What is Our Offensive Identity?

[Guy Chamberlin]

Why is this important to some of you?

 

Do other teams have an offensive identity? Or do they just have a good offense?

 

Stanford has a Heisman caliber pro-set quarterback. They are Andrew Luck's team. But he is passing less because they are running better. Is this messing with their offensive identity?

 

Wisconsin has an offense that can run and pass. So do most good teams. Should they make up their mind and choose, so they can have an "identity"?

 

If they called it a "hybrid" instead of a "muttt" would you feel better? And which part of rushing for 300 yards and passing for 150 yards feels bad?

 

Or is it possible that every coach in football likes having an offense that can do a lot of things, in order to exploit the different defensive weakness you encounter week to week. Maybe even surprise a defensive coordinator who thinks he has your "offensive identity" figured out.

 

Most of the people saying they wish we had an offensive identity seem to be wishing we'd declare our intent to run Burkhead between the tackles the whole game, and avoid those scary forward passes the fancy schools dabble in.

 

You know what we have right now? A fun, but imperfect offense of young players getting better as the season goes along.

 

Enjoy it.

[Loaded For Bear]

Running the football, being opportunistic with the downfield passing game, and being physical. We don't have a tag on our scheme identity, but the identity of our offense is being physical.

[bshirt]

Well, for me having an "identity" means there's a core set of plays/schemes we practice for, recruit for, develop for and practice some more. This with time results in excellence with those plays/schemes on the playing field.

 

It's easy to just say "be good at anything & be happy" but it's just not that simple unless you have an overwhelming talent edge (that we don't have). Cfb is severely regulated for practice time which imo reinforces the need for an "identity". We need something we know we can do well during the heat of a strongly contested game.

 

Hopefully Beck is working toward that. With this being his 1st year of course he's exploring different things but I hope he'll make some decisions on what we'll strive for when this season ends.

 

GBR!!

[kchusker_chris]

^ as bshirt said, this is very important from a recruiting standpoint. you think Okie State has any trouble finding receivers, or Alabama, or Tech? Those schools' offensive identity breeds big play receivers, and therefore plenty want to go there. Oregon gets the speedy running backs. Wisconsin gets the giant, hardworking OL recruits. Texas the top QBs, etc. It's not so much an identity, but the ability to look at your team historically and tell a recruit - based on what we do - here is why you will excel in our offense. Here's why you'll put up big numbers. Here's why you'll have a great case to be playing on Sundays.

 

If we drastically change every year, then it becomes a much harder sell. What dual-threat guy wants to go to Michigan/Notre Dame now that the coaching has changed and the identify with it. Whereas in the BC era our identify allowed us to recruit (and almost land) the top passing QBs in the country, Nebraska can now use our identify to recruit top dual threat QBs...but we wouldn't stand a chance getting a passing QB now.

 

To me it's especially important when we don't have a guy down the middle - under center. Taylor is heavily weighted to the "running" side of the position. We can't be a "mutt" team because we can only execute at about 50% efficiency on the second component. If we operate at 100% efficiency being phyisical and running the ball, yet only operate at 50% passing, what do you think our identity should be? Probably a physical ground attack, with just enough passing mixed in to ensure we can maintain that 100% efficiency on the ground.

 

it all comes down to being great at a core set of plays, versus just being good at a larger set.

[HuskerShark]

You can go back and look at championship teams in every sport (NCAAFB, NCAABB, NBA, NFL). Almost every legendary team has a select set of 5-10 plays that they are extremely good at running. For some teams, it is 2 or 3. This is their bread and butter that they resort to when the game is on the line and they need a score. This is the thing that they know they can use in order to move the ball on anybody in the country. I think the difference between this year and previous years is that Tim Beck recognizes the need for an identity and generally calls plays accordingly. He also realizes that in order for our bread and butter (power running plays with Rex) to be effective, we must keep the defense off-balance and mix some passing plays in. I have been very pleased with how Beck has run the OC position, and I also think that Rich Fisher was a guy that has proved Bo right, as our receiver play is as good as I have ever seen it.

 

Here's to the last 5 games of the year, hoping that we finish strong! GBR!!

[zoogs]

Zone read was our bread and butter last year, and yet we didn't have an identity?

 

I think it's a playcalling thing more than that. Beck I think has a bit of a sequential style and it seems more suited for the type of offense we are running. As well as a much improved Taylor that has been useful in the passing game.

[Hercules]

I thought the team last year had an identity, but we lost it once Taylor was hurt.

 

I think the team this year has an identity, just because it doesn't have a name like "spread option" or "west coast doesn't mean that it's not there.

[NUance]

 

"The Mutt." m151-mutt jeep. Not pretty. But it'll get you where you want to go. Hopefully, into the endzone.

[Guy Chamberlin]

I just don't think many teams have an offensive identity that is particularly binding or useful.

 

And no matter who you are, you will be recruiting running backs who can block, wide-receivers who can get open, big strong offensive linemen, and quarterbacks who know how to lead as well as pass. You'll likely have very different players on the same team, like Frazier and Berringer, and an offensive coordinator who will play to their strengths as needed. Last year we decided our "identity" was the zone read when we realized our freshman quarterback could hit the opening with crazy speed. When dared to pass against Okie State he threw for 5 touchdowns. When dared to neither run nor pass, he handed it off to Helu for 300 yards. When injured (and spooked) it all fell apart.

 

You need to get pretty specific with your pipeline if you're running a triple option like Osborne did the last half of his career. But that's really the anomaly. And the quarterbacks who never learned to throw out of the pocket, and o-linemen who had little experience with pass protection didn't translate as well into pro careers. I think that's one reason most programs don't run a college-only style offense.

 

With this I've written my 500th post on HuskerBoard.com. I think that means I get promoted to something.

[NUance]

With this I've written my 500th post on HuskerBoard.com. I think that means I get promoted to something.

You need one more post.

[flatwaterfan]

I think you need an offensive identity to recruit too. For instance if your a running team you may want to recruit more run blockers than pass blockers. If your a power team you might be recruiting FB's. etc

 

 

Can the word philosophy and identity be interchanged? My preference for an offensive identity is run based with play action passing. I want 70-30 run/pass ratio.

 

I don't know what our offensive identity at this point is. I don't think they have one.

[bshirt]

I think you need an offensive identity to recruit too. For instance if your a running team you may want to recruit more run blockers than pass blockers. If your a power team you might be recruiting FB's. etc

 

 

Can the word philosophy and identity be interchanged? My preference for an offensive identity is run based with play action passing. I want 70-30 run/pass ratio.

 

I don't know what our offensive identity at this point is. I don't think they have one.

 

I don't think we do either. But for now, that's ok. Beck will continue to play around with it and that's all to the good. I'd just like to see a decision made after this year if possible.

 

GBR!!

[HuskerShark]

I think you need an offensive identity to recruit too. For instance if your a running team you may want to recruit more run blockers than pass blockers. If your a power team you might be recruiting FB's. etc

 

 

Can the word philosophy and identity be interchanged? My preference for an offensive identity is run based with play action passing. I want 70-30 run/pass ratio.

 

I don't know what our offensive identity at this point is. I don't think they have one.

 

I don't think we do either. But for now, that's ok. Beck will continue to play around with it and that's all to the good. I'd just like to see a decision made after this year if possible.

 

GBR!!

 

The decision has been made. That was the buzz with the recruits that we hauled in last year. Pelini let them know that we are headed toward a diverse offense much like Oregon's that creates explosive plays by getting speedy guys in space and use of a mobile QB who also fits this mold. I think that our recent recruits show this: Kenny Bell, Jamal Turner, Aaron Green, Braylon Heard, Ameer Abdullah, etc.

 

So basically, Oregon's offense with more emphasis on power running is where we are trying to get to.

[Blackshirt39]

Our offense needs to focus on finishing drives. We stall out in the red zone way too often.

[HuskerBCS]

I just don't think many teams have an offensive identity that is particularly binding or useful.

 

I don't think this could be farther from the truth. The good offenses most certainly do.

 

Having an offensive identity allows you to rely on a certain aspect of the game under pressure, when the game is on the line.

 

I remember Osborne saying they would practice a handful of plays every single day in practice. They would practice these plays until they could run them in their sleep. They were their bread and butter plays. When the game was close and you had to put a drive together, these were the plays you would rely on. They had the utmost confidence that these plays would work. That was their offensive identity.

 

When I hear offensive coordinators and head coaches say that they are going to "take what the defense gives them," I just shake my head. This philosophy really boggles my mind. They are basically saying that we are going to change how we run our offense each and every week based on the opposing teams defense.

 

We were so good in the 90's because we never changed our offensive philosophy. We didn't "take what the defense gives." We had an offensive identity that our opponents had to prepare differently for. We were unique. We did what we wanted on offense and forced the defense to react to us, not the other way around.