Recruiting Balance

[dylan]

Right again on all counts. Cam did well for the most part, but didn't demand double teams like baker did. Baker was a big loss. DL and safety have a lot to prove next year. We've got some young talent, let's hope we can coach them up and add a juco DT to the mix

[BigRedBuster]

 

Just because a safety or corner was the last person to whiff on a tackle, does not mean it was their responsibility to make the play. Our DEs didn't get up field enough to push the play inside, and DTs were simply blocked out of play. Our Dline was not good vs. Wiscy. I think the easiest way to sum up my argument is that I believe a star DT would have made greater impact on that game, than a star safety or corner.

 

It is almost impossible to blame a DT for a jet sweep working. They are in a position to do very little with the play. However, I agree with the bolded part. This defensive play has to start with the DE getting up field. After about the 15th time they ran it, our DEs should have been wartching for that little guy starting to run across the field and their first move should have been to get up field as fast as possible. This should have either pushed it back inside or extended it to the side lines so safeties and LBs could help swarm to the ball.

 

It was totally unacceptable that this play worked so many times in one game.

 

I didn't watch much of Rose Bowl but what I did watch had Wisky trying to run this and it not working because Stanford defended it as I desribed above.

 

I continue to be baffled at how our DEs are coached in our scheme.

[girlknowsfootball]

Let's take a look at our defense next year as recruiting stands today...

 

DT

Aaron Curry (injured this year)

Jay Guy (overweight this year)

Thad Randle (Injured this year)

Chase Rome (internal conflict... left team, rejoined, had to reearn respect)

Vincent Valentine (redshirted)

Kevin Williams (injured this year)

...

 

DE

Jason Ankrah

Avery Moss

Greg McMullen

AJ Natter

Randy Gregory

 

LB

David Santos

Zaire Anderson

Trevor Roach

Jared Afalava

Thomas Brown

Michael Rose

Josh Banderas

Courtney Love

Marcus Newby

 

CB/NB

Ciante Evans

Andrew Green

Stanley Jean Baptiste

Corey Cooper

Mohammed Seisay (injured)

Josh Mitchell

Charles Jackson

Daniel Davie

 

S

Harvey Jackson

DJ Singleton

Nathan Gerry

Marcus McWilson

 

You also have a couple of LBers who could move down to Safety ( i.e. Thomas Brown, Marcus Newby) or up to DE (i.e. Max Pirman, Jack Gangwish).

[BigRedBuster]

Well, this right here shows a big part of where our problems were on the D line and none of what you see here anyway had to do with recruiting. Now, I would like to know if any of those injuries are long term or if these guys will be ready for spring ball and competing in the fal?

 

DT

Aaron Curry (injured this year)

Jay Guy (overweight this year)

Thad Randle (Injured this year)

Chase Rome (internal conflict... left team, rejoined, had to reearn respect)

Vincent Valentine (redshirted)

Kevin Williams (injured this year)

 

The rest of the list makes me excited. I believe we have play makers on that roster especially at LB.

[dylan]

Well, this right here shows a big part of where our problems were on the D line and none of what you see here anyway had to do with recruiting. Now, I would like to know if any of those injuries are long term or if these guys will be ready for spring ball and competing in the fal?

 

DT

Aaron Curry (injured this year)

Jay Guy (overweight this year)

Thad Randle (Injured this year)

Chase Rome (internal conflict... left team, rejoined, had to reearn respect)

Vincent Valentine (redshirted)

Kevin Williams (injured this year)

 

 

Bingo. We've been struck by a run of bad luck with injuries at the most important position of a defense. Hard to blame recruiting for that.

 

Curry will be fine, as will valentine. Williams seems to finally be healthy and was limited in putting weight on while injured. A year in the s&c program should help these three significantly.

 

I've given up on guy, and I wonder whether the coaches will, too. The fact that he wasn't an option this season, despite the plague of injuries there says about all you need to know. He just doesn't seem to be able to get himself in football shape.

 

I hope randle's knee can be improved with surgery, but I'm not real hopeful there, either. I think best case is that he continues to be a part time rotational player. Impressed as hell at his effort this year on one leg though.

 

Rome has been decent and was only a sophomore. Hard to think he can't improve.

 

So, I do think there's a need for a juco, to ensure a solid number of bodies in the rotation next year, but we should have four solid options there already, along with whatever randle can give us.

 

The real question for me is whether we can coach up some safeties. 3 and 13 made a lot of mistakes this year. The difference between their play and that of Asante and ohanlon is glaring. I think cj can be a good one and I hope Harvey Jackson can improve. Cooper has shown very little hope to this point, so I hope someone else can make a move.

[BigRedBuster]

I'm not disappointed that we will have different safeties next year.

[HuskerShark]

Regarding that last paragraph, that may have stopped the jet sweeps if we had widened our DEs, but we don't have the LBs that Penn State has to fill the middle, so we just would have been gashed up the middle if that adjustment had been made. We just don't have enough bodies at DT and LB to pull that off.

 

We should have them though, shouldn't we?

 

Hedley, I know you know very little about football, so I will make this simple for you:

 

-Was our defense athletic this year? Very much not.

-Did they meet the standards that we all expect from them? Absolutely not.

-Were they in position to make tackles against UCLA, OSU, and Wisconsin? Yes, almost every time, but they just couldn't get the ball carrier to the ground. I don't know how many times Stafford got schooled, and our corners didn't get off of their blocks.

-Is that a coaching issue? IMO, no. I have no doubt in my mind that Bo and his assistants harp on tackling fundamentals, angles, how to use your hands to get off blocks, etc. IMO, the guys just aren't strong or athletic enough to carry out that task, or have mental lapses on angles.

 

Make no mistake, the staff has been putting in work on the recruiting trail the last 2 or 3 years, and that will really become apparent starting next year on defense IMO and will carry on for the next 4+ years as long as the staff sticks together, keeps doing the behind-the-scenes work, and keep learning and improving.

 

I have high hopes for the future under Bo. I hope you will join me. If not, then keep it to yourself. Everybody is tired of hearing it from you.

[EZ-E]

Regarding that last paragraph, that may have stopped the jet sweeps if we had widened our DEs, but we don't have the LBs that Penn State has to fill the middle, so we just would have been gashed up the middle if that adjustment had been made. We just don't have enough bodies at DT and LB to pull that off.

 

We should have them though, shouldn't we?

 

Hedley, I know you know very little about football, so I will make this simple for you:

 

-Was our defense athletic this year? Very much not.

-Did they meet the standards that we all expect from them? Absolutely not.

-Were they in position to make tackles against UCLA, OSU, and Wisconsin? Yes, almost every time, but they just couldn't get the ball carrier to the ground. I don't know how many times Stafford got schooled, and our corners didn't get off of their blocks.

-Is that a coaching issue? IMO, no. I have no doubt in my mind that Bo and his assistants harp on tackling fundamentals, angles, how to use your hands to get off blocks, etc. IMO, the guys just aren't strong or athletic enough to carry out that task, or have mental lapses on angles.

 

Make no mistake, the staff has been putting in work on the recruiting trail the last 2 or 3 years, and that will really become apparent starting next year on defense IMO and will carry on for the next 4+ years as long as the staff sticks together, keeps doing the behind-the-scenes work, and keep learning and improving.

 

I have high hopes for the future under Bo. I hope you will join me. If not, then keep it to yourself. Everybody is tired of hearing it from you.

 

It's a catch 22. If you widen your DEs out, it exposes you off tackle and in between. Also, if you tell them to tear up field you run the risk of them taking themselves out of the play if the man in motion is just a decoy. I personally believe the best way to stop the play in question is with the safeties.

[HuskerShark]

It's a catch 22. If you widen your DEs out, it exposes you off tackle and in between. Also, if you tell them to tear up field you run the risk of them taking themselves out of the play if the man in motion is just a decoy. I personally believe the best way to stop the play in question is with the safeties.

 

There's always the option of playing a zone defense, but a pure zone isn't in our defensive playbook as far as I have seen in the last 5 years. Bo always refers to his defense as a "match-up zone coverage" scheme, but to me, it's pretty much just a man-to-man defense.

 

And plain and simple, when you play man D, you have to win battles 1-on-1. That requires being equally or more athletic than the other guy, and I just don't believe that we were on defense this year.

[EZ-E]

It's a catch 22. If you widen your DEs out, it exposes you off tackle and in between. Also, if you tell them to tear up field you run the risk of them taking themselves out of the play if the man in motion is just a decoy. I personally believe the best way to stop the play in question is with the safeties.

 

There's always the option of playing a zone defense, but a pure zone isn't in our defensive playbook as far as I have seen in the last 5 years. Bo always refers to his defense as a "match-up zone coverage" scheme, but to me, it's pretty much just a man-to-man defense.

 

And plain and simple, when you play man D, you have to win battles 1-on-1. That requires being equally or more athletic than the other guy, and I just don't believe that we were on defense this year.

 

In my opinion, we were only out-manned at certain spots. 2/3 sometimes only 1/3 of the LBs, and at times one of the corner spots. Stafford is an athletic freak, but lacks a ton of the skill set to play safety for Bo Pelini. I think Gerry has an opportunity to be really go there.