Fumbles

Big Red 40

Big Red 40

New member
A lot has been made of the fumble problems of the past couple years, and i agree,

My question would be what can be done to fix it? Is it a coaching thing? A player responsibility? Is it something that some players just do more than others? Is it a youth thing that they will grow out of? (Abdullah fumbled more as a freshman than this year if i remember right?) Maybe next year less and senior year no problem.?

I would say its partially coaching, but you can only drill so much before the players have to take over,?

I also think some players are more prone to fumble than others due to running style etc.(Adrian Peterson comes to mind?)

Muffed punts/kickoffs would be a different type of problem, and i cant imagine its easy to look up in the air and catch a ball with huge guys running full speed to take your head off, but some seem to manage better than others.This one i really don't know how you could coach either.

Defensive players taught to hack at the the ball, and helmet hits on the ball make it impossible in my mind to NEVER fumble but i wonder what it take to limit them?

 
I would think that the additional running these kids face is amazing. I coach tennis. I will put pressure on the kids in serving practice all the time. Do 10 serves in a row. Miss a serve do 25 pushups. Then serve again. Some kids will do 200 pushups in just 10 serves. Lots of various consequences. DF in a match and you run a 7:00 mile for each DF. Fail, do two miles in 7:10 pace. Keep adding. I would think that TM runs a lot of stairs.

 
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During the bowl game between A&M and OU, the announcers commented that in spring ball Johnny Manziel was a turnover machine (fumbles). Sumlin (HC) told him if you expect to play, you need to stop the fumbles. Guys on this team do not fumble.

Martinez has led the nation for 3 years in fumbles. Think about that. Our QB leads the nation. He has won us games, lost us games and we have won in spite of him. I would like to think that the staff would put the same pressure on the team as Sumlin, but that will not happen. Hard to tell AA to sit for the fumbles when Martinez would never see the pine. I am sure it is hard on the staff to find an incentive that will enable the guys to hold onto the ball without it keeping Martinez off the field.

 
lo country said:
During the bowl game between A&M and OU, the announcers commented that in spring ball Johnny Manziel was a turnover machine (fumbles). Sumlin (HC) told him if you expect to play, you need to stop the fumbles. Guys on this team do not fumble.

Martinez has led the nation for 3 years in fumbles. Think about that. Our QB leads the nation. He has won us games, lost us games and we have won in spite of him. I would like to think that the staff would put the same pressure on the team as Sumlin, but that will not happen. Hard to tell AA to sit for the fumbles when Martinez would never see the pine. I am sure it is hard on the staff to find an incentive that will enable the guys to hold onto the ball without it keeping Martinez off the field.
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What? really? Boy, I bet we really showed him.

 
accountability said:
lo country said:
During the bowl game between A&M and OU, the announcers commented that in spring ball Johnny Manziel was a turnover machine (fumbles). Sumlin (HC) told him if you expect to play, you need to stop the fumbles. Guys on this team do not fumble.

Martinez has led the nation for 3 years in fumbles. Think about that. Our QB leads the nation. He has won us games, lost us games and we have won in spite of him. I would like to think that the staff would put the same pressure on the team as Sumlin, but that will not happen. Hard to tell AA to sit for the fumbles when Martinez would never see the pine. I am sure it is hard on the staff to find an incentive that will enable the guys to hold onto the ball without it keeping Martinez off the field.
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What? really? Boy, I bet we really showed him.
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His fumbles, INT's etc...... Same as saying we won inspite of our D. His i also said he has won us games.

Bottom line, he is our best option, but you do not lead the nation in fumbles for 3 years in a row and not have it cost you at some point in the season. That is not really too hard of a proposition to believe.

My point being, folks need to take off the Husker colored glasses and realize we have issues. I am mentioning Martinez in this thread as the topic is fumbles. Again, something he has led the nation in for several years.

The problem is you can not really use an "in game" punishment for mistakes ie sit a series/play etc as that would take our best playmaker (Martinez) off the field for quite a few plays.

If you would like me to get off topic, I can also bring up the 500+ yrds in the air by UGA, the 400+ on the ground from Wisky, 70 points, 63 points etc.....

We have issues. But feel free to shoot the messenger.

 
Taylor's fumbles are an issue, but IMO, they are the least of our issues. We score enough points to win games. Its just unfortunate the opponent was able to score more to defeat what our offense was able to do. Fumbles need to be cleaned up, then maybe we wouldn't have closer games, but I don't know one game this year Taylor actually costed us. Some may argue the Georgia game, but after Ameer's fumble, Taylor was just trying to put us back in the game by throwing. Throwing against a stingy Georgia secondary. If our DB's didn't have to be accountable for the run as much as they had to this year, you would have seen even a stronger/tougher secondary. Taylor has won us more games this year than costed us.

As for the OP's question, "but i wonder what it take to limit them?"

My closest guess is the further these guys mature, the less they will fumble. Our RB's and Kick Returner's are young. Taylor has no excuse, but its just Taylor and how he has been since day one. We were just lucky his RS Freshman year he was able to recover most of them.

 
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Im not shooting anyone. I was just being a funny man. You said we've won in spite of Martinez before. I simply suggested that "we sure showed him" :blink:

 
I wonder if the type of ball they are using has any part in our many fumbles. Remember the old worn balls they said we were using during our bowl game?

 
HeyBakerMark said:
I would think that the additional running these kids face is amazing. I coach tennis. I will put pressure on the kids in serving practice all the time. Do 10 serves in a row. Miss a serve do 25 pushups. Then serve again. Some kids will do 200 pushups in just 10 serves. Lots of various consequences. DF in a match and you run a 7:00 mile for each DF. Fail, do two miles in 7:10 pace. Keep adding. I would think that TM runs a lot of stairs.
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Man, I thought tennis practice was supposed to be fun!!! haha

 
My solution to most problems in football is to get stronger and faster. After watching a fumble by Taylor in slow motion my solution seems appropriate. A defender tugged on his arm and out popped the ball which made me think that shouldn't happen. If he had the right arm strength and the defender had that good of a grip, it should have spun him around while still holding onto the ball. Taylor's a little guy so I don't expect him to break through a tackle attempt like that but he shouldn't fumble. I believe most RBs that fumble infrequently have strong biceps and forearms. Even when the ball is directly hit by a defender's helmet the ball may bobble but won't pop out.

I also believe that the spread offense contributes to fumbles. A ball carrier has defenders flying at them from different directions. When our offense was based on the traditional option the ball carriers knew when contact would be made and knew when to protect the ball better. I forget which game it was but I remember watching Ameer dance through the opponents secondary surrounded by defenders. It seemed strange until I realized that is just the nature of the offense we run. We spread the defense out and get people in space. When the play is run a ball carrier won't know which or when a corner might come off his receiver to make a tackle attempt. Compare that to the toss sweep in the power run game. A RB probably knows who the main tackler will be that he needs to beat and where contact will be made prior to the snap based on how the defense is lined up. The QB/RB exchange in the read option also seems to contribute to a few fumbles. Should be fixed with more repetitions in practice. These are not an excuse for the fumbles but I believe might explain the reason we seem to have more fumbles then in the 80's & 90's.

The coaches need to somehow emphasize how important it is to hang onto the ball. One of the best ways to do that is to bench a player that fumbles. If they lack a better alternative then they lose that as a way to motivate. I would guess the coaches felt it was better to have a chronic fumbler like Taylor on the field then sitting on the bench even though his turnovers really hurt the team. Unfortunately even though Taylor will put up some spectacular numbers, if he continues to be a turnover machine next season he won't be remembered as being one of the greatest quarterbacks. Our fans are too smart to discount the turnovers when looking at the other great stats. That's really too bad since he is a dynamic quarterback and has been exciting to watch.

 
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