Mavric

Player: Calvin Bundage Hometown: Edmond, Oklahoma School: Santa Fe Position: Safety, Outside Linebacker Height: 6-3 Weight: 200 40 time: Offers: Arizona, Arizona State, Arkansas, Arkansas State, Houston, Iowa, Iowa State, Louisville, Michigan, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Oregon, TCU, Tennessee, Texas Tech, Tulsa Visits: Twitter Rivals: #48 OLB; 247: #21 S; Scout: #251 Overall; #18 S; ESPN: #38 OLB; Hudl

That's all I have time for tonight. I'm going to amend my previous statement about our defensive line play. I was mainly paying attention to our pass rush the first time but as I re-watched it to get these screen shots, our run defense was actually pretty poor. Most of the time Miami had huge holes to run through. The pass rush simply didn't have much time to get there as Kaaya was getting the ball out quickly - a credit to him and and not speaking well of our pass coverage. But through the entire first quarter I really struggle to find a play that wasn't pretty good from our offensive line. And the second quarter is basically the same way. Dropped passes - though I would content that two of them were knocked away by Miami - and a missed block by our TE cost us drives.

Miami's third possession Quick throw on the slant. WR screen. Maurice smells it out but can't recover in time. Not sure where our LBs went. Pretty bad run defense again - huge hole to run through. Kaaya has time to throw here but gets happy feet and rolls out even though there really isn't any pressure. Young finally makes him throw it away. Must have actually had good coverage on this one. TERRIBLE run defense. I really hope we had some sort of slant called here because there is no one on the right side. Another quick throw from Kaaya. This time Kaaya had time again but scrambles anyway. Should have been an easy TD to the RB releasing down the sideline but Kaaya zings it over his head. Another quick throw. Most of the time, Kaaya is getting rid of the ball very quickly. Hard to get pressure. Another quick throw with good protection. Receiver is really open. Got lucky here. Big holes in our run defense but the RB run right into the back of the guys in front of him. Goal line defense makes a good stand. After a penalty, Kaaya with the quick throw on the fade but it's incomplete. Have to give our defense credit here. There were some pretty bad plays but they found a way to force a field goal. And Miami had to earn it - it was a 13 play drive.

Nebraska's third possession I wouldn't call this great blocking but there is definitely a running lane to the outside for TA. But the LB runs him down for a three yard gain. Another perfect pocket allowing for everyone's favorite play "Cotton on the catch." This is an interesting play with Utter pulling and Newby leading TA. The line all makes their blocks - the free defender that blows up the play was lined up in the Guard-Tackle gap and Carter was supposed to block down on him. That's a long down block, especially for a TE. That guy doesn't make the play but it slows TA up enough that Lewis' guy is able to get free for the tackle. Punt.

Miami's second possession Pretty bad run defense here. The line is spread out so far that there are huge holes. Bando is unblocked but misses the tackle. A very quick throw by Kaaya - so fast that Young was completely unblocked but couldn't get there in time on the blitz. Davie is a half-step off but makes the tackle after the pass completion. Again pretty poor run defense. A huge hole and the OLine is free to work up to the second level. Another very quick throw from Kaaya, finding the slant for the TD. I didn't really notice Maurice much during the game but watching it again he was making some things happen.

Huskers second possession If this isn't a running lane, I don't know what is. It's a quick throw to Westy but none of the line is even a step back from the LOS (30). The left side got a good push. Not much of a hole but Miami was stacking the line on 3rd & 1. Cross got four yards. Mission accomplished. Remind me again why we didn't do this on 3rd & 1 later in the game.... Jet sweep to Reilly. All the line has executed their blocks. The one free defender was outside where the line could get to him and didn't make the play. Great pocket for TA to throw from. Throw was inside Carter and when he turned around to catch it, it give the safety time to close and knock the pass away. Not much of a hole but this is a straight zone run into the middle of an eight man box. But you can see several linemen have pushed their guys a few yards back. Just too many guys to block on a straight-ahead run. Lewis could have held his block longer but TA still has room to throw. Not a great job.

Miami's first possession. Quick curl route. Not much time to get any pressure. Another fairly quick throw but Collins has shoved his guy six yards back and Freedom is just coming free (no pun intended). Davie was beat but recovers to knock the pass away. Not particularly great line play as there is a nice hole. But where are our LBs? Young is directly ahead of the RB and we have five guys on the offense's right side with nobody home on the left. This was some sort of blitz or stunt but it left us terribly vulnerable. This is the play that Davie gets completely turned around and the receiver is wide open on the deep cross. But Collins totally beat his man only to run clear by Kaaya. But we have three guys bearing down on Kaaya as he releases it. Quick throw on the slant for the TD. No chance to get any pressure.

Here's the Huskers first series. Unfortunately after my big lead-in, the first play isn't very good. Kondolo looks completely lost so he didn't so something right. It looks like he was supposed to loop outside Gates and lead on a counter-type play but he goes inside and can't get to the backer. But Newby still gets four yards. If four yards is a "bad" play, sign me up. Second down. It's a quick pass but you can't have better blocking than this: Another quick pass but plenty of room to throw. Unfortunately there was a drop by Hovey on second down and a pass that Westy might have caught under really tight coverage - might have been tipped away as well. And we punt.

On the defensive side, they are also getting treated somewhat harshly. We are getting some decent pressure - not a lot but more than many people seem to think. And our run defense isn't too bad either. Kaaya was getting the ball out so quickly most of the time (which I think was the case in the first two games as well) that there simply isn't time to get to the QB on many plays.

Re-watched the first half (so far) of the Miami game and here's my biggest impression: The complaints about the struggle of our offensive line are so completely overblown it's staggering. I'll admit, I didn't think they had been particularly good. But when you go back and actually watch what is happening as opposed to simply judging by the result, you'll see that the vast majority of the time, they are actually playing very well. Our pass protection is VERY good. TA had a nice pocket and plenty of time to throw on almost every play. Miami was getting very little pass rush - we got much more pressure than they did (more on that later). They are not road graders so they aren't blowing open huge holes in the running game. But they aren't getting be a lot either. Most of the time when a running play got blown up it was because a receiver or back was missing a block. And most of the plays that don't get many yards are straight zone runs. We aren't really getting blown up but there simply isn't much room to run a straight zone play into a seven man box. When we get a little more creative with our running plays - jet sweeps, counters and a zone read or two - we had pretty good success. That being said, I think Kondolo is the weak link. He is very slow off the ball - Gates is well out in front when they fire out on running plays. I'd really like to see Foster get a shot as run blocking is his forte. I wish I had a couple hours to document all this but I'll try to get some screen shots of plays up to show this.

https://twitter.com/WhosThatGuy4/status/745421069075386368

Player: K'Lavon Chaisson Hometown: Houston, Texas School: North Shore Position: Defensive End Height: 6-3 Weight: 205 40 time: Offers: Baylor, Colorado, Houston, Kansas, LSU, Nebraska, Texas A&M Visits: Twitter 247 Composite: #88 Overall; #5 WDE; .9541; :star :star Rivals: #16 WDE; :star :star 247: #99 Overall; #7 WDE; :star :star Scout: #58 Overall; #6 DE; :star :star ESPN: #54 Overall; #5 DE; :star :star Hudl

There was an excellent QB sweep play called on a 3rd down early in the game. It was blown up, Lewis couldn't hold his block. Here it is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2jyjtlreRhk?t=20m26s I like the play, and wonder how it will be utilized going forward. Just getting around to re-watching the game and noticed that play as well. It's an interesting look but it's not so much Lewis not holding his block as it is Carter not getting his down block. But the guy Carter is supposed to block down on is inside the tackle. That's a long way to go to get a block. That guy doesn't make the tackle but he disrupts the timing of the play. If TA gets to the hole quicker, it was probably there. There was also another called run for TA a few plays before that so there were a couple here and there.

Haven't heard anything else yet. They said for now (this year at least I assume) it would mostly be in a scouting type roll. I'm assuming looking for tendencies in opponents and also looking at our own team. So I would guess it would be mostly in the game planning stage for now. But I don't know if they really have the ear of the coaches yet or not. Would be interesting to find out how their data is being used.

Says he's looking to take OVs to Wisconsin, Iowa and Nebraska after visiting Michigan State.

247 broke down all schools by their current roster and those player's rating out of high school. Obviously this is imperfect because it's more potential than production but it is better than signing class rankings as it takes into account players that have left (or transferred in). Nebraska came in at #25. Miami was #20. Miami has two five-stars. Tracy Howard started at CB and made a couple plays. Chad Thomas was on the participation report but had no stats. Miami has an edge in four-stars 25-21 while Nebraska has more three-stars 54-47. Other Nebraska Opponents: BYU - 52 South Alabama - Not in Top 100 Southern Miss - 88 Illinois - 58 Wisconsin - 40 Minnesota - 62 Northwestern - 48 Purdue - 61 Michigan State - 23 Rutgers - 46 Iowa - 53

Another way to look at that is Nebraska is averaging 2.4 more yards on passing plays than rushing plays. Which is true of basically every team in the country (to varying degrees). We also have thrown five interceptions and fumbled it once. Two of the interceptions were inside the opponents five yard line in a game we lost by three points in overtime.

That's fine. It's obviously un-knowable. But your argument that there's no evidence that we couldn't have had a lot of success running the ball seems really odd to me. We were what I would deem successful (almost six yards per carry) when we did run the ball. That's the entire set of evidence we have to work with - well, that and the fact that we ran all over them last year as well. The only evidence that is lacking is because we didn't run it any more, which is the point. There is also no evidence that we would have for some reason had less success (on a ypc basis) had we run it more than we did.

ESPN

I thought I read that he said he didn't do any concussion protocol during the game. I don't think he would have had time to do anything extensive considering how quickly he came back in. Perhaps they did after the game. But I don't think it was an issue. He said he didn't feel any issues with his head even right when it happened. That seemed hard to believe looking at the play but the cameras also showed him on the sideline with his helmet off right after he got off the field and he sure didn't look like he was having any issues from what I saw.

What do you mean there is no evidence? Newby averaged 5.9 ypc. Minus the sacks, the team also averaged 5.9. If we had run it 45 times instead of thrown it 45 times, that would extropolate to 265 yards on the ground. The only reason there is any evidence lacking is because that's all the more times we actually ran the ball. I'm not asking for running the ball 70% of the time. It was actually 80% last year but it seemed to work out pretty well. But our running stats - at least on a yards per carry basis - are really not that bad this year. Not great but not nearly as bad as people are making them out to be. The main reason we don't have more rushing yards is that we're simply not running the ball very often. We are currently #94 in the country in rushing attempts per game. And that's with one game that was close the entire way and another game that we won in a blowout so simply being behind doesn't explain it.