McKewon: Don’t lose any sleep over Husker spring storylines

Saunders

Saunders

Heisman Trophy Winner
LINCOLN — As Nebraska coach Mike Riley prepares to address the media Wednesday in his spring football press conference, I’ll offer this public service announcement.

Jumping to conclusions and overreacting in early March can be hazardous to your health.

When that message board debate on the necessity of a top run game or the role of special teams coordinator Bruce Read threatens to rage into the wee hours of the morning, just go to bed. Sleep adds years to lives. Cuts down on the junk food you snarf in the midst of those debates, too. (Not that I’d know.)
At any rate, it’s six months from an actual football game. So calm down and remember the following as the content comes flying at you over the next month from all directions:
» The defense needs more work, even if Riley’s affinity for offense triggers more in-depth answers from the head coach. NU’s pass defense was a grease fire for most of 2015, and the run defense gave up too many chunk plays — eight over 30 yards — against Big Ten foes. Riley fired one coach from his inaugural Nebraska staff — the defensive line coach. Big Ten teams don’t win conference titles giving up 400 yards and 27.8 points per game. More like 350 yards and 21.7 yards per game — Michigan State’s averages.

Read the rest: http://www.omaha.com/huskers/mckewon-don-t-lose-any-sleep-over-husker-spring-storylines/article_f5c1ea45-ba42-53a9-87a5-944ac6f8a494.html
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Good stuff as usual from Sam.

The OWH Pick Six podcast this week was interesting too. He questioned the validity of Riley's "top 3 rushing" goal based on his style of offense. The top 3 rushing teams over the last 3 years were OSU, Wisconsin, and Indiana. Two of those teams run spread up tempo schemes, and the other (Wisconsin) runs the ball nearly 70% of the time. Bascially, Riley will have to ditch the "balance" philosophy, or start using tempo more often. Sam did say that it wasn't really an important goal though (Iowa was 4th in 2015, and MSU 9th), and that fixing the defense (like stated in the above link) was much more important.

 
One does not need to run up tempo to lead the conference or the nation in rushing yards. The Huskers did it many times under TO and Frank without 'up tempo'. We huddled and too our time. We dominated and often had 80 snaps of offense per game average. The key is to get first downs and retain possession. One can have 90 plus snaps of hurry up plays a game but lead the nation is punts as well. 3 & outs all day long can generate lots of possessions if you use up about 45 seconds of game clock with a bunch of incompletes and plays running out of bounds to stop the clock.

TO and Solich ran the ball wide on options and threw short 'out' passes toward the sidelines in which the receiver caught a 5 or 6 yard gain and stepped out or the I back took the pitch up the sideline for 5 yards or so and then was knocked out of bounds. These plays stopped the clock along with all those plays resulting in first downs. 1st, 2nd and first and ten, results in long sustained drives in two and half to three minutes. Ball control, clock burning drives are also possible and were not uncommon but I would suspect that the statistics might show Osborne's run oriented attack was almost as efficient in scoring as the 'fun & gun' of the Gators. (time wise). When you I back averages 8 yards a carry, it doesn't not take that many plays to move the ball 70 yards, particularly when you mix in a couple quick hitter passes for about 12 and 15.

I don't get the article assertions that fans should not expect improvement.

 
84HuskerLaw said:
One does not need to run up tempo to lead the conference or the nation in rushing yards. The Huskers did it many times under TO and Frank without 'up tempo'. We huddled and too our time. We dominated and often had 80 snaps of offense per game average. The key is to get first downs and retain possession. One can have 90 plus snaps of hurry up plays a game but lead the nation is punts as well. 3 & outs all day long can generate lots of possessions if you use up about 45 seconds of game clock with a bunch of incompletes and plays running out of bounds to stop the clock.

TO and Solich ran the ball wide on options and threw short 'out' passes toward the sidelines in which the receiver caught a 5 or 6 yard gain and stepped out or the I back took the pitch up the sideline for 5 yards or so and then was knocked out of bounds. These plays stopped the clock along with all those plays resulting in first downs. 1st, 2nd and first and ten, results in long sustained drives in two and half to three minutes. Ball control, clock burning drives are also possible and were not uncommon but I would suspect that the statistics might show Osborne's run oriented attack was almost as efficient in scoring as the 'fun & gun' of the Gators. (time wise). When you I back averages 8 yards a carry, it doesn't not take that many plays to move the ball 70 yards, particularly when you mix in a couple quick hitter passes for about 12 and 15.

I don't get the article assertions that fans should not expect improvement.
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He didn't say you could only do it with an up tempo offense. He said you either need to run the ball the majority of the time (and actually practice it), or, run up tempo if you're going to attempt a "balanced" offense (more plays, catch D off guard for gash plays) like Riley is known to do.

 
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I disagree with the assertion that NU didn't run an up-tempo offense under Osborne. While NU wasn't running a no-huddle offense, Osborne wanted to get the plays in quickly and the offense up to the LOS quickly. He had the team huddle only 2-3 yards from the ball, and the team was able to get to the LOS with a lot of time left on the play clock. While it's not the "uptempo" offense of today, it was a quick tempo offense for 20-30 years ago.

 
We were sixth in rushing in 2015 in the B1G. If we had had 1/2 yard better yard per carry average, we would have been third in rushing. That's his point.

 
HuskerExpat said:
saunders45 said:
HuskerExpat said:
MR's point is that we need to improve our running efficiency.
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Then they need to work on it, and practice it much more during the spring/fall.
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I don't have an opinion on whether they practice rushing enough. Not saying you're wrong, just what is the source of your belief that it is a lack of focus on the rushing game in practice?
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In the fall and spring, our media outlets that said they spent the majority of practices focused on the passing game.

 
Predicted conversion, to be replayed ad nausium over the next few weeks:

Poster A: I heard The Team/Player X is doing/not doing ____________________. I think The Team/Player Y should be doing/not doing _____________________ instead.

Poster B: Are you at practice? Do you know what's really going on? This is just spring ball. The coaches know what they're doing. Don't have a cow, man. We have to give it time to see what actually happens.

 
saunders45 said:
HuskerExpat said:
saunders45 said:
HuskerExpat said:
MR's point is that we need to improve our running efficiency.
Click to expand...
Then they need to work on it, and practice it much more during the spring/fall.
Click to expand...
I don't have an opinion on whether they practice rushing enough. Not saying you're wrong, just what is the source of your belief that it is a lack of focus on the rushing game in practice?
Click to expand...
In the fall and spring, our media outlets that said they spent the majority of practices focused on the passing game.
Click to expand...
Not a narrative I recall seeing. Not saying you're wrong, just strange I don't recall it.

Assuming that's the case, then I agree with you 100% that they should focus on rushing more in practice to improve the efficiency.

 
Mavric said:
Predicted conversion, to be replayed ad nausium over the next few weeks:

Poster A: I heard The Team/Player X is doing/not doing ____________________. I think The Team/Player Y should be doing/not doing _____________________ instead.

Poster B: Are you at practice? Do you know what's really going on? This is just spring ball. The coaches know what they're doing. Don't have a cow, man. We have to give it time to see what actually happens.
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If only 'Poster A' people would just think more often before they post.
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HuskerExpat said:
saunders45 said:
HuskerExpat said:
saunders45 said:
HuskerExpat said:
MR's point is that we need to improve our running efficiency.
Click to expand...
Then they need to work on it, and practice it much more during the spring/fall.
Click to expand...
I don't have an opinion on whether they practice rushing enough. Not saying you're wrong, just what is the source of your belief that it is a lack of focus on the rushing game in practice?
Click to expand...
In the fall and spring, our media outlets that said they spent the majority of practices focused on the passing game.
Click to expand...
Not a narrative I recall seeing. Not saying you're wrong, just strange I don't recall it.

Assuming that's the case, then I agree with you 100% that they should focus on rushing more in practice to improve the efficiency.
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I'll try to find an article, but for starters, both Sean Callahan and Sam McKewon talked about it on their podcasts post spring.

 
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