What in the heck is wrong with our offense?

[DevoHusker]

2 minutes ago, Undone said:

 

Not really sure that the kid would even make it out of a B1G career alive, to be honest. He is small and pretty fragile.

But, he is a winner with a warrior's mentality. We need more of both.

[Undone]

We need a healthy Oliver Martin and Toure out there on the field at the same time together. And we need Frost to either play action or to try to call high percentage pass plays on down & distance scenarios where the other team is thinking we'll run the ball.

 

I'm really starting to believe that Frost has a tendency to overthink his strategies and behave too rigidly as an offensive schemer - both in terms of game prep and in terms of in-game mentality.

 

I don't think he has come into this season drawing up a game plan that fits the strengths of what his players are most capable of doing. Or...maybe our offensive line is just playing significantly worse than last year? Maybe too early to draw that conclusion just yet.

[Undone]

6 minutes ago, DevoHusker said:

But, he is a winner with a warrior's mentality. We need more of both.

 

What he has going for him in terms of Frost's offensive scheme is that he's a passer first, runner second. That is ideally what you want. In that respect his potential is extremely high.

 

But I was serious about durability concerns if he was playing in this conference.

 

I personally don't think that he has any more of a "warrior's mentality" (whatever that really means) than Martinez does - he's just a better passer.

[BigRedBuster]

Why in the world would he run inside of Allen?  
 

 

[ColoradoHusk]

3 minutes ago, BigRedBuster said:

Why in the world would he run inside of Allen?  
 

 

He's not a great zone running back right now. 

[BigRedBuster]

4 minutes ago, ColoradoHusk said:

He's not a great zone running back right now. 

That’s just plain vision (or lack of) no matter what type of offense you’re running. 

[ColoradoHusk]

10 minutes ago, BigRedBuster said:

That’s just plain vision (or lack of) no matter what type of offense you’re running. 

That's correct, but vision and decisiveness are very important in a zone scheme. He can develop that, but it's not there right now. 

[Dansker]

The biggest issue to me plaguing not just our offense but the entire team is the linemen. For decades, we had linemen grazing every award watchlist every year. We have to get back to being a pipeline, a football factory if you will for linemen.
 

When you build that type of foundation, you can plug in 3 star recruits at skill positions who the OL/DL will make them look like world beaters. You can be consistent and even compete yearly for conference titles (see Wisconsin.)

 

I think since 2004, our football program has kind of been a little too ambitious and impatient by focusing more on building from the top down starting at skill positions. That’s a huge mistake, IMO. Gotta have strong line play or nothing else matters. You can’t skate by with poor results no matter who or what star leveled recruit is at QB/RB/WR/LB/DB’s.

 

2006, 2009, 2010, 2012 we competed for conference titles. In those seasons, we had stellar offensive and defensive lines that could compete. This is the problem with our entire program. That identity, that spirit we carried for years is gone. Imagine what would’ve been from 2018-2020 had we recruited and developed guys that could make the two deep at Wisconsin, OSU, PSU, Michigan.

 

[BigRedBuster]

11 hours ago, FTW said:

The biggest issue to me plaguing not just our offense but the entire team is the linemen. For decades, we had linemen grazing every award watchlist every year. We have to get back to being a pipeline, a football factory if you will for linemen.
 

When you build that type of foundation, you can plug in 3 star recruits at skill positions who the OL/DL will make them look like world beaters. You can be consistent and even compete yearly for conference titles (see Wisconsin.)

 

I think since 2004, our football program has kind of been a little too ambitious and impatient by focusing more on building from the top down starting at skill positions. That’s a huge mistake, IMO. Gotta have strong line play or nothing else matters. You can’t skate by with poor results no matter who or what star leveled recruit is at QB/RB/WR/LB/DB’s.

 

2006, 2009, 2010, 2012 we competed for conference titles. In those seasons, we had stellar offensive and defensive lines that could compete. This is the problem with our entire program. That identity, that spirit we carried for years is gone. Imagine what would’ve been from 2018-2020 had we recruited and developed guys that could make the two deep at Wisconsin, OSU, PSU, Michigan.

 

It’s not one or the other. They aren’t saying to themselves, “we have a 4star QB and RB so we don’t need a good line.”

 

[NoLongerN]

12 hours ago, FTW said:

The biggest issue to me plaguing not just our offense but the entire team is the linemen. For decades, we had linemen grazing every award watchlist every year. We have to get back to being a pipeline, a football factory if you will for linemen.
 

When you build that type of foundation, you can plug in 3 star recruits at skill positions who the OL/DL will make them look like world beaters. You can be consistent and even compete yearly for conference titles (see Wisconsin.)

 

I think since 2004, our football program has kind of been a little too ambitious and impatient by focusing more on building from the top down starting at skill positions. That’s a huge mistake, IMO. Gotta have strong line play or nothing else matters. You can’t skate by with poor results no matter who or what star leveled recruit is at QB/RB/WR/LB/DB’s.

 

2006, 2009, 2010, 2012 we competed for conference titles. In those seasons, we had stellar offensive and defensive lines that could compete. This is the problem with our entire program. That identity, that spirit we carried for years is gone. Imagine what would’ve been from 2018-2020 had we recruited and developed guys that could make the two deep at Wisconsin, OSU, PSU, Michigan.

 

Personally, I took a good beating for suggesting that when Greg from Hail Varsity was saying we were "good" at OL and didn't need any stud in recruiting this year at that position.  The board overall seems to think we were pretty good at the OL and can take a year off.  Two games into the season and the really easy teams and we haven't see any sort of dominance.  

I'm with you and the view that we still not building from the line up, but rather the top down [skill positions].  In that as well, I'd take higher rated/better evaluated players in the OL and DL over RB and WR any day [for where this program is at].  Regardless of all this ... we continue to see less development or less impact as players move through our system verses the teams that now can be counted on to beat us [IL, MN, NW, IA, Wisky].  It appears to be a long road before we can break the Top 3 of our side of the conference.

[B.B. Hemingway]

7 minutes ago, BigRedN said:

Personally, I took a good beating for suggesting that when Greg from Hail Varsity was saying we were "good" at OL and didn't need any stud in recruiting this year at that position.  The board overall seems to think we were pretty good at the OL and can take a year off.  Two games into the season and the really easy teams and we haven't see any sort of dominance.  

I'm with you and the view that we still not building from the line up, but rather the top down [skill positions].  In that as well, I'd take higher rated/better evaluated players in the OL and DL over RB and WR any day [for where this program is at].  Regardless of all this ... we continue to see less development or less impact as players move through our system verses the teams that now can be counted on to beat us [IL, MN, NW, IA, Wisky].  It appears to be a long road before we can break the Top 3 of our side of the conference.

 

I'm not ready to write off a line with three freshman on it. Teddy P. looked good to when he came in for Turner Cocoran. A lot of reason for optimism there. The more immediate concern is the lack of consistent offensive weapons. If that version of Stepp is our best option at RB, Nebraska is in trouble. Toure had a nice game, but he isn't going to be that wide open the rest of the season. I think he's a pretty good player, but we need other guys to step up there. With Martinez, he better stay healthy. Smothers wouldn't be eaten alive by almost every B1G defense. Get ready for some quarterback transfer portal fun this off-season.

 

[big_red_husker_01]

what is wrong with the offense? What you mean we just put up 52 points! Gees people relax

[NoLongerN]

1 hour ago, B.B. Hemingway said:

 

I'm not ready to write off a line with three freshman on it. Teddy P. looked good to when he came in for Turner Cocoran. A lot of reason for optimism there. The more immediate concern is the lack of consistent offensive weapons. If that version of Stepp is our best option at RB, Nebraska is in trouble. Toure had a nice game, but he isn't going to be that wide open the rest of the season. I think he's a pretty good player, but we need other guys to step up there. With Martinez, he better stay healthy. Smothers wouldn't be eaten alive by almost every B1G defense. Get ready for some quarterback transfer portal fun this off-season.

 

Ya, but I never said I was "ready to write-off" the OL.  I realize that you aren't saying that to me either.  The bigger point I was stating and said prior when I was getting feedback is, "that we need to add more and better pieces to the OL".  We don't need to be in a state of view that says that we are good at that position and don't need any more pieces.  Again, most of the teams we are chasing are developing OL better than us ... even if ours come in better rated.  That's a big ... "Houston, we have a problem to me."  Sure, we are young ... but we seem to always be okay with losing a player that has two years in the program [Wandale comes to mind] because well ... they aren't any good anyways.

So, as it relates to OL, I'm wanting to see more of a stockpile at that position and then better development as well.  For me, I believed we need to add a couple of stud OL this year [as I would every year].  Yet, the handwriting is on the wall when a kid like Woods won't sniff at  .  What I'm gathering is that we might be on the cusp of really being a "bottom-dweller" when it comes to recruiting and development.  Ya, I have a real issue with where we are at with the position ... even with current view of the OL.  I have not been "impressed" with the OL through two games.  My view is that we will be exposed.  What do we have if we are?  Is it still just that we are "young"?  Perhaps.  For me, I think we still have issues there and need to really recruit and develop even better than we have [if we really want to compete even against the Top 5 in our half of the conference].
 

[NoLongerN]

23 minutes ago, big_red_husker_01 said:

what is wrong with the offense? What you mean we just put up 52 points! Gees people relax

It's why I want to see this team against OU.  I saw it against IL.  I wasn't impressed.  If you can can take 52 points against Fordham without a grain of salt ... okay.  I just chose to pass on the Fordham game.  There are really no "measurements" I can make from that ... other than we averaged something like 2.78 yards per carry?

Even Frost said, “I thought we ran hard — still want to get the run game established a little earlier and a little better,” Frost said. “We need our base run plays to get us 5 or 6 (yards) when they're getting us 2 and get us 11 when they're getting to 6. And I think that's a team effort."

I'll be curious to see how many "studs" we have on the OL come the OU game.  It will be fun to watch.  I think we will be humbled.  I hope we are not humiliated ... but if it is necessary ... so be it.

[Nebraska55fan]

15 hours ago, ColoradoHusk said:

That's correct, but vision and decisiveness are very important in a zone scheme. He can develop that, but it's not there right now. 

 

Correct. Mills was a TERRIBLE zone runner early and improved some later in the year- not great.  He never ran zone out of the FB position at GT. 

 

Ozigbo wasn't very good at it early in his career either. Its tough to learn if you've come from a gap blocking team where you try and hit the hole as quickly as possible. He did outstanding his Senior year- so yes he improved dramatically. 

 

Some kids pick it up, some improve, some never do.