Spring Game discussion

[lo country]

Appreciate the info. Great stuff. I know it's spring and all, but the fact that the fundamentals appear sound speaks volumes of where we were at the past few years....

[Stumpy1]

Avery Roberts is going to be a special player for us in the middle. He was swimming in it today but you can tell he has the "it" factor.

[EmeraldIngot]

Could our scout team beat Purdue? (Lol i know) but Gebbia and Rose isnt a bad backfield for a scout team

With the way Gebbia, Mazour, and Rose played today, I don't doubt it. Provided we put the 1st string D out there.

[Hoosker]

Lee, Gebbia, Spielman, Gifford, Bryant were the ones who stood out after my initial viewing.

 

POB seems like the odd man out at QB for now. Gebbia looked awfully impressive at times against the 1st string.

 

Spielman is going to be a good one. He looks like he's going to get quite a few YAC during his time here.

 

I like our options at RB too. All 3 looked good. And no surprise, but Mazour is going to get some meaningful touches this year. He's too tough and shifty not to.

[Making Chimichangas]

I missed the spring game

 

But overall, based on what I've read in this thread, there appears to be a LOT of positives going on offensively and defensively. It sounds as if there are sound fundamentals, good execution, attention to detail, etc.

 

One thing nobody has commented yet is special teams in general, specifically punting. How do our kickers look?

[MyBloodIsRed16]

Spielman will be what everyone hoped DPE was gonna be at rec

[MyBloodIsRed16]

Only thing I'm a little worried about is you could tell the QBS knew who they wanted to go to right at the start of the play and locked on the guy the whole time. But at least they were hitting guys and not air-mailing it over everyone's heads or throwing it in the turf

[famoustitles]

Only thing I'm a little worried about is you could tell the QBS knew who they wanted to go to right at the start of the play and locked on the guy the whole time. But at least they were hitting guys and not air-mailing it over everyone's heads or throwing it in the turf

 

Disagree, I saw them all go through progressions

[Swiv3D]

 

 

Only thing I'm a little worried about is you could tell the QBS knew who they wanted to go to right at the start of the play and locked on the guy the whole time. But at least they were hitting guys and not air-mailing it over everyone's heads or throwing it in the turf

Disagree, I saw them all go through progressions

yep

[84HuskerLaw]

Both kickers seemed to do OK and I would expect Lightbourne to be much better this fall overall with far fewer shanks, etc assuming our deep shaps and protection is better. They didn't really test or show any of the special teams stuff.

 

Riley flat out stated in post game that they didn't show much to be on film for the opponents to study on and that is good I guess, except I think they wanted to actually show our QBs can throw the ball to the right guys and we will catch and run with it. We didn't have any deep balls which might be a little worrisome but ???. We hid the entire defense from film I am sure. We will want to save as much as we can for Oregon and Wisconsin and be vanilla if we can to beat others. If we can hold back for the Big Ten we got a chance to get something good out of the season, with some kind of miracle in Lincoln vs. Ohio State.

 

We've got returners who can make big plays. We need a couple tall WRs who can stretch the field but we have loads of YAC guys on the short and intermediates.

[Nebfanatic]

 

 

Only thing I'm a little worried about is you could tell the QBS knew who they wanted to go to right at the start of the play and locked on the guy the whole time. But at least they were hitting guys and not air-mailing it over everyone's heads or throwing it in the turf

Disagree, I saw them all go through progressions

I agree with nphusker, I thought they did a great job going through progressions

[MyBloodIsRed16]

 

 

 

Only thing I'm a little worried about is you could tell the QBS knew who they wanted to go to right at the start of the play and locked on the guy the whole time. But at least they were hitting guys and not air-mailing it over everyone's heads or throwing it in the turf

Disagree, I saw them all go through progressions

yep

Yes at times they did go through the progression. And there were definitely times they "pre-chose" their guy. It's spring and they were playing against vanilla D so it happens. I think they can get away with it more than TA because they are more accurate.

[Beez]

 

 

 

Only thing I'm a little worried about is you could tell the QBS knew who they wanted to go to right at the start of the play and locked on the guy the whole time. But at least they were hitting guys and not air-mailing it over everyone's heads or throwing it in the turf

Disagree, I saw them all go through progressions

yep

Yes at times they did go through the progression. And there were definitely times they "pre-chose" their guy. It's spring and they were playing against vanilla D so it happens. I think they can get away with it more than TA because they are more accurate.

 

 

What do you mean by "pre-chose' their guy? There is always a pre-chose guy, that's your first read. If they thought he was open then why go to the second read? I saw them going through their progressions as well. I thought all QBs looked way better throwing it than what I've seen from this team in a long time.

[84HuskerLaw]

Perhaps the 'game plan' for this spring game was something along the lines of:

 

1. We don't want to show the future opponents our new and presumably improved 3-4 defense with lots of new ways to attack, rush the QB, so atleast we save some of the surprise for the Oregon game (we ought need to use every weapon in the arsenal vs. Ark St). That will be a critical first big win to keep the train on the tracks as we get going this fall. Especially when there will be those inevitable 'growing pains' early on.

 

2. If the defense is still just learning the system, there would have been plenty of mistakes and errors, etc which would have inevitably lead to much fan criticism and media lambasting going into the summer with nothing more to write about but the shaky and ify new defense. They get plenty of that without asking for it.

 

3. Riley and Company wanted to showcase the new QBs and the new and much improved passing attack. The best way was to put the rookie QBs out there throwing against the most simple, predictable, basic and vanilla defense possible so the fans see lots of completions and the QBs gain some valuable confidence and so on without the risk of lots of bad throws, INTs, etc.

 

4. The offensive line was not pressured with lots of blitzing, stunts, etc so they also were able to look better to the fans and media and take some of the media criticism off the maligned O line. The QBs were untouchable anyway to avoid injiuries and again to keep them from looking bad and give them a shot of confidence. Prior to the spring game, there was plenty of questioning and doubting by most of the folks as to the O line and the run game was almost non-existent according to many comments.

 

5. I am not necessarily sayiing they intentionally just let the offense have its way without any resistance but I am suggesting they definately made it easier and simpler for young offense to be successful. Fans come to watch TDs and good plays. If the defense had stifled the offense, the criticism of the offense would have been relentless.

[MyBloodIsRed16]

 

 

 

 

 

Only thing I'm a little worried about is you could tell the QBS knew who they wanted to go to right at the start of the play and locked on the guy the whole time. But at least they were hitting guys and not air-mailing it over everyone's heads or throwing it in the turf

Disagree, I saw them all go through progressions

yep

Yes at times they did go through the progression. And there were definitely times they "pre-chose" their guy. It's spring and they were playing against vanilla D so it happens. I think they can get away with it more than TA because they are more accurate.

What do you mean by "pre-chose' their guy? There is always a pre-chose guy, that's your first read. If they thought he was open then why go to the second read? I saw them going through their progressions as well. I thought all QBs looked way better throwing it than what I've seen from this team in a long time.

Yes there is a first read and what I saw was them in my mind waiting for them to come open when normally you would go to your next read. Like I said it's spring and they happend to complete some nice throws and I also saw them going through their progressions on other plays. What I meant by pre-chose is say they come to line know who their initial read is and they determine yeah that guy is gonna be open I'm throwing to him, then the play starts and the coverage is different than they expected and still throw to their initial read even tho he is not open and even double covered