The 'Old' Nebraska Offense ... Why The Hell Not?

M

Mort Blort

Walk-on
Call me old school. Call me hopelessly out of touch with football as it's played in this millennium.

Go ahead. Resurrect the old idea that the Husker offense that built the program -- the product of ~30 years of refinement to fit a particular situation of available athletes and weather extremes -- the offense that Callahan abandoned -- can't be done anymore. People say it with conviction: "We can't go back."

And I wonder ... Why The Hell Not?

Bring back Rathman. Bring back Frost. Start here (http://trojanfootballanalysis.com/?p=25); add in a few things based on experience to make it better, just like Ozbo did every year.

BE IT RESOLVED: The wheels fell off when we abandoned the old playbook like it had leprosy.

 
I'd love to see the triple option make a comeback. But, if Watson was going to be fired it probably would have happened by now. I get the feeling we're going to continue the fumble, fumble, penalty, punt offense.

 
As much as I would love to have the option attack back, we simply don't have the athletes to run it at this point. We can't suddenly switch to a successful option offense between now and next season. It would take us 2-3 years to fully implement it and recruit the proper players. We already appear to be on a downward slide and a total shift in offensive philosophy, as you are suggesting, would only make it worse.

 
Style du jour. Right now it's pistol/diamond for most. And I guess there's always a 'throwback Nebraska' contingent. Why else did Taylor excite so many people?

Doesn't make that much of a difference but it is all fans will talk about.

I would say the less dramatic the change, the better. You can simplify, you can evolve, but you are going to sacrifice a few years if you want to facelift. You could say we have sacrificed one already to that end.

 
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The Dude said:
I'd love to see the triple option make a comeback. But, if Watson was going to be fired it probably would have happened by now. I get the feeling we're going to continue the fumble, fumble, penalty, punt offense.
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Don't mean to hijack the thread, but I completely disagree. Bo's going to take his time and evaluate where this team and staff is as a whole. Reacting to the debacle of a bowl game by firing Watson immediately would've been a rushed, emotion-driven decision. I'm glad he's taking the time to cool down and approach the decision rationally. That said, we need a change and Watson/Cotton/Gilmore have to go.

 
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The current offensive line is not able to block sufficiently to execute that offense. We just don't have the disciplined horses up front to run that. False starts and holding penalties would kill that offense.

 
zoogies said:
Style du jour. Right now it's pistol/diamond for most.

...

You can simplify, you can evolve, but you are going to sacrifice a few years if you want to facelift. You could say we have sacrificed one already to that end.
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I guess that's what bugs me about the current "offense" ... that it's primarily a "style," as if it were the width of a tie, or one of Watson's endless pairs of sunglasses. The Nebraska offense of old was a machine. What we have right now is a friggin' mess, of questionable value as a primordial ooze from which anything decent can evolve.

 
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Bo has a lot of things to decide upon. Dismissing Watson from the program is not an easy decision and if Bo seeks any advise from TO it will be to retain him. Right now there are to many high profile coordinator jobs open and it might be tough to get one that would be considered a step up. Short of possibly moving Beck up to oc I don't see a change coming.

 
Lonestar_Husker said:
The current offensive line is not able to block sufficiently to execute that offense. We just don't have the disciplined horses up front to run that. False starts and holding penalties would kill that offense.
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+1 you have to have at least an above average OL to run option

 
The old style offense would be just fine with me. As stated above though, its gonna take a couple years to get the right players to fit it. & be ready for a mass of current players to transfer. IIRC, Colin Cowherd said a long time ago that NU would be just fine sticking with the option offense because we cant compete with west coast & southern teams in trying to recruit 5* WR's. Go to Fla. of Nebraska? Not a hard decision for a kid that doesnt like to be cold. If we change, we would only be competing with Ga. Tech in recruiting mainly. (service acadamies I'm not including because you cant win a recruiting war against Uncle Sam) If you're gonna do it, do it now. Goood fit in Big 10 though.

 
The playbook wasn't what made that offense, it was a combination of talent and accountability for both the players and the coaches. Our offense had a significant history of being very Watson like in big games until our break through years in the mid 90's. People forget the years that Osborne's offense was considered outdated and unable to win the big game. I'm pretty certain that if we let the current staff stay together for essentially a quarter of a century that they'd have some good years in there and people would forget these early years where the offense failed to get it done.

 
jliehr said:
The playbook wasn't what made that offense, it was a combination of talent and accountability for both the players and the coaches. Our offense had a significant history of being very Watson like in big games until our break through years in the mid 90's. People forget the years that Osborne's offense was considered outdated and unable to win the big game. I'm pretty certain that if we let the current staff stay together for essentially a quarter of a century that they'd have some good years in there and people would forget these early years where the offense failed to get it done.
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Good post man. totally agree!

 
We would need a brilliant offensive mind at coordinator and a great offensive line coach to run our 80s and 90s offense to a perennial top ten position. Without those components, you have essentially the same thing we have now: An offense that can look cool against bad defenses, but falters to do much in the biggest games (think NCG vs. Miami). To make it to national title contendership, add in a all-conference IB and QB.

I don't know any available great offensive minds available to resurrect that type of offense. More realistic would be to find a good coordinator who can run a more basic offense and at least score in the mid-twenties against top 40 defenses. That, with Bo's defense, equals Big 10 championships.

 
JTrain said:
We would need a brilliant offensive mind at coordinator and a great offensive line coach to run our 80s and 90s offense to a perennial top ten position. Without those components, you have essentially the same thing we have now: An offense that can look cool against bad defenses, but falters to do much in the biggest games (think NCG vs. Miami). To make it to national title contendership, add in a all-conference IB and QB.

I don't know any available great offensive minds available to resurrect that type of offense. More realistic would be to find a good coordinator who can run a more basic offense and at least score in the mid-twenties against top 40 defenses. That, with Bo's defense, equals Big 10 championships.
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I'd personally rather sputter in the national championship game than sputter against a 6-6 team that isn't ranked in the top 100 in defense...

 
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