Roster Management 101

[BigRedBuster]

QB - 4

RB - 4

FB/TE/H-Back - 1

WR - 12

OL - 20

DT - 8

DE - 8

LB - 12

CB - 8

S - 8

Special Teams - if you have an absolute stud you want to offer a scholarship for then (1) should be here. You can find it from somewhere.

Come on BRB, kickers are football players, too.

Kickers are a strange position as far as scholarships. There are some who should get a scholarship right out of HS. However, as a general rule, I think you need to get the guys in and see if they can handle the position in college before you just start throwing scholarships at them.

Maybe I need to modify it some because once the guy proves he can handle it and he is starting, he should be on scholarship.

I thought the exercise was an allocation of the 85 scholarships, so yes, you probably would have the starting kicker on scholarship, even if he came to school originally as a walk-on.

Done.

 

[84HuskerLaw]

I think too many people overlook the kickers. I think to rank the positions by most to least important, you put the QB first, then the punter and place kicker are co-number 2s. This year's team is a perfect illustration of this as when Tommy Armstrong was playing his best, our team was very competitive with anyone we were playing. When our QB play was not so good, the entire offense basically shut down. And with the kicking game, it was almost painful anytime we were punting (doom and dread prevailed) while Drew Brown was excellent.

I don't think you can overstate the vital importance of having a reliable, powerful punter who can change the field position and get you out of a deep hole or pin the opponent down near their own goal line. And you may not appreciate the field goal and PAT guy until you start missing them and they are invaluable in tight games and overtimes often end with the winning field goal. You can't waste a well placed scholarship with an NFL caliber punter or place kicker. Nebraska has a long history of fine kickers and punters and many a game's outcome has been greatly influenced, if not outright determined, by the success or fail of the kickers. We lost literally hundreds - even a 1,000 yards of field position - in the special teams (punts, returns, etc) this year.