ajt1970

Sort of spits in the face of Riley's apprehension to not want to run Armstrong...basically Riley's just coddling QBs to not be physical and to just have them stand back in the pocket and gunsling all day. Wussy football at its best.

Hammerhead - that is not what I said. I said it is my PREFERENCE to run the ball. As far as what style of offense will lead to national titles for Nebraska, I think I have made my opinion very clear. And here's something else....name me a college football team in the history of college football that has won a national championship from a school with inclement weather conditions in October-January that was a pass-happy offense. There aren't too many, if any at all. Here you go....old school Dr. Tom....no prima donnas......no special treatment for QBs or anyone else......you will be a blocker

Ha, yeah if I was head coach you'd better believe I'd have those offensive linemen drive blocking on the sleds and against each other until the cows came home. And QBs would be running the ball, lowering their shoulders and taking hits and GIVING hits thru punishing a would be tackler AND blocking for the I-backs, etc. No Johnny Golden Arm QB is just standing around during practice thinking he's just gonna gunsling the ball around all day long and not be physical. By the way, fellow Michigander here.

I have played football, coached football, and watched plenty of football (as I'm sure we all have here) and I can tell you Riley's lameduck pass-happy offense willl not work at Nebraska for bringing NU back to national prominence and national titles. If you're fine with being also-rans and possibly every few years contending for a Big 10 West division title, then maybe, MAYBE Riley could get you that.....but on a national championship level (which is all I really care about, not Big 10 or Division titles) ....Riley's plan won't work. Why do I feel this way? I have stated before my many reasons (just look at prior posts). I'll add this.....Many here say we have to give RIley time to get his players in and play to his system. I say, no, no, no, absolutely not. 1) Who wants to wait? Patience is a virtue, yes, but not when you've been waiting nearly 20 years already for a national championship and nothing to show for it. To me, 18 years is long enough. 2) Winners WIN. Period. Riley was a mediocre coach at best. Outstanding coaches find a way to win regardless of their circumstances. There are many instances of this in college football history. Hell, you need look no further than Bob Devaney. Won immediately. Look at Harbaugh, Mcelwain, Urban Meyer, etc.. Winners Win. Put Riley as head coach of Ohio State last year and he doesn't even win his division. Winners Win.....losers lose, and mediocre coaches stay mediocre (unless they do a complete overhaul of their so called "system"). And just from a pure selfish reason, I want a coach who knows and can teach/coach an overpowering running game (at least an 80/20 or higher run-pass ratio) because i like the BEAUTY of a running game attack I find more joy in a 5 yard fullback trap or an inside ISO play than I do any kind of pass play. Passing, to me, just represents WUSSY football pure and simple. You aren't dominating anyone with a passing attack. You aren't imposing your will with a passing game. You're playing monkey in the middle, throwing it over the defenders' head instead of RAMMING it down their throats with a running game. All this to say, I don't care about Riley's system or him getting his players in and needing more time to do so. Throwing the ball all day long is WUSSY football, plain and simple. The offensive line is backpedaling to form a nice cushy pocket for the golden boy QB, who, if forced to run the ball would slide or run out of bounds.....There's no real HITTING going on with a passing play. On running plays - when that ball is snapped the OL fires off the ball and tries to drive the defensive line and LBs into the ground, pancake style! It's aggressive, it's brutal, THAT is what football is meant to be....not this fast break basketball style passing the ball that has continued to infiltrate the football game for the last few decades. I say, get back to the physicalness of the game, the aggressiveness, the running over teams ....because it is the blueprint for success at a place like Nebraska with its limited recruiting areas and plus their homegrown talent and development of big strong linemen to run block for the hard hitting FB and fast I-backs and wingbacks............and leave those pass happy Sissy offenses to schools in Florida and California.

Duke - I couldn't agree more. Excellent topic which I have brought up many tiimes. In my opinion, NU will NOT get to national title prominence again until it goes back to adopting Osborne's blueprint. I've given reasons in other posts, but here's another thing....I think a lot of fans have lowered their standards to where they think about "winning the Big 10 championship", or even worse, "winning the West division". Who cares? I couldn't give a damn about a conference or divisional championship. Means nothing to me. Just tells me you outplayed 6 or 13 other teams. What I care about is NATIONAL prominence, being #1 again, being taken seriously (feared) by other teams, being physical and running teams over. Having a cookie cutter passing offense is Ok for guys like Riley who never won anything, but to get back to winning NATIONAL TITLES and being in the hunt for them year after year (like today's Alabama's, Ohio State's, etc.) requires a SOLID running game, and for that...Riley is NOT the answer. He MIGHT get NU to 6-6, 7-5, maybe even 8-4 on a good year, which maybe for some fans is good enough. But he will NEVER get NU to national titles (or even in the conversation of one). Undone - you're right.....what one personally wants to see run as far as offensive philosophy and what could actually work can be entirely two different things. A lot of fans like passing. I hate it. I despise it. To me, it is WUSSY football. It's throwing the ball over someone's head so they can't get to it (basically, monkey in the middle). I'd rather run a team over, physically beat them up. With rule changes over the years, they have geared the game more to passing and less to running. They've taken the brutality of the game away. Osborne had it right...EVERYONE (including the QB) blocks, everyone (including QBs) runs (and no slides or running out of bounds). Qb's should not be given any special status when it comes to the BRUTALITY of the game...they should hit and be hit just like everyone else. No prima donnas. So since you mentioned preference, I will say my preference is to run the ball (80/20 ratio or higher, 90/10 even). But to do that you need the right coach who knows the ins and outs of the running game...and Riley is not that coach. He is not a run-the-ball TECHNICIAN. So we are stuck with Riley and his West Coast wussy throw the ball around offense, which, like I said, will absolutely not bring NU back to national titles, hence, it is not good enough for me. I won't settle for "winning the West division". I want PANCAKES. When is the last time you heard the word Pancakes? Offensive linemen used to compete to see who could get the most pancakes in a game. They took pride in it. They enjoyed firing off the line to smash the defensive linemen into the ground on run plays. What happens on a pass play? Offensive linemen BACKPEDAL, forming a nice cushy pocket for the QB (in other words, very passive, and defintiely not gonna lead to any pancakes). So to sum up....my preference...run the ball. What will bring Nebraska back to the promised land of national title?....run the ball (but only with the right coaches who know what they're doing and are true technicians in rushing attack philosophy and execution).

Right Zoogs, that is an underappreciated aspect of a QB's duties, getting the offense out of bad plays and into good ones based on the defensive front. But even though it is year one of this new system as you mentioned, it doesn't take much to recognize a front and see that there are four guys in the intended running area and we only would have three blockers, Tap the helmet and Go Opposite to the other side where there only three defenders. Or if the defense lines up in a balanced front but the free safety is cheating to the strong side of the field, run it to the weak side. Of if you notice a potential blitz coming form the outside linebacker, audible an option his way and pitch it off him. Pretty simple stuff. I think Langsdorf doesn't have the confidence or know-how to run smashmouth up-the-middle runs effectively, and i think he is inexperienced and uneducated on running finesse runs like many option runs, which brings me to my original thesis....Langsdorf and Riley simply do not have the know-how and credentials to put together what is really needed to be a championship caliber team in Lincoln, Nebraska (weather conditions)...and that is to have a devastating rushing attack. It's easy for us fans to simply say "run the ball!" (and I would be the one leading that cheer!).......but I just think we have the wrong coaches in place for running the ball correctly. These coaches are just too ingrained with their pass-happy offense to ever have the desire to want to figure out and design a powerful rushing attack and its corresponding audibling system.

True. Get the plays in sooner, but a simple tap on the helmet by the QB is all the time it takes to Go Opposite, not much time at all. To check into another play, now we're talking a few more extra seconds. I just can't see how a team cannot have an audible sytem of getting out of bad plays. Not saying they don't have one, I just don't see evidence of it.

While I feel NU CAN run the ball, even quite well at times (although they are not running the ball nearly enough for me as I'd like to see it in the 80/20 -or higher - run/pass ratio).......The 3rd and short running plays come to mind where NU was stuffed on several run attempts and I got to thinking. What sort of AUDIBLE SYSTEM is in place to check out of dead running plays? Is there even any audible system at all to go opposite (as they did in the old days), which is if the playcall is to the right but clearly the defense's formation does not seem favorable for running the ball to that side, they would check out of it and run the play to the left. Osborne even used to say that there were just some running plays versus certain defensive fronts where you simply cannot account for blocking everyone, hence checking to go opposite or to another type of run, say an option play. Looking back over film, I do not see this, or any, kind of audible system for getting out of running plays where the offense is outnumbered at the point of attack. If the playcall is for a dive to the right, it seems to happen regardless of what type of defensive front appears, even if a defense is loaded up to that side..... which is obviously not good to stay with a play when it is clearly dead in the water. Has anyone noticed or heard of what kind of audible system NU has for running plays? Does Langsdorf even know enough about a running attack to incorporate this into the system?

Riley is just a bad fit for Nebraska. His style of offense certainly does not fit with what it takes to win football games at the highest level in Lincoln. San Diego State, Rice, Central Florida, maybe Riley fits in there, he can pass the ball all he wants with all the sunshine and good weather they have, but not in the Big 10 and not at Nebraska. And another thing, and I hate to put it like this but it's really what I feel, Nebraska is simply too good for a guy like Mike Riley and his credentials. What did he have coming in? I mean, really, look at his record. That's good enough for Ball State or Bowling Green, but Nebraska? Come on. I remember when Riley was first hired, Eichorst said "we will win a lof ot football games" with Riley. Really? What exactly did he base that off of? Certainly not his win-loss record. Certainly not researching Riley's style of play and figuring it'd be a great fit for Nebraska (because it certainly is not with his pass-happy West Coast style of play in Nebraska and its weather conditions), This is why I personally feel ADs should not be the sole decision maker when it comes to hiring coaches. I'd say most don't know anything about the game, and even if they do, it's not enough to make a decision to run a football program. Eichorst screwed up by giving the keys of the Nebraska program to a guy who has never proven himself to be an elite winner in this business. It'd be like hiring a bachelor's degree only student who's interested in medicine to all of the sudden do brain surgery. Riley's 40 years have proven one thing, he is consistently mediocre. is that what Nebraska fans really want? Have we not had enough of this medocrity in the past and have now just given up and "settled"? I know I haven't.

Exactly, Langsdorf makes it sound complicated because it IS complicated to HIM (Riley, too). Show me anywhere in his track record of coaching ANY team where he had a dominating, overpowering smashmouth, PHYSICAL style of running the ball. He never had it, he never coached it, he never experienced it....so how can we expect him to know what to do for developing strong rushing attacks at Nebraska? To him, his reality that he has ever known, is to throw the ball all over the place and every now and then use the running game as a little "variety" to keep the defense honest. Eichorst (and probably most athletic directors) are not fit to make coaching hires (if they actually want to win a lot of games) because they don't undersand the x's and o's, the legitmacy of coaching credentials and whether those credentials are a good fit for their team and environment. This is over athletic directors heads. Hence, we get hires like this one out of left field with Riley and his staff. Riley has always een a sub-par coach at best, fired before in other coaching stints, a .500 record overall, a coach who understands losing, who has experienced a LOT of games losing the game, a coach who mostly only knows to throw the ball most of the time and not how to coach dominating physical brand of football that Nebraska used to be known for.......how does this qualify for coaching at a school as prestigious as Nebraska?

This posted by an Oregon State fan.....makes you realize just how happy we made most fans in Corvallis by hiring Riley. "Riley has this nice guy persona that's a lie. OSU Beaver fan here. He's "thrown players under the bus" before. There's a alot more that you'll find out about. You'll learn to "love" Mark Banker's ability to scheme a defense, relish the imaginativness of Danny Langsdorf on offense, and appreciate the outstanding coaching that Bruce Read brings to special teams. Lincoln has now become Corvallis East. As a Beaver fan I was worried how we'd get rid of Riley with his 7+ years left on his contract. Then I received a text from a friend that Riley bolted for Nebraska. Thought it was a cruel joke, who would want Riley, especially a nationally known team and brand like Nebraska. And then I confirmed what I was told and broke out into my "happy dance". Thank You Scott Eichorn and Nebraska, thank you so much!"

If you go back to my prior posts, I have repeated that these two are not going to work in Nebraska, mainly for their inability to accept that to win at Nebraska, and bring NU back to national prominence, you MUST run the ball, and these two guys just do not have the mentality to 1) accept this, and 2) they simply don't have the knowledge and experience to put together a dominant running attack even if they wanted to! They are so used to throwing the ball all round that dominating the run game is too foreign to them that they would rather stick with what is comfortable to them...and lose....than to go out and learn a whole new way of playing the offensive side of the ball. Hence, you get games like this Illinois game where even when the conditions are not right for passing (as many games in the Midwest in october and November are and forever will be), they simply can't let go of their need and want to throw the ball. If they run the ball a couple times in a row, even if run successfully, they still have this neverending "itch" to want to pass the ball....an itch that constantly needs to be scratched. This game was not just lost on the stupid playcalling at the END of the game, it was lost much earlier by the stupid playcalling in all 4 and a half quarters before the terrile 3rd and seven call. Don't let these coaches off the hook by boiling it down to one bad call at the end. This game was lost all the way thru the game....it should have never have even been close enough for coaches to blow it at the end! To keep chucking the ball downfield unsuccessfully, in bad weather conditions, is just asinine and there is no other way to explain it other than it is a couple coaches who just cannot be power running coaches, there is a ceiling and there's is incredibly low, for being running-the-ball technicians. So to sum it up......it comes down to coaches' attitude (their lack of REALLY WANTING to run the ball forcefully and powerfully) and their Knowledge and experience (that clearly do not show a solid track record of knowing how to run the ball in a smashmouth kind of way). Until NU gets a coach with an attitude/appreciation for running the ball AND experience/knowledge to HOW to run the ball (technicians), NU will forever be stuck in the doldrums of irrelevancy it has found iself in. I personally wanted Frost or Paul Johnson of Georgia Tech to be the hire last year. I have heard lately good things about Troy Calhoun and his running attack and option football and would give him a chance as well. But Riley/Langsdorf was a bad hire all the way around. He doesn't get it. He has been a mediocre coach who has lost many games and actually, has probably grown fairly immune to losing. Riley has lost so often is his career, he's ok with it. I want a coach with a fire in his belly, where losing hurts so much that he will have a will to win like no other and instill that attitude into his players....but not just fire.....also a knowledge and attitude to power and option run the ball Cornhusker style and get NU back to national title competency.

This is great stuff, Mavric. Thank you for the time and effort you put into it. I have reviewed the game several times and agree with a lot of what you had to say. Always interesting to share actual football talk (formations, x's and o's, assignments, etc.) with other fans. Please keep the posts coming!

and this quote makes you no better.Not really sure where in my comment you got that I was "better" but I do know that I wont judge a coach by his first game at a new University and make ridiculous comments like " I am afraid you and Langsdorf simply lack the know-how to put together a powerful rushing attack." but that's for contributing! Couch Coach? Damn right I am, and proud of it. Anytime I watch a game I always try to look at it and analyze it as a coach would....to look and see deeper than the typical "fluff". I have studied AND coached (on a small time basis) football for years ....I am very opinionated and sometimes my thoughts/opinions might not sit well with others, but that's ok, we can agree to disagree. What I maybe should have said was I am CONCERNED that Riley and Langsdorf do not know how to develop players or schemes to point to a strong and powerful running attack, and is, in my opinion, something NU needs to win at the highest level. Look at history.....has a RIley or Langsdorf coached team (on the college of NFL level) EVER had a top 10 running attack? Absolutely not. They have chosen to go down a different route of throwing the ball often and is something I feel will not work at Nebraska (for multiple reasons). Since there are only two ways to attack a defense (run or pass), and since, again...in my opinion, I feel the pass-first mentality and schemes won't work in Lincoln to win at the HIGHEST level (either from a personnel standpoint or from more fundamental aspects - being a one dimensional offense, weather, etc.), that leaves the running game....which lead me to question if the Riley/Langsdorf combo on the offensive side of the ball, is really qualified and capable to put together a strong and powerful rushing attack to get Nebraska back to #1 (or at least in the conversation of #1).

Coach Riley, I have said it before and I will say it again.....you MUST run the ball to be successful at Nebraska. It is the culture and tradition here, and it is the way to success in any brand of football. That pass-first West Coast passing game was tried here before in the Callahan years and it was a disaster. You must coach up the offensive line to be MAULERS, to pancake defenders, and plow thru a defensive scheme. You have the running backs, I feel you have the offensive line if coached right.. Nebraska during its most successful period of decades of winning, was always a running-based offense, consistently leading the nation in rushing, year in, year out. My biggest concerns are you personally and your staff. I am afraid you and Langsdorf simply lack the know-how to put together a powerful rushing attack. You have lived and breathed with a passing game and immobile QBs your whole coaching time that I feel you don't have the knowledge to put it all together....an old dog can't change its spot, which is actually surprising you went down this passing mentality road considering you played for Bear Bryant in the 70's when he ran the ball a LOT out of the Wishbone, I would think you would have a much better appreciation for the running game than you currently do. QBs should not be just hand the ball off and drop back and throw type players....they can be RUNNERS, too.....Inside and Outside Zone Read, QB Draw, QB Off tackle, etc. All I can say is I really hope you get it together, you and your staff, and figure out that to win a lot of games (not just the .500 record you currently have, which is simply not good enough for a place like Nebraska) you must have an OVERPOWERING rushing attack (examples - Nebraska from the 90's, or in current day....Alabama, Ohio State, Wisconsin, Auburn, Georgia Tech, etc.). Please investigate and invest time into learning how to run the ball and have a rush-first mentality instead of the current throw the ball all over and only occasionally run the ball. I think you will find it leads to much better success!

This is a comment I want to make with regards to the recent article from Sports Illustrated suggesting NU should go back to its roots of running the ball with power and option football....... ----- Yes, absolutely NU should go back to power and option offense. 1) it will be hard for defenses to prepare for since they would only have a few days to prepare, plus they might not have the talent on scout teams to mimic a highly efficient and powerful running attack since it is so rare these days, 2) is just damn prettier to see a well executed running play than a passing play. I'd rather see a fullback trap than any kind of pass, 3) I'd rather NU get back to physically beating up an opponent, and this simply does not happen with a passing game. On a pass play, when the ball is snapped, what do the offensive linemen do? Backpedal and form a nice cushy pocket for the QB. Not aggressive at all. On a running play, the O-line fires off the ball and tries to physically dominate the defender in their way. Pancake city. To put it bluntly, I'd rather run a team over than play monkey-in-the-middle by trying to throw over their head so they can't get it, 4) Football is a toughness sport, and that should INCLUDE the QB. In passing games, what is the QB trying to do...avoid being hit, sliding, running out of bounds. Wussy football. As a running QB, he MUST participate in the mental and physical toughness of football by lowering his shoulder and trying to get those extra yards...he is an active participant in the RUGGEDNESS of the game, not being a prima donna and not wanting to ever to be hit...a QB should have the mentality of DOING THE ACTUAL HITTING on a potential tackler, lower the shoulder and run him over, not always just wanting to hand the ball off or be a gunslinger in the pocket throwing the ball. I could go on and on why I think the running game would be much better for NU and for fans, but I'll stop here for now.

Leave your email if you want them and I will contact you ...then I'll mail them out. No charge. 1) 1996 Fiesta Bowl DVD, 2) Day in the Life VHS tape, 3) 5-DVD boxed set of NU greatest games (not opened).

I understand the desire to harken back to the good ol days and the ad nauseum repeated 'smash mouth football', but the real problem isn't that we don't have a fullback. It's not that we have prima Donna quarterbacks (I wouldn't mind a 'Peyton Manning' type QB by the way, for obvious reasons)....the problem is and has been the lack of any succinct identity. Alabama doesn't run the option. They do throw quite a bit too. But they have an identity. They do something and they do it well. That's what Riley claims to be about and I like that. -Agreed on everything...identity, do something really well. Yes. We'll see what that is. I know what I'd like to see. ------------------ I'm utterly confused by your point here. Osborne was a nice guy who had tough football teams, but Riley being a nice guy precludes us from being tough? - as I just mentioned in my post above, I didn't express correctly what I was feeling. Yes, of course teams can be tough with a nice guy coach, ex. Osborne. ------------------ - I was with it all the way with a Scott Frost hire. There ARE 40 year old first time coordinators who were given the keys to a big time program and succeeded, Osborne being one of them. At least Frost, I think, would appreciate the grit and toughness a QB needs because he was indeed one of them. Probably the toughest, in my opinion. And he could RUN an option...the best in NUs history, I feel. Yes Frost was a good QB for us awhile back. He was tough. You know who else was tough and played for us? Tommie Frazier. Grant Wistrom. Mike Rucker. Barron Miles. Etc. Should we bring them here for an interview? Not sure if you know this, but Frost would be hired based on the offense he has deployed at Oregon. Which is not exactly of the 'grind it out' variety you seem to want. So once again..I'm a bit confused about why this hire would meet your criteria. - yes, true, Oregon is not a grind it out. But I was looking at the potential candidate list and Frost, to me, looked like the best one to get us closer to that reality, although a Paul Johnson hire from Georgia Tech would be certainly interesting to me with his triple option attack. That game last night against Florida State was a really great one to watch for a running the ball guy like me.

Frazier was great..but from a strictly running the ball QB and flipping the ball out on the option standpoint, I'd take Frost over Frazier. Maybe it was the little bit of change in formations NU made from '95 to '97 running out of that double wing set sometimes....whatever it may be...everyone has an opinion. I've watched a lot of gamefilm....my opinion is '97 Frost was better.

Look at Georgia Tech's offense right now (playing Florida State). Now that is a thing of beauty. Very creative with their combination of power, misdirection, and option. That is what I am talking about. There is always a way to beat a defensive front by running the ball. Wish NU would adopt that kind of offense. Will reply to the posts a bit later. This game is too good at the moment.

You'd never catch P. Manning, Drew brees, A. Rodgers, or whoever in the NFL (I don't watch NFL so I don't know too many QBs) try running thru a defender. Give me the Crouch run over an 80 yard TD pass any day of the week. This is football! Tough, grit, power, lower your shoulder and hit somebody.......ALL players, including QBs.

I typed out the link and the video automatically showed up. Very cool.