Confidence vote - Which position group are you most confident in?

[H2h]

I say secondary. They started to play pretty well towards the end of the year at times. Flashes of brilliance if you will. Even without Dennard (who I feel was never himself anyway), there's plenty of experience. I think with the energy of a new coach and Bo's finger back on it a bit guys like Osbourne and Smith are ready to explode back onto the scene. Throw that in with Green and Seisay and a little help from the D-line, they get my vote.

I don't mean to call you out for this, but I see people say this fairly commonly. Maybe he wasn't ever 100%, but his play on the field was still excellent. He still managed to be 1st team all conference, totally shut down B.J. Cunningham, shut out Marvin McNutt. The only time I really thought he was hurting was during Wisconsin when he appeared to be pulling up a little, but that was his first game back. Sorry to rant, I just feel people are misremembering how good Fonzi was last year.

 

[The Dude]

Rex is a exceptional short yardage back. Maybe the best in the country. I don't understand the obsession with putting a bigger guy in there in short yardage situations, just for the sake of having a bigger guy in there.

Completely agree. +1

why beat the hell out of your best back, game after game and then have him basically unavailable for a game or two? we almost killed Rex last season, so much so that he basically sat out spring practice......short memories??

 

[RedRedJarvisRedwine]

I say secondary. They started to play pretty well towards the end of the year at times. Flashes of brilliance if you will. Even without Dennard (who I feel was never himself anyway), there's plenty of experience. I think with the energy of a new coach and Bo's finger back on it a bit guys like Osbourne and Smith are ready to explode back onto the scene. Throw that in with Green and Seisay and a little help from the D-line, they get my vote.

I don't mean to call you out for this, but I see people say this fairly commonly. Maybe he wasn't ever 100%, but his play on the field was still excellent. He still managed to be 1st team all conference, totally shut down B.J. Cunningham, shut out Marvin McNutt. The only time I really thought he was hurting was during Wisconsin when he appeared to be pulling up a little, but that was his first game back. Sorry to rant, I just feel people are misremembering how good Fonzi was last year.

Also had a new position coach who I believe had him playing alot less aggressive at the line and using more technique and scheme!

 

[Enhance]

Rex is a exceptional short yardage back. Maybe the best in the country. I don't understand the obsession with putting a bigger guy in there in short yardage situations, just for the sake of having a bigger guy in there.

Completely agree. +1

why beat the hell out of your best back, game after game and then have him basically unavailable for a game or two? we almost killed Rex last season, so much so that he basically sat out spring practice......short memories??

They're discussing short yardage situations only. I really doubt Rex is going to want to come out in the middle of a series when a first down or TD is on the line and I agree that I don't see us needing a "short yardage" back while he's here.

What you're talking about is something different, imo. Rex should be given a break after the 2nd or 3rd series in games and he shouldn't be kept in as long as he was last year into the 4th quarters of games that aren't close. And he sure as hell shouldn't be playing injured like he did during a couple of games last year. That drove me nuts. If you're going to burn 3 rb redshirts, then f*ing play them when the guy ahead of them is hurt. Otherwise don't burn them in the first place.

Counting only running backs that had 20 or more carries last year, we had a total of 375 carries. Rex Burkhead accounted for 284 of those, or 76.7 percent. We also know that Burkhead had multiple games of 25 plus carries, and one game where he set the Nebraska single game record for carries. And his 4.8 yards per carry average is pretty good, but not good enough to where he should be getting over 75 percent of our carries.

We had a lot of inexperience at the running back position last year, which explains why the coaches were more reliant on Burkhead, but the truth is those guys deserved more playing time and Burkhead should have been given less. I've heard many times that Burkhead is the kind of guy who doesn't want to leave the field and wants to be in there every play, but I'm sure even he realizes that his body can't take that consistent of a beating. If it's so important to have him in on the field, find different ways to utilize him and the players around him.

Part of the issues is Burkhead himself, too. He's not the fastest guy in the world, he doesn't have the best moves, doesn't make good reads (more often than people would think) and he's not even the best blocker. It takes 20 plus carries for Burkhead to reach the 100 yard mark. Going by his average, he needs just under 25 carries to reach 100 yards. That's a lot of pressure on his body.

 

[bshirt]

Rex is a exceptional short yardage back. Maybe the best in the country. I don't understand the obsession with putting a bigger guy in there in short yardage situations, just for the sake of having a bigger guy in there.

Completely agree. +1

why beat the hell out of your best back, game after game and then have him basically unavailable for a game or two? we almost killed Rex last season, so much so that he basically sat out spring practice......short memories??

They're discussing short yardage situations only. I really doubt Rex is going to want to come out in the middle of a series when a first down or TD is on the line and I agree that I don't see us needing a "short yardage" back while he's here.

What you're talking about is something different, imo. Rex should be given a break after the 2nd or 3rd series in games and he shouldn't be kept in as long as he was last year into the 4th quarters of games that aren't close. And he sure as hell shouldn't be playing injured like he did during a couple of games last year. That drove me nuts. If you're going to burn 3 rb redshirts, then f*ing play them when the guy ahead of them is hurt. Otherwise don't burn them in the first place.

Counting only running backs that had 20 or more carries last year, we had a total of 375 carries. Rex Burkhead accounted for 284 of those, or 76.7 percent. We also know that Burkhead had multiple games of 25 plus carries, and one game where he set the Nebraska single game record for carries. And his 4.8 yards per carry average is pretty good, but not good enough to where he should be getting over 75 percent of our carries.

We had a lot of inexperience at the running back position last year, which explains why the coaches were more reliant on Burkhead, but the truth is those guys deserved more playing time and Burkhead should have been given less. I've heard many times that Burkhead is the kind of guy who doesn't want to leave the field and wants to be in there every play, but I'm sure even he realizes that his body can't take that consistent of a beating. If it's so important to have him in on the field, find different ways to utilize him and the players around him.

Part of the issues is Burkhead himself, too. He's not the fastest guy in the world, he doesn't have the best moves, doesn't make good reads (more often than people would think) and he's not even the best blocker. It takes 20 plus carries for Burkhead to reach the 100 yard mark. Going by his average, he needs just under 25 carries to reach 100 yards. That's a lot of pressure on his body.

True enough but I think you're not realizing how impressive that was to accomplish with our Oline. Seriously, on average, how many carries per game does SRex break one or two tackles behind the LOS to get positive yardage? Two? Three? Four? However many that might be it's extremely likely that any of our others rbs would have been stuffed badly for a four or five yd loss. Every time. I can't even imagine how badly Green, Heard, etc would have been annihilated on those plays.

Now, just imagine what SRex's numbers would be with some real-deal roadgraders in front of him? Oh, I agree he's no LP to be sure but I think even LP, Rozier, DuBose, etc would have struggled frequently with our Oline sometimes standing around doing nothing.

SRex by himself frequently made our Oline look respectable.

 

[Enhance]

True enough but I think you're not realizing how impressive that was to accomplish with our Oline. Seriously, on average, how many carries per game does SRex break one or two tackles behind the LOS to get positive yardage? Two? Three? Four? However many that might be it's extremely likely that any of our others rbs would have been stuffed badly for a four or five yd loss. Every time. I can't even imagine how badly Green, Heard, etc would have been annihilated on those plays.

Now, just imagine what SRex's numbers would be with some real-deal roadgraders in front of him? Oh, I agree he's no LP to be sure but I think even LP, Rozier, DuBose, etc would have struggled frequently with our Oline sometimes standing around doing nothing.

SRex by himself frequently made our Oline look respectable.

Oh I agree with you, and I definitely should have mentioned the o-line while I was talking about Burkhead's deficiencies. My main point was to say he's not the most athletically gifted nor even the most talented back in the world, so even with a better line things are going to be a bit more difficult to him. Thankfully, you worked that out from my poor explanation. :thumbs

 

[bshirt]

No problem Enhance! Just three weeks to go......wooHOO!

 

[Enhance]

No problem Enhance! Just three weeks to go......wooHOO!

SO FAR AWAY

 

[walksalone]

I am currently designing a bot to make sure RB's get thousands of votes...

 

[Enhance]

I am currently designing a bot to make sure RB's get thousands of votes...

I am currently designing a bot to hack your bot.

 

[walksalone]

I am currently designing a bot to make sure RB's get thousands of votes...

I am currently designing a bot to hack your bot.

Oh yeah, I've begun designing a bot to violate your bot

 

[n.e.husker]

Maher gets my vote

 

[Blackshirt96]

Special teams. Arguably the best kicker/punter in the country and a (sometimes!) electric returner in Abdullah.

RB (although unproven after Rex) and WR (strange saying that!) would be up there as well.

Completly agree. Maher won top Kicker & Punter for the Big 10 last year & will only be better this year. Ameer was a big suprise in the return game & should get some extra attention in the return game. I also think our kick coverage will be better.

 

[Mierin]

Special teams. Arguably the best kicker/punter in the country and a (sometimes!) electric returner in Abdullah.

RB (although unproven after Rex) and WR (strange saying that!) would be up there as well.

Completly agree. Maher won top Kicker & Punter for the Big 10 last year & will only be better this year. Ameer was a big suprise in the return game & should get some extra attention in the return game. I also think our kick coverage will be better.

Kick returning won't be as much if a factor this year unfortunately but maybe he'll do more punt returning.

 

[RedRedJarvisRedwine]

Special teams. Arguably the best kicker/punter in the country and a (sometimes!) electric returner in Abdullah.

RB (although unproven after Rex) and WR (strange saying that!) would be up there as well.

Completly agree. Maher won top Kicker & Punter for the Big 10 last year & will only be better this year. Ameer was a big suprise in the return game & should get some extra attention in the return game. I also think our kick coverage will be better.

Kick returning won't be as much if a factor this year unfortunately but maybe he'll do more punt returning.

Praying Ameer has his ball security issues resolved so we don't have to put mr. Reliable Rex back to field punts! Dont need him taking extra abuse at a position that he isn't great at except for securing the ball.