No Program Identity

[ColoradoHusk]

4 minutes ago, Huskerfollower4life said:

Really? Realistically all kids will run through walls for their coaches but I mean their are very few that will go above and beyond to stand out.

Sorry, I just think it's a lame and overused metaphor.

[TonkaSker]

Personally I'm sick of our coach being our identity. Obviously people will connect a coach and program together in conversation but Frost has been our identity. Made an earlier post about it. We haven't made a single headline outside of maybe Cam Jurgens or Adrian briefly, success in the last five years that hasn't been Scott being Scott.

 

Look at Wisconsin - they've been the same program since Alvarez got it humming and they've sustained success through four or five coaches. RBU, tough defense, OL factory, Camp Randall, etc.

 

Even when Osborne was coaching he wasn't THE identity of Nebraska football. Scheme, positional strength, and players were. 

[Hagg]

There's a not-so-subtle difference between losing games by accident and expecting to lose games.  The latter can seep in to a perfectly good program.  Takes a special coaching crew and team leaders to prevent that as close to 100% as possible.

[Undone]

16 hours ago, B1GRED said:

who Iowa is

 

Iowa is a team with an incredible defense & special teams but arguably the worst offense in the conference. That's who they are.

 

So, their offensive identity is that their offense sucks.

 

Don't conflate "offensive identity" with success. Those are two different things.

[B1GRED]

24 minutes ago, Undone said:

 

Iowa is a team with an incredible defense & special teams but arguably the worst offense in the conference. That's who they are.

 

So, their offensive identity is that their offense sucks.

 

Don't conflate "offensive identity" with success. Those are two different things.

 

At least they have their identity (great defense) to fall back on in close games when bad things happen.    And they own the Huskers as of late.  

[Mavric]

"Identity" is about the most over-complained-about thing there is.

 

It's always brought up when the overall results aren't as good as we want.  But it really only exists either at the extremes or in overly-general terms.

 

If you're an Air Raid team or a Triple Option team, that can be an identity.  I suppose the old Bears 4-6 defense is an identity but no one is like that any more.

 

Pretty much everyone else is some blend of a lot of different things.  What would be Alabama's identity?  What would be Ohio State's?  Or Georgia's?  They're just really good football teams.  But that's not an identity.

[Huskerfollower4life]

49 minutes ago, Mavric said:

"Identity" is about the most over-complained-about thing there is.

 

It's always brought up when the overall results aren't as good as we want.  But it really only exists either at the extremes or in overly-general terms.

 

If you're an Air Raid team or a Triple Option team, that can be an identity.  I suppose the old Bears 4-6 defense is an identity but no one is like that any more.

 

Pretty much everyone else is some blend of a lot of different things.  What would be Alabama's identity?  What would be Ohio State's?  Or Georgia's?  They're just really good football teams.  But that's not an identity.

Exactly when I think of identity I think what is Nebraska trying to be??? Air Raid, Option football, something that stands out to wear you know what they are. Nebraska has tried to be a spread offense but also be a power run team. Clearly I feel like Nebraska has struggled with knowing what they want to do.

[Mavric]

Just now, Huskerfollower4life said:

Exactly when I think of identity I think what is Nebraska trying to be??? Air Raid, Option football, something that stands out to wear you know what they are. Nebraska has tried to be a spread offense but also be a power run team. Clearly I feel like Nebraska has struggled with knowing what they want to do.

 

Again, I think is just you don't like the results (not that you should).  Frost was pretty clear about what he wanted to do since he got here (on offense).  And it was pretty obvious most of the time.  It wasn't until Whipple got here this year that it really changed.

[admo]

1 hour ago, Mavric said:

"Identity" is about the most over-complained-about thing there is.

 

It's always brought up when the overall results aren't as good as we want.  But it really only exists either at the extremes or in overly-general terms.

 

If you're an Air Raid team or a Triple Option team, that can be an identity.  I suppose the old Bears 4-6 defense is an identity but no one is like that any more.

 

Pretty much everyone else is some blend of a lot of different things.  What would be Alabama's identity?  What would be Ohio State's?  Or Georgia's?  They're just really good football teams.  But that's not an identity.

 

/thread.

 

Please re-read if you need to.  This is almost "sticky" material for "identity" talk.

[Enhance]

Well said @Mavric

 

Identity is also brought up a lot because it's low-hanging fruit that's often hard-to-define and hard to assign to any specific analyses. 

 

I don't think Nebraska has an identity problem, at least not in the essence of how it has been talked about in recent years. Based on a lot of the whispers and anecdotal stuff I've been hearing, they have quite a few trust, leadership and communication issues happening inside that program. IMO I think it's pretty evident what they 'wanted' to be every single week, and the kind of identity they had. I just don't think they were doing the critical things behind the scenes well enough to make that stuff come to fruition on gameday.

[URSS]

I have been hearing identity or similar issues for over five decades now.  I think it largely is red herring- you can’t come up with name and the problem is solved.

 

The team has to be sound on both sides of the ball and in all areas of the game.  It has to start with the coaches demanding conditioning, techniques and standards. Next both lines have to be developed that can control and dominate the LOS.  The offenses and defenses come next- schemes and talent.

Special teams are mandatory.  You must dominate in ball control and field position.

Our problem has always been in the run, pass or dual threat identity.  A championship team may be more successful in running or passing BUT they are competent and competitive in both.  
I can remember Osborne’s teams being dominate in running against weak and average teams and the stall out against top 29 teams because their passing game was not respected.  Remember when Solich’s teams were basically Crouch left, Crouch right, Crouch again.  We did not have a real passing game threat despite having stars that went on to the NFL as receivers or dual threats.  Not many QB stars at Nebraska ever went on to be stars in the NFL.

We need an offense that can make long drives on the ground backed up with a good passing threat (that is respected)featuring a road grader line.  We need a defense that can stop the run for three yards or less, put pressure on the QB and DBs can play close without flags.  
The special teams need provide good field position.

It will take time for competent and skilled coaches to develop this kind of team.  
Their identity is being a kick a$$ competitor.

 

I heard Green Bay described in their hey-day as a team that only ran about a dozen plays.  But, they ran those plays better than any anyone else and ran over defenses.

IMO, it all starts with both lines.

[Huskerfollower4life]

39 minutes ago, Mavric said:

 

Again, I think is just you don't like the results (not that you should).  Frost was pretty clear about what he wanted to do since he got here (on offense).  And it was pretty obvious most of the time.  It wasn't until Whipple got here this year that it really changed.

It is not necessarily me that didn't like the results it was Scott Frost he pretty much fired everyone on the offense side of the ball.

[walksalone]

2 hours ago, Huskerfollower4life said:

Really? Realistically all kids will run through walls for their coaches but I mean their are very few that will go above and beyond to stand out.

 

And Robert's your father's brother

[Enhance]

1 minute ago, Huskerfollower4life said:

It is not necessarily me that didn't like the results it was Scott Frost he pretty much fired everyone on the offense side of the ball.

I think the crucial question is... what is identity and how are we defining it?

Far, far too often, identity is associated with results. If you do something well then you have an identity; if you do it poorly, then you don't. I think it's pretty clear Nebraska had an offensive identity under Frost. They knew who they were and what they wanted to do. They just didn't do it very well. Does that mean they had no identity? Or does it just mean they couldn't execute it?

Sometimes this identity conversation is presented in such a way that if Nebraska ran something like a triple option then they'd finally have an identity. They could absolutely suck at it and not even average 4 YPC but "yay identity!" I think that's nonsense. (I'm not accusing you of that, by the way. Just pointing out that this is how the identity conversation tends to manifest... and I don't really buy it).

[Has Been]

I don’t know about identity, but you’ve got to be able to do many things well. Nebraska doesn’t do anything particularly well, except lose one score games. At the end of the day, you’ve got to have somewhere to hang your hat. Nebraska does not. Opposing coaches look at Nebraska on film, and probably think, if we just don’t beat ourselves, limit big plays and turnovers, they will give the game to us eventually, one way or the other. Hell, that’s probably Nebraska’s ‘identity’ right now. Chill, they’ll give the game to us.