Does NU's offense give it a recruiting advantage?

O

Ohio Pete

All-Conference
Interesting points that should be helping Nebraska in QB recruiting.

Steven M. Sipple: NU offense offers QBs the best of both worlds
Graham Harrell’s father expressed bewilderment this past week that his son, a record-setting quarterback at Texas Tech, is being passed over by NFL teams.

Not only was Harrell undrafted, he hasn’t been offered even a free-agent deal.

Given the NFL’s well-documented aversion to drafting quarterbacks from spread systems, nobody in the Harrell camp should be overly surprised. Consider that of the 11 quarterbacks selected in the April 25-26 draft, no fewer than eight played last season in more conventional offenses.

Interestingly, Nebraska’s offense essentially has evolved toward offering quarterbacks the best of both worlds — a passing attack with NFL user-friendly West Coast principles combined with a running game that possesses elements of the spread, including the zone read.

NFL coaches and general managers ought to like the fact Nebraska quarterbacks in Shawn Watson’s system generally remain under center at least 40 percent of the time. In spread offenses, quarterbacks operate out of the shotgun and therefore often experience difficulty when asked to take a snap from center and read defenses while in the midst of a three-, five-, or seven-step drop.

Make no mistake, Nebraska’s offense can help prepare a quarterback for the NFL. That’s been the case ever since Bill Callahan arrived on the scene in 2004 and remains the case with Watson now running the show, even with the tweaks he’s installed in the past year.

The fact Nebraska has struck out in producing an NFL draft pick at quarterback during the last six years is a talent issue rather than a system issue. In that period, the Huskers have had good-to-excellent college quarterbacks in Zac Taylor, Sam Keller and Joe Ganz. But being an excellent college quarterback obviously guarantees nothing when it comes to the NFL Draft.

Indeed, Taylor was the Big 12 Offensive Player of the Year in 2006, yet essentially merited only a minicamp tryout at Tampa Bay. Keller experienced similar NFL frustration, and now Ganz anxiously awaits word from Washington as to whether he’ll be signed as a free agent following his minicamp tryout last week.

“He just wants to get some kind of closure, some kind of answer,” said Mike Ganz, Joe’s father. “It’s really been a hard situation.”

As expected, Ganz dazzled Washington coaches with his knowledge of the West Coast system. Joe is a wizard on the grease board. His lack of size (6-foot-1/4, 200 pounds) is what hurts him most in the NFL’s eyes, along with average arm strength.

Size isn’t as much of an issue for the 6-2, 225-pound Harrell, who last season threw for 5,111 yards and 48 touchdowns, numbers that made him the most prolific passer in NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision history.

Yet the best he could muster was a minicamp tryout at Cleveland, a development that rankles Texas Tech offensive guru Mike Leach.

The spread-versus-conventional offense discussion raises an interesting question: If you were a coveted high school quarterback with a strong arm, would you be inclined toward a spread system that offers a great chance to put up huge passing numbers, a la Harrell and Chase Daniel, or a pro-style system that might better prepare you for the NFL?

Different strokes for different folks, right?

I’m guessing Watson and Leach could debate the subject long into the West Texas night.
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Hey, we need to use every recruiting angel we can get at this point. Warm weather schools tell skill positon players like wide recievers, that their numbers will be alot higher at warm weather schools, so we need to jump on the fact that spread offense school are not putting QB's in the NFL.

Of course, now we have to get some there to sell that point.

 
If Harrell can't even get an invite as a free agent, how on earth could a tradition-laden school like Nebraska who uses West Coast principles not pretty easily land a top tier quarterback every now and again?

 
Husker_x said:
If Harrell can't even get an invite as a free agent, how on earth could a tradition-laden school like Nebraska who uses West Coast principles not pretty easily land a top tier quarterback every now and again?
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Well we have had one(Beck) not pan out, and two( Freeman and Gabbert) de-commit. Now we have a former #1 juco QB( Lee) and highly rated 4star QB( Green). We are not doing to bad, but we have to win alot more games to get more interest. I'm more concerned about getting some big time recievers for these guys to trow to right now.

 
IMO if we can continue to run this hybred WCO/spread system that seemed to be evolving last year, we should start seeing husker QB's in the NFL in the next few years. That is something we haven't had in a long time and definately would get the interest of some of the top QB recruits. Be patient.

 
This offense still has parts of the spread though that will drive a lot of NFL scouts away. You never see quarterbacks in the shotgun in the NFL, and we still operate in that formation 60 percent of the time. Granted, it's nice that we aren't constantly back there, but we've been running the wco for 6 years now and we've yet to get anyone in the NFL.

 
Huskerballz said:
This offense still has parts of the spread though that will drive a lot of NFL scouts away. You never see quarterbacks in the shotgun in the NFL, and we still operate in that formation 60 percent of the time. Granted, it's nice that we aren't constantly back there, but we've been running the wco for 6 years now and we've yet to get anyone in the NFL.
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I am not sure what NFL games you are watching, I see quite a bit of shotgun used in the NFL. Even on the Giants who are the Poster Boys of run first and run often.

 
caveman99 said:
Huskerballz said:
This offense still has parts of the spread though that will drive a lot of NFL scouts away. You never see quarterbacks in the shotgun in the NFL, and we still operate in that formation 60 percent of the time. Granted, it's nice that we aren't constantly back there, but we've been running the wco for 6 years now and we've yet to get anyone in the NFL.
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I am not sure what NFL games you are watching, I see quite a bit of shotgun used in the NFL. Even on the Giants who are the Poster Boys of run first and run often.
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Okay, maybe I overdid it when I said that you never see the shotgun. But the majority of the offenses in the NFL are under center.

 
Huskerballz said:
caveman99 said:
Huskerballz said:
This offense still has parts of the spread though that will drive a lot of NFL scouts away. You never see quarterbacks in the shotgun in the NFL, and we still operate in that formation 60 percent of the time. Granted, it's nice that we aren't constantly back there, but we've been running the wco for 6 years now and we've yet to get anyone in the NFL.
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I am not sure what NFL games you are watching, I see quite a bit of shotgun used in the NFL. Even on the Giants who are the Poster Boys of run first and run often.
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Okay, maybe I overdid it when I said that you never see the shotgun. But the majority of the offenses in the NFL are under center.
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Base offenses yes I agree with you, but the Shotgun has a very prominent role in the NFL. At a minimum all snaps for 3rd and long situations and 2 minute drills are almost exclusively out of the shotgun. Add onto that other times in a game when they use it and you are getting a significant number of snaps out of the Shotgun. Also a lot more NFL offenses are starting to use the Shotgun primarily or a lot more. New England, New Orleans, and Arizona are 3 teams off of the top of my head that use the Shotgun at least 50% of the time or more. It seems that Indianopolis uses it a lot also, but I don't know if they are about 40% or not.

 
yeah, you really overdid it. Not only is there plenty of shotgun, we've also gotten guys into the NFL.

 
Huskerballz said:
This offense still has parts of the spread though that will drive a lot of NFL scouts away. You never see quarterbacks in the shotgun in the NFL, and we still operate in that formation 60 percent of the time. Granted, it's nice that we aren't constantly back there, but we've been running the wco for 6 years now and we've yet to get anyone in the NFL.
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Put the bong down and back away slowly!

:dumdum

:laughpound

 
HuskerJen said:
Huskerballz said:
This offense still has parts of the spread though that will drive a lot of NFL scouts away. You never see quarterbacks in the shotgun in the NFL, and we still operate in that formation 60 percent of the time. Granted, it's nice that we aren't constantly back there, but we've been running the wco for 6 years now and we've yet to get anyone in the NFL.
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Put the bong down and back away slowly!

:dumdum

:laughpound
Click to expand...

Your feeble attempts to make me feel stupid for my comment are too little, too late. That has already happened. Thanks anyway though. Carry on.

 
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