Dual practices?

Saunders

Saunders

Heisman Trophy Winner
Attention, young football coaches. Get out your clipboard. We just discovered a new way to practice. Nebraska football coach Mike Riley described it on Wednesday, how his squad will practice when spring drills start on Saturday.

The team will be divided into two groups of about 60 players each. The Red group will practice first, followed by the White. They will go through the same drills, get coached by the same coaches, etc. The idea here is for Riley and his staff to be able to coach and evaluate every player, rather than have “22 guys play and everyone else standing around.”

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Huh... I didn't even know you could do that.

 
I thought they always had 1st string against 3rd and 2nd against 4th at the same time, as the spring drills went on. If not, this seems like a better idea anyway.

I just want to see a much better "D" this year....

GBR!!!

 
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Osborne did this. It's how he managed his huge rosters, the ones sometimes exceeding 200 players. Players were assigned one of four stations, they got more reps, more coaching, more time actually learning in practice rather than standing around watching other units.

Under Osborne the Huskers would break practice up into stations. In order to do this properly, it was vital to have several walk-on players. There were four stations total in practice--two offensive and two defensive. Each Tuesday and Wednesday during the fall both the No. 1 and No. 2 offensive lines saw 110 snaps in practice. In 17 to 18-minute periods, Tenopir said NU would run an average of 33 to 35 plays simultaneously with each unit. This allowed several more players the opportunity to develop, which made it easier to reload--rather than rebuild after a heavy graduation year.

- 100 Things Nebraska Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die

by Sean Callahan

 
just another huge advantage of the walk-on program that doesnt technically show up on the scoreboard. Heard on a radio show yesterday that Riley's more accustomed to having only 70-80 guys to work with in spring, whereas here he has 120+ to delegate. So now he's got the advantage of really being able to get down and dirty with some innovative ideas.

 
knapplc said:
Osborne did this. It's how he managed his huge rosters, the ones sometimes exceeding 200 players. Players were assigned one of four stations, they got more reps, more coaching, more time actually learning in practice rather than standing around watching other units.

Under Osborne the Huskers would break practice up into stations. In order to do this properly, it was vital to have several walk-on players. There were four stations total in practice--two offensive and two defensive. Each Tuesday and Wednesday during the fall both the No. 1 and No. 2 offensive lines saw 110 snaps in practice. In 17 to 18-minute periods, Tenopir said NU would run an average of 33 to 35 plays simultaneously with each unit. This allowed several more players the opportunity to develop, which made it easier to reload--rather than rebuild after a heavy graduation year.

- 100 Things Nebraska Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die

by Sean Callahan
Click to expand...
I think Riley is talking about a different thing than the stations Tom used in his practices. Riley is going to have the different squads practice at different times. Some guys will sit while other guys practice. Practice with Red squad, while White squad sits or does other stuff. Then switch around and practice with White squad. He said he's having fewer players on the field at one time so coaches can see everyone. It's within the ncaa rules because the rules limit the amount of time a player can practice. They don't require the whole team to practice at once.

 
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I was worried when I first heard about this. I was picturing one practice with O and another for D, but with the overlap he's thought of everything.

I remember hearing stories about how TO ran practices. It gives me a efficiency boner just thinking about it.

It would be nice to get a stationed practice going again, but for what Riley wants, which is individual attention to get to know the players and evaluate them his system is better for now.

Have to admit that this is better than Callahan solution to the problem, which was just to cut the roster of almost all the walk-ons and call the guys standing around "getting mental reps."

 
NUance said:
knapplc said:
Osborne did this. It's how he managed his huge rosters, the ones sometimes exceeding 200 players. Players were assigned one of four stations, they got more reps, more coaching, more time actually learning in practice rather than standing around watching other units.

Under Osborne the Huskers would break practice up into stations. In order to do this properly, it was vital to have several walk-on players. There were four stations total in practice--two offensive and two defensive. Each Tuesday and Wednesday during the fall both the No. 1 and No. 2 offensive lines saw 110 snaps in practice. In 17 to 18-minute periods, Tenopir said NU would run an average of 33 to 35 plays simultaneously with each unit. This allowed several more players the opportunity to develop, which made it easier to reload--rather than rebuild after a heavy graduation year.

- 100 Things Nebraska Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die

by Sean Callahan
Click to expand...
I think Riley is talking about a different thing than the stations Tom used in his practices. Riley is going to have the different squads practice at different times. Some guys will sit while other guys practice. Practice with Red squad, while White squad sits or does other stuff. Then switch around and practice with White squad. He said he's having fewer players on the field at one time so coaches can see everyone. It's within the ncaa rules because the rules limit the amount of time a player can practice. They don't require the whole team to practice at once.
Click to expand...
Yeah, it's a lot different from what Osborne did, though both have the advantage of getting more guys reps. Riley is effectively having 2 different practices, with some overlap. It gives the coaches more time with each unit.

 
RunMickeyRun02 said:
I was worried when I first heard about this. I was picturing one practice with O and another for D, but with the overlap he's thought of everything.

I remember hearing stories about how TO ran practices. It gives me a efficiency boner just thinking about it.

It would be nice to get a stationed practice going again, but for what Riley wants, which is individual attention to get to know the players and evaluate them his system is better for now.

Have to admit that this is better than Callahan solution to the problem, which was just to cut the roster of almost all the walk-ons and call the guys standing around "getting mental reps."
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I agree. Two practices might be tough on the coaches but it should help them evaluate the talent from top to bottom. Looks like they are willing to put the work in to teach, absorb and figure it out as much as they can. This should help the players out too.

Initially I don't see this as an every year sort of thing. But who knows...

 
A little bit of difference between the TO era and now. I believe the coaching staffs are smaller now than in most of TO's time here. When you had a full staff plus coaches that were specifically responsible for coaching the freshman team, you had plenty of position coaches around to run various stations.

By doing it this way, they can use the same number of coaching staff and the players get more reps.

 
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Someone tell me if this is correct

Squad A will practice from 3-5 pm. Then squad B will practice from 5-7 pm. Is that how this will work? If that's the case, I assume this falls under the NCAA practice time rules?

 
Red Five said:
Someone tell me if this is correct

Squad A will practice from 3-5 pm. Then squad B will practice from 5-7 pm. Is that how this will work? If that's the case, I assume this falls under the NCAA practice time rules?
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Yes. This is essentially what is happening.

Also, note that this is not a permanant plan. I think Riley said this is something for the beginning so he can get a better gauge of ALL the players' overall abilities and such. Once they get a feel and/or come fall, I assume they'll go with a more conventional style.

 
I like the idea - this staff wants to view everyone on the same level and let the real performers rise to the top.

 
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