Watson

[zoogs]

Strange, does this thread pop up automatically on your screen? Don't click it? Also, don't try to hijack the thread by acting like we are some kind of moon landing conspirators- The numbers are there on offense.

 

Well, the claim is that Watson is a selfish guy who doesn't credit his players, and that the players saw the press clippings and wonder what the hell is he talking about, since they deserve all the credit.

 

It's pretty close to a moon landing conspiracy.

[huskers1]

Woah there buddy, I never said that this was for a fact happening. I said that I worry that sooner or later, if they keep playing well offensively and wats keeps taking all the credit, players are going to get fed up with it. Also I never once said that the "players deserve all the credit". How about you read the entire post and take it for what it is instead of reading it and paraphrasing it in your own words.

[Hunter94]

Woah there buddy, I never said that this was for a fact happening. I said that I worry that sooner or later, if they keep playing well offensively and wats keeps taking all the credit, players are going to get fed up with it. Also I never once said that the "players deserve all the credit". How about you read the entire post and take it for what it is instead of reading it and paraphrasing it in your own words.

 

 

i think he did read your post....that's at least 2 of us here that made the same mistake....if we think it is bunk, does that mean we are hijacking your thread??......hardly.......moving on.

[huskerscott]

 

Strange, does this thread pop up automatically on your screen? Don't click it? Also, don't try to hijack the thread by acting like we are some kind of moon landing conspirators- The numbers are there on offense. We did have 3 good games so far, but we also did last year(and we all know how that ended up). As the old parable goes, history is known to repeat itself.

 

I have a gut feeling we are headed down that path.

[admo]

"We executed, they stuffed us. We made adjustments and they worked out." You will never hear that from any coach.

 

"We were inconsistent throwing the ball from the pocket with the timing plays, so we adjusted and had Taylor roll out which seemed to work better giving him some open space to operate and utilize his quickness". Wont hear that either.

 

I'd like to, but I dont have a lot of praise for Watson. Keep him in the booth, put him on the sideline. Same result. Go west coast, spread, run it, throw it, use dual QBs, a running back committee, and eventually something will work for that day.... sometimes two games in a row. Then the brick wall. That's not an identity. That's a roll of the dice.

 

Any adjustments that are made seem to bring the same results. So maybe the irritating truth is that the right adjustments are not identified during the course of a game and how to put it in action?

[Jeremy]

If others read this in another thread I'm sorry if I'm being redundant. However I think a problem may be that whether Wats and Bo got together and decided they wanted a run heavy option offense, or Bo told Wats that is what he wanted--"get it for me", I don't know. But it is pretty obvious they don't want to go with the passing game that last year's ship sank on.

 

However, we did not start over and put in an offense based on a power running game with slick option components. Wats simply tweaked his base West Coast Offense and said "now we are a option heavy running team". It doesn't usually work like that. As I mentioned in the other thread, UCLA's coaches decided they needed to get more run performance and decided to go to the Pistol. They scrapped the entire offense they had been running--I don't know what it was probably a pro set. Anyway they went up to nevada and worked with his staff and installed the offense to feature what they wanted to do, from the ground up, working on it in the spring and fall. Judging from the Texas game they are getting better at it.

 

Anyway, I think part of the problem is that what we really did, was take a one dimensional offense from last year which was pretty well shut down (Lee's passing game) when we reached conference play and replace it with a one dimensional running game that is not really slick when compared with option teams like Navy or Airforce or Ga. tech, though they didn't look good this year, they have in the past.

 

Anyway we will know in the next three weeks how successful it is going to be. Those huge playbooks are totally silly. What you need is a team that is so good at the one thing they do that even knowing it, you can't stop them. An example was TT spread against us last year, or Air Force against Oklahoma this year, though they lost, you could tell OU was on their heels. You knew what they were going to do and couldn't stop it. The other way is to be multiple--that is what the Pistol strives for and UCLA stopped throwing when Texas shut that down and ran it right down their throat but still had Tejas respecting the pass. Alabama with a great line and the best back in the country, still has J Jones as a wideout that keeps a D very honest. You load the box, they will kill you.

 

So I could be wrong and we will walk through our last campaign in the big 12 and be in that NCG that many of you are determined we are destined for. But I am afraid we are going to have a hard time repeating that early season success and you don't teach a QB to become a skilled passer/decision maker in a couple weeks. Without it, we will be much like KSU and their all american back and poor throwing QB.

 

Agreed. The next 3 weeks will define Watson as an Offensive Coordinator here at Nebraska. Forgetting everything else he's done, this will absolutely be the tipping point for our offense, no matter who is lining up on D. When one hears that future defenses have a blueprint on how to stop Martinez by having TWO spies, one might think - "Crap, there goes the season. Martinez is the reason we're explosive."

 

Wrong. Any offensive coordinator worth a darn LOVES to hear that there is a spy on his QB, because there will DEFINITELY be receivers open. Martinez can throw it, and it's Watson's job to make sure he knows where they will be, and where to throw it. Play action off the zone read should be money across the middle to McNeil, Paul, and Kinnie if the defense is going to sacrifice coverage for simply standing there looking at our QB.

[bshirt]

If others read this in another thread I'm sorry if I'm being redundant. However I think a problem may be that whether Wats and Bo got together and decided they wanted a run heavy option offense, or Bo told Wats that is what he wanted--"get it for me", I don't know. But it is pretty obvious they don't want to go with the passing game that last year's ship sank on.

 

However, we did not start over and put in an offense based on a power running game with slick option components. Wats simply tweaked his base West Coast Offense and said "now we are a option heavy running team". It doesn't usually work like that. As I mentioned in the other thread, UCLA's coaches decided they needed to get more run performance and decided to go to the Pistol. They scrapped the entire offense they had been running--I don't know what it was probably a pro set. Anyway they went up to nevada and worked with his staff and installed the offense to feature what they wanted to do, from the ground up, working on it in the spring and fall. Judging from the Texas game they are getting better at it.

 

Anyway, I think part of the problem is that what we really did, was take a one dimensional offense from last year which was pretty well shut down (Lee's passing game) when we reached conference play and replace it with a one dimensional running game that is not really slick when compared with option teams like Navy or Airforce or Ga. tech, though they didn't look good this year, they have in the past.

 

Anyway we will know in the next three weeks how successful it is going to be. Those huge playbooks are totally silly. What you need is a team that is so good at the one thing they do that even knowing it, you can't stop them. An example was TT spread against us last year, or Air Force against Oklahoma this year, though they lost, you could tell OU was on their heels. You knew what they were going to do and couldn't stop it. The other way is to be multiple--that is what the Pistol strives for and UCLA stopped throwing when Texas shut that down and ran it right down their throat but still had Tejas respecting the pass. Alabama with a great line and the best back in the country, still has J Jones as a wideout that keeps a D very honest. You load the box, they will kill you.

 

So I could be wrong and we will walk through our last campaign in the big 12 and be in that NCG that many of you are determined we are destined for. But I am afraid we are going to have a hard time repeating that early season success and you don't teach a QB to become a skilled passer/decision maker in a couple weeks. Without it, we will be much like KSU and their all american back and poor throwing QB.

 

Simply a GREAT post that nails it.

 

I agree 100% that we're essentially just tweaking the WCO. We still have no real power running game and anything more than 3rd & 1 is a pass play. We're trying to make our rocket ship qb a Dan Fouts just like last year watching Z. Lee running the option (painful!!).

 

We're still a "jack of all trades and master of none" offense with no identity whatsoever.

[Enhance]

The thing that irritates me about Watson is one week he can call a helluva a game. The next week it's so bland and stupid it's confusing and sickening. I'm not a Watson fan, never have been, but I'll support him since he's a coach here.

I've heard, from various places/sources, that the game plan was pretty challenging this week in order to keep the team more focused. If this is in fact true, then it explains a lot.

 

Doing too much has always been Watson's downfall. Yet, we see when he makes things easy to understand for his offense, they excel.

[gratefullred]

Did Watson get stupid in one week?

[bshirt]

Did Watson get stupid in one week?

 

No, he's still the genius he was all last year.

[PaulCrewe]

We can b1tch and moan all we want about Wats' playcalling but it still comes down to execution. When our OLine cannot move a severely undersized SDSU front four more than two yards off the line, success of any play is at a minimum no matter the opponent.

So my question on the whole offensive performance is this. Are we getting the smoke and mirrors job from old Barney? Seriously, there have been moments this year where the line looks great, but there have also been a lot of instances of inconsistancy. Every game has had a couple of lapses, but Saturday was one 60 minute exhibition of sloppiness and WTF moments involving the "pipeline"

[Pedro Guerrero]

We can b1tch and moan all we want about Wats' playcalling but it still comes down to execution. When our OLine cannot move a severely undersized SDSU front four more than two yards off the line, success of any play is at a minimum no matter the opponent.

So my question on the whole offensive performance is this. Are we getting the smoke and mirrors job from old Barney? Seriously, there have been moments this year where the line looks great, but there have also been a lot of instances of inconsistancy. Every game has had a couple of lapses, but Saturday was one 60 minute exhibition of sloppiness and WTF moments involving the "pipeline"

 

Barney gets a pass with some because he is a Nebraska guy and Watson gets more blame by some because he was brought in by Billy C. It is what it is.

[huskers1]

I actually don't have a problem at all with the offense we are running this year. In fact, I really enjoy it and think it's the exact offense we should be running. I'm not really a watson fan when it comes right down to it but it's not his fault that Martinez would throw the ball yards away from the receiver. There was a lot of bashing, with good reason, for Callahan for forcing his system on players that couldn't run it, or the past few years w/ Rodriguez but at least they have a true system. It seems like Wats doesn't have a system at all. It's just whatever he thinks will work that year is what it seems. In the past three years we have gone from a west coast offense to a split west coast to power running to a true spread option running team. I know Bo likes the fact that he can adapt to his players strengths but give me a coordinator that has "his scheme".

[PaulCrewe]

We can b1tch and moan all we want about Wats' playcalling but it still comes down to execution. When our OLine cannot move a severely undersized SDSU front four more than two yards off the line, success of any play is at a minimum no matter the opponent.

So my question on the whole offensive performance is this. Are we getting the smoke and mirrors job from old Barney? Seriously, there have been moments this year where the line looks great, but there have also been a lot of instances of inconsistancy. Every game has had a couple of lapses, but Saturday was one 60 minute exhibition of sloppiness and WTF moments involving the "pipeline"

 

Barney gets a pass with some because he is a Nebraska guy and Watson gets more blame by some because he was brought in by Billy C. It is what it is.

 

I hear what you are saying on the pass. To me it is straight BS. Never liked the hire when Bo made it. Thought he was terrible in the Solich years, and think that he hasn't improved to this day. I have friends that were at Iowa State when he was over there and they couldn't believe he got a Division I job again.

Now I am hoping that he can prove me wrong and serve me that big ol plate of crow, but the whole pass thing doesn't cut it for this guy. The talent and depth is there so earn that fat paycheck Barn.

[irafreak]

It is amazing how long this thread is. This Watson topic just never gets old. Even the ones that say it does are still interested enough to post...