see the field unless we are up 4 scores. It is really sobering that Foster and Farmer, who many and myself have criticized numerous times were much better than what we are seeing today. Austin needs to shuffle some things up in this bye week or we are gonna be in for another long game against an Indiana team who looks much improved.

Jaimes- Wilson- Jurgens- M. Farniok- Benhart 

I think Farniok stays at T and Bando slided in at G. Thats what they did Saturday and Bando played pretty well.

 

[Xmas32]

It really is unbelievable how bad this line in. Cam is the best blocker on the line and right now I don't think it's close. I thought our tackles were bad, but after last game it is definitely the guards. Hixson should not see the field unless we are up 4 scores. It is really sobering that Foster and Farmer, who many and myself have criticized numerous times were much better than what we are seeing today. Austin needs to shuffle some things up in this bye week or we are gonna be in for another long game against an Indiana team who looks much improved.

Jaimes- Wilson- Jurgens- M. Farniok- Benhart 

Sobering is a great word to describe the loss of Farmer and Foster.  It's been a real eye opener to see the offensive line without those two guys plugged in.  Cam looked pretty good snap wise on Saturday if I remember correctly.

 

[BartonHusker]

Not sure how good Bando really is but at this point he probably should be playing over Hixson who is struggling mightily physically from the looks of it. I agree Jurgens probably showed the best of the bunch. If he can just snap at a high level, he is a good blocker. He has the potential to be a very good player. 
 

It is what it is with this line. I’m in the belief it is still two years from being a good one. 

 

[Huskerzoo]

It really is unbelievable how bad this line in. Cam is the best blocker on the line and right now I don't think it's close. I thought our tackles were bad, but after last game it is definitely the guards. Hixson should not see the field unless we are up 4 scores. It is really sobering that Foster and Farmer, who many and myself have criticized numerous times were much better than what we are seeing today. Austin needs to shuffle some things up in this bye week or we are gonna be in for another long game against an Indiana team who looks much improved.

Jaimes- Wilson- Jurgens- M. Farniok- Benhart 

I'm right there with you and have been saying this since fairly early in the season. Right now our line is young, undersized, and playing out of position.

Our line: Jaimes: 6'5" 250

Nixon: 6'4" 260

Jurgens: 6'4" 245

Wilson: 6'3" 295

Farniok: 6'6" 310

Here's what we have in the wings(out of HS):

Benhart: 6'9" 287

Michael Lynn: 6'6" 291

Brent Banks: 6'7" 265

Matthew Anderson: 6'6" 260

Jimmy Fritzsche 6'7" 240

Corcoran (in theory) 6'6" 280

You think our staff didn't realize that we weren't in a good place? These guys need to get in the weight room, learn, etc. but we're red-shirting so that they can have the team they need. Jaimes didn't burn his RS because he was that good IMO, we had no other feasible options. We also didn't get our Juco that we wanted last year. This was always going to be the problem spot. IMO, next year there's going to be a lot of unrest on the line with the young guys getting player time earlier than we want just because they have the right bodies. I don't know if it's going to be a whole heck of a lot better if that's the case because I like older players no the OL.

DL should be a little better because the roster management issues weren't quite as bad and we landed some JUCO help. 

We're not there yet guys and I don't think HCSF suddenly forgot how to coach. I think he know's we're limited with the players we have. The good news is, the staff is going out and getting guys, skill players look great, we're getting our Linemen, our secondary is good.  I think what we need to see is our LBs and TEs step up and we'll be hitting full stride in about 2 years. This will be ideal timing (IMO) as we will have just opened some amazing new facilities. Frost knew it was a rebuild, remember that this is why he asked for a long starting contract, he needed the security for the rebuild. We're on the right track, it just hurts getting there. 

 

[Huskerzoo]

It really is unbelievable how bad this line in. Cam is the best blocker on the line and right now I don't think it's close. I thought our tackles were bad, but after last game it is definitely the guards. Hixson should not see the field unless we are up 4 scores. It is really sobering that Foster and Farmer, who many and myself have criticized numerous times were much better than what we are seeing today. Austin needs to shuffle some things up in this bye week or we are gonna be in for another long game against an Indiana team who looks much improved.

Jaimes- Wilson- Jurgens- M. Farniok- Benhart 

I'll also follow-up and say, I'm all for shuffling up etc, but I'm anti burning any red-shirts. HCSF is playing a game where he can't be so bad that we lose support or become apathetic, but he has to be doing everything he can to play for the future. IMO Wandale is playing now because he wouldn't have come here if we didn't play him. We're doing everything we can to not burn redshirts. 

 

[Ziebol]

I'll also follow-up and say, I'm all for shuffling up etc, but I'm anti burning any red-shirts. HCSF is playing a game where he can't be so bad that we lose support or become apathetic, but he has to be doing everything he can to play for the future. IMO Wandale is playing now because he wouldn't have come here if we didn't play him. We're doing everything we can to not burn redshirts. 

Then that will be his downfall this season. I get he wants to preserve redshirts, but at this point what we have is not working and its obvious and it's only going to get worse. He needs to start shuffling and get some kind of spark and then recruit over these guys like every other big boy program does. 

 

[HuskerPwr]

Losing this badly to Minnesota will (hopefully) be the proof the coaches need to make changes on the O line. I think Frost is trying to make it work for now in order to build on it for the future but we’re going to lose recruits at this rate. At this point in the season, we can start plugging younger guys in without losing redshirts. The lack of effort from the beginning on Saturday is more concerning than anything. MN was on fire. We looked like we just wanted the game to be over so we could have our bye week. When our 2nd string went in toward the end of the game, we finally saw some inspired play. 

 

[10_point_buck]

"Back in the Day" the Offense Coaches (Milt and Young if I recall)  would "grade out" everyone on the line and these were pretty much made public.  I also recall it was hard to grade out "perfect" but guys had something to work towards and the pride of being "perfect".  Two questions:

1)  Do we grade out the line (or any position group) like we used to?  

2)  Do guys even realize how bad/under-performing they have been playing via feedback such as grading out?

 

[Husker in WI]

"Back in the Day" Milt would "grade out" everyone on the line and these were pretty much made public.  I also recall it was hard to grade out "perfect" but guys had something to work towards and the pride of being "perfect".  Two questions:

1)  Do we grade out the line (or any position group) like we used to?  

2)  Do guys even realize how bad/under-performing they have been playing via feedback such as grading out?

1) Yes

2) Probably

 

[Huskerzoo]

Losing this badly to Minnesota will (hopefully) be the proof the coaches need to make changes on the O line. I think Frost is trying to make it work for now in order to build on it for the future but we’re going to lose recruits at this rate. At this point in the season, we can start plugging younger guys in without losing redshirts. The lack of effort from the beginning on Saturday is more concerning than anything. MN was on fire. We looked like we just wanted the game to be over so we could have our bye week. When our 2nd string went in toward the end of the game, we finally saw some inspired play. 

I think there's still some math out there. If everything falls perfectly, we're still not out of the B1G west yet. That means it is possible that we have 7 more games. Assuming the tFR are better than what we have, that means you're probably looking at them playing against Wisconsin, Iowa, B1G and Bowl. As things get mathamatically taken off the table, I imagine seeing more fluidity. It's also possible that WI is just penned in as a loss in which case you might see some action against weaker opponents with better lines in order to ensure wins. 

If I'm a coach, I've got to imagine that MN has a minimum of 2 losses of their schedule with another possible loss to Iowa. If Iowa loses to OSU and we somehow manage to beat them, they're a 2 loss team with us owning the head to head. There's math on the table and I hope the staff isn't going to just start reacting. 

I'd also be willing to tank this season in the name of having a starting LT for one more year in BB.

 

[10_point_buck]

1) Yes

2) Probably

Would be great to see these grades to see who is, on film, actually doing their job the best.  I understand it is not constructive, but a fire needs to be lit under some butts sooner than later.