A lot to like in this article

[VectorVictor]

This is honestly some Kool-Aid I can get behind. Good details and information...we just need to see the execution on the field. That and the players need some help getting out of their heads from the past few seasons, I wager. 

 

Regardless...good off-season Kool-Aid. Refreshing and cool. 

[Cdog923]

18 minutes ago, VectorVictor said:

This is honestly some Kool-Aid I can get behind. Good details and information...we just need to see the execution on the field. That and the players need some help getting out of their heads from the past few seasons, I wager. 

 

Regardless...good off-season Kool-Aid. Refreshing and cool. 

 

[Morrissey]

5 hours ago, Stumpy1 said:

Nixon and Brown are about 4” taller but nice try.   Frost's last true Duck-R guy was Washington and I'm guessing he was hoping Robinson would have been the same but that didn't go as planned.  I do think that he will try and use Nixon and Brown in the same capacity that he used Washington.  

 

55 minutes ago, Mavric said:

 

Nixon and Brown are both listed at 5-11.  Robinson was listed as 5-10.  I don't think Robinson was that tall but I don't think they are 4 inches taller.

 

Either way, they are very similar players.  Just because Robinson happened to be one of the shortest guys we've ever had doesn't mean everyone else playing the same role has to be that short.  Nixon and Brown are considerably shorter than most of the other receivers we are recruiting.

 

From what I saw, JD and Wandale were pretty much the exact same size. A few years ago, I had a class with JD and he couldn't have been more than 5'8". Probably more like 5'7" 170 if I had to wager. With that said, I think a lot of the athletes are generously listed when it comes to their heights and weights at NU, even the taller guys.  

 

And, I'm not saying that JD and Robinson (or any players like them) had no place on the team either. They were great players and would have been able to have been better utilized if there was more around them. That's not their fault, this staff has ultimately failed at getting more (and bigger) offensive weapons on the field up to this point. Hopefully that's changing now. 

 

For the record, NU needed more size. Although this notion that they should abandon the Duck-R/small shifty receiver seems a bit short-sighted to me. Why can't you have both? Pretty sure the most successful NFL franchise of the last 20 years has pretty much always featured some small quick guys (Welker, Edelman, Woodhead...etc.) as fairly significant parts of their offenses. And I'd venture to say Bill Belichick knows a bit more about football than any of us do. 

[J-MAGIC]

I really don't think they're talking about wholesale changes to the offense or personnel here. Dawson said they wanted to get more size "while keeping your athleticism". I don't think this is anything more than the coaches saying that at UCF they could only get small, fast guys, and now that they're in the Big Ten and can recruit at a higher level they want to get big, fast guys. I don't think the core concepts of the offense or style are changing, and honestly shouldn't because a lot of it has shown it can work well with good players. I also think any successful offense has a variety of types of receiving personnel who can do different things. We need the big guys to win down the field and we need the Washington/Wandale type of guys for the Duck-R spot.

[JJ Husker]

1 hour ago, J-MAGIC said:

I really don't think they're talking about wholesale changes to the offense or personnel here. Dawson said they wanted to get more size "while keeping your athleticism". I don't think this is anything more than the coaches saying that at UCF they could only get small, fast guys, and now that they're in the Big Ten and can recruit at a higher level they want to get big, fast guys. I don't think the core concepts of the offense or style are changing, and honestly shouldn't because a lot of it has shown it can work well with good players. I also think any successful offense has a variety of types of receiving personnel who can do different things. We need the big guys to win down the field and we need the Washington/Wandale type of guys for the Duck-R spot.

Don't bum us out dude. This offense needs change. People were drinking the Kool-Aid and you had to go and break the pitcher 

[FrantzHardySwag]

1 hour ago, J-MAGIC said:

I really don't think they're talking about wholesale changes to the offense or personnel here. Dawson said they wanted to get more size "while keeping your athleticism". I don't think this is anything more than the coaches saying that at UCF they could only get small, fast guys, and now that they're in the Big Ten and can recruit at a higher level they want to get big, fast guys. I don't think the core concepts of the offense or style are changing, and honestly shouldn't because a lot of it has shown it can work well with good players. I also think any successful offense has a variety of types of receiving personnel who can do different things. We need the big guys to win down the field and we need the Washington/Wandale type of guys for the Duck-R spot.

We really haven't seen this out of Frost yet though, I'm hopeful it will look a little different this year. Seems like this year we actually have the WR/TE talent to get creative. I'm guessing you'll see Fidone, Samori, Manning, Martin, Allen, Brown playing all over the place. Especially the TEs, I'm sure we will see Fidone and Allen out wide, in the slot and on the LOS. Size and Speed mismatches are not built the same. Speed you can get a guy like Wandale matched up on a OLB and hopefully burn the backer to get open. On the other end a guy like Wandale is gonna get completely smoked by a big OLB coming down hill in run pursuit. Where as size we will have 6'8 Allen sometimes matched up with a 5'10 corner or 6'4 230 Omar Manning delivering a key block on a big OLB. Lubick and Frost are smart guys, I'm hopeful we see some size and space concepts that make us go "WHOA" once or twice a game. We make them defend some creative size and space concepts, the simple stuff will start to get real hard to defend as well.

 

PS: It's KoolAid season, chug up!

[J-MAGIC]

53 minutes ago, JJ Husker said:

Don't bum us out dude. This offense needs change. People were drinking the Kool-Aid and you had to go and break the pitcher 

 

I think it's a great sign they're adapting and I'm chugging the kool-aid as much as anyone! Just the article seemed to imply this was a significant change of philosophy and I don't really think that's what they're talking about. The concepts and style are the same, they just want to run them with bigger people (who don't lose that much speed) essentially.

 

20 minutes ago, FrantzHardySwag said:

We really haven't seen this out of Frost yet though, I'm hopeful it will look a little different this year. Seems like this year we actually have the WR/TE talent to get creative. I'm guessing you'll see Fidone, Samori, Manning, Martin, Allen, Brown playing all over the place. Especially the TEs, I'm sure we will see Fidone and Allen out wide, in the slot and on the LOS. Size and Speed mismatches are not built the same. Speed you can get a guy like Wandale matched up on a OLB and hopefully burn the backer to get open. On the other end a guy like Wandale is gonna get completely smoked by a big OLB coming down hill in run pursuit. Where as size we will have 6'8 Allen sometimes matched up with a 5'10 corner or 6'4 230 Omar Manning delivering a key block on a big OLB. Lubick and Frost are smart guys, I'm hopeful we see some size and space concepts that make us go "WHOA" once or twice a game. We make them defend some creative size and space concepts, the simple stuff will start to get real hard to defend as well.

 

PS: It's KoolAid season, chug up!

 

I think Frost has actually been fairly creative in deploying his TEs in the slot. I remember that swing pass Washington housed in the Colorado game we had Allen and Stoll split out in the slot and they crushed a couple CU corners on the blocks, and I remember at least a few times last year we had TEs split out creatively in blocking-specific situations (I think the Liewer TD against Purdue was one?) But, all due respect to Stoll and Allen, the goal is to have guys out there who can block like that AND hurt you in the passing game. I think that's how we'll see Fidone/Toure/Manning/Betts used this year in a way that's been different in the past.

[BigRedBuster]

33 minutes ago, J-MAGIC said:

 

I think it's a great sign they're adapting and I'm chugging the kool-aid as much as anyone! Just the article seemed to imply this was a significant change of philosophy and I don't really think that's what they're talking about. The concepts and style are the same, they just want to run them with bigger people (who don't lose that much speed) essentially.

 

 

I think Frost has actually been fairly creative in deploying his TEs in the slot. I remember that swing pass Washington housed in the Colorado game we had Allen and Stoll split out in the slot and they crushed a couple CU corners on the blocks, and I remember at least a few times last year we had TEs split out creatively in blocking-specific situations (I think the Liewer TD against Purdue was one?) But, all due respect to Stoll and Allen, the goal is to have guys out there who can block like that AND hurt you in the passing game. I think that's how we'll see Fidone/Toure/Manning/Betts used this year in a way that's been different in the past.

The problem also has been that when we tried using a TE outside blocking for a swing pass, they weren’t athletic enough to execute the block.  I believe that is getting fixed.  

[FrantzHardySwag]

22 minutes ago, J-MAGIC said:

 

I think it's a great sign they're adapting and I'm chugging the kool-aid as much as anyone! Just the article seemed to imply this was a significant change of philosophy and I don't really think that's what they're talking about. The concepts and style are the same, they just want to run them with bigger people (who don't lose that much speed) essentially.

 

 

I think Frost has actually been fairly creative in deploying his TEs in the slot. I remember that swing pass Washington housed in the Colorado game we had Allen and Stoll split out in the slot and they crushed a couple CU corners on the blocks, and I remember at least a few times last year we had TEs split out creatively in blocking-specific situations (I think the Liewer TD against Purdue was one?) But, all due respect to Stoll and Allen, the goal is to have guys out there who can block like that AND hurt you in the passing game. I think that's how we'll see Fidone/Toure/Manning/Betts used this year in a way that's been different in the past.

I'm definitely excited to see the big bodies used in the running game. I hope everyone buys into blocking, because it seems like what's been keeping our talented pass catchers off the field. Manning and Betts are big enough to put some corners and backers in body bags if they buy into blocking. 

[Decoy73]

Bigger-stronger-faster is great, but what team doesn’t want that?  
 

I’ll drink the kool-aid when we have a good chunk of plays we can line up and run darn near perfectly every game.  No false starts, no illegal formation, no errant snaps.   Make the defense have to just be better to stop it.  

[Mavric]

1 hour ago, Decoy73 said:

No false starts, no illegal formation, no errant snaps.   

 

How many college football teams do you think meet this description?

[JJ Husker]

1 hour ago, Decoy73 said:

Bigger-stronger-faster is great, but what team doesn’t want that?  
 

I’ll drink the kool-aid when we have a good chunk of plays we can line up and run darn near perfectly every game.  No false starts, no illegal formation, no errant snaps.   Make the defense have to just be better to stop it.  

This ^^^

 

We can waste all the air in the world talking about getting bigger better faster players but it shouldn't take world class athletes to correct the simple issues that have plagued this team. I'll partake of the Kool-Aid AFTER they show me something, on the field, in actual games, not in some preseason smoke blowing article.

[JJ Husker]

9 minutes ago, Mavric said:

 

How many college football teams do you think meet this description?

 

Obviously the No-No-No is not realistic. Shouldn't be much pushback on saying this team needs to greatly improve in numerous remedial areas though.

[Decoy73]

28 minutes ago, Mavric said:

 

How many college football teams do you think meet this description?

Zero, but we’ve been worse than most I’d bet.  Plus, avoiding those miscues all together isn’t my point.  I’m talking about a handful of bread and butter plays.  Why can’t we be really good and disciplined on a few plays.  And then build from there.  Pretty soon it becomes a habit.  Chalk me up among those getting tired of the drive killing mistakes that have plagued us in recent years.  

[lo country]

I'm picking a kool-aid flavor, but not mixing it up yet. This year I think we finally see what Austin alluded to last year wiht what we saw down the stretch last year with play calling.  I truly think Frost thought he could come in and play basketball on grass and make the B1G adjust.  I don't think we had the players to do this and I think Frost underestimated the B1G.  This year I think we still try some of the "speed", but we will get a lot more mismatches based on size, play calling and speed. I like this from Lubick.  Hoping we have a base that is multiple in play calling and formations from the same 12/13 personnel.  A lot like our D having JoJo who can stay on the field and act as OLB, DE, nickle etc....Doesn't have to come out.  Go uptempo and lean on the D.  create mismatches and just beat them down.

Where Nebraska had once intended to use pure speed to put defenses in a bind, it’ll now use a blend with an emphasis on size and, more specifically, tight ends. NU wants to be able to toggle players like Austin Allen (6-8, 260) and Travis Vokolek (6-6, 260) between playing in space and moving to in-line roles, preferably with the kind of no-huddle tempo that precludes a defense from making personnel changes based on formations. The opponent, thus, has to make a choice on what to do with its 11th defender.

“What’s a defense going to do?” offensive coordinator Matt Lubick said. “Are they going to take a corner and put him inside and now he has to play the run? Or are they going to play a linebacker, and then you have to split him outside and play man-to-man? If you have a guy who can be physical at the point of attack but still run routes, it just gives you a lot of options.”