If Callahan leaves,what next?

[formerfan]

Like I have stated earlier, we are between a rock and a hardplace thanks to pud. He fired a pretty successful coach after a pretty decent season

That's why the change needed to be made. So we weren't 'pretty good' forever. Now at least we have a chance for talented kids to come in to get us back to being great, unlike what we had when Frank and Co were here.

IMO, being a pretty good 10-3 is better than a "great 5-6" and getting dominated by Kansas.

 

But thats just me.....

[TheKiD]

or maybe having a run/pass balance on offense and a good defense wins championships... you can't really get anywhere any more being 1-dimensional..

 

BUT DUDE, why could you not have just posted this in the existing thread rather than starting another one?

[formerfan]

You don't necessarily need a Vince Young or Brad Smith to run the spread. Utah had great success with Alex Smith. He's not nearly as fast as those guys, but he has decent speed. He doesn't have as strong of an arm as those guys either. He was extremely accurate on his passes and was very smart. I think that is more importand than blazing speed. Granted, you can't be Dan Marino and run the spread option, but I feel accuracy and good decision-making are more important than blazing speed (as long as you are reasonably fast.

 

If anyone cares anymore, here are those numbers I worked up last night. I know Nameless asked to see them.

 

Top 25 rushing teams that aren't ranked:

 

Team/Scoring/Total Defense

Minnesota 12 65

Navy 27 33

Memphis 58 101

Air Force 46 98

California 13 50

La-Lafayette 81 84

Texas A&M 26 105

Toledo 13 20

USF 56 24

Boise St. 8 52

Wash St. 19 109

Mich St. 11 90

New Mexico 38 61

Ark. St. 54 76

Rice 97 113

Wake Forest 70 63

Mizzou 36 59

Louisville 4 30

Ohio 91 108

 

Average 40 71

 

Top 25 rushing teams that are ranked:

 

Texas 2 6

USC 1 41

Alabama 74 3

Penn St. 15 14

Auburn 17 9

West Virginia 42 4

 

Average 25 13

You make a great point. NU was done and TOs offense was "outdated" in the 80's/early 90's. Then low and behold NU changes its defensive philosophy to the 4-3, and getting SPEED on the field, then NU was able to compete with the Miami's, FSU's, Florida's, Texas's, and Tennessee's of the football world, screw the offense.

 

Thats one problem with cozgroovy's scheme: he doesnt get speed players into his system, thats why I dont think he will ever be successful at NU.

[rink6670]

LOL... I was afraid the other thread was so long, noone would read my response.

 

I agree - balance is key on offense, but I believe in a strong run game.

[Pedro Guerrero]

Seven of the Top 25 passing yardage per game teams are ranked. Texas Tech, USC, Notre Dame, UCLA, Oregon, Florida State, and Louisville. They 1,4,5,8,11,12, & 21. It's amazing how USC finds ways to do both running and passing. Give me a balanced attack any day of the week.

 

You can add Northwestern in there also they are ranked in the AP poll. Their passing offense is 7th. I guess that makes 8 out of 25.

[Utah_Husker]

I noticed that about USC as well. Unbelievable athletes on that team. But I still think they'll lose to Texas, if they don't lose to Cal on Saturday. They are 1-2 in scoring offense, but Texas's defense is 6 and USC's is 41.

[junior4949]

I noticed that about USC as well. Unbelievable athletes on that team. But I still think they'll lose to Texas, if they don't lose to Cal on Saturday. They are 1-2 in scoring offense, but Texas's defense is 6 and USC's is 41.

I hope you're wrong. I can't stand the thought of Texas winning the NC much less pitiful Mack winning one. I hope USC rolls them worse than they did OU a year ago. Normally, I don't root against the Big 12 in the bowl games. However, this year I just can't stand the thought of Texas winning.

[DaveH]

It worked pretty good in 01, if I remember right?? (Crouch won a few awards, Rose Bowl)

I don't think I would call that the option. Sure NU ran the option play, but it was the Eric Crouch show.

[NamelessHusker]

Utah_Husker said:

The point of your whole post was basically that you can't be dominantly running team and have sustained success because of the way college football has changed in the 21st century, correct? You gave a list of the top 25 rushing teams and pointed out that they are not ranked, insinuating that the reason is because of their rushing offense. I merely came back with a different interpretaion of the data. The unranked teams in the top 25 in rushing do indeed average 40th in the nation in scoring. I put those numbers together right before I left work, so I don't have them in front of me. But I'll send them to you tomorrow if you want it all detailed.

I merely noticed that more than one of the teams that you listed as not being in the top 25 because of a run-based offense has a piss-poor defense...so I decided to follow up and see if they all did. There were some exceptions, but as I said, averaging 71st is not good.

This isn't meant to be an argument to bring the option back to Nebraska. I just disagree with your opinion about rushing offenses. I think the primary reason those teams are unranked is that their defenses just aren't good.

 

The unranked teams in the top 25 in rushing do indeed average 40th in the nation in scoring

I still stand by it and the stats points towards it. Lets take a look at the unranked teams and which conferences they play in

 

Conf USA (4): Memphis, Ohio, Toledo, Rice

Sun Belt (2): La Lafeyette, Arkansas St

MWC (2): Airforce, New Mexico

WAC (1): Boise St

Independents (1): Navy

Big 10: Minnesota, Mich St

PAC10: Cal, Wash St

Big12: Texas A&M, Missouri

Big East: USF, Louisville

ACC: Wake Forest

 

10 of those 19 teams are from the weaker conferences where you can afford to run on your opposition because the talent level is just flat out horrible. Missouri alone would torch every single one of those non BCS conference teams. Lets look at the remaining teams.

 

Texas A&M: 5-4

Missouri: 5-4

Michigan St: 5-4

Washington St: 3-6

Wake Forest: 4-6

USF: 4-3

Louisville: 6-2

Cal: 6-3

Minnesota: 6-3

 

Texas A&M, Missouri and Michigan St are hanging on by a thread to become bowl eligible. Wash St, Wake Forest is Eliminated, and USF is fighting for bowl eligibility. That's 3 teams out of 9 from BCS conferences that rely heavily on a rushing offense.

 

And to counter your second point, what does a team's defense have to do with the offense rushing the ball???? The logical thing would be " you pass more because you are getting behind" but these teams still continue to rush, rush and then rush some more. Case in point Missouri which kept rushing against Colorado, even though it was down. Or another case is Wake Forest which became stubborn and tried to rush, even though they couldn't against NU. You know why they couldn't rush? Because they didn't have any passing threat, and neither did Missouri against Colorado or Kansas.

 

Again i ask, where are teams like Michigan, Ohio St, UCLA, Colorado, Oklahoma, FLorida St, Miami, and Florida which all rush the ball and have good defenses? People keep saying Urban is running a spread option. That means running the ball, yet they are nowhere in the top 25 of rushing teams. They aren't there because they have BALANCE

[bigredhusker427]

Anyone who thinks the option is dead needs to wake up and smell the coffee. read Scott Frost's post on the link in another thread.

[DJR313]

Anyone who thinks the option is dead needs to wake up and smell the coffee. read Scott Frost's post on the link in another thread.

I read it, I didn't see the connection to the option.

 

I don't see the option as being outdated, it's a great style of play that, when executed well, can really exploit a defense. The problem is, that kids these days don't really seem all that jazzed about playing in a triple option offense, they wanna play what is gonna get them to the next level. This type of thinking has deep seeds, private quarterback coaches for kids in junior high, other things of this nature. I think, that the triple option offense, as we know it, is in hibernation and may appear on the big stage again. At the same time, new philosophies are incorporating in different ways such as the way Urban Meyer kind of tossed it into the mix with his spread offense and many others are following suit.

 

A balanced attack is important, to an extent. I think that teams can get away with a 65/35 run to pass ratio by making up for it with a high efficiency passing game. If your QB is hitting 65-70% on his throws, then that will draw attention, even if it is not the focal point of the offense. Or the other way around(65/35 pass to run ratio). Utah and Louisville ran incredibly efficient offenses last season, passed for a high percentage, had a high yards/carry average. Utah was undefeated, Louisville had 1 loss. Both these teams used the option to some extent. Both were fun to watch and difficult to defend.

[roadrat]

I don't think we need a return to the option. Get in the dam I-formation and run 49-pitch or whatever the play was called that worked for 25 yrs and still works today. Maybe it's time Callahan goes on a trip and learns something new.

[NamelessHusker]

Utah and Louisville ran incredibly efficient offenses last season, passed for a high percentage, had a high yards/carry average. Utah was undefeated, Louisville had 1 loss. Both these teams used the option to some extent. Both were fun to watch and difficult to defend

 

IMHO, i am not ready to deem Urban's offense succesful just yet. The SEC is down this year. Who would have thunk it that the BIG10 would be the high scoring conference rather then the SEC this year. The SEC is not what it was a couple of years ago. You have a struggling Tennessee team, a South Carolina and Ole Miss teams with new head coaches. An Arkansas and Kentucky teams that are worse then Baylor. A Vandy team on a 5 game losing streak and almost beat Florida last weekend (they lost 49-42). A Miss St team still trying to find it's identity under Croom. Florida hasn't played anyone, unless you want to count Wyoming, La Tech, Kentucky, and Mississippi St as quality wins. Urban Meyer will end up 7-4 after losing the next 2 games and will likely end up in a bowl game against an ACC team like Vtech or a PAC10 team like UCLA and finish 7-5

 

Louisville played in Conference USA last year, so i wouldn't say they had much opposition in that conference other then So Miss. South Florida exposed them this year when they blew them out 45-14. But then again, the Big East conference blows as well with the likes of Rutgers, Cincinatti, Connecticut, South Florida and Syracuse.

[DJR313]

Louisville played in Conference USA last year, so i wouldn't say they had much opposition in that conference other then So Miss. South Florida exposed them this year when they blew them out 45-14. But then again, the Big East conference blows as well with the likes of Rutgers, Cincinatti, Connecticut, South Florida and Syracuse.

I don't buy it. Last season Louisville manhandled Miami and should have beat them. Put up 38 points and over 500 yards. A defense that finished in the top 10 in scoring defense.

 

This season against WV's top 10 rated defense, they put up 44 on them and close to 500 yards. Pitt's defense is in the top 25 and Louisville put up 42 pts and 470 yards. North Carolina also has a pretty decent defense and Louisville hung 69 on em.

 

Louisville's offense has been "slowed" by one team this season and that is South Florida. Louisville put up almost 500 yards of offense on them, but had 15 penalties and 3 turnovers which killed them.

 

I think Louisville is pretty solid on offense.

 

 

 

IMHO, i am not ready to deem Urban's offense succesful just yet. The SEC is down this year. Who would have thunk it that the BIG10 would be the high scoring conference rather then the SEC this year. The SEC is not what it was a couple of years ago. You have a struggling Tennessee team, a South Carolina and Ole Miss teams with new head coaches. An Arkansas and Kentucky teams that are worse then Baylor. A  Vandy team on a 5 game losing streak and almost beat Florida last weekend (they lost 49-42). A Miss St team still trying to find it's identity under Croom. Florida hasn't played anyone, unless you want to count Wyoming, La Tech,  Kentucky, and Mississippi St  as quality wins.

 

You are correct, defense, inept offense and ugly games have been a trend in many SEC matchups this season. However, last season, Utah absolutely shredded North Carolina, Texas A&M and Pitt with that offense. At Florida, it is still a work in progress, but last week they scored 49 points. Who knows what is happening down there, but it seemed to work last year with a heady QB like Alex Smith running the show.