Offensive Line Coach
- Thread starter Vizsla1
- Start date
twofittyonred
Special Teams Player
How exactly do you feel we "got better" under MJ..?? and how exactly do you rate Raiola "as bad as he seemed" under the circumstances and limited metrics that he had..??
admo
Heisman Trophy Winner
That's a good point and something I was wondering myself. Personally, I like a zone scheme for the running game, which allows the backs to find a cut back lane and also Read-Option if I'm not mistaken.
The whiff blocking attempts from 69 and 54 does not indicate bad coaching, but bad player production. I agree that those two players have had ample opportunities and games under team Frost.
Will be interesting to see if any new additions with the portal and how Spring goes to really have an idea until then.
Hilltop
All-Conference
I believe Rhule wants to teach his coaches to do things his way. He wants a young energetic coach that is willing to learn and isn't already set in his ways. He was clear as can be in his presser...
We hired a developer. We should let him have a chance to develop before we judge.
HANC
All-Conference
I will bring it back to oline...... As many others, out of all of the assistant coaches (other than Whip), DR may have been the last one that I would have expected to be retained bc of the on the field performance. With that said, in the big picture, Rhule is surrounding himself with guys who have been in the NFL. I think he wants to use that aspect in recruiting as much as his rebuilding processes in college. In his PC, he kept coming back to the NFL and how he will get guys there and keep them there. DR has the NFL pedigree and will serve as his "bridge" between old and new. I am just trying to justify to myself why DR was the one retained.
Now, although I have mentioned many times on this board how bad our oline is, I am not going to pin it ALL on DR. He walked into a mess and had arguably his best to linemen not play this year. As mentioned, scheme very well was dictated by Whipple. Development does not happen overnight. It takes a few years if you are starting from scratch. Muscle memory takes yearly repetition. If Rhule trusts him, and we are trusting Rhule, then I guess it is what it is.
Now, although I have mentioned many times on this board how bad our oline is, I am not going to pin it ALL on DR. He walked into a mess and had arguably his best to linemen not play this year. As mentioned, scheme very well was dictated by Whipple. Development does not happen overnight. It takes a few years if you are starting from scratch. Muscle memory takes yearly repetition. If Rhule trusts him, and we are trusting Rhule, then I guess it is what it is.
PattyG
Four-Star Recruit
Exactly, who knows if he was comfortable with what he was being asked to teach. I would assume he had some input but when your HC and OC want to run a specific scheme you're forced to block for that scheme. Foley and Rhule have a bit of OL experience and will likely be able to help him work with the players. I guess I'll take a wait and see approach with Raiola, hoping to see some strides this year.
Touchdown Tommie
All-Conference
It is very disappointing to watch how poorly Benhart has progressed. I coached against this kid throughout high school in both football and wrestling. I was genuinely excited to get his commitment and see how he would do. He has not gotten any better and dare I say, he is worse now than when he was a true freshman?
Decoy73
Starter
My impression is that he finished the season better than how he played in the first couple games. I recall seeing somewhere that PFF graded him as our top OL for what it’s worth.
Touchdown Tommie
All-Conference
Maybe it is an expectation thing for me then. Just seems like he gets beat so often and is whiffing on so many blocks. Being the best of the worst is worth something I guess...
DefenderAO
All-Conference
The bad coaching is that those two were ever back on the field, especially Bryce after the blocked extra point. That effort, and his output as a Husker, has been abysmal. Throw in his dad, Lavar Ball 2.0, and you need to find every way to get him out of the program.
Husker in WI
All-Conference
I am probably to blame for this as I said something along those lines based on a tweet identifying Corcoran, Hixson, and one of the guards (Piper?) as 3 of the bottom 5 or 10 linemen in the entire Big Ten with some relatively high minimum number of snaps. We can deduce then that 1) Benhart was rated higher, and 2) rated enough higher that it didn't make sense to include him and expand it to say 4 in the bottom 15 or whatever. But I can't find that tweet anymore, so if anyone has a PFF subscription and wants to confirm or deny that would be cool.
I will say I completely believe Benhart was at least serviceable for the last chunk of the season. We started having more problems up the middle from what I could tell, and Purdy didn't help with his "run almost directly backwards" approach to moving in the pocket when he played. We definitely need to be looking for OL because there's plenty of room for upgrades (including Benhart), but as fans we also tend to be really slow to notice improvement in non-skill position players. The bad plays really stick with you, and there aren't a lot of noticeable great plays for an OL to make to erase the bad ones from our memories.
I was surprised DR was kept. With that said, with my eyeball test, I have not seen much improvement in the OL after Foster and Farmer left after 2018. Little development, little depth and limited abilities. BUT, in their defense, S&C was a joke. Stronger (allegedly) but lost the ability to move. Throw in 3rd OC (scheme) in 5 years, 2nd OL coach, and it could cause some issues. I know how Austin talked about being physical. Never happened....Players talked this year about how physical the OL was going to be this year. Didn't happen....I think it's a combination of poor scheme, coaching, practice habits, development and some on the players. I also think they have developed a losing mentality and it's going to be hard to out coach that. Like Deion said at CU (paraphrase), y'all have accepted this culture (1-11). You're part of it. and it's been going on for 2 decades......Sounds a lot like NU....DR is simply (at least for me) the easiest guy to blame besides the players...
MasterPulverizer
Five-Star Recruit
I think it was scheme and play calling. the 2021 year, we rarely had a problem running the ball. This year, aside from a few games against teams with poor run defenses, we couldn't run the ball. We had some games with huge passing stats but it's likely that those games were where Palmer put up huge yards. To me, it comes down to the Whipple offense and wanting to be a dominant passing team and utilizing the run game to keep defenders in the box.
Hayseed
All-American
If Raiola went in and said, “First, Whipple would run the draw straight up the middle and call it a run play, then he would throw two long bombs the next two plays during which Casey would stand in the pocket holding the ball for 30 seconds. It was so predictable there was no way to block for them.”….and he’d be right.
The team would’ve been much better if Busch had run the whole thing.
The team would’ve been much better if Busch had run the whole thing.