Why the option?

[knapplc]

Here is an article where Watts says he could have made better reads against SDSU. Husker Extra

I'm also fairly certain Watts did not express any regret over pulling Taylor against Texas and even eluded to the fact that Lee made good reads on the zone-read play during that game and that Taylor struggled in that aspect.

I'll be damned if I can find anything from Brenden Stai regarding the K-State game. Maybe I'm nuts. But anyway, I'd be willing to bet over half his yards against Kstate weren't even off the zone read but off of scrambles or designed keepers. Of course I don't have this game on tape so this is just going off my memory.

I don't have it on tape, either, sadly. I just remember very clearly the announcers marveling over how long Taylor held the ball in the RB's gut - I'm even fairly certain the highlight they showed was Burkhead, but who knows. I'm not surprised that Wats said that about Martinez - he was a Redshirt Freshman, after all. It would be astounding if he had made no errors.

I laid it on a little thick in my praise up there, I'll admit. But he was good at that play.

 

[carlfense]

Smart Football covered the Speed Option recently. Good stuff.

The simple, wonderful, inexpensive speed option.

The speed option may be the best run play in football. The pro guys don’t like it because your quarterback can be hit, but, whether under center or from the shotgun, it’s an exceptionally useful play to have in your arsenal. There are three basic reasons why the play is so effective and useful . . .

 

[Enhance]

Here is an article where Watts says he could have made better reads against SDSU. Husker Extra

I'm also fairly certain Watts did not express any regret over pulling Taylor against Texas and even eluded to the fact that Lee made good reads on the zone-read play during that game and that Taylor struggled in that aspect.

I'll be damned if I can find anything from Brenden Stai regarding the K-State game. Maybe I'm nuts. But anyway, I'd be willing to bet over half his yards against Kstate weren't even off the zone read but off of scrambles or designed keepers. Of course I don't have this game on tape so this is just going off my memory.

If you watch youtube highlights, you'll see that at least 80 of Martinez' yards came off of a quarterback keeper early in the third quarter. It was actually a pretty amazing play to see - Martinez set up in the shotgun, took the ball, took about one half step backwards and then just zoomed straight up the field. The offensive linemen on that play romped 5+ yards pass the line of scrimmage into the KState defense.

I remember hearing what knapplc is talking about, though. On more than one occasion I remember broadcasters heaping praise on Martinez for how well he ran the zone read.

 

[tschu]

This is crazy. Do people forget so easily, or did they just not pay attention last year?

Taylor was not just fast, he was very good at making reads in the zone read play, and he was not just good but brilliant at the point of handoff. Houdini-like, I would go so far to say. Look at those exchanges in the first part of the year between Taylor and the running back. Look at how long Taylor held the ball in the running back's gut. The longer the ball stays in the running back's gut, the more difficult it is for the defensive end to make the decision on who to tackle. Taylor mastered the art of holding the ball in there for a ridiculous amount of time and that's one of the major reasons it was so successful, not just because he was so fast.

He also would make poor reads at times. And sometimes he didn't even make a read at all, he just had in his mind before the snap what he would do. And that became easy to defend. Mack Brown caught him doing so, and Mack even came out and said so after the game.

 

[knapplc]

This is crazy. Do people forget so easily, or did they just not pay attention last year?

Taylor was not just fast, he was very good at making reads in the zone read play, and he was not just good but brilliant at the point of handoff. Houdini-like, I would go so far to say. Look at those exchanges in the first part of the year between Taylor and the running back. Look at how long Taylor held the ball in the running back's gut. The longer the ball stays in the running back's gut, the more difficult it is for the defensive end to make the decision on who to tackle. Taylor mastered the art of holding the ball in there for a ridiculous amount of time and that's one of the major reasons it was so successful, not just because he was so fast.

He also would make poor reads at times. And sometimes he didn't even make a read at all, he just had in his mind before the snap what he would do. And that became easy to defend. Mack Brown caught him doing so, and Mack even came out and said so after the game.

Mack Brown said he caught Martinez not making a read on the Zone Option play? Link to video or article where he says this?

 

[bshirt]

Smart Football covered the Speed Option recently. Good stuff.

The simple, wonderful, inexpensive speed option.

The speed option may be the best run play in football. The pro guys don't like it because your quarterback can be hit, but, whether under center or from the shotgun, it's an exceptionally useful play to have in your arsenal. There are three basic reasons why the play is so effective and useful . . .

Great read and major fun to watch....thanks carlfense!!

 

[carlfense]

Smart Football covered the Speed Option recently. Good stuff.

The simple, wonderful, inexpensive speed option.

The speed option may be the best run play in football. The pro guys don't like it because your quarterback can be hit, but, whether under center or from the shotgun, it's an exceptionally useful play to have in your arsenal. There are three basic reasons why the play is so effective and useful . . .

Great read and major fun to watch....thanks carlfense!!

You're welcome. That's a great site if you like to read some in depth Xs and Os. Plus he LOVES Tom Osborne's offense and writes about it often.

 

[The Dude]

Smart Football covered the Speed Option recently. Good stuff.

The simple, wonderful, inexpensive speed option.

The speed option may be the best run play in football. The pro guys don’t like it because your quarterback can be hit, but, whether under center or from the shotgun, it’s an exceptionally useful play to have in your arsenal. There are three basic reasons why the play is so effective and useful . . .

For the life of me I don't understand why we didn't run this more with Taylor last year (did we even run it at all?). We ran it some with Zac the year before but it didn't really work for two reason: 1. Zac wasn't much of a runner 2. Wats always called it to the short side of the field. Which is, ya know, dumb.

 

[bshirt]

Smart Football covered the Speed Option recently. Good stuff.

The simple, wonderful, inexpensive speed option.

The speed option may be the best run play in football. The pro guys don't like it because your quarterback can be hit, but, whether under center or from the shotgun, it's an exceptionally useful play to have in your arsenal. There are three basic reasons why the play is so effective and useful . . .

For the life of me I don't understand why we didn't run this more with Taylor last year (did we even run it at all?). We ran it some with Zac the year before but it didn't really work for two reason: 1. Zac wasn't much of a runner 2. Wats always called it to the short side of the field. Which is, ya know, dumb.

Even the toughest and most hardcore NU fan could hardly watch Z. Lee run the option. Zoogies keeps saying he was fast but on the field...well......

I'm so, so pumped we'll be going to some kind of option based offense. Tmart/Heard/Green/etc...pick your poison.

 

[jsneb83]

Smart Football covered the Speed Option recently. Good stuff.

The simple, wonderful, inexpensive speed option.

The speed option may be the best run play in football. The pro guys don't like it because your quarterback can be hit, but, whether under center or from the shotgun, it's an exceptionally useful play to have in your arsenal. There are three basic reasons why the play is so effective and useful . . .

For the life of me I don't understand why we didn't run this more with Taylor last year (did we even run it at all?). We ran it some with Zac the year before but it didn't really work for two reason: 1. Zac wasn't much of a runner 2. Wats always called it to the short side of the field. Which is, ya know, dumb.

Even the toughest and most hardcore NU fan could hardly watch Z. Lee run the option. Zoogies keeps saying he was fast but on the field...well......

I'm so, so pumped we'll be going to some kind of option based offense. Tmart/Heard/Green/etc...pick your poison.

He has straight-line speed (not Shoelace or T-Mart speed), but it took him awhile to get going.

 

[knapplc]

Wats always called it to the short side of the field. Which is, ya know, dumb.

In Shawn Watson's defense (seems weird to say this), the staple of TO's championship teams was the weak-side Option. There are fewer defenders on that side of the field, and while you have less space to work with, you not only have one fewer guys to block, but you make the strong-side backer run the width of the field every play. That's a lot of extra miles for that guy.

 

[bshirt]

Every program in the country like us who has tradition and is at or even close to the 800+ ncaa win club has the tradition because of a heritage or a mantra or identity that works. Nebraska has never won a national title throwing passes. We have sucked trying to but never succeeded. Point is regardless of ESPN or anyone else's analysis ....they don't know husker football. They talk out of their rear ends and think they know but don't. See callahan experiment. We recruit well for speed option and power running. Not pro style anything. Pound the rock.

Not really.

I don't know what Oklahoma ran in the Wilkinson era, but it wasn't Switzer's wishbone, which isn't anything close to their passing offense these days.

Texas followed a similar path of change.

USC used to be Tailback U, but under Carroll they are much more balanced, if not pass oriented, and usually feature a QB ready to step right into the pros--unless he's Matt Leinart, who should've been ready.

Ohio State hasn't been "3 yards and a cloud of dust" in years.

These teams all evolved over the years, and sometimes made dramatic changes away from what they were. Osborne certainly evolved, as others pointed out. Anybody who thinks we had 25 years of power option is dead wrong.

What? 1980 - 2003 is pretty damn close to 25 years.

How often does NU get recruiting classes rated as high as Texas, Ohio State, USC & Oklahoma? Duh! Surely I don't need to type out why?

We tried being a "balanced" offense like everyone else under Callahan with truly massive disastrous results. How much total failure do you really want?

NU proved for decades we can run the ball with authority with some good rbs and well developed road-graders. Trying to "pretend" we can stand toe to toe with Ohio State, Texas, ect and play the same type of NFL offense is a losing game for NU. We've got our nitch, our identity, our tradition with smashmouth. We can win and win big with it. I think Bo will.

GBR!!

ps.....yeah Devaney won big without it due to two reasons...."Devaney" & the Jet. Imo, we haven't had anyone as good as the Jet since his last year (1972). Dudes like him don't grow on trees.

The offensive numbers we got from Osborne/Frazier/Frost and that OLine are just sick, so I didn't even look at them. I just looked at 1998 to the present.

We remember which years it seemed like our offense either wasn't in sync (or just plain smelled like feet) and which years it felt like we were productive. 400-ish YPG seemed to be comfortable. Measurably more than 400 YPG and we had a dangerous offense. Measurably less and we were poor.

Here's what we've produced year-by-year:

1998 - 385 (Solich w/Newcombe)

1999 - 398 (Solich w/Crouch)

2000 - 460 (Solich w/Crouch)

2001 - 451 (Solich w/Crouch)

2002 - 373 (Solich w/Lord)...weak

2003 - 345 (Solich w/Lord)....awful

2004 - 363 (Callahan w/Dailey)....stinkful

2005 - 320 (Callahan w/Taylor)....horrible

2006 - 415 (Callahan w/Taylor)

2007 - 468 (Callahan w/Keller)

2008 - 451 (Pelini w/Ganz)

2009 - 323 (Pelini w/Lee)....horrible

2010 - 398 (Pelini w/Martinez)

Production under Bo seems to have mirrored our production under Callahan: About the same as the year before he took over; horrible second year; quantum leap in offensive output in Year #3.

Our offensive improvement under BC seemed for all intents and purposes to be on the right track & sustainable. It was the defense that got us disgruntled, not the offense. (I, personally, was VERY gruntled with our offense)

Bo is going into his 4th year. He's got a returning QB for a change. If our offensive production can stay at the 400 YPG level, we'll be...meh, okay. But if it can climb to the 425-450 range, then I think with our defense, we could be contending for the B1G title.

But we can't fatten up against the Arkansas States and then only get 250-300 YPG against our quality opponents.

If we can keep it heading in the right direction, I'll feel a lot better about Barney & the OL. But if we regress back down to 350 or worse this year, especially against good teams, it will be very frustrating.

__________________

Good stats and a nice post!

However, imo TO was right when he was quoted endlessly (& in his book "more than winning") "that a yard rushed is worth more than a yard passed". Just an opinion but one I'm sold on.

NU averages rushing for anywhere from 350 to 400 yds we're top5 at the very least. Quite possibly in the NC game. Over 300 yds average rushing we're top 10 "easy". Maybe a lot higher.

Agree Callahan had a horrible defense but nevertheless a LOT of his offensive stats were gotten at garbage time when we were getting hopelessly blown-out. Especially 2007. His offenses steamrolled the pansies but were stuffed like sardines vs decent defenses (sound familar Callawatts?). Until the opponent waterboys showed up anyways. Bo's 2008 also to far lesser degree.

I think we're going in the right direction.

Run the ball....stop the run.....win the game.

 

GBR!!

 

[zoogs]

Taylor was effective at the read option play because of his pure athleticism and running ability.

He was not effective at running the read option if by 'running' you mean making the reads. Lee and Rex were both far ahead in that category.

bshirt, Pelini's philosophy on defense has been to stop the pass. Hope you're OK with that.

 

[Hercules]

Taylor was effective at the read option play because of his pure athleticism and running ability.

He was not effective at running the read option if by 'running' you mean making the reads. Lee and Rex were both far ahead in that category.

bshirt, Pelini's philosophy on defense has been to stop the pass. Hope you're OK with that.

What is the deal with this argument? Martinez didn't just go out and always make the wrong read. He didn't always make the right read, but he did more often than not. It's not up for debate - all you have to do is watch the game film. It's pretty obvious when he makes the right read and when he makes the wrong read, just watch the unblocked defender. Sometimes, there was no right read. Texas would bring 9 to stop the run, they'd cover both options of the zone read play. The only way to beat them was to pass, and we all know why that didn't work.

 

[zoogs]

He was often making the reads pre-snap, and then post injury he wasn't making them at all (not his choice, I guess?). All I'm saying is Taylor wasn't the strongest at making these reads on the team last year. I don't know if I'd say he was terrible at it, but Zac and Rex were both very good at it. Obviously Zac didn't have the same burst as Taylor, so Taylor was more effective by far on this play.