Lonnie Utah

 

You have no idea how close you actually are in that comparison....

Funny, I was thinking the same thing...

Do the circumstances that made AJ less of a factor in 2011 still exist for the bowl game? And if so, why is there so much talk about him rather than your QB or running game? He just doesn't appear to have been a major component of the offense this year.

 

Is it just because we started talking about him, so he's by default become the focus of these threads? Circumstantial more than anything else?

I think AJ gets talked about because at this point he's our #1 NFL prospect on offense (with big Melvin #1 on defense). As for the bowl game, I don't know, it depends on how the Huskers defend him. Our offense has evolved over the course of the season. The old ball coach is a great offensive mind, so I think he takes advantage of what he sees on the field. Personally at this point I think Shaw is a bigger overall weapon that AJ (he's been used alot as a "decoy" this year). So the options are load up the front to stop the run and the QB draw and leave 1 on 1 coverage in the secondary, or double AJ and leave yourself open to the run. How you guys decide to defend will dictate what happens. I'll predict that we start conservative with the ground game to see if we can open up some over the top routes to our deep guys.

We'll see on the 2nd.

Question to the c$%ks - why are all the highlights for AJ from 2010?

Last year, teams also put a lot of emphasis on stopping Lattimore and that found AJ open, or in 1 on 1 coverage. This year, LOT's of teams doubled AJ leaving other receivers open or in 1 on 1 coverage. As a matter of percentage, we just went with those guys more often. I also think that for a few games after Connor Shaw took over, the coaching staff played it a little more conservatively and we were run heavy.

So in short, I think it was a combination of things...

I anticipate you'll move the ball pretty well. I anticipate Shaw will get his yards. You probably won't be crazy-successful passing, but you probably won't need to be. And if you time it right, those few passes could pay off big-time.

^^ Pretty much how I see it.

Edit: Something else I anticipate is David getting his licks in. Our offense should have a very healthy respect for his abilities. I think it's a new twist for us this year, as he'll be the most or one of the most skilled LB's we've seen this year . Most of the top flight defenders we faced have been on the DL (GA). Of course we aren't the same team we were then so take it for what it's worth.

Honestly, I think it's going to come down to the old adages of the game, turnovers and penalties.

How good are those four WRs, though?

What I'm saying is it doesn't matter. Because of this...

The real worry is if you spread the field, fill the pattern, then have Shaw take off downfield. Our D Line has been poor at containment, and running QBs have gashed us all year.

We've been using those patterns as designed runs all year. There's no intention to really pass it from it unless the LB don't cover deep and we get a man/man look somewhere. It's just a look designed to soften middle and pull the LB/CB from 5 yards deep back to 10-15 yards deep. At that point, it's all about trap blocking by our OL and QB speed. If you don't drop the LB's to cover the designed run, then there's a 15-20 yard high/low high percentage pass pattern.

It's simply using the talent pool we currently have after suffering some personnel setbacks.

I posted this in another thread, not sure if you saw it and it doesn't hurt to repost. Here's a prototypical look and feel of that play (a pic worth 1000 words....)

Now how it works on Jan 2, 2012, IDK. All I'm doing is telling you what we've done and how it's worked. I'm sure your coaches have seen the same thing and you'll be prepped for it. Most bowl games favor the defense anyway since they have much longer to prep and don't have to be as precise (timing wise) as an offense.

We really don't need to load the box, because (I can't believe I'm saying this) I think if your backs get past the line, they won't make it past David, Compton, and company. And claiming your ran for over 200 yards on Tennesee? I'm not so sure if I'd be too proud of that, and considering all florida could do was run, you may want to rethink your previous statement.

 

If SoCar scores more than 10, I'd be surprised. AJ will get 4 or 5 catches for 60 yds, you'll run for about 100 yds, and end up with 225 yrds total offense and lose by almost two scores.

Where you'll get burned with this line of thinking is when SC puts 5 WR on the line and you have to drop your LB's into coverage to help the safety's. Then you'll see a 5 yard dump pass to a TE on a crossing pattern turn into a 15+ yard gain or a Shaw run on a delayed QB draw go for the same amount due to the backers being pulled off the line. So yeah, you need to load the box.

So we're not seeing a ton of catches/yards for AJ because of scheme. That makes sense.

It only takes 1!!

PS David is a concern....

Not trying to get in a pissing match, but who has Nebraska beaten thats so great? Michigan St? Great win and congrats but thats 1.

To be fair, I think beating Penn State in State College counts as a quality win...

when did Lattimore go out? Late October? How has that impacted Shaw the last few games?

1/2 thru the Mississippi State game. At that point, we were down to our 5th string RB. Surprisingly, our RB's had several 100 yard games after we lost Lattimore. The only game (after that) where our run game was really shut down was Arkansas.

What I'm trying to get everyone here to understand is how our offense has evolved over the course of this season given the twists and turns this team has had to face. The schemes we are running now, aren't the same things that we were using 4-5 games ago.

It's called making Lemonade....

Our defense hasn't been terribly good all year, so I would think that the best defense USC has seen would be UGA.

I think that's pretty accurate. Surprisingly I think that FLA is the 2nd best we've seen (and that shows in the score of that game).

I visit Huskerboard way more than any Clemson board, so no worries there.

Yeah, but do you have the sack to post over at http://www.cockytalk.com/ lol.

NU and USC are pretty much the same, hence the line of the game.

I won't disagree with this. In all honestly I couldn't think of a better team vs team match up in any bowl this year, minus maybe the rematch game (which even being a SEC FB fan, I didn't agree with). I think it's going to be a helluva game.

Again, he played in 7 games. He was smoked vs the one team that was good. He beat the other teams he was supposed to beat. My guess is that USC was favored in all those games EXCEPT Arkansas, right?

 

I hear where you are coming from and what you are thing to say, but bottom line is the offense put up 28 pts against the hogs (the 3rd highest pt total scored against the razorbacks all year.)

I watched that game and after seeing it, I would argue the counter that it was our defense which had a uncharacteristically poor game in that outing and that along with turnovers is what lost us the game. Frankly Tyler Wilson just nickled and dimed us to death in that game. The turnover margin was 4 to 1 and two of those were inside our own 10 yard line. It's a situation that's almost impossible to recover from with a top 5-10 team. Now I'll put some of that on #14, he threw a pic and had one of the 3 fumbles. The other two, he can't control what the other players do. Your 100% right on SC stragety for winning this year. It was on our D. Score just enough points and hope the D holds. Against, arky, it didn't.

There is no doubt that arky had our number this year. But take away 3 or 4 big plays by the hogs and we were in the game. Again, I'm not crying, it's football.

He played vs one good team at home, Clemson.

Well, we played Clemson, and we were at home, but I'm not sure I can agree on the "good" part of your statement...

edit: As to the rest of what you were saying there is some truth to it. The Arky game their DL shut down our run game a couple weeks after we lose our #1 RB, the guy that our offense had basically ridden for the previous year and a half. Since then, I think the coaching staff, has reworked the offense a bit to use tool they had at had.

Early in the 4th we were still within two points. A couple of 4th quarter turnovers and scores did us in (including 1 where Shaw fumbled on the SC 1 yard line with about 5 mins to go). What was lost in the final score of that game is that the gamecocks held the razorbacks on a 1st and goal inside the 5. 3 plays after the ball was turned over on downs, Shaw fumbles and the razorbacks recover on the SC 1 yd line. It still took arky two more plays to get it in (it took them 6 plays inside the 5 to get the TD). The ensuing kickoff was fumbled deep in SC territory. Our defense held them scoreless on that one too, but at that point it was a matter of time and there just wasn't enough left.

My point is, we were in the game in the 4th, but then (our own) mistakes killed us. I'm not crying, just stating what happened for those that don't follow our team. That's football.

I would add that he is tough and can take a hit.

Point taken. Keep in mind tho is that we really don't have anyone behind him. As a result, you can tell by watching film that he's "been coached" not to take the big hits if he can help it. I've seen him "slide into second base" more times this year than Ricky Henderson...

Here's the prototypical delayed QB draw that we've been running...

More of a running QB. Read option and designed (delayed) QB draws (send 4 WR's on deep fly or post routes to pull of LB coverage and then beat the DL to the corner). That being said, he's also pretty accurate while on the move. His stats improved thru the year as he got playing time. Over the last couple of games he was 16 of 18 for 234 yds and 14 of 20 for 208 yds. He threw 3 td's in each of those games. In those games he averaged over 100 yds on the ground and scored a running TD in each.

Not really, that's why Cunningham starts. We have two TE's coming in next year and one that's being red shirted now so buster may move to WR if he cant pack on a few pounds.

He should come over to my house and have some of my wife's cookin'. She's doing a great job at that! (Full disclosure, I'm a whopping 160 lbs, but that's up about 15 from when we met...)

I don't know if I could put Bruce or Ace in Gamechanger status. To me a Gamechanger would be the guy who could create 1-2 MAJOR or a series of big plays that the general public would point at saying, "that's the play/series when (insert school name) sealed the deal." Ellington had 2 Big plays this year (rushing TD against kentucky and receiving TD against clemtech) as well as a fist full of nice returns. Ace had 1 nice bomb catch against florida and the punt return TD against ecu was amazing. However, IMO these 2 guys don't do those things often enough for me to classify them as Gamechangers.

 

However, Shaw, Jeffrey, Ingram, Clowney, Swearinger,Gilmore and Allen are MOST DEFINITELY Gamechangers. Those guys make huge plays on a much more consistent basis AND have each had plays which directly effected the final score, to the affect that we would WIN the game.

Point taken and I don't disagree, but in reality I mis-named the thread. It really was intended to be a scouting report for both teams with guys to watch for, "game changers" or not.

One guy I can't believe hasn't been mentioned yet is Bruce Ellington (#23 - SO - WR). He's a two sport star right now. He plays WR on the football team and is the starting Point Guard on the BB team. He played some QB in high school and SOS (spurrier) has done some direct snaps to him in the wildcock set. In that formation it's usually a run/pass option utilizing his speed.

I think this is a productive exercise. At least now, when we watch the games there will be names on the other side of the ball that we recognize. Here's who's been listed so far.

Nebraska

Offense

#22 Rex Burkhead - JR - RB

#18 Quincy Enunwa - SO - WR

#3 Taylor Martinez - SO - QB

#81 Ben Cotton - JR - TE

Defense

#15 Alfonzo Dennard - SR- Corner

#4 Lavonte David - SR - Linebacker

#46 Eric Martin - JR - DE

Special Teams

#8 Ameer Abdullah - FR - I back

#96 Brett Maher - JR - Kicker

South Carolina

Offense

#14 Connor Shaw - So - QB

#9 Ace Sanders- SO - WR/Returns

#1 Alshon Jeffery - JR WR

Defense

#6 Melvin Ingram - Sr - DE

#7 Jadaveon Clowney - FR - DE

#36 D.J. Swearinger - JR - SS

#5 Stephon Gilmore - JR - CB

#26 Antonio Allen - Sr - Spur (Hybrid SS/LB)

Whoever brought up the punter for NE makes a good point. Our kicking game has been a bit of a weakness, esp kickoffs. Just can't seem to get it deep enough.

You should see his high school film. Good lord. There was literally no one who could block him. Meeting the the QB and RB in the backfield at the handoff was the norm for him. Get there a tad too late? No worries...tackle them both!

High School is High School, and Div I is a whole different game, but here you go. The first clip is sick. Chases down the running back from 5 yards back hurdling an attempted block along the way....

haha! My son love yo gabba, so there you go...

Here's the vid. (Just post the "regular" url)

^^ Nice move @ 1:38.