thatguy

about mazour, you say that now, but the room is going to get even more crowded next year than it is now with legit starting running backs.. washington wandale mazour rahmir mills thompkins belt sevion morrison marvin scott

fair point. it will be interesting to watch how this develops when these teams have close games.

i see your point, but 18 and 17 total exactly 50% of all catches for the season (70). that's high, don't you think? so basically, washington, JD, and robinson account for 45 out of 70 (64%) catches for the entire team thus far. for comparison, look at the receptions of the top 2 and top 3 receivers for teams like wisconsin (35% and 49%), ohio state (34% and 52.5%), and oklahoma (33% and 43%). we can compare other teams as well. the number may seem low, but that's actually quite a lot for nebraska.

that seems more likely and understandable. but if that's the case, that still worries me. if you are a teacher, and 50% of your students aren't picking up what you are putting down after 3 semesters, then that may not necessarily be a student problem.

i think you mean shortcomings. clown.

i think that's probably the issue: you will have injuries if you don't find a way to utilize more players. most players aren't that durable over the long haul. it will cost us at some point. plus, i think it makes the job of opposing defenses somewhat easier.

oh be quiet. you really don't have to respond if it hurts your eyes that much. i'm not going to take the time to do capitalize first letters if the text editor on this forum is that outdated that it cannot autocorrect.

I have a question. why is it that only wandale robinson, JD spielman, and Noa are getting targets or catches? all through the offseason, we heard about how we had such depth about wide receiver, and now the following have basically disappeared: Kade warner (i know he's hurt) Jaron Woodyard Jamie Nance Demariyon houston Mike Williams Darien Chase Jaevon Mcquitty it's unsustainable to have 70% of your receivers on your roster unable to see the field. they can't all be undisciplined, injured, or just not getting the playbook, that's really an indictment on the coach. anyone know what's really going on? these guys who are playing will get run into the ground. same thing a bit with the running backs. we see a fumbling problem with running the ball, yet the running backs which have been hyped all offseason can't even get a look in? yet when wyatt mazour gets in, he gets around 6 ypc. what is going on with development/usage at wide receiver and running back?

WHO???

agreed. the linebacking corps is the question mark on this whole squad. i'm really worried about the OLB spot.

that's one of the funnier parts of the show.

that show is pure trash whenever Gary sharpe isn't on. i used to like benning's commentary, but over the past year or two it's really gotten weird. self-serving, i-know-more-than-you-but-i-won't-say-but-i'll-let-you-know-i-do-know, e.t.c.

his stats are very good. and he played at an all-B1G caliber in a number of games this year. but that doesn't change anything i said. we can revisit this topic in about 9 months.

ha.. your post isn't too far off from beating me up though. to answer your question, its because they do need him and will need him. we don't have a back like him on the roster anymore. but, at kickoff for game 1, other backs will be better prepared than he will be at that point.

1. .regardless, it will take him a number of games to get rolling.. by then i fully expect some others to get a firm grip on playing . 2. bootle is not good in run support, and his play is a bit sporadic. the staff love him though, so he will play quite a bit. but he won't be the starter. i fully expect someone younger to take his spot.

i'm bookmarking this post, but i don't think mills will be a significant contributor next year. maybe the year after. the way this team plays and practices, for some specific positions, you have to be properly conditioned, and have to have been in the system for at least one spring to be effective. i think it's this way for skill positions on offense and defence, in my opinion. i don't think bootle will start at corner next year. maybe nickel. i think we are fine at WR. we will see the talent really show up, i think. OL will be more than fine. we will probably struggle some in the LB department.

i think this is where i'm at. i am happy coach frost is here, but maybe there is a chance that he may have been getting high off his own hype just a bit. he's a first year head coach who we fully support, but there's absolutely nothing wrong with asking those questions, especially when those specific things are the only reasons we haven't won a game. coaching is hard. coaching in the present day is even harder, and the coaches have to understand that you can't exactly ride past season successes into future wins anymore. you still have to work just as hard, or harder, to achieve even things as small as lining up right. i think they've gotten a bit complacent after their UCF success, and have made assumptions about certain things that have cost them. i recall the coaches downplaying concerns about not working on special teams at all in the spring. well, it's showing. Troy and Colorado have coaches who watch tape and want to win too.

This. In talking about the other three guys listed that needed experience I look at the second half of the OSU game as a huge example of bad management. Cav kept his starting five in for the whole thing. Decker, Barnett and Gaylord should have been inserted there. Going against OSU's twos and threes would have been far more of learning experience than mop up non conference snaps. I've been an advocate for rotating guys up front. At least you'll find out pretty fast with what ya got. Milt Tenopir never had a rotation for his linemen and we did pretty welll under his tutelage. I'm not saying Milt never substituted linemen, I'm just saying he never had a set rotation. So I don't think rotating the offensive linemen is a huge deal personally. i think some people quite often confuse substitution and in-game development with "set rotation". the idea is not necessarily to have every lineman play every other series, or some other predetermined schedule. The concept here is that if you are serious about having competent backup linemen, you MUST find meaningful snaps for your backup linemen in both games that matter and games that are less important in the grand scheme of things. doesn't have to be a predetermined order. it can be a "feel" type of thing, based on how the game is going (not just blowouts). some games they might play more snaps than other games. but to have it set in stone that you just don't rotate linemen in, unless the starters' legs are broken or something similar is pretty silly. that decker and barnett could not spell hobbled starters for any number of snaps at all should tell you something is wrong. That's easy to do if you are up by 30. We haven't had that luxury. Not sure what the issue was with Decker. But, the issues with Barnett are pretty well known and it's not a problem with the coaching staff. I'm not at all convinced that there is such a dropoff that you'd have to be up by 30 to play them. I don't see why you can't have 2-3 backups that get one series each per half. Give them a chance to get in there but still play the starters the vast majority of the time. But I'm not even so worried about the games. Speculation on my part but from the way Cav talks about it - and reading nothing to the contrary from practice reports - it's always just the starting group together in practice. I definitely think you need to be working some other guys in there. If Cav's big deal is "chemistry" then what happens when you're forced to play a backup due to injury or whatever? Now you have zero chemistry with that guy because you never gave him a chance. And it's pretty unlikely that you'll be able to go through the entire season with only five guys. We've proved that for years. Look, I do know a little about FB, coach at the A level for 15 years. You practice your O-line as a unit, First team, second team, etc. If you truly have someone that is close yeah our throw them in the mix. That is true when Milt was the coach or Cav was the coach. When some one is hurt you move the next guy up. Milt always wanted a swing guard and tackle if he had someone that was that good, but it doesn't always happen that way. When you are up 31-0 against Iowa St. with 6 minutes left in the 2nd quarter, yeah it is great to see the #2 unit in the game. That is what we all remember, and that is what happened. You didn't see that against Miami or FSU in a close game. When I coach HS the only ST unit any O-linemen were on was PAT/FG and that was practiced 1 day a week thursday for about 15 minutes. Otherwise we spend a good half hour on the other ST every practice. ST practice time was extra unit time for them. That is how important we thought it was for the O-line to function as a unit. I definitely think Cav could work a little harder to get some backups playing time. But, I don't think he is way off base the way he runs the O-line. again, no one is saying to sub in the entire 2nd unit in the second quarter of a close game or whatever. that would be silly. but what milt did in any of those games you mentioned was having one swing guy sub in at different points during the game, no matter who the opponent was. it obviously decreased against bowl opponents and the like, but lets not change the goalposts here. we are definitely in agreement that he should work some backups in at different stages.

This. In talking about the other three guys listed that needed experience I look at the second half of the OSU game as a huge example of bad management. Cav kept his starting five in for the whole thing. Decker, Barnett and Gaylord should have been inserted there. Going against OSU's twos and threes would have been far more of learning experience than mop up non conference snaps. I've been an advocate for rotating guys up front. At least you'll find out pretty fast with what ya got. Milt Tenopir never had a rotation for his linemen and we did pretty welll under his tutelage. I'm not saying Milt never substituted linemen, I'm just saying he never had a set rotation. So I don't think rotating the offensive linemen is a huge deal personally. i think some people quite often confuse substitution and in-game development with "set rotation". the idea is not necessarily to have every lineman play every other series, or some other predetermined schedule. The concept here is that if you are serious about having competent backup linemen, you MUST find meaningful snaps for your backup linemen in both games that matter and games that are less important in the grand scheme of things. doesn't have to be a predetermined order. it can be a "feel" type of thing, based on how the game is going (not just blowouts). some games they might play more snaps than other games. but to have it set in stone that you just don't rotate linemen in, unless the starters' legs are broken or something similar is pretty silly. that decker and barnett could not spell hobbled starters for any number of snaps at all should tell you something is wrong. That's easy to do if you are up by 30. We haven't had that luxury. Not sure what the issue was with Decker. But, the issues with Barnett are pretty well known and it's not a problem with the coaching staff. I'm not at all convinced that there is such a dropoff that you'd have to be up by 30 to play them. I don't see why you can't have 2-3 backups that get one series each per half. Give them a chance to get in there but still play the starters the vast majority of the time. But I'm not even so worried about the games. Speculation on my part but from the way Cav talks about it - and reading nothing to the contrary from practice reports - it's always just the starting group together in practice. I definitely think you need to be working some other guys in there. If Cav's big deal is "chemistry" then what happens when you're forced to play a backup due to injury or whatever? Now you have zero chemistry with that guy because you never gave him a chance. And it's pretty unlikely that you'll be able to go through the entire season with only five guys. We've proved that for years. Look, I do know a little about FB, coach at the A level for 15 years. You practice your O-line as a unit, First team, second team, etc. If you truly have someone that is close yeah our throw them in the mix. That is true when Milt was the coach or Cav was the coach. When some one is hurt you move the next guy up. Milt always wanted a swing guard and tackle if he had someone that was that good, but it doesn't always happen that way. When you are up 31-0 against Iowa St. with 6 minutes left in the 2nd quarter, yeah it is great to see the #2 unit in the game. That is what we all remember, and that is what happened. You didn't see that against Miami or FSU in a close game. When I coach HS the only ST unit any O-linemen were on was PAT/FG and that was practiced 1 day a week thursday for about 15 minutes. Otherwise we spend a good half hour on the other ST every practice. ST practice time was extra unit time for them. That is how important we thought it was for the O-line to function as a unit. I definitely think Cav could work a little harder to get some backups playing time. But, I don't think he is way off base the way he runs the O-line. So we pretty much agree on everything. Good. I guess So, I'm confused. So...everyone is agreeing with a lot of what Cav is doing as far as substitution? i think everyone is agreeing that there have to be guys that can step in and substitute without a significant dropoff in unit performance and cohesion. everyone i think is on board that we shouldn't be hearing anymore that there isn't anyone capable of subbing for an underperforming lineman. people have differing thoughts on how you accomplish that, however.

This. In talking about the other three guys listed that needed experience I look at the second half of the OSU game as a huge example of bad management. Cav kept his starting five in for the whole thing. Decker, Barnett and Gaylord should have been inserted there. Going against OSU's twos and threes would have been far more of learning experience than mop up non conference snaps. I've been an advocate for rotating guys up front. At least you'll find out pretty fast with what ya got. Milt Tenopir never had a rotation for his linemen and we did pretty welll under his tutelage. I'm not saying Milt never substituted linemen, I'm just saying he never had a set rotation. So I don't think rotating the offensive linemen is a huge deal personally. i think some people quite often confuse substitution and in-game development with "set rotation". the idea is not necessarily to have every lineman play every other series, or some other predetermined schedule. The concept here is that if you are serious about having competent backup linemen, you MUST find meaningful snaps for your backup linemen in both games that matter and games that are less important in the grand scheme of things. doesn't have to be a predetermined order. it can be a "feel" type of thing, based on how the game is going (not just blowouts). some games they might play more snaps than other games. but to have it set in stone that you just don't rotate linemen in, unless the starters' legs are broken or something similar is pretty silly. that decker and barnett could not spell hobbled starters for any number of snaps at all should tell you something is wrong.

not every former player should be a subject matter expert...

One of the few times I'll side with the media but it's their job to report all sides...At least it used to be. Maybe weve forgotten with all the fake news these days. all sides huh? funny, i didn't see any quote from mike riley in that article... or better yet, any indication that the writers had waited for any sort of considerable time for riley to call back.

for me, from the whole darnay holmes fiasco, anything nate clouse says before other recruiting reporters is just a whole bag of hot steaming crap.

could easily be a 4 star...

good riddance to certain players. I think Mike riley really needs to evaluate a few things when it comes to certain deep seated head coaching philosophies that he may have held throughout his career. they may work in other places, but may not work well here.