Nebraska55fan

Your buddy Mav makes fun of the idea of having a dedicated Special Teams coach and makes excuses for this gross and consistent incompetence at nearly every turn. If what he is saying is true- great- but we can all agree whatever they are doing from a structural standpoint with special teams needs a radical- not incremental change. I've seen offensive minded coaches who think it's all about offense many times, they think they can outscore and outscheme teams to win games. Many of those type of teams invariably have issues with special teams. They may talk about them, but they don't really put the time and effort into understanding how to coach them- nor invest the practice time in them. That's where I think we are- 4 years worth of consistent data- its not bad luck or bad players. For goodness sakes we are equal to Kansas and Arizona- does ANYONE think we dont have much better players than them? If that is the case- then it's coaching.

Fair enough. He had no chance to crack the lineup at Louisville and not many teams came calling. I saw him play here- he's not a QB and he just isn't going to have a very good season regardless of talent. His dad coached him at QB- in youth and HS. REmember he didn't even start in HS until he was a Senior. Really blown opportunity

Your words exact words" I do think some of them are good players who landed in poor spots" then you gave the Luke example of moving to a small school with no talent etc. I showed that Luke ISNT a good player, that example was incorrect and I showed why. The evidence so far on kids transferring out- most of them haven't done very well at all. Wandale looks to be the outlier. Which is a good thing for those keeping score.

Luke cratered out at NU- then couldn't stick at Louisville. Ending up at Rice of all places, then not doing well there? Pretty good evidence he is not a very good QB at all, in fact a bad QB, no matter where he would be playing. Should have moved to slot receiver- returning kicks.

Ok mightly massa. We will promise to all think like you, dare not to have any varied opinion. Bow down to your all knowing knowledge of NU football. Toe your line and be mini "Mavrics". Got it massa. You have people virtually apologizing in advance in their posts for having an opinion that might be different from yours-well done. LOL

Nah- let's keep doing the same thing. In fact we should just ignore our special teams issues- not even talk about it. Let's keep it an open secret.

Great- then they need to try something else. Coach Frost must have gone to to the same clinic I did Or do you think they should just stick with the same approach and no special teams coach? More of the same. Yes, that's the ticket. The 4 year track record is just stellar Terrible special teams has cost this team 11 games in the last 3 years, kept us out of Bowl Games. THose losses cost us recruits- SO no worries, more of the same. And heaven forbid pointing it out, quoting numbers and criticizing it- shame shame.

Yes losing old JD hurt us. However he wasn't the same player by the end of the 2019 Season as he was in 2017 and 2018 and hasn't seemed to recover from that. We don't lose much by not having todays JD on our team.

I've heard and read about several very successful coaches who START practice with special teams instead of the traditional ending with Special Teams. Something about helping everyone to get on the same page about the importance of Special Change. A friend that used to play on the Steelers said that they used to in the middle of practice go into "sudden change" mode. Quick transition to Special Teams on the fly- no one but the coaches knew it was happening. Not sure what the answer is- other than what we've been doing for the last 4 years just isn't working. What we hear about is more talk about how "important" special teams is with no real improvement. Then when someone suggests that we do something "revolutionary" here like hiring a special teams coach- they get put down for it

No one knows- seems like they would have to be doing "something" with their time with all the injuries. Maybe this is it:

Just interesting to see how things shake out. Are we missing? Is it the player? Is it the coaching? Luke has been Luke since he left. Many suggested that losing JD was catastrophic and our fault- well he has done very little for a well coached TCU team. Wandale we all agreed was a pretty big hit. He has shined at his new home. Green was thought to have been a big loss- with lots of potential- but most likely not- only FAU picked him up and he bombed there. Jones seemed like a Johnson type player or a poor mans Wandale- people thought he was a pretty good player- never did anything here or anywhere. Some of talk about Fleming doing well in practice- never saw it on the field- here or anywhere else.

I was pointing out- we have had issues fielding the ball- you seem to want to deflect from that. I think you even said you were close and heard CTB yell "Peter". After that was posted I shared that Frost contradicted that in his interview after the game- said it wasn't the case. Belt bobbled one too. So in 4 games we have had at least 3 issues fielding punts, 2 which ended up as turnovers. That isn't good sign for our punt return team. I think we've had what 1 return longer than 8 yards? Consistent with a team ranked last in Special Teams in Power 5.

CTB failed to alert the blockers of a short kick using the word Peter. Coach Frost said that in an after game interview and said " We've told him, but we have to do a better job of coaching him on that". Another sign CTB panics a bit back there and that we need coach special teams much differently than we are now.

Note that we have consistently had issues with injuries with both punters and kickers. C'mon, kickers? Are they kicking too much, too little, correctly, lifting correctly? Who would know? They need room, they aren't kicking in the middle of a practice field full of offensive and defensive players.

Great play design- no possible help over the top and left 6 in to block to give Martinez time.

The key on punts fielded near midfield area is scouting. One would think with all the analysts we've hired is that they've watched enough film and gathered enough analytics to determine how far the punter we are facing normally can kick in the air when kicking from his own part of the field. Then having the knowledge of factoring in wind to that equation. If we are too lazy to do that- at least in the name of all things holy at least watch the guy kick in warmups You always want to be at the max in the air distance, easier to come up on a punt than trying to catch it over your shoulder or retreating bounce. Having sure hands is important- but knowing where to line up is pretty important too. Being we are at the bottom consistently with Special Teams- maybe those assumptions shouldnt be made- you know doing the basic things most Power 5 teams do to prep in the Special Teams area. This is where we are at rankings wise including non Power 5 : Football Outsiders Analytics ranked HUSKERS special teams by years: *2018 - 109 *2019 - 123 *2020 - 115 *2021 - 105

It might be helpful that whoever is actually responsible for coaching the Punt return team to actually make sure the deep guy gets on the field. Against Illinois CTB barely got back there- he was still on the sidelines until most everyone was lined up. I seriously doubt there was any adjusting where CTB lined up. That certainly couldn't have helped his state of mind- fielding at the 2 and panicking- throwing the ball out of bounds.

Special teams has looked like some kids compilation football follies tape to get millions of views- but the thing is, the kid didn't have to peruse all the college teams to put together his playlist. He just had to look at NU- and it's an annual thing- groundhog dayish if you will. It's GOT to be fixed- more of the same isn't going to cut it.

Does anyone really want to touch anyone on that tainted Mike "the check cashing machine" Riley coaching staff? They are like lepers in a leper colony with no antidote available. We aren't talking cooties from an 11 year old girl here. We would have to pry Bruce away from Lewis and Clark Junior College back in Oregon. That is who he is coaching Special for now. For 1/10 of the ridiculous amount his buddy Riley was paying him with Nebraska dollars here. What a surprise. NO ONE came calling for him when he lost his job here- just like Riley. https://www.facebook.com/lewisandclarkcc/

In article in OWH- quantifies what we all have known, our special teams aren't bad- they are TERRIBLE. It's not a one year deal, bad luck, injuries, roster issues- the usual excuses, the patient is terminal. Since Coach Frost took over- our special teams have ranked in the 64-65 range out of 65 Power 5 Teams. We are right there with KANSAS and ARIZONA, not the kind of company one would like to keep IF the goal is to win games. It details that NU could have won 11 more games in the Frost era had it not been for really poor special teams in those games. We aren't talking about winning 11 of those games with great or even good or even average special teams. We could have won most of those games had our special teams not been awful. Some would suggest we just try to get better incrementally. My suggestion is more of the same, really won't buy us much. lots of talk, it just ISNT working. An inconvenient truth, the gift that seems to keep on giving every season under this staff. https://huskerextra.com/news/football/chatelain-special-teams-are-costing-nebraska-games-especially-close-ones/article_59ce738e-138a-5b5f-8bcb-625fbd2c8379.html?utm_campaign=snd-autopilot&utm_medium=social&utm_source=undefined_Husker_Extra&fbclid=IwAR3hFddXHyMGzb6gMcIKyHW39Td6ymC7cTyuQBWyl9jnLfaS4WfbQ44qRII

MUCH MUCH MORE to offer in fact with Wandale. Toure would have played outside at 6'3". It would have been a very nice offer. No one to compete against who had really distinguished themselves. Paired with a dynamic player (Wandale) on the inside that defenses would have to prepare for and get good matchups with. AKA you won't be the main guy defenses will have to prepare for. That sounds like a really really great offer to me. Much better than if Wandale was gone and the only proven Receiver is Toure and the defense blankets him- a repeat of our one receiver offense of 2020- which Wandale was NOT a fan of.

Wandale played inside. Betts and Manning play outside. We were desperate for help outside last year- neither of them really stepped up- they had the opportunity. This year- like last Betts has flashed- still looking for consistency. Same for Manning. Toure was DESPERATELY needed.

Not true at all, in fact the exact opposite is true. . We needed a downfield threat in addition to Wandale. Manning has shown some flashes and got some production this year. However, he was not productive at all last year and many including the coaching staff weren't sure he would be healthy enough to play and contribute much at all this season. Betts has always shown potential but last year his playing time and play was very spotty. Again this year, flashes of greatness, but still not consistently productive, the same last year. Toure can play inside or outside, he has the size. More importantly is his consistency and maturity- knowledge of the game. I don't think Manning or Betts are anywhere close to Toures maturity and consistency level- which is what was sorely needed.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/college/ct-northwestern-football-mike-hankwitz-retire-20201214-jsjjh2jbc5fnpnmdnbwi4s32qq-story.html Lost a really good DC. Good long term success is built around very good coaches. They lost some good players on that side of the ball as well

Walker has nearly 493 rushing yards so far through 3 games. 8.6 ypc. He's got great body control, excellent lateral speed/explosiveness and he breaks tackles. Dangerous back. https://msuspartans.com/sports/football/stats