OWH: Challenges Await for Huskers' Offense

[Mavric]

This spring and summer Riley added a few new inspirations to the film library, and if Norv Turner’s NFL passing scheme points to where Riley’s been, the teams he’s now studying — Oregon and Baylor among them — point to where he thinks he must go in his new job at Nebraska.


The man who called passes 60 percent of the time the last five seasons at Oregon State now leads a team that ran the ball on nearly 62 percent of plays those same five seasons.

Meet The Odd Couple. Now there’s a film.

Riley has to marry his background to a roster suited for an entirely different approach. His goal: that two worlds mesh in harmony. He talks about balance. He talks about blending. While sipping coffee and gently wringing a small hem of the white tablecloth on his Big Ten media days podium, Riley talks of being on “the right track.” He talks of this lengthy process — one in which he won’t try to force his scheme on players unsuited for it — and calls it fun.

“But it’s also a little scary,” Riley said. “Because you don’t know, after you stir it up, exactly what’s that’s going to look like.”

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[Mavric]

For all the criticism of previous offensive coordinator Tim Beck’s spread no-huddle system, it produced 452.3 yards and 37.8 points per game last season. It bailed the Huskers out of games against Miami and Iowa when the defense collapsed. And after Bo Pelini got fired, Beck got a promotion of sorts — to offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at defending national champion Ohio State.


The Buckeyes run a spread no-huddle. So did their opponent in the College Football Playoff title game: Oregon. The program that repeatedly bedeviled Riley at Oregon State.

 

[Norhusker]

For all the criticism of previous offensive coordinator Tim Beck’s spread no-huddle system, it produced 452.3 yards and 37.8 points per game last season. It bailed the Huskers out of games against Miami and Iowa when the defense collapsed. And after Bo Pelini got fired, Beck got a promotion of sorts — to offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at defending national champion Ohio State.


The Buckeyes run a spread no-huddle. So did their opponent in the College Football Playoff title game: Oregon. The program that repeatedly bedeviled Riley at Oregon State.

You have to wonder if Bo micromanaged Tim Beck the last two seasons. Made him do things he didn't want to against given opponents. The offense seemed hot and cold throughout the last few seasons The fact the offense played so well against USC makes me wonder if Beck was much better than what he was perceived here at Nebraska. So many questions and few answers.

 

[southernoregonhusker]

Lame. He didn't run the ball at OSU because he didn't have any good backs. He ran it a lot with Jacquizz Rodgers and Yvenson Bernard.

 

[True2tRA]

For all the criticism of previous offensive coordinator Tim Beck’s spread no-huddle system, it produced 452.3 yards and 37.8 points per game last season. It bailed the Huskers out of games against Miami and Iowa when the defense collapsed. And after Bo Pelini got fired, Beck got a promotion of sorts — to offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at defending national champion Ohio State.


The Buckeyes run a spread no-huddle. So did their opponent in the College Football Playoff title game: Oregon. The program that repeatedly bedeviled Riley at Oregon State.

You playing the fisherman today again I see.

 

[True2tRA]

Gone is Beck’s preference for quarterbacks and wide receivers reading the defense on the fly to expose flaws in coverage. And gone are the one-word play calls or the long glances to a pictograph on the sideline, which explained which play Beck wanted to run.

“There’s an eight-word-long play,” wide receiver Jordan Westerkamp said of the new system. “And every word tells every person exactly what they’re doing. In that aspect it makes it simpler. Now you’re not looking across the field (for the signal), you’re looking for that one word.”

The wide receiver routes, Westerkamp said, are defined, and there is less wiggle room for altering them.

I think this alone will do wonders for us. Combine it with Riley already saying they will limit what they do, and practice the heck out of the things they choose to do, and I'm happier already.

 

[Landlord]

You have to wonder if Bo micromanaged Tim Beck the last two seasons. Made him do things he didn't want to against given opponents. The offense seemed hot and cold throughout the last few seasons The fact the offense played so well against USC makes me wonder if Beck was much better than what he was perceived here at Nebraska. So many questions and few answers.

I don't think there's any way to think that Bo didn't, especially when our last two offensive coordinators are at better jobs than Nebraska after we celebrated them being gone because we thought they were so incompetent.

The offense's hot and cold streaks exist, but not nearly as much as the defenses. Our only REALLY cold game last year was against Michigan State, and we sucked that game, but they are still a great defense.

IMO, our cold offense was a big reason for loss in 2014 MSU, 2013 Iowa, 2013 Minnesota, 2013 UCLA for the second half, and 2012 South Carolina. That's really not bad over Beck's career, especially when you look at how cold the defense could get and cost us games.

 

[alwayshusking]

Gone is Beck’s preference for quarterbacks and wide receivers reading the defense on the fly to expose flaws in coverage. And gone are the one-word play calls or the long glances to a pictograph on the sideline, which explained which play Beck wanted to run.

“There’s an eight-word-long play,” wide receiver Jordan Westerkamp said of the new system. “And every word tells every person exactly what they’re doing. In that aspect it makes it simpler. Now you’re not looking across the field (for the signal), you’re looking for that one word.”

The wide receiver routes, Westerkamp said, are defined, and there is less wiggle room for altering them.

I think this alone will do wonders for us. Combine it with Riley already saying they will limit what they do, and practice the heck out of the things they choose to do, and I'm happier already.

Some of the INTs Tommy threw last year were bc he and a WR weren't on the same page. He and Westerkamp were continually seeing the coverage differently on that route where JW had the option of running a slant or seam. Would be great if they can get everybody on the same page to minimize those.

Ultimately I think it will come down to the OL this year. Need them to start playing well against good defenses. They got whipped vs MSU and Wisconsin.

 

[It'sNotAFakeID]

Armstrong, who has run for 907 yards in his career, had the zone-read play as his bread and butter the last two seasons. Riley had pledged to incorporate the play; he mentioned Friday that Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson might run the zone read three times per game in the NFL, but when he does, it works.

I love hearing this. With the last staff, I think we tended to rely too heavily on the zone read. Tommy's a strong runner, but he's not a Marcus Mariota or even a Taylor Martinez running the football, and so some of those unsuccessful zone reads that were called could've been different plays calls that would've made the zone read more effective when it was called. I think our offense tended to lean on that play too much because our staff underestimated just how big of a difference Taylor's speed made in making the zone read a success. Tommy doesn't quite have that pace. So we need to call it less and do more setup to make it as effective as possible. Which means a bigger reliance on the short and intermediate passing game...which...

Yikes. Nebraska eclipsed the 60% team completion percentage just once in Tim Beck's 4 years as OC. It's also worth noting that a 53.3% completion percentage last year was an improvement for Tommy. We're asking Tommy to take a major step forward in that area this year, but I think he's capable of doing it, and I think the system that Riley and Langsdorf are implementing will help him reach his goal.

The wide receiver routes, Westerkamp said, are defined, and there is less wiggle room for altering them.

Mechanically, Tommy Armstrong is a very good passer, and I think a large portion of his low completion percentage can be attributed to the mental part of the QB role. Beck's very fluid system, where WR routes and QB reads seemingly changed each second put way too much strain on him (it also made it very hard to determine who messed up when a play went awry). I've mentioned before how Tommy seems to force things, and it sounds like he was coached to key in on a couple receivers (KB and Westy early with DPE added later last season). This system should allow for a more natural progression for each passing down, and it will be up to Tommy to see if WR1 is open, if not move to WR2, if not move to WR3, and so on. There's not going to be a pressure to get it to WR1 or 2 if they're not open, and that should reduce the amount of forced passes and incompletions that we see from Tommy.

High hopes for the offense this year. They have a chance to be really, really solid. My worry rests with the defense, where it's much harder to diagnose and digest what's going on on the field.

 

[True2tRA]

I wish you would post more. +1

 

[True2tRA]

You have to wonder if Bo micromanaged Tim Beck the last two seasons. Made him do things he didn't want to against given opponents. The offense seemed hot and cold throughout the last few seasons The fact the offense played so well against USC makes me wonder if Beck was much better than what he was perceived here at Nebraska. So many questions and few answers.

I don't think there's any way to think that Bo didn't, especially when our last two offensive coordinators are at better jobs than Nebraska after we celebrated them being gone because we thought they were so incompetent.

The offense's hot and cold streaks exist, but not nearly as much as the defenses. Our only REALLY cold game last year was against Michigan State, and we sucked that game, but they are still a great defense.

IMO, our cold offense was a big reason for loss in 2014 MSU, 2013 Iowa, 2013 Minnesota, 2013 UCLA for the second half, and 2012 South Carolina. That's really not bad over Beck's career, especially when you look at how cold the defense could get and cost us games.

Those were some big games. There were quite a few more I'm sure you realize.

Big thing I notice was "when" the offense went cold. Very key moments that could've shifted momentum in games. I have watched the defense create multiple turnovers and 3 & outs, just for the offense to come in and do nothing with it.

Very frustrating for both sides of the ball to see opportunities missed repeatedly.