HQW #11: End of Year Review

[Guest Huskerboard]

End of Year Review

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AR Husker Fan, HuskerBoard.com feature writer

Dec 8, 2004

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What a year…

 

While a few might argue otherwise, most had agreed that the Huskers needed to diversify the offense – meaning, introduce the forward pass into the mix. Well, that’s what we got, in the form of the West Coast offense. And in getting it, we learned a few things.

 

--The preseason prognosticators knew what they were talking about. Remember them? Here are some preseason predictions of the Husker’s final standing in the Big 12 North: Phil Steele - 5th, Athlon - 3rd, Sporting News - 3rd, Gold Sheet - 4th, and CNN.SI - 3rd. And where did the Huskers end up? Tied for 3rd with Missouri. That’s pretty telling – the prognosticators looked at Nebraska’s talent, looked at the schemes to be run, and correctly deduced that the talent to run them wasn’t there.

 

--The West Coast offense is absolutely dependent on the quarterback, and we don’t have a West Coast quarterback. Or, if we do, he isn’t quite ready to play the position. Dailey could look great one minute – horrible the next. Does this mean Dailey can’t be a good West Coast quarterback? Nope – just that he wasn’t able to master it this year. Can he next year? Who knows. Regardless, it’s clear that if the quarterback can’t make good decisions, the offense is dead. Not too different from the option in that regard – you need a quarterback who can instantly read the defense and know when to handoff to the fullback, keep the ball, or pitch. Get a quarterback who can’t do that, and the option is dead. Get a quarterback who can’t read the defensive coverage and move through his progressions, and the West Coast is dead.

 

--The option equalizes talent. There’s a reason that the option is used by teams in mid-major conferences or who are middle-tier schools at best, and not by elite teams – it gives them a shot at either winning a few games they shouldn’t, or keeping the score respectable through ball control. Of course, when they meet a truly talented team, then even keeping the score close goes out the window – it’s three and out and the other team gets a ton of chances to score. With the switch to the West Coast offense, we saw that with the exception of Ross and, possibly, Herian, the offenses’ talent was no longer better than that on other teams…and worse than the upper-tier Big 12 teams.

 

--We desperately need to upgrade the defense – particularly on the line. We could not get a consistent “push”. The defensive scheme seems to be predicated on rushing four – which means that those four have to be able to put pressure on the quarterback. Didn’t really happen all year.

 

--The secondary has some good players – but they can’t play man-to-man. Bohl tried to play man with athletes not built to handle it, and the secondary suffered. Pellini went primarily to a zone defense that masked the inability of the players to play man. But under this scheme, man-to-man is the order of the day. We need lockdown corners that have both height and speed.

 

--Likewise, we could use some tall, fast receivers that can both stretch the field, and go up and take the ball out of the air.

 

All in all, this season should have been expected. For the last several years, recruiting has dropped off. Then, the offensive and defensive schemes were changed, and changed so that the current players’ weaknesses were exposed.

 

So what comes next? Where does Nebraska go from here?

 

Recruiting, of course. We have to go out and get the players that will fit the schemes that the coaches want to run – like it or not, those schemes will be here for years to come.

 

Just don’t get your hopes up too high, too soon. Even if we land all the talent that’s given us early commitments, they won’t be ready to contribute much for a year or two. Like all freshman, they’ll be inconsistent, and they’ll have to adjust to the college game.

 

Was moving to the West Coast offense a mistake? In the short term – yes. But it’s the long term we have to look at. Teams such as USC and Auburn run it, and do so successfully. Yeah, we probably would have won a few more games this year with the option – but ultimately we had hit a wall. In 2003, we won 10 games against lesser teams – and got killed by more talented teams. And that’s the bottom line – with the option, we would always be good, but not good enough. With the West Coast, we have a chance to again contend for a national championship. It won’t be next year, or the year after – but it will happen, and from that point on we will contend every year.

 

Nebraska is still a magical name to recruits, and seeing the way the coaching staff committed to the West Coast has to assure those recruits that Nebraska really will use an offense that shows off their talents and gives them a chance to go to the next level.

 

Think of this year – and probably next – as taking two steps back in order to take that one giant step forward…

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AR Husker Fan

[cammer]

No matter what happens, the wco is not and never will be Nebraska football. If we really need to throw the ball more, although I don't for the life of me know why, Then lets try to get people like David Humm, or Vince Ferragamo to play for us. To run the ball all over s. Miss. st. like we did, then to try from the 20 to throw four strait passes just to say we did, does us no good. CALLAHAN MUST GO NOW. NOT NEXT YEAR OR THREE YEARS FROM NOW....NOW.

[cammer]

ALMOST FORGOT, THE ATHLETIC DIRECTOR, WHATEVER HIS NAME IS SHOULD RESIGN NOW ALSO.

[DJR313]

Pederson is his name, and he is a scumbag, but him and Callahan are going to be given an opportunity to see this through. Cry me a river, build a bridge and get over it.

[cammer]

Cry a river? I was not one of the fans calling for frank solichs head. I went through all the years of TOM not being able to win the big one. I just think that NEBRASKA football shouldn't fade into obscurity like OKLAHOMA AND MIAMI. I mean do we really want to fade away for 6 years while CALLAHAN gets his chance?

[DJR313]

Newsflash, Nebraska has already faded away.

 

The recruiting class is looking strong, the offense was wide open, but not executed very well. There was talk of dissention among the defense towards the defensive coordinator. I dunno, I am willing to give Callahan a chance because he came in against a stacked deck. He was playing with Solich's players. Some defensive players didn't buy into the new coordinator's scheme, fans have not been all that patient with him, he had a hurried recruiting class, implemented a new offense with players that weren't a perfect fit for it, had a patchwork offensive line, the best lineman left the team, the QB who was expected to be the backup or even start missed the entire season. On and On. I realize there will be obstacles for every team to overcome. I'm not ready to write Callahan off as a failure just yet. I can see the program moving back to the top of the Big 12 in the very near future.

[Eric the Red]

Cry a river? I was not one of the fans calling for frank solichs head. I went through all the years of TOM not being able to win the big one. I just think that NEBRASKA football shouldn't fade into obscurity like OKLAHOMA AND MIAMI. I mean do we really want to fade away for 6 years while CALLAHAN gets his chance?

We hit a wall. Solich was the middle man. He came in after a legend. Nobody succeeds after following a legend. (Ask Zook, and whomever follows Paterno).