Starting Safeties

[bshirt]

What is the deal with Cooper? Any news at all? I thought we would be a vicious stud. Or maybe the secondary is just so damn good he can't break through?

 

To be fair this was only Corey's third day with the coaching staff at what is one of the most demanding positions in Pelini's scheme. I think Corey will be very good, but I don't know how much he'll play unless someone gets hurt.

 

Thanks jliehr. Yeah, I know it's unrealistic to expect him to start.....but....wow, he's something else so I had him pegged as the next R. Brown (at safety). I just can't help myself. :-)

 

Heh....is it Sept. yet??

[Danimal]

It looked like a cover 2 zone, but if you look at it West didn't even bother to wall off or reroute the receiver, he just let him go. Also, the coaches told him that Taylor never pump fakes so the first motion you see to attack, and what happened, Taylor pump faked... and that's all she wrote.

 

Ya, West just did an Ole! and let the wr go zipping down the sideline. O'Hanlon goofed but if West reroutes the wr O'Hanlon gets to him considerably sooner.

[druski_2k5]

The defensive call was Cover 2 zone.

 

West did his job, he was covering his area, watching Tyrod's eyes, as a defender does in zone coverage. Sometimes a defender will knock a receiver off his route, but I'm not sure how far off West was playing if it was man-up or he was giving him 5 yards of room and had could not chip him, as he was watching Tyrod mostly.

 

Now Sanders is right by saying O'Hanlon didn't get deep enough, as it appeared we were playing a tight Cover 2 Zone, as opposed to normal or deep in regards to the safeties. Give credit to Sanders for sticking with O'Hanlon and training him up to where he eventually got too and never gave up in the guy as many Husker fans, myself included, wanted to throw him under the bus, when it was his effort that kept us in the game, until the touchdown in the end.

 

I completely grilled O'Hanlon on that play, and for most of 2008, and while criticizm may have been deserving in 2008, I kind of felt bad about it after his career was over. I felt bad after the Virginia Tech game because we still had a chance to win the game BECAUSE of O'Hanlon's effort to catch the receiver. We shouldn't have gave Tyrod all the time in the pocket down by the goal-line when he therw that touchdown pass on 3rd down, he scrambled around for his life, some of our linemen were standing around in contain/spy, waiting on Tyrod to advance the ball past the line of scrimmage, and he threw a strike in the back of the endzone.

 

As Suh stated in the article, he had a chance to go after him, but he may have been winded, heck our whole defense may have been tired and emotionally down after that play, but that's where the heart and mental toughness have to kick in, and it definitely did after the Texas Tech and Iowa State debacles.

 

You gotta give Matt credit though, that was his last mistake the entire year, he played balls out the rest of the way.

 

I believe Pelini also came out and stated they should have ran a different play. As he took the blame for it, unlike the previous coaches who would blame players, I'm pretty sure I remember reading that Pelini said that was the wrong play to run in that situation. In my opinion we probably should have been running Cover 3 or at least Cover 2 Man from the Dime packaage and emphasizing the safeties both getting deep, and if the receiver beats his man, at least there is help over the top of deep safeties and not shallow safeties, as it appeared we were playing tight and short.

 

All in all it was a great effort, and it was Dillard's coming out party that set up the rest of the season for some great defensive play down the stretch.

 

Personally, I think we got hosed on the Menelik Holt "touchdown catch ruled incompletion". I believe this was ruled as he "didn't have control" but, sighs, what could have been.

 

http://www.huskerextra.com/content/articles/2009/09/19/football/doc4ab5926b84b95115148414.jpg

 

But what's done is done, can't worry about 2009, just look forward to this year. I hope Virginia Tech absolutely destroys Boise State though.

[trouble]

It looked like a cover 2 zone, but if you look at it West didn't even bother to wall off or reroute the receiver, he just let him go. Also, the coaches told him that Taylor never pump fakes so the first motion you see to attack, and what happened, Taylor pump faked... and that's all she wrote.

 

IMO, West needed to knock the receiver inside and not allow him to run past him on the outside.

 

O'Hanlon needed to be deeper but the CB should NOT have allowed the WR to run past on the outside.

[Husker Richard]

 

I can't believe we are rehashing the VaTech debacle. IIRC, we already dissected the play in a multi-page thread following the game.

[trouble]

 

I can't believe we are rehashing the VaTech debacle. IIRC, we already dissected the play in a multi-page thread following the game.

 

It's the offseason damnit!

 

Hahaha

[GMoose]

 

I can't believe we are rehashing the VaTech debacle. IIRC, we already dissected the play in a multi-page thread following the game.

 

It's the offseason damnit!

 

Hahaha

Gentlemen, this is the starting safeties thread. You can't fight about VaTech in the starting safeties thread.

[knapplc]

I just watched the VA Tech/Alabama kickoff game last night. Those were two pretty darned good teams that went toe-to-toe. We took a team that led the eventual national champs in the fourth quarter into the very last seconds of the game. We took another team that went to the MNC game to the final second.

 

I don't see anything but positives from this. If our guys truly are ready to compete each and every day, to reflect the Pelini Attitude on the field every play, then we're in good shape this year.

[Husker Richard]

I just watched the VA Tech/Alabama kickoff game last night. Those were two pretty darned good teams that went toe-to-toe. We took a team that led the eventual national champs in the fourth quarter into the very last seconds of the game. We took another team that went to the MNC game to the final second.

 

I don't see anything but positives from this. If our guys truly are ready to compete each and every day, to reflect the Pelini Attitude on the field every play, then we're in good shape this year.

 

 

I watched the game too and also felt the same way. I never realized how good of a team VaTech was and that made me appreciate our effort, on the road no less, last year.

[huskerscott]

From the Life in the Red blog....

 

http://my.journalstar.com/post/Husker_Extra_Group/Husker_Extra/blog/cassidys_various_roles.html

 

Cassidy's various roles

Posted by: Steve Sipple on August 10, 2010 at 7:21PM CST

Lincoln Southwest graduate Austin Cassidy is keeping plenty busy in Nebraska's preseason camp.

 

A 6-foot-1, 212-pound junior, Cassidy is in the mix for playing time at safety as well as the "peso" hybrid position behind projected senior starter Eric Hagg.

 

"I'm playing a little bit of both, just depending on what the offense gives us," the former prep QB said. "I think it's all about matchups. I can switch pretty easily between (safety and peso) because I spent so much time playing safety my first few years here."

 

He's especially strong playing the run. His prowess as a tackler became evident through his excellent play on special teams. Now, with the loss of both starting safeties from last season, Cassidy likely will see action on regular downs.

 

He also may see action as a holder on extra points and field goals -- a role he played at Lincoln Southwest.

 

"It came right back to me," he said.

 

Junior defensive back Lance Thorell also is seeing some action as a holder in preseason camp. Cassidy said he and Thorell worked on it all summer.

 

Last season's holder, punter/place-kicker Brett Maher, is still doing some holding, Cassidy said, "but I think he's trying to transition to more of a kicking role. Because he didn't come here to hold, he came here to kick. It's hard for him to get those reps when he's the one holding.

 

"So today (Tuesday), Lance and I held the entire time while he kicked. I think it'll benefit him. But he's still got more experience than us. He's still the best holder right now."

[zoogs]

Austin Cassidy. Walk-on. Safety. Pesoback. Holder.

 

Hope he is the next Matt O'Hanlon

 

Interesting that he and Thorell (woah, completely forgot about this dude - he was a regular in '08) are working on holding. DBs aren't your usual candidates there, are they?

[GMoose]

Austin Cassidy. Walk-on. Safety. Pesoback. Holder.

 

Hope he is the next Matt O'Hanlon

 

Interesting that he and Thorell (woah, completely forgot about this dude - he was a regular in '08) are working on holding. DBs aren't your usual candidates there, are they?

It was Brett Maher, backup punter

 

edit: read this as a question. I've also never heard of DB's as holder, but I remember Shipley was Texas' holder. I guess it's just a past experience thing.

Edited August 11, 2010 by GMoose

[HuskerNMO]

Austin Cassidy. Walk-on. Safety. Pesoback. Holder.

 

Hope he is the next Matt O'Hanlon

 

Interesting that he and Thorell (woah, completely forgot about this dude - he was a regular in '08) are working on holding. DBs aren't your usual candidates there, are they?

It was Brett Maher, backup punter

 

edit: read this as a question. I've also never heard of DB's as holder, but I remember Shipley was Texas' holder. I guess it's just a past experience thing.

 

 

Pretty sure Cassidy played QB in high school, so it's not a shock that he would be a holder also. Gives you a trick play threat without being obvious of having a QB do it.

[Hercules]

Smith played some very quality time against Oklahoma when Asante went out hurt, and people should be careful not to put Asante and O'Hanlon up on a pedestal. They were lights out at the end of the year, but there were holes early on (Virginia Tech anybody?) I highly doubt that 2 days of practice have led the coaches to any decisions on who might be their top 2 safeties, and I'm guessing that regardless of who ends up starting, they'll begin the year at a higher level then O'Hanlon and Asante did last year.

 

Cheap shot, AND I think those who placed all of the blame on O'Hanlon were wrong. The CB/LB was just as much to blame. Just because one person is close to the person who makes the catch does NOT mean that it was their sole responsibility. Quite to the contrary actually. That person might be trying to correct a coverage mistake by someone else.

 

O'Hanlon and Asante were both VERY good. They won't be easily replaced.

 

Edit: toned down a bit . . .

 

I'm not trying to dump on O'Hanlon, or Asante, and I'm not trying to say that they'll be easily replaced. My point was that while they were "lights out" at the end of the year, they weren't perfect at the beginning of the year (the V-Tech debacle was just the most prominent example of a mistake being made).

 

I also think that if you look at the past, Pelini and Sanders have been able to get a high level of play from inexperienced safeties in a short period of time. In 2003, Pelini's first year as defensive coordinator, the Bullocks brothers had a great year, with Josh Bullocks pulling down 10 or so picks.

 

I also think that when you put O'Hanlon and Asante in perspective, they're not as tough to replace as many safeties Nebraska has had in the past. That's more what I meant when I said not to put them up on a pedestal. Asante went in the lower rounds of the draft, O'Hanlon wasn't drafted, and Nebraska is a school that has had to replace the likes of Mike Minter, Eric Warfield, Tony Veland, Mike Brown, Josh Bullocks, etc etc.

 

Replacing O'Hanlon and Asante will be tough, but I kind of feel like fans are fretting about it just to fret about something. Given the coaching ability and the athletic ability in the defensive backfield, there's absolutely no reason to think that this year's secondary won't be just as good as last year's. It'll probably be better.

[ozThusker]

West very well could be a natural at safety, where he will more often then not be "looking" at the qb towards the wr. At corner his biggest problem was not playing the ball.....not that he wasn't always in position (or other boneheaded things like knocking the wr off his route in v-tech game on big play).

 

Somebody questioned his athleticism, that won't be a problem, in fact he is one of the more athletic guys on the team....has been more mental and technique problems with him in the past. Should be an interesting battle down the stretch.