Northwestern: What Did We Learn?

We crushed these guys like they were an FCS team. Felt amazing. We could have probably hung 70 on them if Martinez had played every down on offense.

What did we learn? I guess we learned that it took Frost holding Greg Austin's hand to get the right offensive line lineup sorted out and motivated. It took five games to get there.

That's pretty unacceptable to me. As in, I'm extremely happy our O line dominated, but this shouldn't have taken five games at all.

 
Hilltop said:
Smh...  If things were so simple.  Watch the early games we lost.  Watch the O Line suck and then suck again.  Now watch the NW game again.  Watch the O Line perform better and open some holes... and protect our QB most of the game.  

Some fans seem to think solutions are so easy.  If we had just ______, we would have won.  If things were that simple, you wouldn't see great coaches struggle each week.  
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Well- we benched 40% of our starting offensive line and replaced them with 2 kids that have played very very sparingly. The difference was night and day. And before anyone jumps on hey it was only NW- well lets assume NW is on the same level as Fordham and Buffalo- THe OLINE played MUCH better in this one. One would have hoped our coaching staff wouldn't have to wait until game 6 to figure this one out. Glad they didnt wait till game 7. Maybe Frost noticed something when he was working with the LIne? Sean Callahan seems to think it was HCSF making that decision. 

As to Yant- again compare his results to what we got in the Fordham and Buffalo games. Yards after contact- the big guy doesnt go down on first contact. Doesn't matter if its a 1 yard or 50 yard gain- you can see the difference. 

Playing 3 offensive kids who didnt play much at all in previous games, is quite a bit of change. The results speak for themselves. 

 
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Husker03 said:
It also doesn't mean that the expectation was that he lose all 25. We just don't know and, really, it doesn't matter.  It could be that Frost wants him at 225, he showed up at 250, Scott is made, says that isn't playing shape, that's 25 more than we want you, so, lets do this, get down under 235 and we can go from there. 18pounds in 8 weeks for an 18 year old with access to diet and exercise professionals isn't a reach at all. 
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For those of us that went through 2 a days. How much weight did you lose during camp? It was a struggle to keep weight on it was coming off so fast that first month usually. 

 
ColoradoHusk said:
We get it, you played football at NU, so your opinions on all things should matter the most.   :blink:
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Never claimed that. Played college ball not at NU

Even guys who played HS ball- 2 a days and camp. If you had bad weight to lose- the lbs fell off. If someone didn't play- they may not know that. 

Lots of people look at 25 lbs and see it as a mountain. For a young kid with bad weight to lose, access to good food and people pushing you to lose it- they come off MUCH easier than most could imagine. 

 
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Nebraska55fan said:
Well- we benched 40% of our starting offensive line and replaced them with 2 kids that have played very very sparingly. The difference was night and day. And before anyone jumps on hey it was only NW- well lets assume NW is on the same level as Fordham and Buffalo- THe OLINE played MUCH better in this one. One would have hoped our coaching staff wouldn't have to wait until game 6 to figure this one out. Glad they didnt wait till game 7. Maybe Frost noticed something when he was working with the LIne? Sean Callahan seems to think it was HCSF making that decision. 

As to Yant- again compare his results to what we got in the Fordham and Buffalo games. Yards after contact- the big guy doesnt go down on first contact. Doesn't matter if its a 1 yard or 50 yard gain- you can see the difference. 

Playing 3 offensive kids who didnt play much at all in previous games, is quite a bit of change. The results speak for themselves. 
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I would agree the results speak for themselves but your description is far from the point I was making.  Yant looked good against NW, but he likely wouldn't have looked as good at a heavier weight and playing behind an O Line that wasn't doing their job against Illinois.

As to the other positions, we can only speculate.  I'm guessing the coaches were hopeful to save Teddy's redshirt and he probably needed the few extra weeks to get up to college speed.  Pretty rare a true freshman linemen is effective.  I really believe playing Nouredin was just a gamble.  He came to camp in 2020 after transferring from CSU really overweight and "fat" according to Austin.  Because of that, he got limited work and reps during the weird 2020 season.  He did his part and lost the weight so started really being involved and learning the past spring.  It took him some time to learn the offense and his assignments so again, I don't fault the coaches for not starting him out of the gates.

Couple all of that with NW being the worst run defense in the B1G (before Saturday) and It's hard to say everything would have been magically better had we started those guys earlier.  It isn't that simple...  

 
Hilltop said:
I would agree the results speak for themselves but your description is far from the point I was making.  Yant looked good against NW, but he likely wouldn't have looked as good at a heavier weight and playing behind an O Line that wasn't doing their job against Illinois.

As to the other positions, we can only speculate.  I'm guessing the coaches were hopeful to save Teddy's redshirt and he probably needed the few extra weeks to get up to college speed.  Pretty rare a true freshman linemen is effective.  I really believe playing Nouredin was just a gamble.  He came to camp in 2020 after transferring from CSU really overweight and "fat" according to Austin.  Because of that, he got limited work and reps during the weird 2020 season.  He did his part and lost the weight so started really being involved and learning the past spring.  It took him some time to learn the offense and his assignments so again, I don't fault the coaches for not starting him out of the gates.

Couple all of that with NW being the worst run defense in the B1G (before Saturday) and It's hard to say everything would have been magically better had we started those guys earlier.  It isn't that simple...  
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 Yant wouldn't have been 25 lbs overweight after being in camp for a month and on training table food. He didn't lose 25 lbs from the Michigan State game- NW. His field vision is pretty good and he breaks tackles- moves the pile. We haven't seen that much from the other guys. 

Nouredin- I saw him in May- said he was at 310- didn't look cut, but not real flabby etc. He has 2 years of experience- 1 as a starter. Piper was getting his butt kicked. 

Teddy was amazing in HS and looks like has added good weight. Very smart kid. He was an early enrollee. Will give you it takes time- BUT he did really well in early action. Sure wish they would have done this earlier. 

Anxious to see how they do against Minnesota and Purdue. 

 
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Hilltop said:
And not Michigan?  I think they will do well against Minnesota and Purdue... It's Michigan that concerns me.    
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 Yes, I've watched Michigan. Their defense is truly much better than anything we've faced. They bring crazy good pressure from lots of different looks. AND they have the talent to execute it. Michigan and Iowa are truly elite defenses. In other words- we may be much better- but since the competition is significantly better next week- it may not show up as much result wise. 

Northwestern- may have been on par with Illinois- Fordham- Buffalo. And we looked much better- improved over those group of 3 games. 

We will see what linear progress is being made when we see if this group can be consistent against those middle of the pack BIG teams. Of course Im hoping we beat Michigan- but I think we have a real chance of beating Minny, Purdue and getting Wisconsin.

 
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Mavric said:
Some people seem to think this is a negative.  I think it's actually a really good thing to have this many guys who can be "the guy" in a given game.  Yeah, I'd love to have Adrian Peterson out there.  But short of that, having several options is a nice place to be.
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I would agree if we were 5-1...we need consistency before we can praise variety

 
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