Line thrives on Beck's scheme, more depth

[Husker_x]

Barney has got exactly one season to make a line perform before the entire fan base picks up pitchforks. Fair or unfair, injuries or not, it's put up or shut up time.

You say that but i bet u would take that back if you were in his shoes dealing with all the injuries and lack of depth and the fan base coming after your head year after year. I know he has not impressed me much either but look its the fourth year and so i hope things gel alot better this year. I have a feeling alot of pepole will be eating crow this season with the o line and cotton.

I'm not talking about my feelings as much as the sense you get from the fanbase. For a lot of people Cotton is just about out of slack. Whether it's fair or not isn't the issue. We've had mediocre line play since he's been here. I don't see another season going by like that without some serious heat put on him.

 

[Danimal]

We really need to see some depth this season. Harder to stay healthy when you don't rotate and hard to be effective when you have to play the walking-wounded.

 

[da skers]

We were a few hundred yards away from having 3-1000 yard rushers in a season? To me, that says our line was doing what they were suppose to be doing. It might not have been pretty but it worked.

Yes but they were still only about 1000 yards off from our championship teams that consistently ran the football in the 90s. And last year's totals include a championship game and the bowl game that they didn't used to count toward statistics. Take for example the 1995 team. In 11 games they averaged 399 yards per game rushing and 156 passing. (4398 rush, 1721 pass) Last years squad over 14 games 247 yards rushing and 150 passing. (3466 rush, 2108 pass). Even our bad teams that sputtered put up stats in 11 games that we now put up in a 14 game season. So...yeah Cotton your guys are coming up with 3 guys that almost hit 1000 yards. But you're doing it in 3 more games and your not having the 2-3 other guys coming up with 500 yards rushing to support that cast.

 

[n.e.husker]

http://huskerextra.com/sports/football/article_04d2d286-a0a9-5b9a-8cee-3fdc66c7aee4.html

Meanwhile, the offensive line is working to get there.
"We're trying to develop depth," says fourth-year Nebraska offensive line coach Barney Cotton. "It's early on. We're by no means set with our front five."

Cotton faces an interesting and challenging season. He has only two returning full-time starters - senior center Mike Caputo and sophomore tackle Jeremiah Sirles.

Sirles is among many young players in the mix for starting jobs or roles as top backups. Sophomore Brent Qvale and true freshman Tyler Moore are among leading candidates at the tackle positions, along with seniors Yoshi Hardrick and Marcel Jones, who's been severely limited by injury this fall.

Sophomore Andrew Rodriguez and redshirt freshman Jake Cotton, Barney's son, are favorites to start at the guard spots, with junior Brandon Thompson also in the lead pack.

Keep an eye on two other true freshmen, center Ryne Reeves and guard Ryan Klachko.

They're getting "a serious look," says Barney Cotton, who bristles over criticism of last year's line.

"There obviously were some things we needed to correct," Cotton says. "On the other hand, do you realize that we were only (84) yards from having three 1,000-yard rushers? Even though nobody's happy with how the season finished, there were some pretty good things that happened.

"You're kind of measured on how you finish," he added, alluding to three losses in the last four games, setbacks in which NU averaged only 3.1 yards per carry and allowed 14 sacks.

"I accept that wholeheartedly. But I'm also not going to put my head in the sand and say we didn't do anything good last year."

Can Nebraska's offensive line rise to championship-level play? That remains a core issue.

 

[The Dude]

I don't blame Cotton for giving his guys credit for the good things they did, it would be a disservice to them if he didn't. I also can't blame him for taking credit himself. At the same time, I wish he would take some of the blame on some of the bad stuff that happened. You can't have it both ways, Barney.

Looks like we're pretty deep at tackle, at least on paper. The inside positions worry me.

 

[EndoQuan]

We were a few hundred yards away from having 3-1000 yard rushers in a season? To me, that says our line was doing what they were suppose to be doing. It might not have been pretty but it worked.

Yes but they were still only about 1000 yards off from our championship teams that consistently ran the football in the 90s. And last year's totals include a championship game and the bowl game that they didn't used to count toward statistics. Take for example the 1995 team. In 11 games they averaged 399 yards per game rushing and 156 passing. (4398 rush, 1721 pass) Last years squad over 14 games 247 yards rushing and 150 passing. (3466 rush, 2108 pass). Even our bad teams that sputtered put up stats in 11 games that we now put up in a 14 game season. So...yeah Cotton your guys are coming up with 3 guys that almost hit 1000 yards. But you're doing it in 3 more games and your not having the 2-3 other guys coming up with 500 yards rushing to support that cast.

More important than any of the yardage statistics are the penalties and sacks because of their direct correlation to a failed drive, which ultimately kept us from winning games. Over the past 3 years, playing a top 50 defense hasn't been pretty from a numbers standpoint. Only once have we had a serviceable day, and that was against OU in 2008, when we didn't have a prayer to win.

 

[da skers]

I don't blame Cotton for giving his guys credit for the good things they did, it would be a disservice to them if he didn't. I also can't blame him for taking credit himself. At the same time, I wish he would take some of the blame on some of the bad stuff that happened. You can't have it both ways, Barney.

Looks like we're pretty deep at tackle, at least on paper. The inside positions worry me.

Sounds like the line has changed almost daily in practice as far as 1 to 3 in a lot of spots. As soon as they figure out where they are going to put Moore then everything else should settle into place and we'll have a pretty good idea of the 2 deep at which spot. As I've said Center is still one of the biggest concerns this year. They once had Klatcho figured to be #2 and a possible starter by mid season then decided to red-shirt him with the emergence of Mark Pelini. Now its possible from Sipple over the weekend they might him back in the mix. I guess I don't know how good his info is but he's one reporter that gets spoon feed info from the staff so I would guess it might be on target.

 

[caveman99]

We were a few hundred yards away from having 3-1000 yard rushers in a season? To me, that says our line was doing what they were suppose to be doing. It might not have been pretty but it worked.

Yes but they were still only about 1000 yards off from our championship teams that consistently ran the football in the 90s. And last year's totals include a championship game and the bowl game that they didn't used to count toward statistics. Take for example the 1995 team. In 11 games they averaged 399 yards per game rushing and 156 passing. (4398 rush, 1721 pass) Last years squad over 14 games 247 yards rushing and 150 passing. (3466 rush, 2108 pass). Even our bad teams that sputtered put up stats in 11 games that we now put up in a 14 game season. So...yeah Cotton your guys are coming up with 3 guys that almost hit 1000 yards. But you're doing it in 3 more games and your not having the 2-3 other guys coming up with 500 yards rushing to support that cast.

Pretty sure that most universities updated their past stats to include post season play after that change was made. Also, NU was playing 13 games a year, including the bowl game, by the early to mid 90's so the difference is one game in the stats.

--edit--

I made a mistake on the year we went to 13 games, that was a year later in 1996. So your comparison makes a lot sense. Just wondering what the run to pass ratio was then and how the number of rushes compare to last year. Would be a more telling comparison IMO. Maybe I will look it up when I have time.

 

[da skers]

We were a few hundred yards away from having 3-1000 yard rushers in a season? To me, that says our line was doing what they were suppose to be doing. It might not have been pretty but it worked.

Yes but they were still only about 1000 yards off from our championship teams that consistently ran the football in the 90s. And last year's totals include a championship game and the bowl game that they didn't used to count toward statistics. Take for example the 1995 team. In 11 games they averaged 399 yards per game rushing and 156 passing. (4398 rush, 1721 pass) Last years squad over 14 games 247 yards rushing and 150 passing. (3466 rush, 2108 pass). Even our bad teams that sputtered put up stats in 11 games that we now put up in a 14 game season. So...yeah Cotton your guys are coming up with 3 guys that almost hit 1000 yards. But you're doing it in 3 more games and your not having the 2-3 other guys coming up with 500 yards rushing to support that cast.

Pretty sure that most universities updated their past stats to include post season play after that change was made. Also, NU was playing 13 games a year, including the bowl game, by the early to mid 90's so the difference is one game in the stats.

--edit--

I made a mistake on the year we went to 13 games, that was a year later in 1996. So your comparison makes a lot sense. Just wondering what the run to pass ratio was then and how the number of rushes compare to last year. Would be a more telling comparison IMO. Maybe I will look it up when I have time.

All the stats are listed on Huskerpedia/max/alphabetsoups.com. At the top it indicates if the bowl game is or isn't included and if you go down to the players portion it will list number of games for the season and number started. Even in our turd years we put up 3000 yards rushing but as I said they were in less games. Its kind of like the NFL now. . guys are setting rushing records but their doing it in 2 or 4 more games than back in the day. It doesn't take away from the accomplishment, but lets not pretend your per game stats are kick a$$.

You know. . I've finished the Boston Marathon. It just took me 3 days to do it. But I still ran the 26 miles so it still counts as an impressive feat.

 

[The Dude]

I don't blame Cotton for giving his guys credit for the good things they did, it would be a disservice to them if he didn't. I also can't blame him for taking credit himself. At the same time, I wish he would take some of the blame on some of the bad stuff that happened. You can't have it both ways, Barney.

Looks like we're pretty deep at tackle, at least on paper. The inside positions worry me.

Sounds like the line has changed almost daily in practice as far as 1 to 3 in a lot of spots. As soon as they figure out where they are going to put Moore then everything else should settle into place and we'll have a pretty good idea of the 2 deep at which spot. As I've said Center is still one of the biggest concerns this year. They once had Klatcho figured to be #2 and a possible starter by mid season then decided to red-shirt him with the emergence of Mark Pelini. Now its possible from Sipple over the weekend they might him back in the mix. I guess I don't know how good his info is but he's one reporter that gets spoon feed info from the staff so I would guess it might be on target.

Bo has some eligibility left???

 

[irafreak]

See I have a problem with comparing our current and recent olines to some of the greatest in all of college football. 3000 yards is 3000 yards i don't care if it didn't stack up to the best we've ever had. Our expectations should be progress not instant domination. The line looked better last year at the beginning and got worse as the year went on. We now know injuries affected that. I'm willing to hold out on barney but I must see less false starts!

 

[caveman99]

We were a few hundred yards away from having 3-1000 yard rushers in a season? To me, that says our line was doing what they were suppose to be doing. It might not have been pretty but it worked.

Yes but they were still only about 1000 yards off from our championship teams that consistently ran the football in the 90s. And last year's totals include a championship game and the bowl game that they didn't used to count toward statistics. Take for example the 1995 team. In 11 games they averaged 399 yards per game rushing and 156 passing. (4398 rush, 1721 pass) Last years squad over 14 games 247 yards rushing and 150 passing. (3466 rush, 2108 pass). Even our bad teams that sputtered put up stats in 11 games that we now put up in a 14 game season. So...yeah Cotton your guys are coming up with 3 guys that almost hit 1000 yards. But you're doing it in 3 more games and your not having the 2-3 other guys coming up with 500 yards rushing to support that cast.

Pretty sure that most universities updated their past stats to include post season play after that change was made. Also, NU was playing 13 games a year, including the bowl game, by the early to mid 90's so the difference is one game in the stats.

--edit--

I made a mistake on the year we went to 13 games, that was a year later in 1996. So your comparison makes a lot sense. Just wondering what the run to pass ratio was then and how the number of rushes compare to last year. Would be a more telling comparison IMO. Maybe I will look it up when I have time.

All the stats are listed on Huskerpedia/max/alphabetsoups.com. At the top it indicates if the bowl game is or isn't included and if you go down to the players portion it will list number of games for the season and number started. Even in our turd years we put up 3000 yards rushing but as I said they were in less games. Its kind of like the NFL now. . guys are setting rushing records but their doing it in 2 or 4 more games than back in the day. It doesn't take away from the accomplishment, but lets not pretend your per game stats are kick a$$.

You know. . I've finished the Boston Marathon. It just took me 3 days to do it. But I still ran the 26 miles so it still counts as an impressive feat.

I get that and I pretty much agree with you, but I still think 3000+ yards is pretty good. I think looking at the ypc and offensive balance numbers would add another perspective on things.

 

[papersun87]

^ Their stats for the season make it even more painful to consider the following stats from our last three losses:

vs. Texas A&M: 37 rushes for 142 yards, 3.8/attempt

vs. Oklahoma: 38 rushes for 112 yards, 2.9/attempt

vs. Washington: 41 rushes for 91 yards, 2.2/attempt

Compare that last stat to the OTHER Washington game: 54 rushes for 383 yards, 7.1/attempt

Their production later in the year didn't slow, it came to a complete stop. Shameful performance all around in the last few games. The Western Kentucky, Kansas State, Washington, and Missouri games were some serious stat-padding compared to the performance for the rest of the year.

 

[irafreak]

You can't call a few great performances stat padding without treating the poor performances as anomalies. All games are a part of the season.

 

[bshirt]

We were a few hundred yards away from having 3-1000 yard rushers in a season? To me, that says our line was doing what they were suppose to be doing. It might not have been pretty but it worked.

Yes but they were still only about 1000 yards off from our championship teams that consistently ran the football in the 90s. And last year's totals include a championship game and the bowl game that they didn't used to count toward statistics. Take for example the 1995 team. In 11 games they averaged 399 yards per game rushing and 156 passing. (4398 rush, 1721 pass) Last years squad over 14 games 247 yards rushing and 150 passing. (3466 rush, 2108 pass). Even our bad teams that sputtered put up stats in 11 games that we now put up in a 14 game season. So...yeah Cotton your guys are coming up with 3 guys that almost hit 1000 yards. But you're doing it in 3 more games and your not having the 2-3 other guys coming up with 500 yards rushing to support that cast.

C'mon da skers, you're comparing to arguably the best cfb team ever. That's a little tough don't you think?

Also, we didn't run the ball as frequently as the 95 team (run/pass ratio) and yet those three guys combined ran for "over" 3,000 yds. Lastly, Callawatts wasn't in the same universe as TO as an OC.

Did they run the ball even romotely with the authority the 95 Huskers did? No. However, was it a huge improvement over the 2009 "3 & out" season? Yes.

We'll see, but I'm betting we're heading in the right direction.