Young players/Backups

[Aliens05]

I want to start off by saying this post isn't meant to insult to players or be a doom and gloom post.

 

That being said there is something that has bothered me about Nebraska for the past several seasons. Why is it that our young guys and backups are just never ready, or not quite there? Of course we see this with other teams, I realize this isnt exclusive to nebraska, but I feel like its no where the extent as it is with us.

 

Just one example of this is the Oklahoma vs Kansas State game. I dont recall the exact amount of defensive backs k state was without, but it was a lot. I remember there were a couple of d backs starting who weren't even in the 2 deep. Somehow K-state beats Oklahoma with so many backups, and theres seemingly no fall off.

 

There's also countless teams who start true freshman all over the field with great success against very good teams.

 

Yet when we look at our team we have no options, no backups, no substitute players who can produce? With Nebraska I'm primarily referring to defensive backs and wide receivers (this year).

 

Are we just not trusting our younger guys and giving them a shot? Are we not allowing our backups chances when the first string isn't producing? I feel like no other team in the country would hesitate to throw out a true freshman and give them a shot, same for a backup player.

 

Thoughts?

[Undone]

I think Ronald Thompkins is the most talented "complete back" we've recruited since Tre Bryant. Ironic that both of those guys have had knee problems.

 

Thompkins is so quick, and he's great because he seems to be able to turn after catching a pass and run up field quick (something that Mills clearly struggles with). I can see him potentially winning the starting spot by game 4 or 5.

 

Ty Robinson is ready to go; kid's a full grown beast already.

 

Where I really agree with you is at receiver; we're probably semi-screwed at that position this season if Manning doesn't play.

[Aliens05]

18 minutes ago, Undone said:

I think Ronald Thompkins is the most talented "complete back" we've recruited since Tre Bryant. Ironic that both of those guys have had knee problems.

 

Thompkins is so quick, and he's great because he seems to be able to turn after catching a pass and run up field quick (something that Mills clearly struggles with). I can see him potentially winning the starting spot by game 4 or 5.

 

Ty Robinson is ready to go; kid's a full grown beast already.

 

Where I really agree with you is at receiver; we're probably semi-screwed at that position this season if Manning doesn't play.

We absolutely are if we don't have Manning or Betts ready this year ( I guess the bright side is in some aspects it is a free year).

 

It's just mind blowing to me when teams like Tulsa, USF, Georgia State, among other (lower tier teams) have very athletic, tall, big WRs that can make plays, and Nebraska can't land one reliable guy that fits that bill.

[Undone]

1 hour ago, Aliens05 said:

It's just mind blowing to me when teams like Tulsa, USF, Georgia State, among other (lower tier teams) have very athletic, tall, big WRs that can make plays, and Nebraska can't land one reliable guy that fits that bill.

 

I understand your thinking. I'm not going out of my way to disagree, but the counter might be that two of those three teams suck and all of them play in lower-tier FBS conferences. So there's a reason those receivers aren't playing Power 5 football.

[lo country]

5 minutes ago, Aliens05 said:

We absolutely are if we don't have Manning or Betts ready this year ( I guess the bright side is in some aspects it is a free year).

 

It's just mind blowing to me when teams like Tulsa, USF, Georgia State, among other (lower tier teams) have very athletic, tall, big WRs that can make plays, and Nebraska can't land one reliable guy that fits that bill.

I think a lot has to do with Frost's perceived "scheme" of using the Duck R and quick strike passes.  We really haven't had a "NFL" type receiver since I don't know when.  If Betts/Omar/Hickman can't go, I'd run 3 TE sets.  They won;t stretch the field, but they'd create some mismatches.....

[Stumpy1]

5 minutes ago, lo country said:

I think a lot has to do with Frost's perceived "scheme" of using the Duck R and quick strike passes.  We really haven't had a "NFL" type receiver since I don't know when.  If Betts/Omar/Hickman can't go, I'd run 3 TE sets.  They won;t stretch the field, but they'd create some mismatches.....

We need to stretch the field to open things up.  We saw it last year that these 5-7 yard passes arent going to cut it.   Defenses wont take us serious if we cant open things up. 

[lo country]

Just now, Stumpy1 said:

We need to stretch the field to open things up.  We saw it last year that these 5-7 yard passes arent going to cut it.   Defenses wont take us serious if we cant open things up. 

Agree 100% with a receiver needed to take the top off the D. Swing/screen passes not going to do anything to help.

 

TE's would at least create some "beef" to block and get some yards.

[Undone]

3 minutes ago, Stumpy1 said:

We need to stretch the field to open things up.  We saw it last year that these 5-7 yard passes arent going to cut it.   Defenses wont take us serious if we cant open things up. 

 

I'm going to say that the design of the 5-7 yard chunk pass plays in this offense is to leverage the quick tempo. It spreads a defense out, tires them, and then allows you to punch em up the middle again with interior running once they get comfortable spreading wide to defend those quick swing passes.

 

I just don't think we have receivers that can run a post route and really be expected to win jump balls, and that's why we don't see those plays. I don't think it's some kind of blind spot or problem that Frost has with his strategy.

 

Slightly different train of thought: You could tell OSU thought we were just going to go with vanilla handoffs to Mills on that first drive. The stuff Frosty cooked up to swing around them was brilliant. But of course, we wound up false starting & fumbling as the game wore on as usual.

[UniversalMartin]

What I wouldn't give for a wr corps of Enunwa, Swift and Morgan and/or Petersen

[UniversalMartin]

30 minutes ago, Stumpy1 said:

We need to stretch the field to open things up.  We saw it last year that these 5-7 yard passes arent going to cut it.   Defenses wont take us serious if we cant open things up. 

Fully recognizing we dont have a deep threat outside Robinson...I agree that we can still push the idea that "we might go deep" with some plays designed AND THROWN to create that illusion..very minimum it provides some amount of pause to a DC

[UniversalMartin]

Robinson should be 1 sided all day every day...put our best playmaker in 1:1 matchups or know where the double is coming from and scheme routes to create space on strong side 

[GBRFAN]

Stretching the field against OSU may not be possible - if we don't see this by week three then there should be concern.

[Hilltop]

1 hour ago, GBRFAN said:

Stretching the field against OSU may not be possible - if we don't see this by week three then there should be concern.

I agree.  It is difficult to judge what we have against OSU.  Pretty much everyone looked bad against them last year... Even Clemson at times.  Wisconsin and NW will provide a much better look at our schemes and talent level.  

[Canadian Fan]

Not sure I agree there aren't young players to be excited about. Both our OL and DL are showing a lot of promise.

 

More worrisome are our WR, DB and LB classes who have been hammered by injuries and transfers.  In the defensive backfield alone, the loss of all the Florida kids may take a couple of years to overcome.

 

The one item I would point to is that we need to stop recruiting kids with "great instincts and average speed" at the skills positions and linebacker.  If you want to beat teams like OSU, you can't have your players exactly where they are supposed to be based on the play call, then have their players constantly outrunning your players.  So when making your offers we need to target the kids with the higher athletic ceiling and lower instincts and hope we can teach them their positions over time...and also accept that you may have a higher failure/attrition rate because you are taking more chances on more high risk/high return kids.  I'll leave commentary on our rash of injuries to others who are more informed that I am, but I would add that pattern is of concern and has certainly impacted our roster depth, especially amongst the younger kids.

[C-4]

It’s really hard to fathom that Hickman (whose had a year) and Betts (who’s a freak) can’t start over the walk-ons we were trotting out yesterday.