Personnel Deficiencies

[RedSavage]

Most of us are in agreement that something needs to change from the coaching aspect of the team but aside from that, are there some personnel deficiencies that are holding us back as a team? What positions do we either not have the right/good enough players for on both sides of the ball?

I'm inclined to say the offensive line is the main problem on offense. However, I'm not sure it's so much that we don't have the right players, so much as it is we don't have the right ones starting. Armstrong is another offensive inconsistency. Would he make a jump if our line had better pass blocking?

On defense besides Zaire (who's been a beast), I have been rather unimpressed with our linebackers. Are our struggles here a scheme issue or does it come back to not having the right players? Our secondary hasn't been terrible but they've definitely had their struggles. I like Josh Mitchell, he's just too small to make a lot of the plays we need him to make but he's a senior and "knows the defense". Should we have different players starting in the secondary?

What personnel changes do you guys think we should make, if any?

 

[BaytownHusker]

Gerry has been a beast at Saftey no dout. Our D-line is good when they are allowed to play. I have been 50/50 on Gregory. When he gives it 100 he is a beast. Idk if he is just that banged up or if he is just that slow off the ball some times. OR if they just want him coming off the ball that slow. He just needs to line up at DE and go. Quit moving him around to LB and all the cool stuff. I think the NFL talk is way to early. If he cant handle the Double teams now how is he going to make it at the Next level.

Corners, Mitchell is one of the worst tacklers on the field. Hope we have better replacements next year.

And yes our LB's have been bad minus #13.

 

[knapplc]

We have the personnel in that locker room to compete for conference championships. What we don't seem to have is the willingness (integrity?) to play all of them. Nepotism being a huge problem, but beyond that, you've got athletes on that team that are better than the guys starting, but they sit because of misguided loyalty to guys who have "put in their time." There are fifth-year seniors who have busted their a$$ throughout their career, but they're not good enough to start. A lot of them don't start, but some do. And that's a problem.

 

[StPaulHusker]

The left side of the OL was supposed to be the strength this year and has been anything but. I am still shocked that Lewis and Cotton are starting. It appears the right side is good.

RB will be fine with Cross if they use him like a downhill runner.

WR I like what they have in place moving forward

QB At this point I am indifferent to who is the guy. Tommy doesn't exactly play great no matter who the competition is.

TE I am sure we have one. If not we should probably get one.

DL I am fin with everything here. Maybe it's time to just let RG4 set the edge and do his thing.

LB- Rose played well last year. Hopefully he can do the same next year. Would like to see what Newby can do at LB more often. Haven't heard much about Courtney Love.

DB/S. Cooper and Mitchell leave and all I ask is whoever replaces them not try to always do the shoulder tackle thing. Wrap up and bring the WR down.

 

[HUSKER FREAK]

We have the personnel in that locker room to compete for conference championships. What we don't seem to have is the willingness (integrity?) to play all of them. Nepotism being a huge problem, but beyond that, you've got athletes on that team that are better than the guys starting, but they sit because of misguided loyalty to guys who have "put in their time." There are fifth-year seniors who have busted their a$$ throughout their career, but they're not good enough to start. A lot of them don't start, but some do. And that's a problem.

Like our Oline. That is a big problem and it shows every game. I know there are others but for crying out loud play the best players at least.

 

[LumberJackSker]

I think we have good enough players to beat anybody in the west. Linebacker outside of Anderson have been terrible Santos and Roach can't seem to stop running into each other and Bando never seems to play anymore. Our defensive line is good but there is no depth, also Gregory is a 3-4 outside linebacker trying to play defensive end, he just isn't big or strong enough. Offensive line is terrible Lewis and cotton are good for 3 penalties per game, Pelini at center is over matched but Reeves looked a lot better, Moudy isn't all that good and Sterup can't get out of his stance before a defensive end rushes past him. But even with all of that in the crappy big10 west and a cup cake non-conference schedule anything less than 10-2 or 11-1 is just sad. Biggest problem is coaching

 

[Count 'Bility]

If anything-and this is another politician level flip flop by yours truly since last season-other than obvious coaching i would say strength and conditioning. Its just become obvious something is a miss. Maybe it is overall toughness. I dont know. But i watch a lot of football and im sorry but its just being more and more clear that we have more injury issues than other teams. Last week it was 3 guys in one quarter. I just dont see other teams have as many guys comin and goin throughout a game like we have been. Its appearing to me that like a lot of facets, S&C seems to be lacking as well.

Boyd Epplys back for a reason. You dont bring someone like that back to work with everything EXCEPT your flagship program.

 

[RunMickeyRun02]

......

TE I am sure we have one. If not we should probably get one.

.......

This made me lol,...then cry a little.

 

[bisonwiches]

The left side of the OL was supposed to be the strength this year and has been anything but. I am still shocked that Lewis and Cotton are starting. It appears the right side is good.

RB will be fine with Cross if they use him like a downhill runner.

WR I like what they have in place moving forward

QB At this point I am indifferent to who is the guy. Tommy doesn't exactly play great no matter who the competition is.

TE I am sure we have one. If not we should probably get one.

DL I am fin with everything here. Maybe it's time to just let RG4 set the edge and do his thing.

LB- Rose played well last year. Hopefully he can do the same next year. Would like to see what Newby can do at LB more often. Haven't heard much about Courtney Love.

DB/S. Cooper and Mitchell leave and all I ask is whoever replaces them not try to always do the shoulder tackle thing. Wrap up and bring the WR down.

Agree almost completely. I think the situation at runningback going forward in an interesting one. From everything I have Adam Taylor is a force and would have been in the mix this year, I can't say because I've never seen him on the field but it will be interesting how we maximize our each rb's output without making things confusing. I hope that we see two back formations without having to utilize the jet sweep, like knapp said we have the personnel, it all comes down to the execution and coaching.

 

[lo country]

The left side of the OL was supposed to be the strength this year and has been anything but. I am still shocked that Lewis and Cotton are starting. It appears the right side is good.

Against Minnie, IIRC, the announcers were even commenting we should run to pour right side. Cotton has been a huge disappointment. Unsure of Lewis' ability to block, but he does get a lot of penalties. Don't know why we didn't burn some shirts. Couldn't have been any worse....

RB will be fine with Cross if they use him like a downhill runner.

​Agree. This goes back to my dissatisfaction with Beck. Cross is a downhill beast. Watching New England, they continually speak of their back who just goes where he's supposed to and makes holes. I would like to see Cross used like this and RB work with him to "embrace" the hulk smash mode and realize a lot of guys in the league start and run like that...

WR I like what they have in place moving forward

I like the "potential", but aside from Westy not a lot of experience returning. JT healthy is a plus. Hope someone can step into the role of Enunwa. Big bodied and strong.

QB At this point I am indifferent to who is the guy. Tommy doesn't exactly play great no matter who the competition is.

In another system, I think TA has the tools. Under this current "system", no. Fyfe isn't the answer. Unsure of Darlinton, Stanton or Busch....

TE I am sure we have one. If not we should probably get one.

They are obsolete in beck's world as is the FB. Get rid of Beck and get Carter some help. We seem to have a "catching" TE and a "blocking" TE. Be nice to have several who do both well.

DL I am fin with everything here. Maybe it's time to just let RG4 set the edge and do his thing.

Agreed we are stacked. Word on Moss coming back? I would prefer to ditch the 2 gap and play head up. The teams that kill us do it with the run. Build a D to stop this....

LB- Rose played well last year. Hopefully he can do the same next year. Would like to see what Newby can do at LB more often. Haven't heard much about Courtney Love.

Scares me a lot. Imagine a season without Zaire.......

DB/S. Cooper and Mitchell leave and all I ask is whoever replaces them not try to always do the shoulder tackle thing. Wrap up and bring the WR down.

Really miss, no I mean really miss SJB. Do was a beast in cover and playing press. Hard to press at 160 lbs.....Hoping that we see addition by subtraction next year at CB. Really no proven depth here.

Special teams looks solid. No concerns there for me.

The biggest thing for me is to develop kids, scrap the 2 gap on D and go to more power sets on O to maximize our talent. Call what we CAN do, not what we WANT to do....

 

[StPaulHusker]

The left side of the OL was supposed to be the strength this year and has been anything but. I am still shocked that Lewis and Cotton are starting. It appears the right side is good.

RB will be fine with Cross if they use him like a downhill runner.

WR I like what they have in place moving forward

QB At this point I am indifferent to who is the guy. Tommy doesn't exactly play great no matter who the competition is.

TE I am sure we have one. If not we should probably get one.

DL I am fin with everything here. Maybe it's time to just let RG4 set the edge and do his thing.

LB- Rose played well last year. Hopefully he can do the same next year. Would like to see what Newby can do at LB more often. Haven't heard much about Courtney Love.

DB/S. Cooper and Mitchell leave and all I ask is whoever replaces them not try to always do the shoulder tackle thing. Wrap up and bring the WR down.

Agree almost completely. I think the situation at runningback going forward in an interesting one. From everything I have Adam Taylor is a force and would have been in the mix this year, I can't say because I've never seen him on the field but it will be interesting how we maximize our each rb's output without making things confusing. I hope that we see two back formations without having to utilize the jet sweep, like knapp said we have the personnel, it all comes down to the execution and coaching.

I didn't mention Taylor for that reason. I was basing it mostly off of what the team would have coming back that has played this year or the year before due to injury.

 

[74Hunter]

We have the personnel in that locker room to compete for conference championships. What we don't seem to have is the willingness (integrity?) to play all of them. Nepotism being a huge problem, but beyond that, you've got athletes on that team that are better than the guys starting, but they sit because of misguided loyalty to guys who have "put in their time." There are fifth-year seniors who have busted their a$$ throughout their career, but they're not good enough to start. A lot of them don't start, but some do. And that's a problem.

I don't think it's nepotism as much as they made their decisions on starters and they are too stubborn to make the obvious changes that are needed.

I really wish that Johnny would have gotten a year under his belt this year.

 

[StPaulHusker]

We have the personnel in that locker room to compete for conference championships. What we don't seem to have is the willingness (integrity?) to play all of them. Nepotism being a huge problem, but beyond that, you've got athletes on that team that are better than the guys starting, but they sit because of misguided loyalty to guys who have "put in their time." There are fifth-year seniors who have busted their a$$ throughout their career, but they're not good enough to start. A lot of them don't start, but some do. And that's a problem.

I don't think it's nepotism as much as they made their decisions on starters and they are too stubborn to make the obvious changes that are needed.

I really wish that Johnny would have gotten a year under his belt this year.

It's probably both with regards to Jake Cotton and Pelini.

 

[True2tRA]

So sick of hearing about Nebraska's "limitations". The talent is on the roster folks. Don't let people tell you otherwise. We were touting the defensive line all year. Nate Gerry's been playing great all season til' Bo and Co.'s scheme gets exposed once again by a rushing team. Why anyone throws the ball against us is beyond me. It's not a talent issue, it's a scheme issue.

Sipple at least acknowledged his feelings on Nebraska's talent prior to the season.

@Steven M. Sipple: If Nebraska reached the Big Ten title game, and plays Michigan State, well, I'm in the camp that says NU is on-par talent-wise with the Spartans.
by Steven M. Sipple August 25 at 1:50 PM


Wait? I thought we couldn't recruit here?

http://journalstar.com/sports/huskers/sipple/steven-m-sipple-btn-analyst-says-bo-has-work-cut/article_0d9866db-c4d5-5ebb-bab6-9b9f1922d14d.html

"One would think Nebraska (8-3, 4-3) would have a discernible edge in talent against, say, Minnesota. The fact that wasn't the case Saturday gives one pause.

And if you want to try to sell the notion that Nebraska did enjoy an edge in overall talent, then that's a rather harsh indictment on the Husker coaching staff's preparation, considering the Gophers' 28-24 triumph in Lincoln."

Or how about this guy, Dinardo. The above article is full of hilarious tidbits like this:

"He essentially wrote that Nebraska is one of the hardest places, if not the hardest place, to live up to an elite past, in large part because of current recruiting rules. I dialed him up Sunday morning because I think it's important to hear opinions from outside the vortex of the Big Red storm, which is rather intense at the moment."

Nebraska has a hard time competing with other top programs because its so difficult to recruit at a high level here.........Wait a minute? What about:

Gerry DiNardo @gerrydinardo Follow

BTN Bus Tour #Huskers Another team built from the LOS out. DL is in conversation as one of the best in the B1G this year.

6:17 PM - 18 Aug 2014

Gerry DiNardo @gerrydinardo Follow


BTN Bus Tour #Huskers Talented team that practice in full pads in the high heat at a very good tempo BP has them perfect 4 this late in camp

6:37 PM - 18 Aug 2014

or this from an article on July 27:





"DiNardo has a marked advantage over schleps like me in terms of access to practices.

"Nebraska's the most athletic team in the West Division," DiNardo told me Saturday, two days before Big Ten Media Days begin in Chicago."

Its become ridiculous at this point the way people have bent or even completely broken their previous expectations and analysis of the talent on this team all in an effort to deflect responsibility from these coaches. The more troubling part is that they would short sell this program and sell the players short, rather than hold the grown men who are currently paid to do the job accountable.

 

[TheSker]

We know our DL is among the better ones. Unfortunately, that's only 4 positions out of 22. The offensive line has been a huge disappointment this season. We have some talent in places, and have needs in others.