The husker O-line troubles run deep

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Red Tape

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Last Saturday, Nebraska's starting offensive line consisted of a junior-college transfer (Yoshi Hardrick), two walk-ons (Mike Caputo and Spencer Long), a true sophomore (Andrew Rodriguez) and a true freshman (Tyler Moore).
How did Nebraska reach this point? Why does NU have less offensive line experience than any Top 10 team? Where are the guys who earned scholarships out of high school and toiled three or four years in the weight room, preparing for a chance to start? Wasn't that Tenopir's formula?
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Dirk sort of lays out how we got to this point with the Offensive line in his most recent article. Nothing ground breaking, but it does seem like Nebraska has had it's share of bad luck with the O-line now that I think about it.

http://www.bigredtoday.com/article/20110908/BIGRED/709089760/-1#chatelain-leaks-in-pipeline-callahan-s-folly

 
We are in year 4 of Bo Pelini's tenure as a head coach. Last year's starting line included three players from the Callahan era - four if you count Marcel Jones (I honestly do not remember how many games he has been injured for over the years). We lost Jaivorio due to a medical condition, and then basically his entire recruiting class of OL in 2008, which was shaping up very strongly. I suppose it was Callahan's fault that we lost those guys, because he got fired. But if he hadn't...we'd still have Callahan.

It is really a bit foolish to complain that Callahan did not stock the cupboards enough. Not counting this year's true freshmen, there have been three full classes of recruits we have had the chance to bring in to the OL. If not enough of them have stepped up the replace the losses due to graduation, then that is on the current staff.

 
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oh yeah... Dirks strategy to get hits is to write about something that will ruffle feathers. That's the easy way out in journalism.

Like zoogies said, we have had a few years of Bocruits to make up some ground on the O-line. The sad thing was the 2010 class only had 3 OL, 1 of which is Hardrick who will be gone after this year. I think that was a failure for that class.

I wouldn't blame Cally for our troubles this year, but rather it could be a result of the coaching changes + plain bad luck. Nobody to blame there. I think we are heading in the right direction, though.

Moore, Rodriguez, Klachko, Reeves, Sterup should all still be around in 2013 (Barney Cotton on the other hand?)

 
Pelini has been shown to move players around on defense to best fit their skills, but offensively doesn't have a clue. Barney Cotton hasn't shown anything yet (prolly never will). The last 2 years we have got the best offensive line recruiting easily this decade for us. If the line doesn't appear better soon people need to be given the dueces.

BUT I have to agree a little that obviously who you recruit 3 and 4 years ago is going to affect you now. Hopefully it all improves.

 
It's a major recruiting problem that we had but they're going to extreme lengths to fix it (2010 was good & 2011 was excellent). Sadly, as the artcle states it's not a five minute project. Getting so very little from two consectutive classes (2007 & 2008) is simply devastating.

Of course it's just easier to blame everything on Barney (even with the new coaches). It requires zero thought processing and it solves all the questions for the problems we see on the field. It's the BIG RED way!!

:corndance

 
No, it's much easier to blame the problems on guys who are four years gone and avoid holding accountable the ones who are on the job now and have been for some time.

 
Other than saying a couple times that Callahan is to blame, Dirk doesn't really focus on any one thing. He pretty much lists all the reasons - legal problems, medical issues, whiffs - that the line has been giving us lackluster performances for so long.

corncraze said:
Is it it just me, or does it seem like Dirk always has a negative slant in his writing?
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Did you read this article? I certainly don't think he wrote that with a negative slant. If anything, he wrote it with a positive slant by blaming everyone OTHER THAN the current staff. Sometimes I think Dirk goes a little far, but a lot of his stuff is just him trying to be unbiased. Just because he isn't pumping sunshine up Husker fans' butts doesn't mean he's putting on a negative slant. It's called being realistic, honest.

 
Yeah, he's not blaming everything on Callahan. He points out a number of factors which have collectively contributed to the current situation, of which Callahan is an increasingly small part. Callahan's contribution is, for now, as legitimate a point as any of the others. The article's tone didn't seem negative to me at all.

 
Dirk has a point, but I still feel that offensive linemen who have been here awhile still don't play to their potential. Maybe Dirk is right - maybe this is all Callahan's fault. But it's games like last Saturday, when a far inferior opponent pushes us around, that I question the current coaches. That said, all Dirk's article says to me is wait - but we've been waiting for years already. Nobody wants to wait another 2 years to decide whether our offensive line coaches are good enough.

 
I don't know...to me it seems like there is something else besides depth issues. I am not blaming Cotton here either. I feel not having an offensive identity is hard on these guys. There is no consistency. Then I wonder what they are being taught scheme wise. Hardly ever do I see guys going to the next level to block downfield or pulling effectively. These are just surface observations from me.

 
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bhamHusker said:
Yeah, he's not blaming everything on Callahan. He points out a number of factors which have collectively contributed to the current situation, of which Callahan is an increasingly small part. Callahan's contribution is, for now, as legitimate a point as any of the others. The article's tone didn't seem negative to me at all.
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bball_backer said:
Other than saying a couple times that Callahan is to blame, Dirk doesn't really focus on any one thing. He pretty much lists all the reasons - legal problems, medical issues, whiffs - that the line has been giving us lackluster performances for so long.
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This is a tough sell. First of all, the article is titled "Chatelain: Leaks in pipeline Callahan's folly." And he starts off talking about the OL's struggles against UTC, saying, "the real culprit is somewhere outside New York City today..." and I don't think he means Michael Bloomberg. He spends quite a large portion of the article talking about linemen from the '01 to '06 classes, which is oddly irrelevant.

And then he closes by saying, "...[the OL] may be inexperienced and immature not only in 2011, but in 2012. After that, Bill Callahan is off the hook, I promise."

I suppose the tone of this article isn't really negative against the current staff, as Dirk more or less tries to give them a presidential pardon even extending into next year. Kinda weird, because I thought Dirk hated this staff. Maybe he's OK with Cotton.

 
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corncraze said:
Is it it just me, or does it seem like Dirk always has a negative slant in his writing?
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No, Dirk always just kind of points out the semi-obvious and bores everyone to death, along with making questionable or strange conclusions. Nothing different here - this article is quintessential Dirky-C

 
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