2015 Season Excitement

For the most part Bo's teams were pretty solid on special teams. I think our atrocious 2012 unit overshadows six other pretty solid groups. According to Football Outsiders' Special Teams Efficiency:

2008: 19th

2009: 6th

2010: 8th

2011: 14th

2012: 103rd (aaaand there's the outlier)

2013: 38th

2014: 6th

 
Well, for all the good things they did on Special Teams we lacked a lot of consistency everywhere else. The whole excitement thing that makes me giddy is the fact we have a staff that should know how to coach our players in those areas. We have a staff that came from a situation where they did the best with what they had and had some success with it. Now they have a chance to do more with more.

Our last staff was learning while they taught. For that I commend them for trying, but a lot of fundamentals ended up taking a back seat to things that ended up being too complex for no good reason.

 
I'm getting really pumped up for this season even with the thought there may be some growing pains with a new staff.

GBR!!!!!!

 
I think Riley limits the reads for TA. 2 primary routes and then the dump to the RB. I think Riley will have option routes that TA and TA alone will call. i.e. TA reads the D and can audible to different routes for the receivers. This way, all involved are on the same page. I also think Langs will do something as simple as having TA look right and throw left. The INT's and almost INT's were not really the work of stellar DB play. TA locks on receivers like a heat seeking missile. DC's know this after watching film and simply teach their DB's to "read" his eyes and jump the routes. TA and Beck showed an incredible lack of "looking" off a DB, "pump fake" or any other basic QB trick to make the DB hesitate. I expect to see these things that will make TA look like a completely different QB. Easy fixes that will pay huge dividends in the passing game.

 
True2tRA said:
Moiraine said:
If Armstrong could just figure out finding the wide open running back that would go a long way.
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Do we ever stop and ask WHY this was such an issue?
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I agree with part of this. The progression part.

But I think the real reason is Tommy's temperament. He wants to make big things happen. When the line gives him time -- and they often did -- he's convinced his primary or secondary receiver are going to get the separation he needs any second now. The longer it takes, the more wide open the defense leaves the running back. But the RB is a safety valve -- the smaller play. Tommy doesn't like the smaller plays as much.

You like a QB with a bit of gunslinger in him, but Tommy needs to learn that a check down isn't a sacrifice.

Also, he did throw short, safe passes to our running backs. Perhaps more than we remember. Cause we're more inclined to remember the passes he didn't throw, or overthrew.

 
True2tRA said:
I've got to say, I'm excited to hear the huddle is coming back to the offense too. This will help everybody communicate a bit more and get on the same page.
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I feel it always played against our strength of defense. If we want our defense to be exceptional, why would we run an offense where we could have a 30 sec 3 and out?

 
I am pretty much excited every year for the season. I love heading to Lincoln for games, I love that atmosphere and being with my friends. I thought I would be more excited this year but it's really about the same. Well, we gave up our tailgate spot so that kind of sucks but I still can't wait for that first game.

 
hskrfan4life said:
True2tRA said:
I've got to say, I'm excited to hear the huddle is coming back to the offense too. This will help everybody communicate a bit more and get on the same page.
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I feel it always played against our strength of defense. If we want our defense to be exceptional, why would we run an offense where we could have a 30 sec 3 and out?
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Yeah if our strength was supposed to be suffocating defense why were we in such a hurry to get them back on the field. We wore our own defenses out more than we wore down other teaams.

 
Don't kid yourselves.

Nebraska has been blessed with some excellent punters and kickers over the years. That's not in any way a credit to the previous staff. Nebraska has always had exceptional punters and kickers. Alex Henery is the only reason Bo Pelini started his tenure here in the same 9-4 fashion in which he ended it.

When I say this staff already knows the value of special teams I'm not saying that Nebraska's special teams necessarily sucked in previous years, aside from that very ugly year you pointed out.

I'm saying that the previous staff did not emphasize it as much as the new staff from what I can gather.

It wasn't until that ugly season that Bo finally gave some serious attention to the unit, up to that point, like I said, we've been very blessed to have the guys we've had there. No doubt Foltz, Drew Brown and Pierson-El will continue to bless us.

 
That's definitely a good point. Having Alex Henery, followed by Brett Maher, followed by Pat Smith (right?), as well as double duties as punters from the first two, and also kickoff specialists, was definitely a humongous blessing. Punt return was always a mixed bag, but we seemed to do pretty well with very average punt returners in Niles Paul and Nate Swift as well.

 
Landlord of Memorial Stadium said:
That's definitely a good point. Having Alex Henery, followed by Brett Maher, followed by Pat Smith (right?), as well as double duties as punters from the first two, and also kickoff specialists, was definitely a humongous blessing. Punt return was always a mixed bag, but we seemed to do pretty well with very average punt returners in Niles Paul and Nate Swift as well.
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Are you being sarcastic? Please tell me you're not.

 
I don't remember Niles Paul being a good punt returner. I remember his kickoff return against OSU. That's about it.

I also remember the year that we had to have our starting running back return punts because nobody else could catch the ball.

 
The way you said they pulled double duty as if it was some sort of knock on somebody or something, when reality is they pulled double duty because they were excellent at both place kicking and punting.

I believe Alex Henery is known as the most accurate kicker in NCAA history? He was a hell of a punter too, great at putting the ball inside the oppoents 5-10 yard line. Talk about being blessed! The guy was a walk on from right down the road in Omaha wasn't he?

Brett Maher was a walk on from Kearney, no? His junior year he was the first Big Ten player since 2001 to be named all conference as a kicker and punter if I'm not mistaken. Talk about blessed.

The coaches didn't have to place any emphasis on recruiting those guys here. They were born and raised right here in Nebrask and freaking WALKED ON!

Niles Paul ran punts back for two years if I remember right? 2009 -2010, with Burkhead returning a few as well. Then didn't Abdullah take over his freshman year, then Westy and Marlowe saw a bit of time in there too up until last season when Pierson El took over.

Yeah, we've been blessed.

 
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