Let's Discuss

[PaulCrewe]

1 hour ago, Undone said:

 

My biggest question is whether or not he has thoroughbred passing skills or not though. We need that Joe Ganz type of guy to come in here and loosen up the field a bunch with actual passing ability.

Like I said, think Luke with a tad stronger arm

[Enhance]

On 11/21/2020 at 7:02 PM, PaulCrewe said:

I believe he can still be involved with the offense and still suggest plays, but let the primary calling go.  He needs to be more available to "coach" guys up on the sideline and chew some a$$ when needed, which needs to be more often than not.  I'm not wanting a Mike Riley like CEO, but a coach that is committed to the involvement/investment of his WHOLE team.

At this point, I don't really know how much him stepping back from playcalling changes anything.

 

My confidence in Frost has never been this low and my confidence in the program is incredibly low. I see a football team that is bigger and faster than just about any I've seen for some time around here, but they're painfully undisciplined and inconsistent. And they're bad in ways that you can't fix mid-season. This is on par with the 2017 Riley team. It's a bad football team made up of higher end talent, talent that (on paper) is better than every other team in the division.

 

IMO the only way you get here is by bad coaching and culture. Some mix therein. Maybe that's an unpopular hot take, but I'm really no longer in the mood to be excusatory of Nebraska football like I have been in recent years. That path has been trodden too long.

[The Maudfather]

6 hours ago, Jeremy said:

I doubt Osborne has changed his philosophy. Run the ball, stop the run, the game. When you pass, 3 things can happen, and 2 of them are bad. It's hard to pass the ball a lot in Lincoln in November. 

 

I'm really surprised and stupefied that Frost doesn't have the same blueprint. 

It's hard to pass the ball in Ohio in November. They do a damn fine job of it though. 

[Enhance]

50 minutes ago, The Maudfather said:

It's hard to pass the ball in Ohio in November. They do a damn fine job of it though. 

I agree.

 

I don't think there's really anything wrong or out of place with the 30,000 foot view of Frost's offense. The players just aren't executing. There are a lot of problems that go into that, but the simple idea of 'throwing the football' isn't one of them IMO.

[teachercd]

14 minutes ago, Enhance said:

I agree.

 

I don't think there's really anything wrong or out of place with the 30,000 foot view of Frost's offense. The players just aren't executing. There are a lot of problems that go into that, but the simple idea of 'throwing the football' isn't one of them IMO.

The offense is fine...none of the games they have sucked it have had weather issues.

 

I totally agree with you.

[lo country]

1 hour ago, The Maudfather said:

It's hard to pass the ball in Ohio in November. They do a damn fine job of it though. 

IU with 491 passing yards vs OSU...While down 35 to 7....I want to be a power run team first, but we have to have a QB who can at least throw downfield.

[Jeremy]

1 hour ago, The Maudfather said:

It's hard to pass the ball in Ohio in November. They do a damn fine job of it though. 

The Buckeyes get 5-star kids and transfers that can throw the ball. WE DON'T. 

[Enhance]

1 hour ago, Jeremy said:

The Buckeyes get 5-star kids and transfers that can throw the ball. WE DON'T. 

They don't need a 5-star qb to have an efficient pass offense in the Big 10.

 

Plenty of other B1G programs have managed to find 3 or 4 star QBs that can complete 58-60% of their passes with a 2:1 TD/INT ratio. Why should Nebraska be excluded?

[Jeremy]

2 minutes ago, Enhance said:

They don't need a 5-star qb to have an efficient pass offense in the Big 10.

 

Plenty of other B1G programs have managed to find 3 or 4 star QBs that can complete 58-60% of their passes with a 2:1 TD/INT ratio. Why should Nebraska be excluded?

That's a great question, and it's hard to give a specific answer. I do know this - we've been trying this for SIX YEARS, and it's not working. We even had a quarterback that was drafted, but prior to his draft, all the passing didn't translate to wins - in fact quite the opposite. 

 

Why NOT try the stuff that worked in the past? Why not run the ball, control the clock, and keep our HORRIBLE defense off the field? Why not use I-option, an offense that would be unique in the B1G, and in the country? 

[southernoregonhusker]

1 hour ago, Jeremy said:

The Buckeyes get 5-star kids and transfers that can throw the ball. WE DON'T. 

Is throwing the ball some special skill that only a few know the secrets of?  Is there a clandestine club one just be invited to before learning the mystical art of throwing a football?   McCaffrey has a weinie arm and needs to play a lot of long catch to strengthen it.  He's got pretty biceps, but throwing a ball hard comes from strength in the shoulder, legs and core.  Your point is valid when you compare McCaffrey to Haskins.  Haskins is a big, strong kid, but learning to throw is something that can be accomplished with proper training.  With that said, I seen quite a few kids who could throw a baseball through a brick wall and were skinnier than a broom but I digress...

 

Martinez has a pretty good arm but is inaccurate.  There are drills for that.  There are also play calls for that and Frost needs to use them.  Short, quick passes to boost his confidence and the occasional bomb to keep the defense honest.  Double moves.  Pick plays.  Throwing 50-50 balls to single coverage guys and letting them make plays.  Timing plays. 

 

I'm a Steelers fan and I love watching Roethisberger.  Ben doesn't wait for guys to get open.  He identifies the guys who are in one on one coverage and he throws to spots.  Most times the ball is already gone before the receiver even makes his break.  If there is safety help, he audibles to a run play or has the receivers run a different route.  Usually something to the middle of the field to negate the safety help or have them run deep routes to clear out the middle for the tight-end.  It's 3D Vulcan chess compared to what Frost is doing.  The offense Frost has run the past few weeks reminds me of the 6th grade.  I've been waiting for the Statue of Liberty play.  

 

On Saturdays, I usually watch all or most of the UNL games.  I also watch if there is a big SEC match up.  I'll also watch Oregon/Oregon State games and the Pac 12 At Night game on ESPN.  These teams around the country look different than Nebraska.  Nebraska looks small and slow in comparison.  The offense looks disjointed and simplistic.  The defense is a sieve like the Pac 12 schools.  The difference is the Pac 12 schools I follow have an offense to keep up.  UNL doesn't.  

[southernoregonhusker]

23 minutes ago, Jeremy said:

That's a great question, and it's hard to give a specific answer. I do know this - we've been trying this for SIX YEARS, and it's not working. We even had a quarterback that was drafted, but prior to his draft, all the passing didn't translate to wins - in fact quite the opposite. 

 

Why NOT try the stuff that worked in the past? Why not run the ball, control the clock, and keep our HORRIBLE defense off the field? Why not use I-option, an offense that would be unique in the B1G, and in the country? 

That kid threw a lot of pics in a system that was new to him.  He needed one more year.  As for losing, he played on a team with a terrible defense led by a guy who never should have been hired.  

[MyBloodIsRed16]

9 hours ago, Enhance said:

They don't need a 5-star qb to have an efficient pass offense in the Big 10.

 

Plenty of other B1G programs have managed to find 3 or 4 star QBs that can complete 58-60% of their passes with a 2:1 TD/INT ratio. Why should Nebraska be excluded?

but their averages go way up after they play Nebraska so it that really fair to say?

[Enhance]

33 minutes ago, MyBloodIsRed16 said:

but their averages go way up after they play Nebraska so it that really fair to say?

I don't think I'm understanding the question. There have been quite a few successful B1G quarterbacks in the last decade or so that were fairly efficient passers regardless of their performances against Nebraska. I don't think what Nebraska is asking/looking for is totally unorthodox or unreasonable.

 

Perhaps the coaching staff's teaching methods or expectations are failing, but Nebraska is absolutely capable of finding a QB who can complete 60% of their passes on a 2:1 TD/INT ratio.

[hskrfan4life]

How can the QB's not get better but get worse? Is something they are doing behind the scenes causing this?

[Enhance]

9 hours ago, Jeremy said:

That's a great question, and it's hard to give a specific answer. I do know this - we've been trying this for SIX YEARS, and it's not working. We even had a quarterback that was drafted, but prior to his draft, all the passing didn't translate to wins - in fact quite the opposite. 

 

Why NOT try the stuff that worked in the past? Why not run the ball, control the clock, and keep our HORRIBLE defense off the field? Why not use I-option, an offense that would be unique in the B1G, and in the country? 

I don't think you're wrong, but I think it's worth pointing out that Nebraska's run/pass splits haven't exactly told a consistent story in the last decade. Since 2010, they've run the ball 69%, 68%, 64%, 61%, 62%, 52%, 57%, 44%, 53%, 63% and 58% of the time. Running is also often a construct of overall team success - teams often run the ball more when they're ahead/winning than when they're behind, so that can skew the data.

 

So, many of their best years featured some of their most rushing attempts, but they also had good and bad years that featured similar percentages of rushing attempts. 2016 was a 9-win season with 57% rushing. 2018 was a 5-win season with 63% rushing.

 

That said, I've long felt Nebraska would be better served with an offense predicated on rushing. Something like a Wisconsin or something along the lines of what they ran in the first part of the decade. An I-option is out of the question for me, though. Not many people know that offense at the highest levels of college football and I think it'd be harder to recruit to now more than ever.