Running Back for 2013

[bshirt]

Lopsided scores maybe, but the game was in doubt late in most of your examples.

That's right.

It's not like we were blowing them out by 4 or 5 tds. A couple of mistakes could have had us lose one or more of those games. Can you imagine the total meltdown reaction then?

 

[carlfense]

From what I have seen:

1. Abdullah. (Needs to work on ball security.)

2. Green. (Might be a better threat catching passes out of the backfield.)

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3. Imani Cross. (To be honest . . . I'm not sure why this guy got an offer. I don't ever see him catching on at RB.)

Can we let the kid see the practice field at least before we start judging his talents one way or another?... I actually loved his highlight tape. He doesn't have the shake that Rex has, but he has POWER and after seeing Marlon Lucky get tackled by the chalklines on the field, I love a guy who can break through arm tackles and even good tackles and find his way to the endzone.

Luckily for Mr. Cross (and everyone else) my estimate of his ability does not impact reality. I hope that he is the second coming of Adrian Peterson.

That said, I do like how you seem critical of my thoughts on his highlight tape . . . right before you say that you loved his highlight tape. Apparently the "wait and see" approach only applies to non-kool aid flavored posts.

Did I ever say that I think he is a homerun? I'm taking the wait-and-see approach with him. All I said is that I love seeing a RB be able to break tackles and not fall down at the first sign of contact like Marlon Lucky did. I wish they would have switched Lucky to slot receiver after his sophomore year. It was pretty much the role he played best, and it probably would have helped him be more likely to succeed in the NFL. I'm really not sure what you are saying...

Did I ever say that I think that he is a guaranteed failure?

 

[HuskerShark]

From what I have seen:

1. Abdullah. (Needs to work on ball security.)

2. Green. (Might be a better threat catching passes out of the backfield.)

.

.

.

.

.

3. Imani Cross. (To be honest . . . I'm not sure why this guy got an offer. I don't ever see him catching on at RB.)

Can we let the kid see the practice field at least before we start judging his talents one way or another?... I actually loved his highlight tape. He doesn't have the shake that Rex has, but he has POWER and after seeing Marlon Lucky get tackled by the chalklines on the field, I love a guy who can break through arm tackles and even good tackles and find his way to the endzone.

Luckily for Mr. Cross (and everyone else) my estimate of his ability does not impact reality. I hope that he is the second coming of Adrian Peterson.

That said, I do like how you seem critical of my thoughts on his highlight tape . . . right before you say that you loved his highlight tape. Apparently the "wait and see" approach only applies to non-kool aid flavored posts.

Did I ever say that I think he is a homerun? I'm taking the wait-and-see approach with him. All I said is that I love seeing a RB be able to break tackles and not fall down at the first sign of contact like Marlon Lucky did. I wish they would have switched Lucky to slot receiver after his sophomore year. It was pretty much the role he played best, and it probably would have helped him be more likely to succeed in the NFL. I'm really not sure what you are saying...

Did I ever say that I think that he is a guaranteed failure?

You said that you don't like his film, you think he's slow, and you don't understand why he even got an offer from us. So yeah, going from common sense, I would say that's what that means.

 

[walksalone]

First off I am seeing an 8-5 or 7-6 season. With that in mind I can see us really making an effort to develop depth in games and not just practice.

I see us getting off to a 3-3 or 4-2 kinda start with losses coming in similar fashion as last year. With that I see pelini blowing up the depth chart trying to get a spark going.

What causes us to have such a bad record?

 

[Huskerlambs]

I would love to see Rex get 20 carries a game and Green get 10. I have no idea why three Frosh running backs all got 3-5 carries each. How are they supposed to develop game rhythm?

I'm not in the locker room or on the recruiting trail, but someone should have redshirted.

Green has to be the clear #2 guy.

 

[walksalone]

I wouldn't mind if this whole argument becomes moot, because we recruit some ridiculous 4 or 5 start or find some JUCO diamond in the rough.

 

[HUSKER FREAK]

I think it also depends on when the staff decides that they want to keep working their offense more towards the pass and become more 60-40 pass/run. I suppose this depends on the developement of T-Mart also, but if this happens their will be fewer carries to give.

 

[HuskerShark]

I think it also depends on when the staff decides that they want to keep working their offense more towards the pass and become more 60-40 pass/run. I suppose this depends on the developement of T-Mart also, but if this happens their will be fewer carries to give.

I'm not sure if that is the vision for the offense or not. I would think more of a 50-50 ratio. Not that it's that big of a difference...

 

[kchusker_chris]

Lopsided scores maybe, but the game was in doubt late in most of your examples.

That's right.

It's not like we were blowing them out by 4 or 5 tds. A couple of mistakes could have had us lose one or more of those games. Can you imagine the total meltdown reaction then?

Seriously? You think we were a couple of mistakes away from losing to Chatanooga (5 TDs) or Minnesota (4 TDs)? And were Wisconsin (5 TDs) or Michigan (4 TDs) a couple of mistakes from losing to us? That's some pretty HUGE mistakes...like TMart handing the ball off to a Minnesota linebacker then blocking for him down the field. Not a chance, the game was not in doubt late in any of my examples save maybe Iowa. But even then...that was a pretty dominating win with opportunities for all three of Green/Heard/Abdulla (Yet Burkhead still carried the ball 38 times).

 

[HuskerShark]

I'll be honest, I think that the winning formula for the team is to put the ball in Rex's hands and let him go to work. It is obviously the most solid way that we have found to pick up yards on a consistent basis. That's not exactly a knock on Taylor as the QB, Rex is just a solid RB that you can consistently count on for 3-5 yards a carry. That's why he had so many carries vs Mich St and Iowa. I wish he would have gotten more vs Wisconsin and Michigan.

 

[Hoosker]

I'll be honest, I think that the winning formula for the team is to put the ball in Rex's hands and let him go to work. It is obviously the most solid way that we have found to pick up yards on a consistent basis. That's not exactly a knock on Taylor as the QB, Rex is just a solid RB that you can consistently count on for 3-5 yards a carry. That's why he had so many carries vs Mich St and Iowa. I wish he would have gotten more vs Wisconsin and Michigan.

This made insanely good sense to me.

 

[kchusker_chris]

I'll be honest, I think that the winning formula for the team is to put the ball in Rex's hands and let him go to work. It is obviously the most solid way that we have found to pick up yards on a consistent basis. That's not exactly a knock on Taylor as the QB, Rex is just a solid RB that you can consistently count on for 3-5 yards a carry. That's why he had so many carries vs Mich St and Iowa. I wish he would have gotten more vs Wisconsin and Michigan.

This made insanely good sense to me.

nothing like making the offense even more one dimensional. while rex is dependable...he can't carry the entire load. and then when he's gone, and 2013 rolls around with a taylor-made schedule, a senior QB (who likely still can't pass)...we're going to be forced to rely on that "rocket" arm because abdulla/green once again totalled about 50 carries for the season.

face it, this is as much a rebuilding year as 2008 was. we need to be preparing for 2013 as much as possible - and that means distributing the load in the backfield. (and maybe under center some as well)

 

[Hoosker]

I'll be honest, I think that the winning formula for the team is to put the ball in Rex's hands and let him go to work. It is obviously the most solid way that we have found to pick up yards on a consistent basis. That's not exactly a knock on Taylor as the QB, Rex is just a solid RB that you can consistently count on for 3-5 yards a carry. That's why he had so many carries vs Mich St and Iowa. I wish he would have gotten more vs Wisconsin and Michigan.

This made insanely good sense to me.

nothing like making the offense even more one dimensional. while rex is dependable...he can't carry the entire load. and then when he's gone, and 2013 rolls around with a taylor-made schedule, a senior QB (who likely still can't pass)...we're going to be forced to rely on that "rocket" arm because abdulla/green once again totalled about 50 carries for the season.

face it, this is as much a rebuilding year as 2008 was. we need to be preparing for 2013 as much as possible - and that means distributing the load in the backfield. (and maybe under center some as well)

When your best player is a senior running back playing for a run heavy team like Nebraska, you'd be a fool not to feed him. I agree that the backups need carries too, but they won't be left out again (at least I hope not).

I agree we should be preparing for 2013, but that doesn't mean we throw all of 2012 out the window and limit our best player's touches. That just doesn't compute with me.

 

[HuskerShark]

I'll be honest, I think that the winning formula for the team is to put the ball in Rex's hands and let him go to work. It is obviously the most solid way that we have found to pick up yards on a consistent basis. That's not exactly a knock on Taylor as the QB, Rex is just a solid RB that you can consistently count on for 3-5 yards a carry. That's why he had so many carries vs Mich St and Iowa. I wish he would have gotten more vs Wisconsin and Michigan.

This made insanely good sense to me.

nothing like making the offense even more one dimensional. while rex is dependable...he can't carry the entire load. and then when he's gone, and 2013 rolls around with a taylor-made schedule, a senior QB (who likely still can't pass)...we're going to be forced to rely on that "rocket" arm because abdulla/green once again totalled about 50 carries for the season.

face it, this is as much a rebuilding year as 2008 was. we need to be preparing for 2013 as much as possible - and that means distributing the load in the backfield. (and maybe under center some as well)

I won't disagree with you. I would hope that we will make strides on both sides of the ball in 2012. If not, I would be a little disappointed. We were a young team in 2011 with a lot of young players, so having that year under their belt should do wonders for them as long as we get the right guys to fill the shoes of Fonzo and LaVonte.

But I'll say this: every team has that great player that they lean on that graduates and then all the fans panic. It is up to the younger guys to step up and take on the role as the starter. Sometimes, that happens. Colt McCoy took over for Vince Young. Mark Sanchez took over for Matt Leinart, and now Matt Barkley is doing a heck of a job. Kellen Moore took over for Jared Zabransky. Heck, Andrew Green did pretty good down the stretch taking over Prince's role from last year.

Then there are times when that doesn't happen. After Colt McCoy left, it's 2 years later and Texas still can't find a QB. After Matt Ryan left BC, they don't have near the caliber of play that he gave them. I'm sure there are a lot more examples. Point is, I will wait and see what next year brings and who steps in at CB, LB, and OL. I'm optimistic at this point that the team will be a much improved version of what we saw on the field in 2011.

 

[kchusker_chris]

I'm optimistic at this point that the team will be a much improved version of what we saw on the field in 2011.

Offensively, I agree entirely. We're returning nearly all the pieces of a 2011 team that didn't execute to their potential. Another year under their belt and hopefully the little things (drops, vision, penalties, fumbles) will be minimal.

However, I'm going to be skeptical about the defense until about week 8. In past seasons I would have just said "oh Pelini is there, so no worries we'll be fine", and that might have been the case this year if we were still in the Big12. I think Pelini could own just about every offensive coordinator in the Big12. I bet he sat around in his office w/ other coaches laughing about how silly he made some of them look. The Big10 is different though. It's more fundamental defense versus scheming. I think that's why the word "execute" became such a buzz-word this season. There's nothing special about some of these offenses that ran all over us. Most are like the Titans: "I run 6 plays, split veer. It's like novacaine. Just give it time, always works"