D-line options

HuskerNation1

HuskerNation1

All-American
With 4 of last year's D-lineman now off the table for the 2016 season, is it too late to find a JUCO D-lineman to play in 2016? I wasn't sure if there are any guys out there that have not made up their mind, or perhaps there is a guy that liked NU but didn't like Hughes and went with another team? Parella is going to have to work a lot of magic with some younger players for our D-line to be average. I'm feeling good about our LB's and secondary, and I do think the offense can be effective (assuming the QB position goes ok).

 
Dang, it is rather amazing how strong our D Line position would have been had we had all 4 (VV, Collins, McMullen and Williams) stayed. We could have looked at a 5-2 or even went with 3-4 and rotated guys every 4 snaps and been able to wear down o lines. Now, we seem to be 'one deep' almost. One has to wonder what was happening in that group for so many to want to move on. Hopefully big John P can get the Davis' twins ready to tear things up and we can get a lot of three and outs and our offensive can use up a lot of clock and get TDs to keep them off the field. We might have to move some guys over there from somewhere to help out.

 
We still have 5 schollie players for 2 spots (plus some walk-ons). We'll be inexperienced but aren't thin on bodies.

 
RedDenver said:
We still have 5 schollie players for 2 spots (plus some walk-ons). We'll be inexperienced but aren't thin on bodies.
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But, seriously, think where we would be sitting with the 4 guys we are missing who would've, could've, should've been back! All four made decisions to leave with a year or more left. Another year and we would have had 4 DTs getting NFL tries. That is really rare!

 
84HuskerLaw said:
RedDenver said:
We still have 5 schollie players for 2 spots (plus some walk-ons). We'll be inexperienced but aren't thin on bodies.
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But, seriously, think where we would be sitting with the 4 guys we are missing who would've, could've, should've been back! All four made decisions to leave with a year or more left. Another year and we would have had 4 DTs getting NFL tries. That is really rare!
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Don't think KW and GM are playing any downs in the league - I could be surprised, thou.

 
84HuskerLaw said:
Dang, it is rather amazing how strong our D Line position would have been had we had all 4 (VV, Collins, McMullen and Williams) stayed. We could have looked at a 5-2 or even went with 3-4 and rotated guys every 4 snaps and been able to wear down o lines. Now, we seem to be 'one deep' almost. One has to wonder what was happening in that group for so many to want to move on. Hopefully big John P can get the Davis' twins ready to tear things up and we can get a lot of three and outs and our offensive can use up a lot of clock and get TDs to keep them off the field. We might have to move some guys over there from somewhere to help out.
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Pretty sure no one plays a 5-2 anymore, but love the enthusiasm
 
Pretty reputable poster on another board said we are scouting JUCO 2016 eligible guys to see if any quality ones are left.

 
Any chance that there is a grad transfer out there that is currently playing for one of the top 5 teams in the country that feels he should be first string instead of some spot down the chart and comes our way. How common is that after spring ball - when players have a feel for where they fit in?

I get this feeling that Riley is more then happy with our 4 guys that everybody else is concerned about due to lack of experience, however not sure we could turn down a player that wanted to come here and try to gain some stats before making a run at the NFL next year.

 
GBRFAN said:
Any chance that there is a grad transfer out there that is currently playing for one of the top 5 teams in the country that feels he should be first string instead of some spot down the chart and comes our way. How common is that after spring ball - when players have a feel for where they fit in?

I get this feeling that Riley is more then happy with our 4 guys that everybody else is concerned about due to lack of experience, however not sure we could turn down a player that wanted to come here and try to gain some stats before making a run at the NFL next year.
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While Riley probably sees the upside in some of this inexperienced talent, it's not just the inexperience factor, but also the depth factor. If one or two get banged up, the line is in serious trouble. This could mean more blitzing from the LBs to make up for the lack of rush by the D-line.

 
I've been thinking the same thing. I believe we do have 1 open scholarship as we sit at 84 going into the fall. Traditionally they have liked to award 1 or 2 to walkons, but we could also go after a transfer C or a transfer/Juco DT.

If you look at Kevin Maurice, Carlos Davis, Khalil Davis, Mick Stoltenberg, and Peyton Newell... We have the bodies and the talent on paper to have depth and aren't necessarily unbalanced scholarship wise at this position. In the past we just had a lot of injuries at DT and a lot of recruiting momentum with Suh so we took bunches of them. We had too many allocated at DT when Banker got here, partially because he moved Stoltenberg over and partially because Pelini had injury proneness at that position and would have 2-3 out injured. But we have guys on the team who have the size and ability to be great, they just need good coaching, experience and development (which we have now). Look at the rankings of our guys coming out of high school. I particularly remember Newell being one we beat a lot of huge name programs out for. He is the one I'm waiting to have a monster season. I think under pelini the 2 deep got practice and the rest just didn't get the coaching or the reps. That left guys like Newell being underdeveloped. Stoltenberg needed the time to gain the weight and learn the defense. I loved seeing how Parella had him on the field participating in some capacity despite his injury. He was taking mental reps and could be insanely good in a couple of years. All this to say, I don't think we are as thin as we feel we are here. We've got 5 guys. Ideally you'd like to have 6-7 because chances are 2-3 will be injured at some point, but we can play with 5 if we lose 1 or 2 to injury. The other thing is we have 4 returning next year who are underclassmen so I think the reason the staff is saying take 2 in 2017 is because that would give us 6 guys with none graduating in the next couple of years.

Khalil Davis ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

(Offers: Arizona St, Arkansas, Indiana, Kansas, Kansas St, Missouri, NC St, Oregon, TCU)

Carlos Davis ⭐️⭐️⭐️ 5.7

(Offers: Arizona St, Arkansas, Indiana, Kansas, Kansas St, Missouri, NC St, Oregon, TCU)

Peyton Newell ⭐️⭐️⭐️ 5.7

(Offers: Arizona, Arizona St, Arkansas, Baylor, BYU, Cal, Clemson, Colorado, Duke, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Iowa St, Kansas, Kansas State, Michigan St, Missouri, NC St, Northwestern, Oklahoma, Oklahoma St, Penn St, Purdue, South Carolina, Syracuse, TCU, Tulsa, UCLA, USC, Vanderbilt, West Virginia, Wisconsin)

Kevin Maurice ⭐️⭐️⭐️ 5.7

(Offers: Boston College, Memphis, Navy, NC St)

Mick Stoltenberg ⭐️⭐️⭐️ 5.6

(Offers: Army, Tulsa, Penn)

 
Last edited by a moderator:
caveman99 said:
84HuskerLaw said:
Dang, it is rather amazing how strong our D Line position would have been had we had all 4 (VV, Collins, McMullen and Williams) stayed. We could have looked at a 5-2 or even went with 3-4 and rotated guys every 4 snaps and been able to wear down o lines. Now, we seem to be 'one deep' almost. One has to wonder what was happening in that group for so many to want to move on. Hopefully big John P can get the Davis' twins ready to tear things up and we can get a lot of three and outs and our offensive can use up a lot of clock and get TDs to keep them off the field. We might have to move some guys over there from somewhere to help out.
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Pretty sure no one plays a 5-2 anymore, but love the enthusiasm
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I know the 5-2 is not used as much but you can take advantage of the strength or depth or certain advantages you may have over an opponent's offensive line issues for example. You don't play it entirely or even entire games but can change up in short yardage or even with heavy run teams or where you need the extra size up front. Admittedly we have seemingly a batch of good LBs, we need to have a 'big' package for those teams that try to "Nebraska" smashmouth us at times. Obviously, losing this many quality guys hurts so we will have to use extra LBs or even an extra rush end instead. But, we need to make teams adjust and attack weak links as each team will have some somwhere.

 
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