Who is the #2 football player on the team?

[knapplc]

Kc Husker Chris........you nailed the point right on. Everybody wants to dog on Barney Cotton and his offensive line performance. Yea, maybe Barney isn't the best guy for the job, and the extra coaching help ought to pay off. But nobody ever wants to acknowledge the fact that these kids are asked to block 8-9 guys every single down. The lack of a passing threat, and the inconsistency in our offensive scheme is more to blame than anything when it comes to our offensive lines shortcomings. That's a FACT.

Whether they're asked to block five, eight or all eleven defenders doesn't mean much when they blow their assignments left and right, though. Go back and watch just about any of our games. It is all too easy to find plays where a lineman - or two, or three - completely whiffs on a block. I mean, absolutely misses their guy, even if it's a D Lineman lined up opposite him.

I don't know if we scheme some of the things I'm watching on DVR or if we just had bad linemen - but there were a LOT of defenders left unblocked last year.

Ask yourself this - when is the last time you heard Old School Barney Cotton talk about pancakes? Even mention the fact that they track them? I don't think I've ever heard/read a quote talking about pancakes. And that used to be all you heard about from our O Line coaches.

 

[bshirt]

Kc Husker Chris........you nailed the point right on. Everybody wants to dog on Barney Cotton and his offensive line performance. Yea, maybe Barney isn't the best guy for the job, and the extra coaching help ought to pay off. But nobody ever wants to acknowledge the fact that these kids are asked to block 8-9 guys every single down. The lack of a passing threat, and the inconsistency in our offensive scheme is more to blame than anything when it comes to our offensive lines shortcomings. That's a FACT.

Oh boy......try watching the NW game again. Their pathetic Dline tore our road-graders apart.

 

[True2tRA]

I don't know if it's coaching or scheme, but the aggressiveness on both offensive and defensive lines seems to have vanished over the last 4-5 years. We really don't seem like we get after anybody on either side of the ball. I'm not sure why that is, but both sides of the lines seem to be holding back. That or we are just plain lacking talent up front. I'm just not sure I can say that. We had very high hopes for a lot of these guys over the past few years. Their talent has just never really shined through. Maybe a new center will step up and pull this unit together.

 

[knapplc]

I don't know if it's coaching or scheme, but the aggressiveness on both offensive and defensive lines seems to have vanished over the last 4-5 years. We really don't seem like we get after anybody on either side of the ball. I'm not sure why that is, but both sides of the lines seem to be holding back. That or we are just plain lacking talent up front. I'm just not sure I can say that. We had very high hopes for a lot of these guys over the past few years. Their talent has just never really shined through. Maybe a new center will step up and pull this unit together.

That's the word. We lack aggressiveness. We talk about our O Line and refer to them as "road graders" but they're not. They rarely plow through anyone. On defense we're relegated to Bo's containment scheme, so we spend more time waltzing with the other O Line and protecting gaps than we do tearing after the ball-carrier. Ugh. Hate it.

 

[kchusker_chris]

I don't know if it's coaching or scheme, but the aggressiveness on both offensive and defensive lines seems to have vanished over the last 4-5 years. We really don't seem like we get after anybody on either side of the ball. I'm not sure why that is, but both sides of the lines seem to be holding back. That or we are just plain lacking talent up front. I'm just not sure I can say that. We had very high hopes for a lot of these guys over the past few years. Their talent has just never really shined through. Maybe a new center will step up and pull this unit together.

That's the word. We lack aggressiveness. We talk about our O Line and refer to them as "road graders" but they're not. They rarely plow through anyone. On defense we're relegated to Bo's containment scheme, so we spend more time waltzing with the other O Line and protecting gaps than we do tearing after the ball-carrier. Ugh. Hate it.

I wonder if this (at least in last year's case) goes back to the secondary. We had one of the best linebackers in D1 ball...yet we were so worried about coverage across the middle we couldn't let him be a linebacker. It's amazing David had the tackles he had when it seems like more times than not he was covering the crossing route. (watch that Jeffrey highlight that EZ-E posted in the other thread). I'm sure that's scheme (or we really missed Hagg) - but protecting those gaps IMO was more about our lack of secondary than our lack of skill as a DL. It pissed me off...but I think Bo was worried about the gaps because our linebackers weren't going to be there. Otherwise, there is no way in hell Bo wouldn't have trusted David to plug a gap if a tackle rushed the QB. But for some reason it didn't seem like he did.