Nyatawa's Numbers, part II - Drops

knapplc

knapplc

International Man of Mystery
Jon Nyatawa knocks some more figures around for us, and comes up with these unofficial stats about catches and drops. Read his disclaimer:

JonNyatawa Jon Nyatawa

OK, at the request of @djfudgie & @MidwestDrummer, I tallied up NU's dropped pass numbers. Remember: Lots of factors can play into drops

The definition of a drop (imho): If you touch it, you gotta catch it. The degree of difficulty? The defenders? Neither should matter

But we all know, it's never that easy. Take a guy like Kinnie. He may not have had a pass thrown to his numbers all Sept long. Anyways...

Nebraska's pass-catchers have dropped 26 throws this year (successfully hauled in 142)... 9 drops came in the 1st 2 games. 10 in the last 3

Unofficial drop numbers... Kinnie 11 drops (20 rec), Bell 5 (24), Enunwa 3 (18), Turner 3 (15), Cotton 2 (13), Reed 1 (14), Cooper 1 (4)

 
Some takeaways from this: First, there are WAAAAAY too many drops. That's a given.

Second, we return 122 of 142 receptions next year. That's a lot of returning depth. We just have to use the tools we have.

Third, we do not use the pass-catchers we have enough. Reed only has 14 catches on the year. That is criminal. Enunwa has disappeared entirely some games, and at this point, with only 15 catches, Turner's redshirt was wasted, big-time.

 
Turner! I dont care if he doesnt practice hard or whatever the reason is. He makes plays and does a decent job of catching, except the big haul in at Minnesota. You can't bench him because of whatever happens in practice. Scold him or whatever, he needs to play!

 
In looking at these numbers, someone has to convince me why Brandon Kinnie plays so much. Rich Fisher is supposedly all about results. Check out this quote from the LJS when Fisher spoke at the weekly Big Red Breakfast on Nov 4th,

"They understand that if you're going to play for me, you're going to make sure that whether it be in the meeting room, or the practice field, or in the game, that there is a certain standard of excellence that we're looking for. And if you fall below that standard, then somebody else who is doing that standard is going to be playing a little bit more. That's just the nature of the beast. The great thing is that our room right now is a revolving door of competition. There's not one guy right now who feels like 'I'm the guy, I've arrived, this is my spot.'" - WR coach Rich Fisher

So BK dropping basically half of the passes that he catches (11 drops, 20 receptions) meets the 'certain stander of excellence that we're looking for???? BK's not the best blocker on the team either(that would be Quincy Enuwa by far), so WHY does he get a majority of the snaps????

I would really like for some of the coaches on both sides of the ball to explain why some guys who aren't producing are still playing major minutes.

 
I am rough at math, but other thn Reed, they all drop about 20% of their passes. Add to this the lack of accuracy on Martinez part and it is a miracle we have even won 9 games. Looking at those numbers we re in ire straights.

As mentioned above, sadly Bo's own staff is woefully under performing. DB's burnt like toast ( even guys who played last year), no one really stepping up to be the next big thing at DB, and receivers who basically drop 1 out of every 5 passes. Add to that our fumble issues and wow.

 
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I even said on Saturday "It's a bad sign when Kyler Reed is dropping passes".

I said the same thing about Rex last year against Texas.

Seems when our sure-handed guys start dropping passes, it just becomes contagious.

 
The Dude said:
I even said on Saturday "It's a bad sign when Kyler Reed is dropping passes".

I said the same thing about Rex last year against Texas.

Seems when our sure-handed guys start dropping passes, it just becomes contagious.
Click to expand...

Heh....you might be on to something.

Rex drops that easy as pie TD pass last year with Texas & what do we see? Our guys drop passes everywhere all game long. Bo's pulling his hair out and brings in Z. Lee. They then drop all his passes too.

Lol!

Whatever it is.....it's strong stuff!!

 
Could it also be an issue with the delivery of the ball by Martinez? Not mechanics, but the way the ball actually arrives ie some times nose up, nose down, velocity, trajectory etc...... I am sure that when you look at most QB's, they have a solid relationship with their receivers in regards to "chemistry" ie the QB and WR are on the same page. You even see drops when a new QB comes in during an NFL game. Announcers talk about them "throwing a different ball". If this leads to drops in the NFL, and every pass Martinez throws arrives as though another QB threw it, that could be an issue (not saying this is the case with Martinez, just a guess that each ball is thrown differently than the one before).

 
lo country said:
Could it also be an issue with the delivery of the ball by Martinez? Not mechanics, but the way the ball actually arrives ie some times nose up, nose down, velocity, trajectory etc...... I am sure that when you look at most QB's, they have a solid relationship with their receivers in regards to "chemistry" ie the QB and WR are on the same page. You even see drops when a new QB comes in during an NFL game. Announcers talk about them "throwing a different ball". If this leads to drops in the NFL, and every pass Martinez throws arrives as though another QB threw it, that could be an issue (not saying this is the case with Martinez, just a guess that each ball is thrown differently than the one before).
Click to expand...
That sounds par but they dropped tons of Z. Lee's passes in 2009 & 10 also. But as always, let's just blame Tmart. Carry on.....

GBR!!

 
Several people have mentioned coaching in this thread, so I would like to throw in my two cents. Some of the areas where we have seen a drop-off in production/performance are in the defensive backfield, linebackers, receivers, and even to some degree the tight ends. Those are all positions with new coaches this year…also, I don’t know to what degree Carl Pelini is still working with the D-Line, he is not listed as working with them on the Huskers web site, and if he is not, then that is a change as well. Perhaps those new coaches need some time to get on the same page with Bo, I don’t know. But when we saw flashes of future greatness from some of our young D-backs last year, and this year all we see is the backs of their jerseys as they watch opposing receivers run into the end zone, something is wrong. There are a few bright spots…I think Beck is doing the best job possible with the tools he is given, and Coach Brown is doing a wonderful job with the running backs. In fact, Coach Brown has done a wonderful job wherever he has coached. He was the receivers coach back in the Osborne/Solich days and we had very well coached receivers. They didn’t catch a lot of passes, but when the ball was thrown their direction they caught it, and their down-field blocking was superb. Then the last few years he was the tight ends coach and they were one of the bright spots in our offense…and now this year he was switched over to coaching the running backs and the overall production (and more importantly lack of fumbles) in that area has been very positive. A successful football program certainly needs good players, but the coaching staff – not just the head coach, plays a crucial role and I’m just not convinced at this point that this staff is up to the job. I am not calling for a house cleaning, I’m just saying that Bo shouldn’t let his loyalty get in the way of pulling the trigger if it becomes obvious that these guys are not the right people for the job.

 
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