Dogs In A Pile

This was posted over at another site but since the poster copied it from another board and the author stated anybody can post this anywhere I thought some here might be interested. Enjoy. Great observations from somebody that was at practice since we don't get much of that these days. Should really get your juices flowing.  I added a few more paragraph breaks for readability and let the spell checker fix some typos.

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I'm just the messenger. I wasn't there and am just posting what I read with the permission of the OP on the other board. He is NOT a journalist and doesn't care where this gets shared.

His words..."anyone can post this anywhere. I'm just a Husker fan"...or something to that effect.

Really long...

 

Post 1

 

****Observations from Husker Practice Saturday****

 

I brought a notepad to practice and took notes for the entire 2.5 hour practice. I saw some really interesting things throughout the entire practice. I was shocked to hear in Rhule's press conference afterwards that there wasn't any "live scrimmage" happening because that was the most physical and intense practice I've ever seen at NU. Minimum of 75% of the time the ball carrier was being taken to the ground by 4-5 defenders, a majority of the 1 on 1 blocking drills had guys going to the ground and almost turned into a wrestling match before the whistle blew.

 

Rhule was not exaggerating at all when he said there's no standing around at practice. They had a single water break halfway through practice that lasted about 7 minutes, but it was 2 hours and 27 minutes of guys sprinting to new stations, indy, skelly, 7 on 7, 7 on 9, you name it. Rhule walked around the entire practice in a CEO like way overseeing it all and oftentimes walking up to a drill and giving words of encouragement or criticism (2 outdoor turf fields and indoor Hawks facility for a total of 3 fields, but Alvano and other kicks on a separate area, punters on a separate area, and countless drills.

 

They easily were utilizing the equivalent of 4 football fields simultaneously and it looked like a well-oiled machine. Rhule would yell "rotate" and a guy standing next to him with a microphone would say something like "yellow team rotate to field 2" and the yellow squad took off at a full sprint to field 2. All 4 or 5 QBs including the 2 non-scholarship QBs seemed like they were rotating to different fields every 10-15 minutes for the entire practice. I bet I watched every QB take over 125 reps on Saturday alone of football with almost a full offense and full defense doing a live play. QBs were wearing green obviously, guys coming off injury like Coleman, Rahmir, and Ervin were wearing green also and did some of the drills, but not all, there were guys in yellow jerseys as well which I assumed guys that were hurt, hurt, or helped run practices.

 

There were 4 different camera towers outside filming practice - 2 butt shows and 2 sideline views along with the indoor camera crews. They obviously flew in B1G refs for this practice and there had to of been 12-15 refs there today. They used the loud speaker A LOT. Rhule would turn to a guy and tell him what he wanted to happen, and the guy speaks it into the microphone that broadcasted on the loud speaker. It was very legit and very well-organized.

 

I know you guys want to hear about the QB position so here it is. I was truly impressed with all 3 QBs. In my opinion DR was far and away the best QB on the field. There was a swirling 30 mph wind because the new facilities are adjacent to the outdoor practice fields so including the new facilities, the Hawks indoor facility, and a campus building - the outdoor facilities are surrounded by tall buildings on 3 sides so that wind was swirling hard.

 

DR was throwing bullets all over the yard.

 

HH surprisingly looked quite a bit better than last year. I would estimate that on called passing plays, HH threw the ball 50% of the time and took off running a lot.

 

With DK I saw a guy that was trying to outwork everyone. He was noticeably sprinting to the different stations, trying to be one of the more vocal guys "come on guys. hustle over" that kind of stuff any chance he got. DK throws a nice deep ball and several of them became TDs because of a great play by the WR, sometimes they had solid coverage on them with a corner under and a safety over the top and Barney or Banks or Doss or Lloyd just made an incredible play.

 

The thing I noticed with DR was that he always, always, always, threw it to the open receiver. Sometimes it was a slant across the middle of the field, sometimes it was a post-corner route by the X or Y receiver, and sometimes it was to the zero star walk-on FB on the team that was wide open for a 8 yard gain in the middle of the field. I bet DR threw the ball to 20 different receivers on Saturday alone. There were noticeably more passes thrown and completed in the middle of the field at DR's station on any given time since they were constantly rotating and moving around.

 

I only saw a single interception thrown on Saturday which happened to be by DR which was a pick-6 because Tommi Hill jumped an out-route. It was a tremendous defensive play and not a bad pass at all. DR threw it to the outside towards the sideline and Hill was on the receiver's back pocket and appeared to accelerate to another speed when the ball was in the air, full body extension, intercepted the ball inches in front of the receivers hands, and ran it back down the sideline. That wasn't a defensive play I've seen in hardly any live college football games in 2023. I personally really like our QB room.

 

Dayton was all decked out in Husker gear and walking around the practice chatting with recruits, chatting with coaches, GAs, etc. Dominic and Mrs. Raiola were there too - Rhule went over and chatted with them a few feet away with me, gave Dylan's mom a huge, dabbed up Dayton when he saw him. Heinrich had probably the most incomplete balls that I saw, but his passing looked significantly better than last year and his arm strength is quite a bit better than DKs - although DR far and away has the strongest arm from what I saw.

 

The running backs looked very solid on Saturday. Emmitt looks noticeably bigger, stronger, and faster. I had to do a double take on the roster we were given because he looked closer to a big body back than he did last year. He had several 20-30 yard runs that started inside, he bounced out, made a guy miss, and took it to the house. Emmit Johnson looked very very good on Saturday. Rhule mentioned it in his presser on Saturday, but Maurice Mazzccua looked phenomenal out there.

 

Like I said earlier, it technically wasn't a "live" scrimmage, but I don't think they told the players that. Mazzccua was dragging defenders 3-5 yards after contact. For being a "short yardage back" he has sneaky speed and also had a few long runs that showed his sneaky speed. There is zero chance that MM only weighs 175 lbs. He looked closer to 200 lbs plus and is built like a brick house. Dante Dowdell definitely fits the bill and the early returns look very promising with him. He looks like a bruiser back that can catch the ball out of the backfield. He looks like he has good vision, speed, and can make cuts on a dime. Dante had a run where he made a d-end miss, side stepped a linebacker, accelerated and took an angle to the pylon that beat a safety for a TD. 

 

It was an incredible run and Rhule runs over and started chewing his *** for not covering the ball with both hands when he crossed the goal line "That's not how we do things here Dante" in a loud loud yell by Rhule. I heard Rhule 2 or 3 times get after a player with "Did you decide to be lazy today (blank)." I think I know a few of the names he said that too, but don't want to share in case I'm wrong. It was windy and there's a 5% chance I heard wrong. Let me just tell you, there was absolutely no one that appeared to be "lazy" or doggin' it in practice, but they weren't practicing up to Rhule's standard.

 

Receiver group looked very solid on Saturday as well. We all know their height and size and whatnot, but one thing that was noticeable to me was how short they were. Lloyd probably had 5-7 long TD catches on Saturday that were good throws (mostly by DR or DK) where he just ran by the defender. I'd say the most impressive WRs from practice on Saturday in no particular order were Lloyd, Banks, Barney, Neyor, Doss, and Dae'vonn Hall.

 

It became obvious to me that we brought in Banks and Neyor for some size at the WR position because those 2 guys were going up for passes and QB positions were able to throw it high and opposite shoulder of the defender and more times than not, those 2 taller guys were coming down with the ball for a catch. We have serious, serious speed at WR, and from that position group, I think I was the most shocked at how well Jacory Barney played. That kid is a baller. Banks played really well obviously, but Rhule's been very vocal about him. He looked incredible, but I didn't have the highest expectations for Barney and man that guy can catch passes, run, and come down with the ball. Him and Lloyd both must have close to 40 inch verticals.

 

I wish we had a little more size at the WR like Banks and Neyor, but that room is absolutely filled with track speed and over-all freak show athletes. Coleman did pat-n-go's and some other basic drills, but I didn't see him on any 7v7 or 7v9 drills because of his shoulder injury.

 

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Post 2:

 

One of the cooler things from practice that I heard DB talking about on the radio this morning was about 45 minutes into practice Rhule blew his whistle and guys sprinted to both sides of the field. Rhule was in the middle and he just called out guys to do 1 on 1 drills. He would yell "give me Bly Hill" and Bly sprints out there at corner. Then he'd turn to the other sideline and guys were jumping around, loud, going crazy like "pick me, pick me" and he'd say - "give me Jaylen Lloyd" he'd have a center snapping to a walk-on QB, a tight end going against a tackle or DL and the defender had to get to the QB while the receiver was running a route. If the ball gets completed, 1 team wins, if the defender gets to the QB or the corner or safety breaks up the pass the other team got a point.

 

It reminded me of a scene from Gladiator or something because the guys were getting into it and it was always "good on good" A lot of the high school coaches and former players laughed because Rhule called a d-back out to the field and then Marques Buford yells out "F*** that noise coach, CALL ME!!!" Rhule would say things like "let's have a battle of Philly" and called out an offensive and defensive guy from Philly to compete against each other." If they brought out a proven star on the team, every one on the opposing team wanted to go against that person.

 

It was really intense and they probably got through 10-15 different reps and this was all done in about 7 or 8 minutes. Then someone would get on a speaker, and guys were sprinting to the next agenda item in practice. It was organized chaos to a T. It was very much a scene of a bunch of guys wanting to compete and be in the arena with all eyes on you going against the best, oh and by the way, there was well over a thousand high school coaches and former players there watching. There were an absolute ton of former players there, some guys that I haven't seen in years.

 

There were a ton of recruits and Nebraska high school juniors and seniors. DB did a great job as an ambassador of the program and saw him chatting with Tyson Terry quite a bit. Compton was there and made his round with all his buddies and former teammates. About an hour into practice Delanie Walker shows up and Rhule from about 30 yards away noticed him and yells over at him "nice of you to make it Delaney" and Rhule and everyone laughed. Obviously Rhule was with him and Compton the night before so I just assumed Rhule insinuated a long night for Delaney the night prior.

 

As practice was ending a lot of the coaches and former players were taking off while the team met on a knee on the opposite outdoor field further from us. I was chatting with a dad and his son that drove up from Texas to be at the clinic and didn't realize practice was over. I'm glad I stayed because after they did a break-down the entire team seemed to take off on a full sprint from the far field into the Hawks indoor facility. I followed them in there and they posted the results of the 3 team competition and who won.

 

There were a hundred different metrics like 3rd down efficiency, turnovers, yards per carry, it was unreal the amount of data they had in real time. They started blaring the music for the winning team which was Meek Mill and guys were going crazy. You would have thought we just won a national championship. I overheard a ton of playful "sh*t talking" back and forth and guys were just pumped. They were dancing, with their helmets in one hand over their heads, really getting after it. Rhule must have chatted briefly with 200 people, thanked people personally for being there, chatted with a few high school coaches, and within minutes of all that he was in his press conference. I just don't know when that guys sleeps.

 

On Saturday morning Rhule talked right after Osborne in the Colliseum after breakfast and that might have been just as cool as watching practice. If any of you didn't know this, Rhule is a HUGE and I mean HUGE stats guy. He looks at every game, every season, and breaks it down into stats. The most glaring one he mentions all the time is turnover margin. Below are the stats he provided that he measures the team by. If we are better in a category it's "green" and if we're worse than our opponent it's "red." Turnovers, Turnover Margin, Penalties, Penalty Yards Lost, Rushing Yards, Yards per Rush, Yards per Game, 10+ yard rushing plays, Sacks allowed, Sack Yards Lost, 20+ yard plays, middle 8 score (minutes), 4th Quarter Score, 3rd down conversion, 3rd down efficency, Redzone possessions, redzone touchdowns, redzone touchdown efficiency, redzone scoring efficiency.

 

Rhule put up a slide using that data for the 2023 season against our opponent and we were "in the green" on 13 categories, and we're "red" in 5 categories. Turnovers were obviously the point of his slideshow presentation being -17 turnover margin. Rhule told us that "I can't think of a scenario in my coaching career where I've identified a major problem and not fix it the next year." Last year we had 68 plays where we rushed the ball 10+ yards and our opponents all season only had 29 against us.

 

 

I guess I could ramble on even further than I already did, but when it comes to things I care about like Nebraska football I have a very good memory. I think I have about a dozen pages of notes from my 2 days in Lincoln, but let me know if anyone has any questions. Just trying to help the board out and pass on a bit of cool info from my weekend.