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O-Line


Husker03

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I never played O-Line and admittedly do not know all of the ins and outs. But I have watched football at all levels for 30+ years pretty much every chance I get and I know one thing, the O-Line is one of the most difficult area's to "fix".  I know that, at the college level, in general if you are telling me there is a team with no Jr. or Sr. O-lineman present, I am telling you that team will not be very good.  If you are telling me there is an NFL team with a rooking O-Line, I am telling you that team will have a long year, even if those rookies are all first round picks.

 

Let's be honest here for a minute.. This team was bad. Bad bad. There were talent problems, there was work ethic problems, there was attitude problems throughout every area in the locker room.  By all accounts most of those areas are much improved. We look better physically, we play harder mentally, we resemble a unified team for the first time in 10+ years.  We are better in almost all areas of the team, the only possible exception being O-line. (I know the special teamers will jump on me here, but we are better in special teams, we just can't kick field goals this year.)  

 

The O-line takes time, especially when so much strength needs to be developed in an 18 year old moving towards a 22 year old.  I am not ready to say that Austin is the worse because he was given a deck stacked against him. I know everybody hates to hear it, but this line IS young and this line didn't have incredible upperclassmen to mentor them for 2-3 years before they got thrown into the fire. There is a lot of development and gelling that has to happen to created a good offensive line, and there are no magic "talent" hacks to speed that up.  

 

That said, the silver lining here is that what you do have on that line is loads of potential still. As opposed to an O-line filled w/ juniors and seniors where I would tell you the bad line is what it is and there is not a lot of hope for improvement, with this line they should absolutely improve each week throughout the season as they take those lumps and look at film and move on to new lumps. This line isn't even near tip top shape yet, it will improve.. We just have to be patient and let the boys learn.

 

 

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3 hours ago, LumberJackSker said:

If it wasn't for the covid year sicherman and hixon would be seniors, jurgens would be a junior, piper and benhart would be sophomores and everyone of them was redshirted. The coaches have had plenty of time with these guys.

Meh. COVID kinda screwed up workouts and practices last year. Our young guys didn't get as many reps to help development as they should have.

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15 minutes ago, ZRod said:

Meh. COVID kinda screwed up workouts and practices last year. Our young guys didn't get as many reps to help development as they should have.

What do you think the main thing thats wrong with the oline? Is it covid preventing their development, coaching or a combination? I'm not trying to argue i dont know anything about what goes into making a good line.

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6 hours ago, LumberJackSker said:

What do you think the main thing thats wrong with the oline? Is it covid preventing their development, coaching or a combination? I'm not trying to argue i dont know anything about what goes into making a good line.

Not sure to be honest. I think they did lose some much needed time due to the chaos of last season (see Smother et al as well), but they've gone through a full off-season and basically two years of weight room now. At this point it's either want-to on the players part, or coaching. I'd need to rewatch the OU game again, but below is kind of what I gather from the first 3 games.

  • Poor communication presnap, and when working to the second level. We whiff on LBs a lot. Some of it's coaching, some effort, some of it just takes experience and adjusting to the speed of the game.
  • Some piss poor technique that needs to be coached up. Guys not driving their feet after they engage (when you see them get stood up or blown off the line). That's stuff peewee and high school coaches harp on everyday.
  • Pass pro has been bad. The young guys don't seem to know how to anticipated the defenders moves and direct them away from AM. Some of that's experience, some of it's coaching. Some of it's effort.
  • Poor blitz recognition in pass pro. Goes back to presnap and immediately after the snap communication. You always gotta be talking and looking.

So I guess it's a little of A, B, and C...

 

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3 hours ago, Sports is life said:

It's both coaching and scheme. The players are being coached up to remain at the line of scrimmage and shield block. Its actually pretty similar to the stock blocking you see from WR on the perimeter. Huskers need a new oline coach as well as a new power run scheme for the huskers to take that next step. 

What do you mean by shield blocking? They're not coached to remain at the LOS, but on outside zone they do block down the line instead of drive blocking. It also allows us to use an RPO if the number of guys in the box dictates it.

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I’m not making excuses for the O line but one team started 5 seniors 3 redshirt and all got a free extra year of covid too so that means 5 and 6 yr guys the other oldest guy was a redshirt Jr in 4 start ever.  We got some talent on the Oline but only Cam really has a lot of experience hopefully each week it gets better. I think last year the way this group ran the ball against Rutgers is what everyone expected this year.

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