Spano rushed for a reason????

[RedGixxer]

just a thought i had......i personally think that both Lee and Green are FAR better qbs than they have shown this season because our OLINE is the actual problem. for proof look at the sun belt games, when given time to pass by the oline, both Lee and Green were completing passes at a high rate. Especially Lee who was completing better than 70%.

 

Now the reason i ask if spano was rushed for a reason is because, even though i think our other qbs are at least average, Spano was that much better a qb than both Lee and Green and the coaches knew that and tried to get him up to speed as quickly as possible because they knew what our qb situation looked like. To me it is obvious from recruiting videos that Spano has by far the best combination on passing and rushing abilities. He is mobile and has a good arm and with a line like we have that is exactly what you need.

 

i will be the first to say that i think if he heals, SPANO WILL BE THE STARTER NEXT SEASON. not lee and not green.

 

JMHO....discuss!!!!!!

I said a long time ago Spano should start RIGHT NOW. I hope he starts against ARIZONA although that game really doesn't mean anything. But it would be some good pracitice for him for next year...

[Danny Bateman]

I wouldn't mind at all if Spano took the starting job away from Hair Gel next year. He was committed to Ok St. before he switched to us, so it's not like he was some unknown commodity when we recruited him. This would be excellent as it would give Cody a year to redshirt and hopefully prepare him better to challenge Kody in the future. If he can't wrestle the job away from Spano after that, then Spano is bound to be doing something right. I just do not like exhausting a year of Cody's eligibility when we don't have to.

[huskerjack23]

I love this post.

 

I want last year's offense back so bad. The o-line needs significant improvement but a QB with experience with the system should put us over the top.

[Minnesota_husker]

I dont care who is at QB next year, as long as it isnt Zac Lee.

[HANC]

Do you think there was a reason this staff went after Paulus? Once Kody went down, I believe that this staff knew that they didn't have a quality qb. Why else would you pursue a kid who only have 1 year of eligibility and hadn't played football for at least 4-5 years. This tells me that Spano was going to have a great influence this season. Talk at Gator Bowl last year was that Spano was going to be the leader to start this year.

[zoogs]

I'm sure the staff thought they had someone in Lee. He's supposedly real talented and lights up the practice field, right? But he's lost a lot of confidence and breaks down in games against tough competition. No way of knowing that.

 

I think the reason we rushed Spano and went after Paulus, was because we knew we needed to protect Green's redshirt if we could. Unfortunately we couldn't do that.

[husker B-rent]

Do you think there was a reason this staff went after Paulus? Once Kody went down, I believe that this staff knew that they didn't have a quality qb. Why else would you pursue a kid who only have 1 year of eligibility and hadn't played football for at least 4-5 years. This tells me that Spano was going to have a great influence this season. Talk at Gator Bowl last year was that Spano was going to be the leader to start this year.

 

ya know, Paulus was actually my original idea when i was thinking about this but then that made me think about Spano and thus the post!!!

[irieboy8]

Do you think there was a reason this staff went after Paulus? Once Kody went down, I believe that this staff knew that they didn't have a quality qb. Why else would you pursue a kid who only have 1 year of eligibility and hadn't played football for at least 4-5 years. This tells me that Spano was going to have a great influence this season. Talk at Gator Bowl last year was that Spano was going to be the leader to start this year.

 

ya know, Paulus was actually my original idea when i was thinking about this but then that made me think about Spano and thus the post!!!

 

 

my worry is spano comes in does well but kinda has the troubles ZL has...... being first year on the field and what not... then the whole bring in the Green controversy starts up again.... and by this is all over and Green sees the field what will he be a Junior or so?? lots is riding on this whole Qb stituation...

[WCHusker]

why didn't Watson alter the offense to the strengths of the players he had instead of making them do things they are not suited to do?

 

because Watson has a job that he's not suited to do?

[BigWillie]

With this said, why didn't Watson alter the offense to the strengths of the players he had instead of making them do things they are not suited to do?

 

Um, Watson did.

 

We opened the season being more open with our offense. Before Zac got benched, we were averaging over 28 pass attempts a game. We were being that hybrid "Spread Coast Offense" that Watson wanted us to be. Unfortunately when Zac began to crap the bed against better competition and our WRs showed an inability to get open or hold onto the ball, things had to change.

 

Even when he got Cody in, he tries to let the kid run the read-option, the only thing he really is capable of doing right now. Guy could not do it because our offensive line was so awful. As I've said before, Cody was not a quick move type of guy. He's the type of runner who builds up steam and once he gets going, he can fly. But with our offensive line opening no holes, he had no hope.

 

That idea was canned and Cody was put back on the bench since he had no chance at running OR passing.

 

When Zac came back, we relied heavily on the run. Although a bad idea since Burkhead was out and Helu wasn't healthy, we did it and were able to defeat Oklahoma.

 

Even after that victory we showed we needed to at least get teams out of the box. So for the Kansas game, we showed that we would get Zac outside the pocket to give him easier throws so his confidence wouldn't be in the crapper. Zac had back-to-back solid games (not outstanding) versus Kansas and KSU.

 

Against Colorado, admittedly our offense did not have a good game. Our ST and defense got us a nice lead, so Watson played it safe considering our offense was crapping the bed. It was safe and he did not want our offense to cost our defense. Not a sexy plan, but once the game got going it WAS the smartest thing no matter how much it wasn't pretty.

 

And finally against Texas, we attempted to use PA and those bootleg passes outside the pocket to get Lee his confidence. You watched the game, we all watched the game. Lee was running for his life. He had absolutely zero chance. And with Zac having MAJOR confidence issues, his game was over in a hurry. So again, we go back to the safe gameplan hoping Zac doesn't do anything stupid to cost us. Unfortunately he did make mistakes, which is why he was benched halfway through. But as Cody proved, his confidence doesn't match his passing abilities - AT ALL. Zac was the only QB we had, sadly. Our running game was going to need to spring a run, but our offensive line couldn't block for squat.

 

Look at it this way ..

 

QB - Witt transfers because he doesn't want to compete. Spano blows out his knee. We move a LINEBACKER to QB. We have a super stud practice play who gave us hope, but craps the bed once he got int he game. Who could have expected that?

 

RB - We kick a player off the team in Castille because he fries one too many brain cells. Helu busts his shoulder. Burkhead breaks a foot. Then we have to start a RB in Tray that was set to RS the entire season and was basically our 5th string RB. Meaning, unless some major ish happens, no way he was burning his RS. That ish happened.

 

WR - We graduate our top two WRs. Our backups had horrid hands and ran horrid routes. The rest were completely inexperienced and were not even given major practice reps until Gilmore had no choice but to bench guys like Curenski and Meno.

 

TE - McNeill has been banged up for a long time, but has manned up for a while. Young is a JAG and Cotton is still inexperienced.

 

OL - Aside from being a horrible coached technical group, we lost our best OL in Burkes. The rest of the guys were banged up throughout the season. Also guys like Marcel and Hickman had down years from what was expected of them.

 

It's like, what are you supposed to do in this situation? In all honesty, this year was absolute worst case scenario when you think of all the things that could go wrong. It all went wrong, and NO ONE could expect it. Absolutely no one.

 

To say Watson didn't try to adapt to his situation is flat out wrong. And for him to shoulder the blame in this is wrong as well which always leaves me shaking my head.

 

Watson is the absolute LAST of our worries on the offensive staff, but he is shouldering all of the blame. Sad thing is, one day he will be gone. Then when the likely replacement comes in, we will all be doing

[BigWillie]

*Stupid board glitching and my double posts.

[AngryHusker88]

With this said, why didn't Watson alter the offense to the strengths of the players he had instead of making them do things they are not suited to do?

 

Um, Watson did.

 

We opened the season being more open with our offense. Before Zac got benched, we were averaging over 28 pass attempts a game. We were being that hybrid "Spread Coast Offense" that Watson wanted us to be. Unfortunately when Zac began to crap the bed against better competition and our WRs showed an inability to get open or hold onto the ball, things had to change.

 

Even when he got Cody in, he tries to let the kid run the read-option, the only thing he really is capable of doing right now. Guy could not do it because our offensive line was so awful. As I've said before, Cody was not a quick move type of guy. He's the type of runner who builds up steam and once he gets going, he can fly. But with our offensive line opening no holes, he had no hope.

 

That idea was canned and Cody was put back on the bench since he had no chance at running OR passing.

 

When Zac came back, we relied heavily on the run. Although a bad idea since Burkhead was out and Helu wasn't healthy, we did it and were able to defeat Oklahoma.

 

Even after that victory we showed we needed to at least get teams out of the box. So for the Kansas game, we showed that we would get Zac outside the pocket to give him easier throws so his confidence wouldn't be in the crapper. Zac had back-to-back solid games (not outstanding) versus Kansas and KSU.

 

Against Colorado, admittedly our offense did not have a good game. Our ST and defense got us a nice lead, so Watson played it safe considering our offense was crapping the bed. It was safe and he did not want our offense to cost our defense. Not a sexy plan, but once the game got going it WAS the smartest thing no matter how much it wasn't pretty.

 

And finally against Texas, we attempted to use PA and those bootleg passes outside the pocket to get Lee his confidence. You watched the game, we all watched the game. Lee was running for his life. He had absolutely zero chance. And with Zac having MAJOR confidence issues, his game was over in a hurry. So again, we go back to the safe gameplan hoping Zac doesn't do anything stupid to cost us. Unfortunately he did make mistakes, which is why he was benched halfway through. But as Cody proved, his confidence doesn't match his passing abilities - AT ALL. Zac was the only QB we had, sadly. Our running game was going to need to spring a run, but our offensive line couldn't block for squat.

 

Look at it this way ..

 

QB - Witt transfers because he doesn't want to compete. Spano blows out his knee. We move a LINEBACKER to QB. We have a super stud practice play who gave us hope, but craps the bed once he got int he game. Who could have expected that?

 

RB - We kick a player off the team in Castille because he fries one too many brain cells. Helu busts his shoulder. Burkhead breaks a foot. Then we have to start a RB in Tray that was set to RS the entire season and was basically our 5th string RB. Meaning, unless some major ish happens, no way he was burning his RS. That ish happened.

 

WR - We graduate our top two WRs. Our backups had horrid hands and ran horrid routes. The rest were completely inexperienced and were not even given major practice reps until Gilmore had no choice but to bench guys like Curenski and Meno.

 

TE - McNeill has been banged up for a long time, but has manned up for a while. Young is a JAG and Cotton is still inexperienced.

 

OL - Aside from being a horrible coached technical group, we lost our best OL in Burkes. The rest of the guys were banged up throughout the season. Also guys like Marcel and Hickman had down years from what was expected of them.

 

It's like, what are you supposed to do in this situation? In all honesty, this year was absolute worst case scenario when you think of all the things that could go wrong. It all went wrong, and NO ONE could expect it. Absolutely no one.

 

To say Watson didn't try to adapt to his situation is flat out wrong. And for him to shoulder the blame in this is wrong as well which always leaves me shaking my head.

 

Watson is the absolute LAST of our worries on the offensive staff, but he is shouldering all of the blame. Sad thing is, one day he will be gone. Then when the likely replacement comes in, we will all be doing

LOL, that was f^cking hilarious. Yeah, our offense is just absolutely going to tank once Shawn Watson gets a D1 HC offer. O, wait, no D1 schools are interested in Shawn Watson? O wait, our offense already tanked? just f^cking lol, that last part of ur post is just f^cking hilarious

[Hunter94]

agree, it was a bit of a rant......time to stop making excuses for the offense, the players and the coaches both stink...simple as that.

 

Bo came in and made a defense out of mostly average kids......Watson and Cotton haven't made any difference at all...it's a fact, get over it.

[cscott2win]

He sucks, that guy sucks, they suck, we suck. You guys keep this up and we'll have a lot more JHawk fans on here!!!

[AngryHusker88]

QB - Witt transfers because he doesn't want to compete. Spano blows out his knee. We move a LINEBACKER to QB. We have a super stud practice play who gave us hope, but craps the bed once he got int he game. Who could have expected that?

That excuse doesnt fly. #1 I think Zac Lee wouldve started over Patrick Witt anyways #2 Even if Witt was the starting QB I dont think our season (on the offensive side of the ball) wouldve gone any differently

RB - We kick a player off the team in Castille because he fries one too many brain cells. Helu busts his shoulder. Burkhead breaks a foot. Then we have to start a RB in Tray that was set to RS the entire season and was basically our 5th string RB. Meaning, unless some major ish happens, no way he was burning his RS. That ish happened.

 

Castille wouldnt have made much of a difference I dont think. Castille plays for some DII school right now & another poster posted his stats somewhere & they were very mediocre at best. Castille was a fumbling problem his whole career & really only had 1 great game (against Clemson). Also, why did it take some1 of Shawn Watson's apparent offensive genius (as you so claim) so long to figure out that we have a fullback?

WR - We graduate our top two WRs. Our backups had horrid hands and ran horrid routes. The rest were completely inexperienced and were not even given major practice reps until Gilmore had no choice but to bench guys like Curenski and Meno.

 

Yeah, well Shawn Watson knew we'd be losing Peterson & Swift so why didnt he recruit better receivers? You say our backups had horrid hands & run horrid routes? Who recruited them? Shawn Watson. Anyways I think we have decent talent at WR (Kinnie is a damn good receiver IMO) & I think our receivers are poorly coached. Gilmore needs to be shown the door

TE - McNeill has been banged up for a long time, but has manned up for a while. Young is a JAG and Cotton is still inexperienced.

Why didnt the offensive genius Shawn Watson attempt to throw to the tight end all game against Texas?

OL - Aside from being a horrible coached technical group, we lost our best OL in Burkes. The rest of the guys were banged up throughout the season. Also guys like Marcel and Hickman had down years from what was expected of them.

So thats ur big excuse? 1 guy on our offensive line gets injured & thats ur big excuse at to why our line has sucked all year? Injuries happen they're part of the game. Why is our O-line having a down year? Poor coaching. Our offensive line play has been embarrassing all year, our offensive line is clearly poorly coached. Barney Cotton needs to go. But who approved of the hiring of Barney Cotton as Nebraska's O-line coach? Thats right, ur hero Shawn Watson

 

For a man making a 6 figure salary, Shawn Watson gets a big fat F on his job performance this year