Any chance for Bo and/or Beck going for a real identity soon?

[bshirt]

it all goes back to a dominating offensive line......i don't think Beck is concerned with an offensive identity just yet.....sigh

Thats it, thats exactly it. I know we have to get good prospects at the skill positions, but we need to get the beast O lineman. An O line can make a decent RB/QB look good and a good RB/QB look freaking amazing. Then you can run ball, keep their D on the field and keep your defense off the field and rested.

Oh boy, a return to Uncle Milt's Olines sound great to me. Bring it!

 

[Guy Chamberlin]

Maybe you, Guy and others have another definition of what "multiple" is? That's fine if you do but would you please tell me what it is?

You admit being horrified at the prospect of Nebraska running and passing in equal measure, so I'm pretty sure you won't like any answer we give.

Keep in mind that Watson was handed an offense where Quentin Castille was kicked off the team and Burkhead and Helu were both hobbled by injury, with a choice of an underperforming Zac Lee or skittish Cody Green at QB. Next season -- with Pelini's blessing -- they dumped Lee and Green and took a flyer on the freshman with an entirely different skill set. All of this done with a very sub-Husker offensive line. It hasn't always been pretty, but it hasn't always been indecision either. Watson and Beck have had to work with what their given and adjust to the unexpected. I think it came together as a scheme last year: a modified zone read option with Martinez and Burkhead as equal threats to run, and Martinez throwing 20 - 25 times a game to keep the defense from stacking the box. I think Martinez and Burkhead developed a good co-leader chemistry last year and it should work even better this year. They experimented with some different sets last year and learned from it. I expect they'll jettison a couple and keep it a bit simpler, but if they pull out the occasional odd formation or bit of trickery -- as Tom Osborne often did -- I hope you won't tear your remaining hair out, wondering why the don't simplly pound the rock 63 plays a game.

 

[bshirt]

If everything "came together" then why did our rushing YPG & YPC plummet? Even our average game scoring went south.

I wouldn't mind at all the occasional trick play but while you & zoogies will be deliriously thrilled beyond measure with a 50/50 run-pass ratio I'm not. Yes, Devaney threw it around some but Tmart is not Tagge or Brownson and our WRs aren't in the same universe as the Jet. Heck, they're not in the same universe of your namesake Guy Ingles either. Those guys actually knew what routes they were supposed to run and caught the damn ball.

Oh boy, anyway.....it looks like you two are going to get what you want (God help us). Sure hope you're right.

GBR!!

 

[Saunders]

If everything "came together" then why did our rushing YPG & YPC plummet? Even our average game scoring went south.

GBR!!

It's quite simple. We were playing Wisconsin, Michigan, Penn State, Michigan State, and Ohio State. Not Kansas State, Kansas, Iowa State, Missouri, and Colorado.

 

[bshirt]

If everything "came together" then why did our rushing YPG & YPC plummet? Even our average game scoring went south.

GBR!!

It's quite simple. We were playing Wisconsin, Michigan, Penn State, Michigan State, and Ohio State. Not Kansas State, Kansas, Iowa State, Missouri, and Colorado.

But you know, those rushing results dropped a lot. Still though, that's difficult to argue with. Point taken.

 

[huKSer]

If everything "came together" then why did our rushing YPG & YPC plummet? Even our average game scoring went south.

GBR!!

It's quite simple. We were playing Wisconsin, Michigan, Penn State, Michigan State, and Ohio State. Not Kansas State, Kansas, Iowa State, Missouri, and Colorado.

But you know, those rushing results dropped a lot. Still though, that's difficult to argue with. Point taken.

Even the better teams in the Big 12 thought that defense is the thing that separates your yard from the neighbor's

 

[Chaddyboxer]

FU^& identity......all I want is W's baby!

 

[Guy Chamberlin]

Also last season: when the Husker defense let its opponent score quick and often it made it impossible for the offense to maintain a grind-it-out running game.

When you don't have overpowering linemen on both sides of the ball -- and that was the key to those great Husker teams we remember -- you have to be a little more clever. Every coach will have bread and butter plays, but they also like having choices. Not many teams are good enough to announce their intentions and simply dare you to stop them.

Some Huskers have gotten weird about having a passing game, but last year we gained 7.2 yards per passing attempt and 5.5 per rushing attempt. We had 8 interceptions and 11 fumbles. That awesome 1983 Nebraska team had 15 fumbles, and there was never a clamor to stop running the ball. Even with poor protection, butterfinger receivers and more difficult routes, Taylor Martinez has a better completion percentage than Dave Humm, Turner Gill, Tommie Frazier, Scott Frost, and Eric Crouch and is right in the same wheelhouse as Vince Ferragamo and Zac Taylor.

It's alright to pass the ball. It will actually help the running game.

 

[huKSer]

It's alright to pass the ball. It will actually help the running game.

What do you want to do next, give women the vote? :sarcasm

 

[Hunter94]

Also last season: when the Husker defense let its opponent score quick and often it made it impossible for the offense to maintain a grind-it-out running game.

When you don't have overpowering linemen on both sides of the ball -- and that was the key to those great Husker teams we remember -- you have to be a little more clever. Every coach will have bread and butter plays, but they also like having choices. Not many teams are good enough to announce their intentions and simply dare you to stop them.

Some Huskers have gotten weird about having a passing game, but last year we gained 7.2 yards per passing attempt and 5.5 per rushing attempt. We had 8 interceptions and 11 fumbles. That awesome 1983 Nebraska team had 15 fumbles, and there was never a clamor to stop running the ball. Even with poor protection, butterfinger receivers and more difficult routes, Taylor Martinez has a better completion percentage than Dave Humm, Turner Gill, Tommie Frazier, Scott Frost, and Eric Crouch and is right in the same wheelhouse as Vince Ferragamo and Zac Taylor.

It's alright to pass the ball. It will actually help the running game.

our true "identity" used to be physically beating teams down....to the point they did not want to play us again, next year........we lost that reputation long ago.

 

[bshirt]

Also last season: when the Husker defense let its opponent score quick and often it made it impossible for the offense to maintain a grind-it-out running game.

When you don't have overpowering linemen on both sides of the ball -- and that was the key to those great Husker teams we remember -- you have to be a little more clever. Every coach will have bread and butter plays, but they also like having choices. Not many teams are good enough to announce their intentions and simply dare you to stop them.

Some Huskers have gotten weird about having a passing game, but last year we gained 7.2 yards per passing attempt and 5.5 per rushing attempt. We had 8 interceptions and 11 fumbles. That awesome 1983 Nebraska team had 15 fumbles, and there was never a clamor to stop running the ball. Even with poor protection, butterfinger receivers and more difficult routes, Taylor Martinez has a better completion percentage than Dave Humm, Turner Gill, Tommie Frazier, Scott Frost, and Eric Crouch and is right in the same wheelhouse as Vince Ferragamo and Zac Taylor.

It's alright to pass the ball. It will actually help the running game.

Where in the world do you get those numbers? If they were accurate I'd feel a lot better about things. NU averaged 4.62 YPC (almost a full yd less per attempt).

Also, TO for years averaged 7 YPC running the sprint option. TO "killed" stacked boxes with that. It's alright to run the ball. It will actually help us win the game.

Run the ball, stop the run, win the game.

 

[zoogs]

Well, passing yards per attempt is always higher than rushing yards per attempt. The only reason teams don't pass 100% of the time is because if they did, their passing efficiency would go down the tubes. But passing dominates rushing from an average gain standpoint, period. It's good to have a ground game because it is more stable, whereas passing has big gainers and incompletions. You need the big play to score points consistently, but you also have to be able to reliably churn out the yards here and there. Of course some teams get the big play from their ground game (zone read) and some teams get their consistent yards from the air (Texas Tech in the Leach days), but generally, those numbers should hardly be surprising.

In fact, if the 5.5 seems too good to be true. 4.62 is still a solid number. I really don't think TO ever ran the option exclusively - it was a power-based run attack - and I also would be surprised if he ever averaged 7ypc. Feel free to look it up and prove me wrong, but 7 seems pretty obscene.

 

[bshirt]

Gotta go with Guy here. Tom Osborne didn't just get by with simple offenses. He wasn't playing pop warner checkers on a chess board. It may have been a power, run-heavy attack but by no means was it simple. And, it did in fact rely on superior domination ability from the OL. At the time, we were able to be heads and shoulders above everybody else in that department, and we had a scheme that took that edge and exploited it for all it was worth.

Agreed.

I mean, just think back to our last NC team in 1997...we had only the 10th QB to rush and pass for over 1000 yards in a season in Frost (sidebar comment: who was a pretty cool dude off the field as well...I ran against him in track). He could just as easily throw the ball as he could run it or hand off to Green.

If Frost played for us now, just like Tmart, his shot-put throwing motion would be mocked endlessly by the internet genius crowd. Same with Frazier when his passes would sail 10 yds (or more) over our WR's head. Those two are lucky they don't play for us now.

 

[bshirt]

Well, passing yards per attempt is always higher than rushing yards per attempt. The only reason teams don't pass 100% of the time is because if they did, their passing efficiency would go down the tubes. But passing dominates rushing from an average gain standpoint, period. It's good to have a ground game because it is more stable, whereas passing has big gainers and incompletions. You need the big play to score points consistently, but you also have to be able to reliably churn out the yards here and there. Of course some teams get the big play from their ground game (zone read) and some teams get their consistent yards from the air (Texas Tech in the Leach days), but generally, those numbers should hardly be surprising.

In fact, if the 5.5 seems too good to be true. 4.62 is still a solid number. I really don't think TO ever ran the option exclusively - it was a power-based run attack - and I also would be surprised if he ever averaged 7ypc. Feel free to look it up and prove me wrong, but 7 seems pretty obscene.

Zoogies, once again you're dreaming up straw-man arguments. Who in the world ever said TO ran the option exclusively? As yet again, who in the world ever said TO's offense was simple? C'mon.....you're better than that.

Lastly, obscene or not, TO himself says.....

We always felt our options playsshould average more than seven yards a carry, and they usually did. That’s a pretty high average.

You had a better chance for a 60- to 80-yard run than almost any play in your playbook. Some times people criticized us because we didn’t pass a lot, but what I often told people, where the traditional team would throw the ball, we’ll run an option. So if we threw 15 and ran 12 options, that would be the equivalent of some teams passing 27 times. It’s a high-risk play but sometimes it would get you those big gains.



http://voices.washingtonpost.com/hokies-journal/2009/10/option_offense_qa_with_nebrask.html

 

[zoogs]

Well, I must have misunderstood your line...

Also, TO for years averaged 7 YPC running the sprint option.

You were talking about that in comparison to our total (not just one play) rushing average from last year, so I assumed you meant the total average running #s for that year. My bad. If you're talking about how TO used the option as a way to get the big play, that's right and I agree with that.

Would venture to guess that we don't have the same capability right now.