The time Buddy Ryan conjured up a defense that nearly beat mighty Nebraska
- Thread starter Saunders
- Start date
I was at that game at Arrowhead. I knew our offense was bad but I didn't remember it being THAT bad.
Not trying to take anything away from Buddy because he was a top notch defensive coordinator but we also only had 141 yards rushing (on 44 attempts, a paltry 3.2 ypa) the next week in a loss to Texas A&M as well. So it's possible that the Washington game was the out-lier instead of the reverse.
Perhaps Frank just wasn't cut out to be an offensive coordinator.
/crawls in foxhole
Not trying to take anything away from Buddy because he was a top notch defensive coordinator but we also only had 141 yards rushing (on 44 attempts, a paltry 3.2 ypa) the next week in a loss to Texas A&M as well. So it's possible that the Washington game was the out-lier instead of the reverse.
Perhaps Frank just wasn't cut out to be an offensive coordinator.
/crawls in foxhole
Scratchtown
All-Conference
Considering the TAMU game was after the OSU game, it's more likely that they saw the film and adjusted to a similar defense that they saw OSU have work for them. Washington was 6-6 to finish that year so I'm very sure it was a bit of both.
NU averaged 5 yards per carry (3050 yards total, would be good for 17th in the country in 2015) and also didn't have a 1000 yard rusher. Heck, didn't even have an 800 yard rusher (Buckhalter had 799). Nebraska scored 32 points a game and gave up 15 a game. Plenty of offense to win. The offense just seemed bad because of the video game numbers NU put up in Tom's last few years.
But I wouldn't call that 98 offense "Bad"
ColoradoHusk
Heisman Trophy Winner
The '98 offense suffered from being extremely young at the skill positions. They went through 3 QB's who all started games for the first time. Crouch played a number of those games with a lingering hip pointer injury. They also had no go-to running back when Evans couldn't play in '98.
Yes, Solich wasn't the play caller that Osborne was, but not many people in the history of college football were. It was just one of those years where the fans expected the team to "reload" from the previous season, and it didn't work out that way.
Yes, Solich wasn't the play caller that Osborne was, but not many people in the history of college football were. It was just one of those years where the fans expected the team to "reload" from the previous season, and it didn't work out that way.
And at offensive line, more importantly. That '97 team graduated 6 of the top 7 linemen.
Milt was a hell of a tactical guy, but not a great recruiter once his stream of NE born talent dried. Good. But not great.
I was mainly talking about our offense in that game being bad, not necessarily the entire season. And it's possible that A&M copied OSU's game plan to some extent.
But our offense most of that year was fairly low-powered, at least against defense that had a pulse. We "only" scored 24 points two weeks before OSU against Cal. Then 17 (from the offense) against OSU, 21 against aTm, 20 against Missouri, 16 vs. Texas, and finished the year with 16 vs. Colorado and 20 against Arizona in the bowl game. That's seven games failing to get above 24 points. Even the vaunted 2009 offense only missed 24+ points seven times.
knapplc
International Man of Mystery
Agree with all of this, and on top of that, it was a hangover year after Osborne retired and we won the National Championship. Solich attempted to keep the train rolling along, but there's bound to be a hangover after a legendary 25-year head coach retires.
Savage Husker
All-Conference
They also couldn't score an offensive touchdown against Colorado that year.
84HuskerLaw
All-Conference
Solich was a fair play caller early on but as his lack of recruiting created a team with far too many 3rd stringers and not enough 1sts, his teams were not going to be great no matter how creative he could have been in calling plays. You can only trick you way to a few wins and in the end the teams with the best players tend to win most of the time.
Red Five
Heisman Trophy Winner
We only had the ball 24 minutes that game and ran 52 plays, 36 rushes (for 73 yards!!!!) and 16 passes (for 142 yards).
RUSHING: Nebraska-D.Evans 15-41; B.Newcombe 13-22; J.Makovicka 6-9;
S.Wiggins 1-1; E.Crouch 1-0
PASSING: Nebraska-B.Newcombe 9-15-0-112; E.Crouch 1-1-0-30
RECEIVING: Nebraska-K.Cheatham 3-32; M.Davison 3-31; S.Jackson 2-70;
D.Evans 1-5; S.Wiggins 1-4
Full stats -> http://www.huskermax.com/games/1998/stats/1998/oklastate.htm
RUSHING: Nebraska-D.Evans 15-41; B.Newcombe 13-22; J.Makovicka 6-9;
S.Wiggins 1-1; E.Crouch 1-0
PASSING: Nebraska-B.Newcombe 9-15-0-112; E.Crouch 1-1-0-30
RECEIVING: Nebraska-K.Cheatham 3-32; M.Davison 3-31; S.Jackson 2-70;
D.Evans 1-5; S.Wiggins 1-4
Full stats -> http://www.huskermax.com/games/1998/stats/1998/oklastate.htm