The option could never work...

[MCAT800]

Husker Jack,

Your right, it's just another way to get explosive players in space. and it works very well.

[huskerjack23]

what i'm basically trying to say that the option is a play. if you wanted to call billy c.'s offense like that, it would be stretch play

[NUpolo8]

I though the Solich option was pound a few beers at a bar, or sleep in the car?

[REDSTEEL]

Bascially everyone that says the option can not be run today, means that even if we had the 94 team playing in 2007 they would be a 9-3 team or worse.

[REDSTEEL]

I though the Solich option was pound a few beers at a bar, or sleep in the car?

 

and then run crouch.

[huskerjack23]

but they had personnel to run option. in a vacuum, every condition ideal, it can be run. so can the single wing. it's just not a base offense anymore.

[Glendower]

I personally don't want to see it here again, but that has always been my feeling on it. I like the spread offense. I HATE the WCO..............

 

Most spreads in college run the option

There is a difference between just a plain option and one that has been changed to include more passing. The option we used to run was not good, but that could have been the coach as well. (Solich)

 

You mean the one that won five national championships?

 

X

No I mean the one that the only reason we won 10 games that year was because of one man Eric Crouch..............maybe you've heard of him???

 

Who?

 

Imagine how well it would have worked with a running back to match him.

That was the problem with that team. No real threats on offense besides Eric..................oh what could have been!

 

and those running backs who went to the pros.

[REDSTEEL]

I personally don't want to see it here again, but that has always been my feeling on it. I like the spread offense. I HATE the WCO..............

 

Most spreads in college run the option

There is a difference between just a plain option and one that has been changed to include more passing. The option we used to run was not good, but that could have been the coach as well. (Solich)

 

You mean the one that won five national championships?

 

X

No I mean the one that the only reason we won 10 games that year was because of one man Eric Crouch..............maybe you've heard of him???

 

Who?

 

Imagine how well it would have worked with a running back to match him.

That was the problem with that team. No real threats on offense besides Eric..................oh what could have been!

 

and those running backs who went to the pros.

What running backs? Correll Buckhalter and who else? Correll hasn't been really steller in the pros either. 15 tds in 7 years

[TX-Husker-2011]

Not everybody sucks like us.

[hskerprid]

What everyone here seems to forget that in order for an option based offense to work begins with the line. Everyone in here has been talking about Crouch,Buckhalter etc. these guys couldnt of ran jack without an athletic quick bunch of uglies up front. Like the Wigerts of past glory. Ask any Defensive coach the option based defense is the hardest to stop "IF" you have ALL the proper athletes to run it

[rkhufu7]

Illinois burned the Wolverines on a post off of belly action from the gun off of the zone read. Crouch is the Solich offense. Solich could not recruit top notch I-backs. He had two FBs lined up back there in Buckhalter and Alexander and Deidrick. He was a poor recruiter. If we could have kept bringing the talent in it would have worked. That's why I'm saying you need a guy that can recruit the skill players to make the offense and defense go. The state can provide the interior players, but the edge players must be brought in from other places most of the time. That is why I doubt that Pelini is the best choice, he is

not a great recruiter, nor would parents fall for him. Solich knew the Xs and Os, but he could not restock the cubbard once it had emptied after 1999. You have to have a recruiter to draw the nations best skill players/difference makers, no matter the offense/defense we run! A non-option running game still allows the defense to gang up because they don't have to defense the QB run. Keek the old NU offense, just add in the spread concepts and you can still win big! Solich's POOR recruiting did him and NU in, not the option! Kids were always told that they won't be able to make the pros if they go to Nebraska, Gill, Taylor, Frazier, Frost, Crouch still all came and won big! The spread will allow more dual threat QBs to come to Lincoln. Here in Texas 75% of the teams all run some version of the spread offense, so its not like the WCO, the kids are familiar with the plays, just like when Hollieway, Frazier could come in and operate because they ran this stuff in HS. Edwards at Applachian State was a true freshman running this offense to a title. The kids run it in 7 on 7! This offense meshed with the power I fit Nebraska!

[roundegotrip]

just because the spread teams use "option" doesn't mean it's base offense...the bas offense is shotgun spread. the primary objective of it is to obtain mismatches and create lanes outside the tackles.

 

Option is a play name, and also more generally a term for an offensive system. Shotgun spread is a formation name and also used as term describing a larger offensive system. To talk about an option offense is just as legimate as talking about a shotgun spread offense, or a spread option offense, or a shotgun spread option offense, etc., etc., ad nauseum.

[NVAHusker]

Speaking of Eric, anyone know where he is now. I heard him say he didn't feel welcome?

[roundegotrip]

Speaking of Eric, anyone know where he is now. I heard him say he didn't feel welcome?

Far as I know, he's gonna be playing in the AAFL next spring.

[HUSKER 37]

I personally don't want to see it here again, but that has always been my feeling on it. I like the spread offense. I HATE the WCO..............

 

Most spreads in college run the option

There is a difference between just a plain option and one that has been changed to include more passing. The option we used to run was not good, but that could have been the coach as well. (Solich)

 

You mean the one that won five national championships?

 

X

 

Where do you get 5?

 

I don't exactly remember what we ran in '70 & '71 other than the I, but we didn't start implementing aspects of the option until after '74 if I remember right.

 

Formations tell the story of Husker Offensive Evolution

Nebraska's offense is unique in college football, and is immediately recognizable to those who pay attention to X's and O's. Think about this litmus test: if, say, Penn State and Michigan switched uniforms before a game, would you be able to tell the difference between the two teams, based on their style of play? Now try the same test with the Nebraska Cornhuskers and ANYONE else. Nebraska's style is so distinct that it can instantly be differentiated from the rest of the college football world. There are very few elite teams who meet this "uniqueness" criterion -- Florida certainly springs to mind, and possibly Florida State. Those Sunshine State offenses are widely recognized as the top level of sophistication, while Nebraska is typically described as an offense where "you know what's coming, you just can't stop it." The truth is, all three teams employ multiple formations to create mismatches, and use various suites of plays to capitalize on them. The Florida teams do this through the pass. Nebraska does it on the ground.

 

One of the more widely held myths about the Nebraska Cornhuskers is that "They've been running the same offensive system forever." You'll hear this stated over and over again, from announcers on game broadcasts, from the talking heads on the various cable sports programs, and from all comers on Internet discussion forums. In the broadcast of the 1996 Fiesta Bowl, you hear that very thought from Terry Donahue, a coach who should know better, as several of his UCLA teams were on the receiving end of dominating Cornhusker victories. It's a nice, quaint statement, but it's wrong.

 

The I Formation

 

In the 1970s Nebraska's most common (or base) formation was I. This formation featured the fullback and I-back in the "classic" I, with a tight end to one side and a split end to the other. On the split end side, a wingback was in the slot just outside the tackle. This is the formation from which J.R. Superstar dazzled the college football world, and brought home some fancy Heisman hardware. But is this the same offense that Nebraska runs today?

 

Consider that in the "Game of the Century" against Oklahoma, Offensive Coordinator Osborne used only three formations (I, Wide, and Spread) and ran I in about 75% of the plays. The famous final drive featured twelve snaps, eleven of which featured that classic I formation. Today's Cornhuskers will rarely throw that type of redundancy at an opponent, unless the opponent is weak and little sophistication is required to defeat them. For example, in the mismatched opener of the 2000 season vs. San Jose State, the Huskers used six formations (Power, Tight, Wide, Shotgun, Pro and Spread) in the first two series they had the ball!

 

Flash forward to the 1978 breakthough win against Oklahoma. Nebraska is still employing "I" as its basic formation, but has added "Tight", a double tight end set, which it used quite frequently in this classic nail-biter. From this moment on, double tight end sets have been a staple in the Cornhusker offense. In fact, the Nebraska employs double tight ends so frequently that the coaching staff typically considers the top two tight ends on the depth chart to be starters.

 

Scoring Explosion

 

Throughout the eighties NU became more varied formation-wise, which resulted in part from a philosophical shift toward option football, and in part from the personnel available during the "Scoring Explosion" days of Turner Gill, Mike Rozier, and Irving Fryar. These players were so talented, and Gill was so polished a quarterback, that Osborne developed multiple formations to highlight their skills. Even after the Triplets moved on, Nebraska continued to experiment with various three-back pseudo-wishbones, especially in the late eighties with Steve Taylor at quarterback. In fact, Nebraska actually ran a few true wishbone plays during this time frame, but didn't have much success.

 

Tommie Frazier

 

The 1990s brought unprecedented success to the Cornhuskers as they featured America's most complicated offensive scheme with over twenty different ways to line up and hit defenses in the face!

 

The arrival of Tommie Frazier signaled the beginning of the meteoric rise of the quarterback as the featured position in the offense. Before Frazier, the I-back was undoubtedly the workhorse of the offense. But as Frazier began to showcase his talents, and the coaching staff developed new plays to utilize them, it became clear that the quarterback's role as a ball carrier was expanding far beyond option keepers. By the time Frazier left Lincoln, Nebraska was running QB draws, sweeps, and even trap plays with an increasing frequency. Nebraska‚s offense continues to develop in that direction.

 

The current Nebraska offense runs as many or more formations than anyone in football, college or pro. The changes have been incremental, but the overall effect of the various tweaks in the offensive philosophy are striking. Today's Nebraska offense bears little resemblance to the one we rooted for as children. The base formation has changed. That classic "I" formation that featured Johnny Rodgers, Irving Fryar, and other talented game-breakers like Kenny Brown, Anthony Steels, and Dana Brinson, has fallen by the wayside. Formation diversity has exploded. Blocking schemes are continuously adjusted. Option frequency has skyrocketed. The quarterback has emerged as a big-time ball carrying threat. The list goes on and on.

 

The Y2K Nebraska Cornhuskers

 

One of the things about the Husker running attack that astounds football people is the Big Red's ability to run so much of their offense from so many different formations. NU, today, is truly a multi-formation team using a varied package of formations. Several times during the 2000 pre-season Coach Frank Solich mentioned that the Huskers have thirteen base formations. The chart on this page lists twenty different sets that NU has shown since 1994. Several have only appeared in special instances. The thirteen base formations that Solich was referring to probably include these eleven: