Unpopular Opinions: Husker Edition

Loebarth said:
Here's my biggest issue.. run the dang ball!! Stop playing fancy feet, stop trying to develop a 300 page play book. Instead, develop 100 plays that work and stick to those plays. Certainly a gadget play here or there but for heavens sake. Stop this mind set of.. if they do this, we'll counter and do this... Just be good at 33 plays with each having an audible or two of those 33 formations and perfect those formations and audibles.
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I don't get this at all. We ran it 62% of the time last year with 540 rushes to 323 passes. Do you want us to run it 70 or 80% of the time? Should we never pass? Wisconsin is one of the top rushing teams in the conference and they ran it 63% of the time.

Also, if you understand Frost's offense it is exactly what you describe wanting. It has a set of base plays and then the entire offense is based off of those base plays with changes in formations, motions and reads.

So, my unpopular opinion is we have the run first offense that Husker fans want and with the reads and options it is as close to Tom Osborne's 90's offense as you'll ever get in today's game.

 
Nebraska football hasn't been as enjoyable since we left the Big 12. Not cause we sucked, cause we sucked in the Big 12 for a bit as well. I personally don't care about any "rival" or conference opponent in the Big 10. We just feel out of place.

 
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- Taylor Martinez gets too much unnecessary hate. 

- Bill Callahan gets too much hate. To be fair, this dude walked into an incredibly toxic situation. He recruited incredibly well, and seemingly ran a clean program. I believe he cared and did his best, it just didn’t happen to work, which I can respect. Unlike another pro style coach from the west coast we hired. 

 
I think the “run the dam ball” folks mean lets line up some actual designed running plays from run formations with a run the ball mentality.  Rather than the runs which happen out of the PPP-R (pass/pass/pass or run it if we camt find a pass option first, second or third options) aka the RPO offense.    Which is what the Frost offense “feels” like so much of the time.    

I suspect Frost & Company are trying to do more of this with Austin getting more imput.  

 
SFW said:
Good for sure... not great fumbled a lot.  Great runs basically started 4 years.  But overall good.  
 

Lawrence Phillips

Ahman Green

Mike Rozier 

They were great!
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But Ameer has more rushing yards than two of them, on teams that were far worse than all three of them played on. 

 
SFW said:
I can only remember 4 good skill players in the last 10 years and zero great players.

In my 50 years watching NU we’ve only had a few great skill players ever.

Osborne knew this and built the program on toughness at the point of attack.  Then every 10 years he got a couple of great skill players and bam something wonderful happened.  

Why Frost doesn’t get this is beyond me.
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Four "good" skill players in the last 10 years? Roy Helu, Rex Burkhead, Ameer Abdullah, Devine Ozigbo, Kenny Bell, Quincy Enunwa, Jordan Westerkamp, Stanley Morgan Jr., JD Spielman, Demornay Pierson-El,  Wan'dale Robinson, Cethan Carter, Andy Janovich, and yes, that highlight-reel Taylor Martinez were all "good" skill players, and some were pretty damn great. I'll leave Nebraska's all-time total offense leader off the list just to spare us that argument. 

I've also been watching Nebraska football for more than 50 years and the above players are among my all-time favorites. They would have thrived on Osborne and Devaney teams. And as mentioned repeatedly, if the Nebraska defense hadn't been giving up 28 points a game, these players would be celebrated instead of being sniffed at.

Are you suggesting that Scott Frost is so reliant on skill players that he can't recruit tough linemen at the same time? Do you really think Tom Osborne didn't seek "good" or even "great" players at the skill positions? If you are talking about generational skill players who turn a team around almost single-handedly, they are rare by definition. Not sure what Scott Frost is supposed to "get" from your advice.

 
I (edit I think I) fully understand the RPO.. I fully understand the appearance or resemblance of frostie's offense when compared to Osborne's. What I'm saying is develop a run first mentality rather then audible out when a defense switch to a 8 or 9 man front. I get Wyohusker's post. I get the frustration with people screaming "run the dang ball". What I don't get is the opinions stating we need a highly complex scheme in this day and age. The best RPO schemes are simple. The successful RPO programs (Bama, OSU, Clemson, OU) have the run the ball first mentalities with a sound foundation. Meaning they have a base formation  (1 TE, 2 TE, 5 wideouts, etc.. sets) and from that foundation they audible into the adjustments. Do that with a smaller playbook and perfect those instead of trying to ho hum through a complex over sophisticated playbook. Run the ball, IMO, is more about the mental makeup of the program then averaging stats. Hindsight being 20/20, I wish Frost would have run the ball 80-85% of the time last year because the results would likely have been the same (maybe better) but the players would now believe that much more the emphasis Frost wants on the ability to run! Frost knows you can't win if you can't run. As do most here so the "run the ball" is not about stats it's about confidence and fundamental beliefs.

 
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84HuskerLaw said:
I think the “run the dam ball” folks mean lets line up some actual designed running plays from run formations with a run the ball mentality.  Rather than the runs which happen out of the PPP-R (pass/pass/pass or run it if we camt find a pass option first, second or third options) aka the RPO offense.    Which is what the Frost offense “feels” like so much of the time.    

I suspect Frost & Company are trying to do more of this with Austin getting more imput.  
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What's a "run formation?" I think you fall in this bucket:

Enhance said:
Just speculation, but I think what people often mean when they say "run the ball" is "run the ball in the way I want you to run it."
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And it's not really how RPOs work, they're usually either based on how the defense sets up (ie, if there are 6 defenders in the box run, if there are 7+ swing pass) or a run first and the QB pulls the ball to throw if the read player commits to the run. I don't think I've ever seen a multiple pass option RPO where the run is the last option.

And we just run fewer RPOs than some people think, they just do a lot of bubbles and things on the outside even if it's a called run. Might as well keep them thinking about the pass option even if it's not part of the play call.

 
WyoHusker56 said:
I don't get this at all. We ran it 62% of the time last year with 540 rushes to 323 passes. Do you want us to run it 70 or 80% of the time? Should we never pass? Wisconsin is one of the top rushing teams in the conference and they ran it 63% of the time.

Also, if you understand Frost's offense it is exactly what you describe wanting. It has a set of base plays and then the entire offense is based off of those base plays with changes in formations, motions and reads.

So, my unpopular opinion is we have the run first offense that Husker fans want and with the reads and options it is as close to Tom Osborne's 90's offense as you'll ever get in today's game.
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I don't know who's laughing at this, you're right. 

 
Loebarth said:
I fully understand the RPO.. I fully understand the appearance or resemblance of frostie's offense when compared to Osborne's. What I'm saying is develop a run first mentality rather then audible out when a defense switch to a 8 or 9 man front. I get Wyohusker's post. I get the frustration with people screaming "run the dang ball". What I don't get is the opinions stating we need a highly complex scheme in this day and age. The best RPO schemes are simple. The successful RPO programs (Bama, OSU, Clemson, OU) have the run the ball first mentalities with a sound foundation. Meaning they have a base formation  (1 TE, 2 TE, 5 wideouts, etc.. sets) and from that foundation they audible into the adjustments. Do that with a smaller playbook and perfect those instead of trying to ho hum through a complex over sophisticated playbook. Run the ball, IMO, is more about the mental makeup of the program then averaging stats. Hindsight being 20/20, I wish Frost would have run the ball 80-85% of the time last year because the results would likely have been the same (maybe better) but the players would believe that much more the emphasis Frost wants on the ability to run! Frost knows you can't win if you can run. As do most here so the "run the ball" is not about stats it's about confidence and fundamental beliefs.
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Soo, you don't want us to audible to out (nothing says "smart football" like running into a 9 man box with a mediocre offensive line), but the thing you like about "successful RPO" programs is that they do audible into adjustments? What even makes a program an RPO program anyway? A lot of teams run them nowadays, but it's not like that's the entire playbook.

And there's a reason running the ball 80% of the time is only done by the service academies and Georgia Southern. Paul Johnson at Georgia Tech showed what happens in a (not even that good) P5 conference - a couple good years while people adjusted, and then an inability to recruit for the offense leading to a drop to a mediocre team that could win some in a bad division.

 
huskered17 said:
  So let's bring Callahan back to coach our o-line. Supposed to be what he is known for. Throw a boat load of money at him, [again]......

GBR!!!
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I’d love have him back in charge of recruiting and o-line.  

And Pelini as DC

 
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