Unpopular Opinions: Husker Edition

SFW said:
We will never Consistently have the D lineman like those teams above you mentioned.  

Wisconsin has the best DC in the country and his 3-4 is totally different that ours.  
 

Chinander and back to Diaco have been trying to pound square pegs into round holes.
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Not Bama and Georgia, sure. But We literally could have had commitments from 2 of their 3 starters if Riley wasn't a moron (Bryson Williams and Isaiahh Loudermilk) and Rand was a low 4 star out of Arizona. We haven't developed talent nearly as well, but give Duvall and the coaches time. I believe we can have a Wisconsin level defensive line pretty soon.

swmohusker said:
Is Leonard as good as Aranda was?  Not sure he is the best wiscy DC.  Venable is good.  Like how he utilized Simmons in a variety of ways.  
 

Gary Patterson always fields good defenses in an offensive league without a ton a nfl talent.  
 

Hankwitz the DC at Northwestern always field a good defense without a ton of talent.  
 

Iowa, narduzzi, and mich st have good statistical defenses, but some of that is aided by the style of play of their offenses.  
 

other than those 2 it is the chicken or the egg argument with talent and good defenses.  
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Agreed with these. And I just have to see it consistently with Leonhard before I buy him as an elite d coordinator. They were incredible in 2017, but it was elite when he took it over. Then they were just decent in 2018, before being back to top-ten this year. I'm less skeptical now than I was before last year, but we'll see.

The bold part is important too, depending on how you're measuring defensive success. Wisconsin faced the 6th fewest plays per game on defense last year, that helps the raw numbers. They were still really good on a per play basis, so any way you cut it that was a really good defense. But Minnesota for example was 9th in YPG allowed (right behind Wisconsin at 7th fewest plays defended per game) - however, they were 30th in yards per play. Good defense still, but not top-10. Conversly, UCF was 5th best in YPP allowed, better than both Wisky and Minny. But they faced the 9th most plays, so they're 32nd in YPG.  I think we need a top-20 defense on a per play basis to be where we want to be, not necessarily by YPG/PPG.

TL;DR - My unpopular opinion is we will be fine with a top-20 yards per play defense, which is likely in the 30-35 range for YPG/PPG allowed due to the higher number of plays we'll defend.

 
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Ulty said:
In the CCG against Texas, Suh provided greatest individual performance I have ever seen from a football player all night long. Of all the things that went wrong with the offense, penalties, and the final kickoff/drive, I would be hard pressed to identify anything from Suh as a critical mistake in that game. 
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I agree with you 100%.  But this is the unpopular opinion thread.  My WISH was that McCoy didn't feel the pressure as much, he may have held on to the ball 1 sec longer.    But you can't fault SUH for trying to take him down. 

 
This may not be an unpopular opinion but while Scott bringing his whole staff here had some upside, it may not have been the best for the situation Nebraska was in.  Big stage demands big time DC and OC.  Scott should have brought more experience with him to Lincoln.

 
Bob Diaco, will make the Huskers feel the strain again with a win for Purdue in the opener.

 
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TheSker said:
Bob Diaco was an experienced DC.
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And Diaco probably would have done pretty well under a competent and cohesive staff not under toxic leadership.

It's so weird when people think that coaches or players who come here and don't do well are showing their true colors instead of Nebraska being the poor performance anomaly because our admin has been so inept and corrosive. Diaco is a good DC - he's proved it all over. Except here, because the top 10 DC's in the country wouldn't have been able to do it here at that time.

 
TGHusker said:
ok let me add  'excellent'  dc /oc
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I don't really disagree, but I'm always curious who people think we should have gone after. Clearly Walters wasn't the right OC, but 'excellent, experienced' OCs aren't exactly lining up to not call plays in somebody else's offense, for any amount of money. DC would be more plausible, but again most excellent and experienced DCs are either 1) head coaches/head coach candidates, 2) already coaching at a big school, or 3) not actually that experienced.

If we're taking a shot on an inexperienced but interesting DC, why not the guy who in his first 2 years as a DC took the team from 116th to 2nd in turnovers forced. And his first year defense went from 115th to 9th in YPP, although they regressed back to 72 in year 2. Huge games against Memphis and USF to end the year dragged that down. Definitely not a home run guaranteed great DC, but he made a dumpster fire defense passable with elite turnover forcing ability. I don't think there were a bunch of guys with a better track record that would come here.

 
TGHusker said:
I agree with you 100%.  But this is the unpopular opinion thread.  My WISH was that McCoy didn't feel the pressure as much, he may have held on to the ball 1 sec longer.    But you can't fault SUH for trying to take him down. 
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Too bad McCoy didnt have 0.5 seconds more of loft on the ball - but hard to question a guy that was so banged up after the game that he was still injured for his next start

 
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TGHusker said:
This may not be an unpopular opinion but while Scott bringing his whole staff here had some upside, it may not have been the best for the situation Nebraska was in.  Big stage demands big time DC and OC.  Scott should have brought more experience with him to Lincoln.
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What are chances a first-time HC at the G5 level put together a staff that can win big at the P5 level? Not good. I understand Frost doesn't like telling guys they aren't good enough to move-on with him but there is a reason guys making this kind of jump normally cherry-pick their best then fill the rest out the rest of the staff with the kind of hires their new cache/budget/connections can get them. Betting Moos didn't like the idea but really wanted Frost and figured it would pay-off long-term when Frost separates the grain from the chaff(as he started to do with DeWitt and Walters, I think Ruud and Beckton have to step-up or they're next).  My only concern is Chin, DC is vitally important and he needs to improve, if he doesn't improve would Frost can(or demote) his best friend? 

 
The current staff is quite capable and there is much to be said for stability and continuity.  I think the changes that have happened have been very positive and targeted at the most critical areas where big improvements in product were most needed. 

The weakest areas, in order, imo:

1.   special teams

2.   LBs

3.   DL

4.   TE

5.   WR

My only remaining concern is the special teams where I am wondering whether the lack of a designated Special Teams coach on the sidelines in games could lead to some problems at critical times.  With all the player shuffling that happens with a few moments’ notice, we need someone in charge to coordinate substitutions, alignments, calls, strategy, etc.  These can be game changing plays (good or bad) if details are not managed quickly.  

 
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