I'm officially not worried about our offense next year

[bigg10]

Also I would not underestimate competition. When a player even thinks he has the possibility of being replaced and sliding in the depth chart they either tend to slide or step it up to maintain that position. Recruiting good players plays a big role in that process. I also think Qb is the hardest job to have as a freshman, T-mart will have some work to do, so the question is... 1 is he up to it, putting in the time while maintaing grades and such, 2 does he have any more talent to offer up.

[lionsfan93]

Its too much to ask for all of those recruits to come in and make an immediate impact on the D1 level. Especially the QB's and RB's.

I strongly disagree...yes some are not ready. But what about players like Pat White or Colt McCoy and on the RB side LaMichael or someone called Rex Burkehead. I'd say they all did a pretty good job. It just takes a special player to come in and make an impact. We have a few players that I think can be these kind of special players.

 

Colt McCoy sat on the sidelines for a year. Big difference.

For some reason I was thinking that he started all four years. And I'd say that Landry Jones did a pretty good job last year filling in.

[husker_99]

Its too much to ask for all of those recruits to come in and make an immediate impact on the D1 level. Especially the QB's and RB's.

I strongly disagree...yes some are not ready. But what about players like Pat White or Colt McCoy and on the RB side LaMichael or someone called Rex Burkehead. I'd say they all did a pretty good job. It just takes a special player to come in and make an impact. We have a few players that I think can be these kind of special players.

 

Colt McCoy sat on the sidelines for a year. Big difference.

For some reason I was thinking that he started all four years. And I'd say that Landry Jones did a pretty good job last year filling in.

 

He did start 4 years but i believe you can get an extra year if you get redshirted for freshman year or if you don't play a year it doesn't count against eligibility.

[Hercules]

 

If Martinez was a good passer we would've won the last 3 games we lost. A good passing qb can take enough pressure off so the rb's can do their job. You can't have a qb shuffle otherwise you have no consistency when one qb gets injured. Our offense changing has to do with the coaching staff who obviously can't coach(offense). Green still being raw as he is is on the coaches. the last thing that doesn't need to happen is have an offense that relies on the qb for most of the offense. I don't want see another Crouch qb or offense. The best offense is a balanced attack. When you can only do one you get screwed cause the defense can just call plays for either running or passing.

 

If Martinez was as good of a passing QB as he was a running QB (and as bad of running QB as he was a passing QB), then we wouldn't have been able to get our running game going, and that would have hurt our passing game anyways.

 

Every team wants to have a balanced attack, but different teams have to create balance in different ways. The best passing QB we've been able to get to Nebraska in the last 30 years is Zac Taylor. Good guy, but given the talent we've been bringing in for the rest of the offense, we'd need someone a lot better than Zac Taylor to lift the offense to a national title contender. Sure, we used to get RBs like Ahman Green and Mike Rozier and Lawrence Phillips, but that was because we were a run-heavy offense who would give those guys 20-30 touches per game. When that went away, we started getting guys like Marlon Lucky, instead of Mark Ingram or Lamichael James or Adrian Peterson.

 

On the other hand, Nebraska in the past has been able to get guys more like Taylor Martinez (Frazier, Crouch, Gill, Frost, Steve Taylor...) Those great offenses created balance through a devastating run game that opened up the passing game. Those offenses were every bit as difficult to defend as any pro-style balanced attack.

 

A big reason that Nebraska football had so much success in the past was because it was so different from other programs, it had a niche. Lincoln is really cold in the winter and really hot in the summer and there's not that much about it that is appealing to most high school recruits. Lately, when a recruit commits, you hear them talk about Christian fellowship as much as they talk about football, which isn't surprising because that Christian fellowship makes Nebraska unique.

 

But when it comes to football in the present day, what's our niche? Right now, it's Christian fellowship, and it's having the best defensive coaching staff in college football. The offense hasn't had a niche since the Solich era. From 2004-2007 we were just another WCO in a college football landscape dominated by USC. In 2008, we were just another Big 12 spread offense, secondary to Oklahoma, Texas, Texas Tech, Missouri, and only equal to a team like Kansas. In 2009, well let's not even go there.

 

In 2010, we ran the spread option, and while we were healthy we saw more success in that scheme than any since the Osborne era. We had a lightning fast QB that made the offense work, and the only reason we got him in the first place was because we were actually willing to try him at QB (sound familiar, Tommie Frazier?).

 

Now, this spread option scheme is less unique than Osborne's offense was, but it's still a better fit for Nebraska's identity than the pro-style or west coast offensive sets. I hear people talk about how they want to be like Wisconsin or like Stanford. The problem is, they're Wisconsin and Stanford, they've already got that covered. We don't have Andrew Luck, and the Big 10 country smash-mouth RBs don't see Nebraska as RB U anymore, that's Wisconsin.

 

(BTW, it doesn't strike anybody else as weird that Barry Alvarez built the Wisconsin program to model old-school Nebraska, and that Wisconsin has reached new levels of success only after Nebraska basically sacrificed their identity with the hiring of Callahan and the West Coast offense? And now some of the Nebraska fans who were for the West coast offense to begin with want to move to a Wisconsin model???!!!)

 

Anyways, with the spread option, we still have to compete for recruits with programs like Oregon, who have clearly established themselves (again, partially thanks to us searching in the wilderness for an identity for the past 6 years. Remember back when we had Eric Crouch and they had Joey Harrington?). But that offensive style is still more unique than pro-style offenses or west coast offenses, it's more closely related to what made us great in the first place, and there are a higher number of elite running QBs out there to be had compared to the number of elite passing QBs.

[Hunter94]

If Martinez was as good of a passing QB as he was a running QB, then we wouldn't have been able to get our running game going, and that would have hurt our passing game anyways.

 

 

 

[Hercules]

If Martinez was as good of a passing QB as he was a running QB, then we wouldn't have been able to get our running game going, and that would have hurt our passing game anyways.

 

 

 

 

yeah, that was written wrong... fixed it.

[Suhness]

So we're going to see Starling, Martinez, and Burkhead in the I? That would throw some D's off.

[huskerscott]

So we're going to see Starling, Martinez, and Burkhead in the I? That would throw some D's off.

Not really.

[da skers]

Its too much to ask for all of those recruits to come in and make an immediate impact on the D1 level. Especially the QB's and RB's.

 

Is it? Many players play as true freshman these days, and contribute immediately. The QBs I expect to redshirt if all goes well (I expect Martinez #1, Carnes #2, Green #3), and only see the field in a true emergency. For the RBs, however, I expect to Green to play extensively, and unless someone steps up, Abdullah as well. OL, I don't expect any of them except perhaps Moore to see the field their freshman year. But once again, I'm not saying that these new players will be the saving grace of our offense. The saving grace will be picking a system (spread run) and sticking to it, making it easier for each position to practice and perfect their schemes.

I'm not syaing they wont play, but play and make enough of an impact to generate some better offensive production? Hard for a 18 year old kid to come in learn the system, and get up to game speed. This wont be highschool football anymore, this will be BIG 10 football. IMO.

 

That's fair. We have no idea if they will be effective at the college level yet. But the spread run system is something that is quite prevalent at the high school level, and our system isn't too dissimilar. For most kids that we recruit, this won't be a complete reconstruction of their football experience, just building more wrinkles into it. On top of that, RBs in a spread run system are not required to make very many reads, as all of that falls on the QB's shoulders. The RB just has to know which hole he should aim for, and then take the ball if he gets it. From high school to college to the NFL, RB is one of the easiest positions to jump right in to. I am confident that Green, at least, will have a productive year in 2011 in a backup role. Abdullah is more of a question, as his last reported weight is much lower than Green's, and he may need some time to fill out to ~190lbs.

Actually our offense is nothing like the ones they are running in high school. We are using west coast principles and terminology along with receiver routes etc and trying to mesh them in with some spread and zone read option. We are way too complex in terminology, blocking schemes and receiver routes and the WCO principles while about timing aren't similar to a zone read option.

 

Look for the playbook to change this spring and go to something much more simple and similar to whats run at the high school level so we can have more impact from new recruits at positions such as RB, wide out and the Qb spots. There is really no reason at the college level there is a freshman or sophomore lineman starting unless he is a freak of nature.

[The Dude]

Whenever I start felling good about next year, I remember one thing:

 

[walksalone]

Worried, skeptical, doubtful...

 

Yeah, I'm going to be all these things until we play Ohio St. We're not going to be able to judge what we've got until we play a formidable opponent. If you think we're going to be able to evaluate the offense after we dismantle St Mary's School for the Blind, aka Tenn-Chattanooga, then you may not like what you see.

[Blaze1up]

I'm worried if we have another fumble prone injury plagued TMart with no running game but I doubt it. We also need a few wideouts to shine.

[VectorVictor]

Whenever I start felling good about next year, I remember one thing:

 

 

El Duderino--

 

I couldn't agree more. However, since Bo is the bartender making the White Russians here, I'll abide.

[billdozer15]

I'm officialy worried about the offense next year due to the fact that some of us have already forgotten what a disaster this offense has been the last two years. I'm convinced that previous behavior is an indicator of future results and judging by Shawn Watsons career this doesnt bode well for us. SW is trying to run an offense he knows nothing about. Only making things worse is the imbisules that we have for an Oline and WR coach and things are never going to get better. Its funny to see how fast people put their heads in the sand. Now I know why this country is in the mess that is, but thats for a different thread.

[74Hunter]

Come on now, everyone knows that any competent OC would install two schemes at once every year for different quarterbacks

No, he just needs to install an offense that any of the qbs on the roster can run, and call plays that fit the strengths of the players asked to run the plays.