Mike McNeil to Try Out Wide Receiver

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According to an interview with Ted Gilmore on Thursday, March 18, 2010, Mike McNeil will be will be with Ted Gilmore "full time" during spring drills. Not that McNeil will be switching to WR full time, but so that he can learn that aspect of the offense and possibly spend part of the season split out in the slot or as a WR doing routes.

What is your opinion on this? The Indianapolis Colts do a lot of interesting things with Dallas Clark with him in the slot, so I assume we may be seeing the same type of things from the Nebraska offense.

Thoughts? Concerns? Reaction?

 
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If they use him in the slot occassionally I think it should help McNeill get some more touches. It seems like we had a hard time finding him at the TE spot last season. This should do nothing but help Mike and probably our whole offense. Besides, we seem pretty deep at TE anyway. Talent like his can't go to waste, so why not mix it up a little?

 
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From the LJS

http://my.journalstar.com/post/Husker_Extra_Group/Husker_Extra/blog/mcneill_moves_to_wr.html

This isn't a situation in which McNeill will play tight end and occasionally move to a slot position, Gilmore emphasized.

"He's going to be with me full time," the coach said. "We're going to see how it goes. Right now, if you ask me or if you ask Mike, we're not thinking tight end at all. We're thinking wide receiver and we're going to see what he can do."

"I think Mike will do a tremendous job playing that slot for us," the coach said, comparing McNeill's new role to the way the Indianapolis Colts use Dallas Clark.

 
Why do this in the guy's senior year? I think it could be beneficial, but it begs the question, "why now?"

 
I just wonder who was the one who decided it was time to finally try to get McNeil the ball. This is great news. I also wish they would have did this last year. (Looking at you Shawn Watson...)

 
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DJR313 said:
Why do this in the guy's senior year? I think it could be beneficial, but it begs the question, "why now?"
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I'm taking it as this was Mike's choice to try out and the coaches are going to take a look at him at that spot.

 
Anything that will help scoring TD's instead of FG's is good. If he's a playmaker, then we have to get him the ball. And that still requires someone (QB) to be able to GET Him the ball. Hopefully it works out for the better. I trust his hands. Now, can he still create the same mismatches from a slot receiver position as he did when he lined up at TE?

 
I wonder if its because out depth at TE is pretty deep. Wasn't there talk of Kyle Reed going out and playing at WR too? I think another reason why McNeil might be moving to WR is because of his experience in blocking and having him line up at WR should help out in the running game. Adding McNeil to WR will allowing players like Cotton, Hill, Young more playing time since we're deep at TE and short at the WR spot. We don't have too many playmakers at WR and adding McNeil and Reed should help out in that area.

 
You can generate some good mismatches by moving a versatile guy like McNeill into and out of the slot. If he burns the LBs out of the slot and the opposing defense starts bringing up the SS to help and/or subs out a linebacker for a nickel back, then move him in tight and run at them or exploit their lone deep safety and take a shot downfield. And it obviously works in reverse, if the defense is stacking the box or blitzing heavily, move him out and either pull a linebacker out of the box in man or burn them with some short completions.

 
Definately an interesting choice for him in his senior season, but he could be pretty successful. Heck, if he really tries hard he could violate team rules, get booted, and play for the NFL ;) (you're still the man C)

 
huskerjock said:
I wonder if its because out depth at TE is pretty deep. Wasn't there talk of Kyle Reed going out and playing at WR too? I think another reason why McNeil might be moving to WR is because of his experience in blocking and having him line up at WR should help out in the running game. Adding McNeil to WR will allowing players like Cotton, Hill, Young more playing time since we're deep at TE and short at the WR spot. We don't have too many playmakers at WR and adding McNeil and Reed should help out in that area.
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I think this is a huge part of it. We have plenty of options at TE and a lot of questions at WR. This both helps with depth and experience at WR and gets some of the TE buried on the DC into the lineup. I think any or many of the TE are poised for a big year.

 
so does this make McNeill the leader to start with Paul? i guess it wouldn't be a big deal because with the offense we want to run we'll probably have 3 receivers on the field at a time anyways

 
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