Undone

/thread

I hear you. Brendan Jaimes really was one hell of a good left tackle. People hated Matt Farniok but I gotta say, he was probably better in pass blocking than what we've got now, and he got two NFL contracts. So that lineup was decent. But there were a lot of times where Adrian just didn't have a ton of time to throw the ball in years 3 & 4 under Frost.

@Husker in WI: Agree with you that you'd prefer he not be in those situations. Guy's a sophomore that's listed at 280 lbs. Now he does get double teamed. But we're in kind of a 5 man front and nobody is really there to help on the edge, as you say.

Team rushes for 312 yards. Analysts say the data shows the run blocking is better.

What do you disagree with? Nobody said anything about Casey Thompson. So you can see why I'd be confused that you brought him up, as if you're having a different conversation in your own head about my post that I'm unaware of. I also consider Casey Thompson to be a pass first guy - but you can't use him in Rhule's (current) scheme, or he'd be in a wheel chair by mid-season. With the operative word being "current."

Yes, Tenopir - and Epley was probably brought in as well - were great at spotting genetic potential in the builds of high school athletes for the line. But also, we were stacked with skill position talent that was recruited from coast to coast during the title run era.

I agree that Kaelin has the potential to be a good passer at the college level. Yeah we went after Raiola, but who didn't? And also, did we really ever have much of a chance? My definition of a "pass first QB" tends to be one that obviously passes well, but his running isn't really all that great. But he can do a little zone read or QB power's here and there. Maybe I'm using that differently than everybody else. The true dual threat guy is good at both (again, for me), and there aren't that many of them out there in the wild, and they usually go to Top 25 schools. I think the term has basically come to mean "a QB that runs" for most people, though. Know what I mean?

@JeffKinney87: And what would be the "unique identity" we'd go with in 2023 that would fit the build? Genuinely asking. I could argue that Wisconsin's identity actually wasn't as much about recruiting & developing great offensive linemen (even though they did) as it was about recruiting great running backs. Their offensive identity revolved around strong, powerful backs that could churn yards after contact in largely heavy sets. And then I could argue that this is exactly what we're doing under Rhule, with one difference being that Wisconsin intentionally recruited pocket passers to set them up to be more successful when they occasionally got into 3rd & long's, whereas we're going with the (clearly sub-par) dual threat guys.

In fact...and not a deep bomb, but this was our first offensive play against them in 2021:

I like the idea of it as our first offensive play in a game like Michigan where we have basically no chance at just having run blocking slowly wear them down, but I like it way less against LA Tech or a B1G West team.

Guy misses out on tens of millions of dollars because he just couldn't resist texting the lady that was brought in to train the team on harassment. Almost can't make this stuff up.

That was a really good post, @Dr. Strangelove. The only thing I'd maybe change is the assessment of Frost's ability to recognize talent and put it in the right place to succeed. What we had with Martinez, Maurice Washington, and Wan'Dale Robinson when those guys came in as freshmen had amazing potential. I think Frost was actually much worse at actually getting the team into form in fall camp & practice.

Maybe you meant it this way, but it's a bit of a generalization. There are Rashod Bateman's out there that were 4 star players that really helped their team rise above their expected performance. But also, why'd you put "develop" in quotations? Genuinely asking. That's a good thing right? Again looking at Minnesota, you have a guy like Mo Ibrahim who was a 3* player that turned into something pretty special. Damn. I kind of regret giving Minnesota props two times in one post.

Big part of it is just how prepared your team is for game speed from practice time, and whether everybody knows where their blocking assignment is when they line up. Yeah, it still works. Can it get us at least 3 wins out of the stretch of Illinois/Northwestern/Purdue/Michigan State? That's the question for me.

Hudson Card has put up some good passing numbers in a couple games they've played, but they're 1-3 with their only win coming against a Virginia Tech team that is also 1-3. Hopefully our nickel-ish defense matches up against these guys really well. Beating them is something we have to do this year.

I just want to make it clear that I personally don't think Sims was benched for the LA Tech game. Assuming Sims doesn't clearly get injured again in the Michigan game, I think we'll learn all we need to know about what this staff thinks of the situation with who takes the first snap against Illinois. So naturally, that makes pretty much all of this handwringing over how bad Haarberg is kind of pointless for me; he's the backup. I don't have too much interest in furthering this part of the discussion, Husker03, but I'm pretty sure that these two things are incompatible: and: "Not a Division I QB" to me would mean he couldn't play at even the worst Sun Belt team. Really it sounds like you're actually arguing that he's not good enough to be the starter for a Big 10 team. Which is fine, and maybe you're actually right. But they're two different things.

You'd think this is accurate, yeah. It maybe doesn't even have much to do with what we're doing now in strength training versus what we were doing before. It's probably just more practice time being spent on simulating game play. So weird to me that Frost was weak in that area, of all people as our head coach. Pretty dumb.

Man. We should have done so much better against Colorado. Ugh.

When I hit 'Submit' on my post, I knew somebody would be chiming in with that. Took all of like three minutes. Both guys have had some pretty bad moments in the passing game. And it's fine to say we've seen enough of both of them to say neither of them makes the grade in the passing game. I honestly don't have strong opinions about who should be the starter against Illinois (the Michigan game basically doesn't exist to me because it's an automatic "L"). My prediction is that it'll be Sims because I think Rhule's ego will have him going with his big offseason transfer portal guy. Either way, I think against Illinois you come out the first drive of the game with either guy and use him like a battering ram with QB Power's and zone read keepers and you see if it moves the chains. But after a couple of drives if it doesn't, you can't just ask either one of them to drop back and throw a bunch as the only alternative. Our entire offense - including the QB's - just don't execute it well.

When he's in a designed drop back, "stand in the pocket and scan the field" kind of play, no. I don't. But he's been better with play action. Same basic answer applies to Sims, even though I feel like I haven't even really seen all that much of Sims' passing game. He of course has been bad on a few plays of throwing to guys that are covered, which is basically the worst thing a QB can do in the passing game. What I'm talking about though is quick hitting pass plays and not slow developing ones where either QB has to read coverages and scan multiple routes. This is where good coaching comes in. It's finding a middle ground between what they can't do that's in the playbook now and just running handoffs out of 22 man personnel all game long.

When we get into the stretch of Illinois/Northwester/Purdue/Michigan State, as long as we have no major injuries on either side of the ball we'll be in each of those games. I think one really big thing on offense in those games is lining up in the 12 man personnel sets but finding some creativity that we haven't shown on film up to that point, or just line up with single tight end & 3 guys wide and try to work the ball out quickly in the passing game. I'm not entirely convinced that we're running the play mix we're running because the coaches have zero faith in our passing game, I think they just really want this kind of "grind it out" offense. Bring something to the table in that stretch of the season that teams haven't seen & prepared for.

I wonder whether or not Oregon's coach really knew he was being filmed in his pregame speech to his team before the game, or whether he thought through whether it would go viral one way or another. But either way, LOL...top tier trash talk. Like, insulting towards Deion on a level that was so satisfying. Amazing stuff. Haha.

+1, just came here to say this. If Anthony Grant gets hurt in this game I'm going to lose it!

I'll just say this, 'Husk: I don't think Rhule really cares what fans think of his decisions 5/12 of the way through his first season on an 8 year contract with $66M in guaranteed money. So again, I think we know a lot more with who starts against Illinois.

Yeah, because the Michigan game is basically an automatic loss, you can't decipher too much about Rhule's preference for QB1 with who starts that game. But you will be able to in week 6 against Illinois.