A Candid Conversation With Nebraska Offensive Coordinator Tim Beck, Parts 1 & 2

[ZRod]

Count me in the camp that if it can work in Palo Alto, CA, Auburn AL, Madison WI and Tuscaloosa it can work here. Again.

I'm sick of the counter punching offense.

Because having a run heavy offense, the conference's top rusher, and the nation's #9 rusher who is only behind someone from one of the schools you listed isn't working. Not to mention we rank 3 spots behind those dudes from Palo Alto and 5 spots ahead of the boys from Tuscaloosa all with our 1-2 rushing combo being reduced to a 1 for the majority of the season.

 

[Abdullah the Butcher]

Count me in the camp that if it can work in Palo Alto, CA, Auburn AL, Madison WI and Tuscaloosa it can work here. Again.

I'm sick of the counter punching offense.

Because having a run heavy offense, the conference's top rusher, and the nation's #9 rusher who is only behind someone from one of the schools you listed isn't working. Not to mention we rank 3 spots behind those dudes from Palo Alto and 5 spots ahead of the boys from Tuscaloosa all with our 1-2 rushing combo being reduced to a 1 for the majority of the season.

More about the how it gets done, single back spread offense vs power run with a full back and tight ends.

 

[NUpolo8]

Count me in the camp that if it can work in Palo Alto, CA, Auburn AL, Madison WI and Tuscaloosa it can work here. Again.

I'm sick of the counter punching offense.

Because having a run heavy offense, the conference's top rusher, and the nation's #9 rusher who is only behind someone from one of the schools you listed isn't working. Not to mention we rank 3 spots behind those dudes from Palo Alto and 5 spots ahead of the boys from Tuscaloosa all with our 1-2 rushing combo being reduced to a 1 for the majority of the season.

Those schools have an identity. Nebraska does not.

 

[Landlord]

Loved the interview and even my disagreements I will choose to drop for no other reason than being thankful for actual honest and candid answers even if I don't agree with them.

 

[cg_8]

What's there to disagree with?

He's right. This is the current state of the college football landscape. College football, not NFL, not even Nebraska football.

From what I read, he is describing the spread offense. Which is insanely popular now. Is he wrong in that regard?

Also, where does he say Nebraska is doing this? Because we aren't. I guarantee we will see the TE position here at Nebraska, because when you can get the talent that teams like Nebraska can get at that position, you use it. We will see Cethan Carter wide open down the middle this year. Heck, he may even find the end zone numerous times. Just like Cotton has for us and like Kyler Reed did before. But that's because we're Nebraska and we can recruit guys like that.

For smaller schools that can't recruit that type of talent? You recruit tons of speedy WR's that can put a ton of pressure on a team's DB's by making them utilize some form of their DIME package. He's describing exactly what happens when you go 4 wide on every play. Wyoming did it to us, we had our problems, mainly due to lack of experience (as of gone to lengths describing before). But Bo has proven with the "peso" how to stop the spread.

Also, the spread isn't dictated by the D. By making the D "spread" out with 4 wide, it dictates what the D has to do. That's why it's so easy to use. That's why Oklahoma was a winner two years in, and why Mike Leach got his job at Texas Tech after one year of being Bob Stoops OC. It's the "lose weight fast!" pill for college football. Hawaii broke records with it with a QB nobody remembers now. Houston broke records with a half broken QB.

I'll have my complaints about Beck, but he's actually correct in his statement. Not ALL teams (including us) will ever see the TE position go away. Penn State last year showed us that it's not, and Standford has showed us that it's not. Heck, I bet we will show big time that it's not going to go away this year.

Again, this is an overgeneralized statement about the current landscape of college football and the utilization of the spread offense. We are not a true spread offense. We utilize the spread to our advantage, as I am sure every school, but we also utilize a lot of one and two TE formations. We always will.

I could seriously go on and write a book about what he's talking about, but I can tell you, he's not talking about NU or how he runs his offense (even though we do utilize the spread, we don't utilize it exclusively).

 

[blinky]

Have you followed the Jimmy Graham franchise tag story at all? He's maybe the league's best TE, but for salary purposes no one is sure whether to list him as a TE or WR. Why? Because he, along with all the league's best TEs, lines up as a WR at least as often as he lines up as part of the line.

This is all Beck means.

Stop flipping out.

 

[Saunders]

Edit

 

[Saunders]

Count me in the camp that if it can work in Palo Alto, CA, Auburn AL, Madison WI and Tuscaloosa it can work here. Again.

I'm sick of the counter punching offense.

Because having a run heavy offense, the conference's top rusher, and the nation's #9 rusher who is only behind someone from one of the schools you listed isn't working. Not to mention we rank 3 spots behind those dudes from Palo Alto and 5 spots ahead of the boys from Tuscaloosa all with our 1-2 rushing combo being reduced to a 1 for the majority of the season.

Those schools have an identity. Nebraska does not.

That's such a load of bullsh#t.
Tell me, what is their "identity" that makes them so unique, compared to Nebraska? All are different. Do they use zone or man? What type of route running concepts? Do they emphasize the QB run game?

And it's funny you mention Auburn, because we're similar philosophically.

It makes me think you're just trolling and piling on, because your argument makes no sense.

 

[Chimalli]

Year 7 and our offensive identity is what the opposing defense tells us it is.

Get your Holiday Bowl tickets while you can.

No wonder the offense has been so anemic at times. The offense is reactionary to the defensive formation, thus an audible is called, then guys have to remember the audible formation, and finally read the lineman to get the zone blocking right.

What happened to being stonger, better conditioned, and more determined than the guys lined up across from you? I understand the game has evolved over the last two decades but have the fundamentals of blocking and tackling changed as well?

P.S. I'm not buying the explanation for the disappearence of middle screens.

 

[NUpolo8]

Count me in the camp that if it can work in Palo Alto, CA, Auburn AL, Madison WI and Tuscaloosa it can work here. Again.

I'm sick of the counter punching offense.

Because having a run heavy offense, the conference's top rusher, and the nation's #9 rusher who is only behind someone from one of the schools you listed isn't working. Not to mention we rank 3 spots behind those dudes from Palo Alto and 5 spots ahead of the boys from Tuscaloosa all with our 1-2 rushing combo being reduced to a 1 for the majority of the season.

Those schools have an identity. Nebraska does not.

That's such a load of bullsh#t.
Tell me, what is their "identity" that makes them so unique, compared to Nebraska? All are different. Do they use zone or man? What type of route running concepts? Do they emphasize the QB run game?

And it's funny you mention Auburn, because we're similar philosophically.

It makes me think you're just trolling and piling on, because your argument makes no sense.

I would say the only thing Auburn and Nebraska share is a desire to speed up playcalling to tire a defense out.

Malzahn has borrowed a lot from the run and blocking schemes that Osborne used to use, and that,obviously is not what Nebraska does now.

They typically use man blocking, but can drop into a zone.

Now, how did I get those specific answers? I looked it up. I simply googled "Auburn's offensive scheme" and got several pretty interesting articles detailing Malzahn's vision.

As a corollary, I also googled "Nebraska's offensive scheme". I got several articles detailing how they're searching for one, a bunch on the option (which isn't ran anymore by Nebraska, obviously), and some articles on Tom Osborne, who isn't the coach anymore.

And then going off of what Beck said to a guy who he knows personally (also in the article linked in this thread) we get a bunch of talk about complicated schemes, obsolete tight ends, and essentially a counterpunching offense that almost reminded me of the infamous "we take what we want" talk from Bill Callahan.

I think one of the biggest struggles Nebraska has is that it doesn't have an identity anymore. Stanford, Auburn, Wisconsin and Alabama do. This article and what I just looked at further did nothing to dissuade me from that point.

 

[Cougar74]

I think beck and bo offense is a counter designed to get athletes the ball in space, create mismatches, and to utilize player strengths in a multiple framework of sets, formations, looks and play design.

What they will be judged on is the efficiency and effectives of this variation. looks, plays and the development and reliability of the components to have success in Reducing errors , performance gaps, knowledge gaps, instill improvisation, innovation and players commitment to be the best they can every down.

 

[sd'sker]

I think beck and bo offense is a counter designed to get athletes the ball in space, create mismatches, and to utilize player strengths in a multiple framework of sets, formations, looks and play design.

i agree with you and think you are right, but that is just an offense. as opposed to an identity. it is the difference between reacting to a defense and forcing a defense to react to you.

 

[NUpolo8]

Part two is up.

Lots of talk about "not enough hours in the day"

One would think that would lead to a simpler scheme.

 

[Abdullah the Butcher]

http://www.cornnation.com/2014/7/1/5844504/nebraska-football-offensive-coordinator-tim-beck-interview-2

A Candid Conversation With Nebraska Offensive Coordinator Tim Beck, Part 2

CN: People forget that they're just kids.

TB: Yeah.

CN: You know they're 18, 19, 22 years old. They're just kids.

TB: Correct. They have the same issues as their (the fans') kids. Dating issues, money issues, everything. I mean, it's the same thing on top of being out there playing and trying to do those types of things. They still have the same stuff to go through that people don't realize, and I know the argument, "They're on scholarship" and that's true.

They get books paid for and different things, but it's just weird how all the rules work. Dinner may be 7-9 only, and the kid may have a tutor from 7-8:30 and has to run over to dinner if he can. Then he misses it. Then what? That was his meal, but he missed his meal. He doesn't eat so he has to go find money so he can eat.

All that stuff kind of works in to running an organization. What Bo has to do is really hard because the planning of every aspect of their lives from the time they get here till the time they leave from what classes to take for graduation, what time's meetings, what time's this. There's a lot that goes in to all of that.

 

[Landlord]

Polo we do still run the option not sure if you missed those several plays or what but I mean. We do.