2024 Spring Practice Notes - Offensive Line

[Mavric]

Word is Lutovsky and Mazzccua would be the starters at Guard today.  

[Husker in WI]

2 hours ago, Mavric said:

Word is Lutovsky and Mazzccua would be the starters at Guard today.  

 

Would love to have two legitimate road-graders on the inside, I just hope Lutovsky has improved his mobility a lot. Curious if Buckley can make a move or if he's just going to be one of the culture guys but not a major on-field contributor. 

[Husker in WI]

On 4/5/2024 at 8:08 AM, Mavric said:

Word is Lutovsky and Mazzccua would be the starters at Guard today.  

 

Rhule dropped some moderately interesting nuggets today:

• Mazzccua working second team at the moment
• JEJ is starting at Guard and then working some at Center
• Lutovsky is starting at Guard but also repping some tackle
• Knaak is doing well

I don't think this contradicts the quoted statement either, I imagine Mazzccua is with the 2's right now due to a combination of deference to the guys who have been here and him not showing up in great shape, and potentially some motivation. You can afford to work guys in different spots when the first game is still months away.

 

Also really surprised by Lutovsky at tackle, but we don't have a lot of depth there and Rhule said some guys look like Guards and just play more naturally at Tackle and vice versa. Also said Brix is a Tackle, and basically they will keep guys at Tackle if there's a chance they can handle it because they're hard to find.

[Mavric]

Quote

"The biggest thing is we block with our knuckles up. We don't grab people, right? Because holding encourages lazy blocking. So we don't teach holding. We don't teach grabbing people. We block with our knuckles up. So that's the biggest thing. You go around most places, I'm not sure how they do it, but that's how we do it here."

 

247

[I am I]

My old college coach, Bob Cortese  (an Italian hardliner), used to say “punch them in throat and see if they wanna play in the 4th qtr”. 
 

no one beat us because they were tougher than us. 
I like this mentality of knuckles. They can talk about “no holding” but to me it says “we gonna punch ya.”   

[Red Five]

12 hours ago, Mavric said:

 

247

 

The vast majority of holds don't get called anymore, so I would basically be teaching how to get away with holding.  But I am also just a guy sitting on my couch.

[Husker03]

12 minutes ago, Red Five said:

 

The vast majority of holds don't get called anymore, so I would basically be teaching how to get away with holding.  But I am also just a guy sitting on my couch.

Obviously you have not been watching much Husker football lately. 

[Husker in WI]

7 minutes ago, Red Five said:

 

The vast majority of holds don't get called anymore, so I would basically be teaching how to get away with holding.  But I am also just a guy sitting on my couch.

 

I imagine it's like those DB drills where they aren't allowed to use their hands - you have to use the right footwork this way. And it's easier to work the hold in than it would be to take it out when you've been relying on it and get a ref who decides he's going to call it. Still kinda weird, but I'm sure the selling point for the next level is their technique must be phenomenal to have any degree of success at this level without holding. Should be easy to teach them to hold "correctly" if their footwork and hand placement is good.

[MyBloodIsRed16]

3 hours ago, Husker in WI said:

 

I imagine it's like those DB drills where they aren't allowed to use their hands - you have to use the right footwork this way. And it's easier to work the hold in than it would be to take it out when you've been relying on it and get a ref who decides he's going to call it. Still kinda weird, but I'm sure the selling point for the next level is their technique must be phenomenal to have any degree of success at this level without holding. Should be easy to teach them to hold "correctly" if their footwork and hand placement is good.

you would think so especially because Donnie went to Wisconsin.  Holding is all they do.  

[Archy1221]

13 hours ago, I am I said:

My old college coach, Bob Cortese  (an Italian hardliner), used to say “punch them in throat and see if they wanna play in the 4th qtr”. 
 

no one beat us because they were tougher than us. 
I like this mentality of knuckles. They can talk about “no holding” but to me it says “we gonna punch ya.”   

FHSU player huh.  

[chainsaw]

Normal for us; NO tackles and an excess of guards.  They take the best guards and make mediocre tackles out of them!  then we have a poor line!

[brophog]

On 4/12/2024 at 9:47 AM, Red Five said:

The vast majority of holds don't get called anymore, so I would basically be teaching how to get away with holding.  But I am also just a guy sitting on my couch.

 

If I can explain why Donovan is calling it 'lazy blocking' maybe that can illustrate why that's a bad idea.

 

Imagine you're an offensive lineman and you've got your hands on the inside of the defenders pads so you can disguise your holding. Now try to slide your feet left or right. Your feet are connected to your legs which connects to your upper body which connects to your hands which are currently attached to a 300 lb man who doesn't necessarily want to slide left or right. If you slide your feet, your upper body and head aren't going to move with them and you'll get unbalanced. So, the remedy is to keep a wider base, minimize lower body movement, keep your head above your feet and try to do everything with just your upper body.

 

That's 'lazy blocking'. Not only is it hard to make something as large as a 300 lb man do what you want with just your upper body strength, there are a lot of times an offensive lineman needs to be able to move. Plus, if you're keeping your hands inside to prevent the holding from being called, the defender can still move his shoulders and arms.

 

Holding has its place and don't believe anybody that tells you any offensive lineman is never going to hold. There is a lot of value to what Donovan is saying about teaching 'knuckles up' vs 'thumbs up', and that's easy to illustrate. Hold your hands out in front of you knuckles up and see how easily you can manipulate objects. Now, try that with your thumbs up. With thumbs up, its easier to grab things but it's harder to do just about anything else.

18 hours ago, chainsaw said:

Normal for us; NO tackles and an excess of guards.  They take the best guards and make mediocre tackles out of them!  then we have a poor line!

 

Would you rather them convert the punters?

[Red Five]

Hints are being dropped that Mazzccua could be on the outs after spring...

[BigRedBuster]

6 minutes ago, Red Five said:

Hints are being dropped that Mazzccua could be on the outs after spring...

I'll never understand some player's actions in the portal.  So, he's a senior with one year eligibility left.  He comes here in January.  It's most of the way through Spring practice and now we are hearing this?

So, what is he going to do, transfer to a lower level?  What major D1 program can bring him in, without being there in the spring.  Have him there just for fall and he's going to have a better chance playing there than the program you were with through spring practice?  Now, if you went through spring practice here and you don't think you're going to get much playing time.  What makes you think now you can go somewhere else and all of a sudden become a star?

[Husker in WI]

8 minutes ago, BigRedBuster said:

I'll never understand some player's actions in the portal.  So, he's a senior with one year eligibility left.  He comes here in January.  It's most of the way through Spring practice and now we are hearing this?

So, what is he going to do, transfer to a lower level?  What major D1 program can bring him in, without being there in the spring.  Have him there just for fall and he's going to have a better chance playing there than the program you were with through spring practice?  Now, if you went through spring practice here and you don't think you're going to get much playing time.  What makes you think now you can go somewhere else and all of a sudden become a star?

 

He would be one of our best five linemen even without being in great shape, and there are other schools who would take that. It's almost easier in fall camp because there's less time to not meet expectations - spring ball is a grind. He's not going to Georgia or Ohio State, but there are P5 schools that would take him in the fall, let him use fall camp to get in shape, and play him week one.

 

Honestly we would probably let him do that at the end of the day, but maybe the constant pushing to do better than that isn't what he wants. But he's a proven P5 starter, lots of schools would take him and play him if he's better than what they currently have.