Cdn Blackshirt Two

Fvck guys....season is about to start.

Can you give it a friggin' rest and at least try to have some fun?

It's like bathing in some sort of demented self-loathing somehow makes you guys happy.

Also, this is supposed to be a thread about the offensive line, so how about keeping the thread on-topic.

Just my opinion, but I think our inability to properly execute a RB screen pass last year was a real Achilles Heal for our offense. If our new QB can make that pass on-time hitting the RB in stride, I think it could pay massive dividends.

On 8/9/2022 at 1:17 AM, desertshox said:

 

Yant has issues avoiding being tackled by the turf.

2 hours ago, BigRedBuster said:

Run is not always the best play for that. 

Maybe not with Wandale in backfield, but Yant?  I'll roll the dice on that any day.  My only caveat is to my eye, our TE's have been absolute liabilities in those situations getting beat inside more than 50% of the time and allowing the edge defender to penetrate and get behind the LOS. If it were me, I'd consider going three WR out wide to pull defenders out of box, and if they still stack inside, then give Thompson green light to audible to the pass. Another option out of that formation is start the Slot WR outside and put them in motion to crackback block on the edge defender so he can't slice in and catch our RB from behind. Even if that WR only does that decently well, just by having extra WR on field, you've forced opposing defense to go to Nickel personnel which mean one fewer big body to slow down Yant.

I wonder if Farmer gets beat out at the safety positions this year.  Just my impression but he appeared to lack the suddeness you usually need to be able to cover the great athletes you're going to face at either WR or even TE. The fact he wasn't shifted to Nickel may be a sign he's showing enough signs of improvement that Fisher believes he has him in the right spot.  Fingers crossed.

2 hours ago, Undone said:

 

Maybe you're talking agility and footwork. If you're talking about conditioning, I don't think we had problems there last season.

 

But we got pushed around - especially with pass blocking.

Definitely agility.  Last year what I thought I saw was opposing DL's beat our OT's both to the outside and to the inside with vastly superior speed....so for me it was hard to assess "strength" as so often our kids were too cement-footed to get into the right positions to even attempt to apply it.

5 minutes ago, Undone said:

If Corcoran & Prochazka not only come back 100% healthy but also added numbers to their squat & clean in the offseason then I don't think our line makes us a three win team with the schedule we have.

I'd much rather see improvement in their Shuttle Run and 3-Cone Drill times....and that applies to the entire OL (Benhart & Banks in particular).

50 minutes ago, Mavric said:

 

Yeah, that is interesting.  The way it was written up, it sounded like it was the recruits that were cancelling, not Nebraska cancelling on them.  So perhaps a coincidence.  

 

But I like your idea better.  

Noonan and Tuioti? 

On 6/20/2022 at 3:17 PM, runningblind said:

S&C of the offensive lineman is then 1b

THIS! 

If Benhart's feet don't get quicker, that should be just cause for moving on from Duval....because that's exponentially more important than the kid getting a new and higher max squat. 

Any  best guesses on "2-Deep" at the moment?

CB2. 

Our wins and losses will be directly correlated to Raiola & Duval's ability to improve our OT play.....if they cannot block, everything else on the offensive side of the ball will suffer badly.  And just to beat a dead horse, as bad as the feet have been on our OL (Benhart, Banks, etc.), somebody needs to tell Duval to lay off the "squats for stats" BS and give them a skipping rope and double ladder to do foot speed-specific exercises for at least a few months.  To say both those kids have struggled with slow feet is a dramatic understatement....and that is totally on S&C to remedy.

If it is the NIL program that is driving these successes (and I have no reason to doubt that isn't the case), shouldn't the kudos go more to Trev than to Scott?  

My only wishlist item not yet received is a true OT....and to hear that Duval takes 3-months off squats and focuses specifically on foot speed with skipping rope, double ladder, etc., with Benhart and Banks.

So anyone willing to wager best guess on DL 2-deep for Fall?

26 minutes ago, BIG ERN said:

The starting line will be fine IMO once Teddy and Turner return. Overall the depth isn't the best so a few extra bodies couldn't hurt. There will be some kids hitting the portal soon. Voke will basically be an extra blocker many times on run downs which will also help. 

 

The spring game was so worthless it was hard to get a good read on anything - also the coaches didn't show any new offense that we will see come fall. Get Mathis and we have a good front 7 to compete. The DBs will be the question mark this year on the defense, but being in the B10 West that is my least concern. 

Now that he knows what he has, Coach Raiola now has a chance to earn his salary....

The one caveat for me remains that I don't think S&C is doing him any favours.  It seems like the longer the kids are in the program, the slower their feet.  As such, I hope Coach Frost provides him with the ability to make changes to the S&C Program for his guys as he determines is necessary.  

Just in terms of the OL....

The most important lesson learned may be that Banks needs to spend less time on maxing out his squat and more time with a skipping rope working on quick twitch development in his lower body to improve his lateral movement. 

Exponentially better to learn that in Spring and have Summer S&C to make adjustments, than need to drop him into a B1G regular season game to learn that lesson the hard way when it really counts.  

On 1/23/2022 at 2:16 PM, Mavric said:

 

We've played what basically amounts to a 4-3 since this staff got here and played a ton of 4-2-5 last year.  I don't think much will be changing schematically.

I could be wrong, but although the alignment regularly looked like a 4-3, they often were using 240lbs OLB's at RE. 

So yes it was technically a 4-man alignment, it was composed of only 2 DL and 2 OLB's. 

Based on the transfer portal moves, I'm thinking they may continue with the 4-3 alignment but more often instead of using OLB's have those RE positions played by significantly larger DL players.  One tell will be what weight we see Garrett Nelson and Caleb Tannor arrive at for the Spring Game.

1 hour ago, HANC said:

I may be dead wrong, but this is exactly how I feel also. I honestly can’t believe that smothers is even sticking around for the spring rather than getting his foot in the door somewhere else

With Whipple about to put a QB into the 1st round of the NFL draft, I can see it being likely that all our current roster QB's want to stick around through the Spring to learn everything they can from him, then based on their seeding, make a determination about what's in their best interests after that. 

53 minutes ago, ndobney said:

We need 5. Our lineman whiff more than Screech from Saved by the Bell. If Martinez wasn't so good at running for his life things would have been way worse. Even then did you see all the injuries done to Martinez unacceptable work upfront we need 5 new lineman

As much as I think Austin held a significant part of the blame, I still look at how horribly slow the feet were on all our OT's and have to think that if Duval doesn't find a better measurement of success than "max squat weight", then Raiola is still fvcked.  That whole OL (and their concrete feet) could use a full month of dedicated skipping rope time to try to improve their twitch and agility. Then start slowly rebuilding strength and mass from there. 

Just watching the transfers out at LB and transfer priorities in on the DL, I'm really thinking we may be playing more 4-3 & 4-2-5 next season.... 

14 hours ago, BigRedBuster said:

 

Three thoughts:

1.  Although we certainly lost a ton in the defensive backfield (when healthy and could play, I think D. Williams presence was vastly underappreciated), that s quite a haul at DB.

2.  Although hopeful we would get more "blue-chip starter"-type players to step in at OT from the portal, it looks to me like that part of our line's improvement will be dependent upon a modified S&C regiment and technique coaching for existing roster players. 

3.  As critical as OT is, the loss of Jurgens is exceedingly disappointing as he was just starting to show the payoff on all the invested time the coaching staff had made in him.  I haven't heard anything about portal targets at center, so assuming they have guys on the roster now that they feel could handle the position.  Hixon?  Piper?  I'd consider looking at Bando too... 

Question for those who watched the DL play in more detail this year than I did (I often had to stream games so couldn't rewind to review "what went wrong on that one").

Based on what you saw:

1. How much of this is on "the guy" at NT?

2. How much of this is based our attempt to use 3 DL (and 2 OLB's) against opposing Big OL's (often with Big TE's) allowing their run blockers to outnumber double-team our 3 DL?

I appreciate wanting 2 Edge Rushers on passing downs, but if you asked me about personnel on running downs (especially against Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, etc.), my instinct is that having Casey Rogers on the field is likely a superior option to Caleb Tannor (or other OLB).

Thoughts?  Perceptions? 

I thought I read that we were potentially going to more 4-man fronts which could mean your DL coach [Dawson] now looks after (4) players on field, leaving only 2 or 3 LB's for (1) LB coach [Ruud], depending on if we're 4-3 or Nickel....

Cam got much better this season after his snapping issues were corrected.....until then there was hesitation that was clearly not NFL-ready.

I think one of the bigger drivers of his declaring for the draft this year is the relative weakness of the center class.

Last year you had Humphrey (OU), Dickenson (Bama), Myers (tOSU)....plus Meinerz who taught himself the position in the run-up to the draft.

This year, there's Linderbaum (Iowa) and then a HUGE drop-off....

So if Cam can get himself in great shape and show up well in pre-draft drills/all-star games, he may get picked much earlier this draft than in a normal year. 

31 minutes ago, San Diego Husker said:

Still think you need a dedicated RB coach, they under-performed last season (IMO due to O-line play).

Agreed....

The only caveat I'd add to "Line Play" is that to me the base athleticism of the OL falls on the S&C guy.

I'm honestly not qualified to say if Austin was the weakest link....but when I watched our Tackles, that looked like an S&C failure before anything else.

Hopefully that's an area where Raiola can push for some changes for his guys based on what he's seen work at both the college and pro level....and then our RB"s can start to see more lanes to run through.