McKewon: Play calls, passing erratic to the end for Huskers

[TheSker]

Final stats for the year: 434 rushing plays and 439 pass plays.

Also, what I don't understand is just because a passing offense failed under BC at Nebraska doesn't mean a pass offense will never work here. That's a pretty small sample size, but everyone loves to extrapolate from it. I'm not saying one way or the other that this will work under Riley, but just because it didn't work under Callahan doesn't mean we can apply that experience here.

It's not "just" that it didn't work under Callahan.

Tom Osborne directly "advised" Riley that it was important to be able to run the ball. Osborne "might" have some insight into the matter.

And it doesn't help that the only three losing seasons in modern Husker football history have been recorded by Callahan and Riley.

Osborne wasn't exactly stellar with selecting head coaches, though.

And the two Osborne did not select would be described how?

 

[Mavric]

This coaching staff can't help but throw the ball. That is what they have done all there lives. Playing to the strength of the team is what we were told would happen. This was not the case this year and will not be the case for the future. Its easy to see that the coaches are playing to the coaches strength and not to the players strength. As long as the coaching staff is in charge at Nebraska you will see the pass first offense. My question is why would the AD bring in a pass happy staff knowing what happen under BC? This is mind blowing .

Final stats for the year: 434 rushing plays and 439 pass plays.
Also, what I don't understand is just because a passing offense failed under BC at Nebraska doesn't mean a pass offense will never work here. That's a pretty small sample size, but everyone loves to extrapolate from it. I'm not saying one way or the other that this will work under Riley, but just because it didn't work under Callahan doesn't mean we can apply that experience here.

It's not really a small sample size. It wasn't really successful at OSU

I wasn't saying anything about whether any more passing oriented offense would work or not. For a lot of Husker fans, they base not wanting a passing offense purely based off of the results of a single coach here.

Now if they mention that the top 4 teams right now have the following splits:

Clemson- 527 run; 407 pass; 44% pass plays

Alabama- 503 run; 364 pass; 42% pass plays

Oklahoma- 541 run; 396 pass; 42% pass plays

Iowa- 506 run; 309 pass; 38% pass plays

This I find to suggest that Riley and co may want to rethink their game plan.

I guess I'm just tired of hearing fans (not just here) use the singular case of- we sucked under BC, so obviously passing equals bad. I guess I'm just being a bit whiny.

And two of those schools have Heisman-trophy-caliber QBs....

 

[Branno]

Final stats for the year: 434 rushing plays and 439 pass plays.

Also, what I don't understand is just because a passing offense failed under BC at Nebraska doesn't mean a pass offense will never work here. That's a pretty small sample size, but everyone loves to extrapolate from it. I'm not saying one way or the other that this will work under Riley, but just because it didn't work under Callahan doesn't mean we can apply that experience here.

It's not "just" that it didn't work under Callahan.
Tom Osborne directly "advised" Riley that it was important to be able to run the ball. Osborne "might" have some insight into the matter.

And it doesn't help that the only three losing seasons in modern Husker football history have been recorded by Callahan and Riley.

Osborne wasn't exactly stellar with selecting head coaches, though.

Cause losing seasons are the same as Conference championships (Frank), MNC trips (Frank), and 7 straight seasons where we won no fewer than 9.
Yeah Dr Tom sucked at finding winning coaches.

 

[Sparker]

This coaching staff can't help but throw the ball. That is what they have done all there lives. Playing to the strength of the team is what we were told would happen. This was not the case this year and will not be the case for the future. Its easy to see that the coaches are playing to the coaches strength and not to the players strength. As long as the coaching staff is in charge at Nebraska you will see the pass first offense. My question is why would the AD bring in a pass happy staff knowing what happen under BC? This is mind blowing .

Final stats for the year: 434 rushing plays and 439 pass plays.
Also, what I don't understand is just because a passing offense failed under BC at Nebraska doesn't mean a pass offense will never work here. That's a pretty small sample size, but everyone loves to extrapolate from it. I'm not saying one way or the other that this will work under Riley, but just because it didn't work under Callahan doesn't mean we can apply that experience here.

It's not really a small sample size. It wasn't really successful at OSU

I wasn't saying anything about whether any more passing oriented offense would work or not. For a lot of Husker fans, they base not wanting a passing offense purely based off of the results of a single coach here.

Now if they mention that the top 4 teams right now have the following splits:

Clemson- 527 run; 407 pass; 44% pass plays

Alabama- 503 run; 364 pass; 42% pass plays

Oklahoma- 541 run; 396 pass; 42% pass plays

Iowa- 506 run; 309 pass; 38% pass plays

This I find to suggest that Riley and co may want to rethink their game plan.

I guess I'm just tired of hearing fans (not just here) use the singular case of- we sucked under BC, so obviously passing equals bad. I guess I'm just being a bit whiny.

Out of curiosity, I wanted to see what they have done in previous years at OSU, considering they have had some years with strong running backs.

Year Pass/Run % Passes

2014 472/376 55% Pass

2013 625/355 64% Pass

2012 505/442 53% Pass

2011 503/318 61% Pass

2010 373/386 49% Pass

2009 478/440 52% Pass

2008 448/487 48% Pass

All the people complaining Riley didn't take TO's run the ball advice... Look, we threw up to 14% fewer passes than his previous highs.

 

[junior4949]

This coaching staff can't help but throw the ball. That is what they have done all there lives. Playing to the strength of the team is what we were told would happen. This was not the case this year and will not be the case for the future. Its easy to see that the coaches are playing to the coaches strength and not to the players strength. As long as the coaching staff is in charge at Nebraska you will see the pass first offense. My question is why would the AD bring in a pass happy staff knowing what happen under BC? This is mind blowing .

SE's decision to hire Riley is baffling in many regards. The only reasons I can come up with why Riley was chosen are: as a PR hire after Pelini's temper tantrums, or as a placeholder for someone more permanent in the near future. Neither of those are good reasons, IMO.

Nothing in Riley's past, either at NU or OSU, is indicative of any measure of sustained success in the future. Given the decisions I've seen made on the field this year, I fully expect NU to be mediocre - at best - for the remainder of Riley's tenure here.

I think there's probably a bit more to it or more plausible reasons. It could very well be the exact same reason Les Miles still has a job: money. It's been rumored it was going to cost LSU 30 million to fire Miles and hire Jimbo. Given Bo's buyout and what it would have cost for a "splash" hire, it quite simply could have been about money. I don't recall us having to buy out of Riley's contract at Oregon State. Another reason could possibly be that Riley has a reputation of doing more with less. At some point in time, all of us fans have to come to the realization we're never going to fill recruiting classes with the talent a team like Texas, Bama, Florida State, etc. do. Bill Snyder wasn't leaving KState, so we looked for someone similar. It could also be that we were told no by "splash" hire coaches. Urban Meyer passed on his dream job of Notre Dumb to take the Florida job. I'm guessing we're quite a bit harder to recruit to than the likes of Notre Dumb. Saban has his difficulties at Michigan State.

Whatever the reason, we have Riley as our coach which I still think is a good thing. Even given our subpar performances this year, we more than likely knocked off a team that will be in the playoffs. We quite possibly would have knocked off Iowa had we not kept throwing them the ball. The few times this team came together, we played pretty good ball.

 

[FrankWheeler]

Year Pass/Run % Passes

2014 472/376 55% Pass: 5-7

2013 625/355 64% Pass: 7-6

2012 505/442 53% Pass: 9-4

2011 503/318 61% Pass: 3-9

2010 373/386 49% Pass: 5-7

2009 478/440 52% Pass: 8-5

2008 448/487 48% Pass: 9-4

Record in those years added.

 

[Stumpy1]

Year Pass/Run % Passes

2014 472/376 55% Pass: 5-7

2013 625/355 64% Pass: 7-6

2012 505/442 53% Pass: 9-4

2011 503/318 61% Pass: 3-9

2010 373/386 49% Pass: 5-7

2009 478/440 52% Pass: 8-5

2008 448/487 48% Pass: 9-4

Record in those years added.

I'm no math wizard but that looks like a winning record to me.

 

[WhatDoIKnow]

Year Pass/Run % Passes

2014 472/376 55% Pass: 5-7

2013 625/355 64% Pass: 7-6

2012 505/442 53% Pass: 9-4

2011 503/318 61% Pass: 3-9

2010 373/386 49% Pass: 5-7

2009 478/440 52% Pass: 8-5

2008 448/487 48% Pass: 9-4

Record in those years added.

I'm no math wizard but that looks like a winning record to me.

nm

 

[FrankWheeler]

So the bar now is just a winning record? Throwing in a 3-9 and a few 5-7s is fine just as long as we make it over .500 over 7 years?

 

[ColoradoHusk]

So the bar now is just a winning record? Throwing in a 3-9 and a few 5-7s is fine just as long as we make it over .500 over 7 years?

Hip hip....

 

[It'sNotAFakeID]

So the bar now is just a winning record? Throwing in a 3-9 and a few 5-7s is fine just as long as we make it over .500 over 7 years?

Hip hip....

Stop.

 

[4skers89]

I thought this was interesting:

Iowa's offensive advantage, meanwhile, comes in its running game. The Hawkeyes run the ball on 62.0 percent of their plays compared to 56.6 percent for Michigan State.

...

"That's crazy," Riley said. "That's quite a stat. It says a lot about their intentions and about who they are."

This is how I read it originally skimming paragraphs

. Full context here http://espn.go.com/blog/bigten/post/_/id/128017/one-coachs-take-on-the-big-ten-championship-game

 

[lo country]

This coaching staff can't help but throw the ball. That is what they have done all there lives. Playing to the strength of the team is what we were told would happen. This was not the case this year and will not be the case for the future. Its easy to see that the coaches are playing to the coaches strength and not to the players strength. As long as the coaching staff is in charge at Nebraska you will see the pass first offense. My question is why would the AD bring in a pass happy staff knowing what happen under BC? This is mind blowing .

Final stats for the year: 434 rushing plays and 439 pass plays.
Also, what I don't understand is just because a passing offense failed under BC at Nebraska doesn't mean a pass offense will never work here. That's a pretty small sample size, but everyone loves to extrapolate from it. I'm not saying one way or the other that this will work under Riley, but just because it didn't work under Callahan doesn't mean we can apply that experience here.

It's not really a small sample size. It wasn't really successful at OSU

I wasn't saying anything about whether any more passing oriented offense would work or not. For a lot of Husker fans, they base not wanting a passing offense purely based off of the results of a single coach here.

Now if they mention that the top 4 teams right now have the following splits:

Clemson- 527 run; 407 pass; 44% pass plays

Alabama- 503 run; 364 pass; 42% pass plays

Oklahoma- 541 run; 396 pass; 42% pass plays

Iowa- 506 run; 309 pass; 38% pass plays

This I find to suggest that Riley and co may want to rethink their game plan.

I guess I'm just tired of hearing fans (not just here) use the singular case of- we sucked under BC, so obviously passing equals bad. I guess I'm just being a bit whiny.

And two of those schools have Heisman-trophy-caliber QBs....

And a Hypesman caliber RB........

Clemson fan as well. Clemson is doing so well because Dabo is allowing Watson to use his legs as a weapon. Not just his arm. Watson has thrown at 70% completion with almost 9 yrds/completion. He has rushed for 750 (less sacks is 820 at 6.5/carry)

Not saying TA will even be close to those completions, but man if he was turned loose all season to run......

 

[TheSker]

I thought this was interesting:

Iowa's offensive advantage, meanwhile, comes in its running game. The Hawkeyes run the ball on 62.0 percent of their plays compared to 56.6 percent for Michigan State.

...

"That's crazy," Riley said. "That's quite a stat. It says a lot about their intentions and about who they are."

This is how I read it originally skimming paragraphs

. Full context here http://espn.go.com/blog/bigten/post/_/id/128017/one-coachs-take-on-the-big-ten-championship-game

Yes, Mike Riley....even in context, it's about intentions. It's not like Riley hasn't heard this....over, and over, and over. But .500 is .500.....

 

[lo country]

I thought this was interesting:

Iowa's offensive advantage, meanwhile, comes in its running game. The Hawkeyes run the ball on 62.0 percent of their plays compared to 56.6 percent for Michigan State.

...

"That's crazy," Riley said. "That's quite a stat. It says a lot about their intentions and about who they are."

This is how I read it originally skimming paragraphs

. Full context here http://espn.go.com/blog/bigten/post/_/id/128017/one-coachs-take-on-the-big-ten-championship-game

Yes, Mike Riley....even in context, it's about intentions. It's not like Riley hasn't heard this....over, and over, and over. But .500 is .500.....

Another quote........

The Hawkeyes and Spartans have exceptional turnover margins, their quarterbacks are efficient, and they have been able to win close games.

Man, when will people say this about NU.......

I came away from the article realizing Riley "knows" how to win. The concern/question I have is can he?