Fo Fiddy

Red Five said:
I know its fun to b!^@h, but we are 13th in the country in kickoff returns at 30 yards/return
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Kick return hasn't been too bad. Kick coverage has been a little suspect to me. I can see Oregon burning us with one returned for a TD. But in a tight game you're not going to rely on kick returns and kick coverage to flip the field. It's the 4th down plays that are going to make the difference in a close game.

 
Riley fired longtime buddy Hank Hughes after last season. I have zero doubt he'll fire Bruce Read if things don't improve.

The galling thing is, this is Year Two of this. And if anything, it's worse. Un-returnable punts by our opponents aside, there is ZERO reason for our front line units not to block on punts. Our returners have zero chance at a return, good punt or bad punt. Look at Wyoming - they got a 20-something yard return off of our bad punt. Why? Because they blocked on the line of scrimmage.

There's no way around it. We are not getting anything remotely close to a proper return on our investment in a full-time Special Teams Coordinator.

 
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knapplc said:
Riley fired longtime buddy Hank Hughes after last season. I have zero doubt he'll fire Bruce Read if things don't improve.

The galling thing is, this is Year Two of this. And if anything, it's worse. Un-returnable punts by our opponents aside, there is ZERO reason for our front line units not to block on punts. Our returners have zero chance at a return, good punt or bad punt. Look at Wyoming - they got a 20-something yard return off of our bad punt. Why? Because they blocked on the line of scrimmage.

There's no way around it. We are not getting anything remotely close to a proper return on our investment in a full-time Special Teams Coordinator.
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While I agree with everything else, I don't think Riley had worked with (or even really knew) Hank Hughes before last season.

 
Well it was about that time I realized our special teams coordinator was about 8 stories tall and was a crustacean from the protozoic era
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ZRod said:
Uh, we haven't even blocked for a punt return so I'm not sure how we're even going to average return yards. I'm concerned about punting, but there's not much we can do with the cards life dealt us. In the meantime how about we don't let our freshman punter call audibles... don't we pay somebody for that?
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That can only be an on field decison. Do you want the punter to receive the snap and then look to the sideline for a call? Punter just needs to read the defense better and know his capabilities. Punters know this - if MR told him we are going to just punt everytime because you are just a freshman and not as skilled as SF - what would that do for the kids confidence?

 
Westerkamp and DPE are trying to field these punts staring down 6+ unblocked defenders. It is dumbfounding and reminds me of the "scheme" under Pelini before he personallly took the reigns and DPE went off:

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(I realize there is a field position component to this, but this happens whether fielding it at midfield or the 10).

And we didn't have a full-time Special Teams Coach making $450,000 then.

 
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RedDenver said:
knapplc said:
Riley fired longtime buddy Hank Hughes after last season. I have zero doubt he'll fire Bruce Read if things don't improve.

The galling thing is, this is Year Two of this. And if anything, it's worse. Un-returnable punts by our opponents aside, there is ZERO reason for our front line units not to block on punts. Our returners have zero chance at a return, good punt or bad punt. Look at Wyoming - they got a 20-something yard return off of our bad punt. Why? Because they blocked on the line of scrimmage.

There's no way around it. We are not getting anything remotely close to a proper return on our investment in a full-time Special Teams Coordinator.
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While I agree with everything else, I don't think Riley had worked with (or even really knew) Hank Hughes before last season.
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Yeah, I don't think Hughes and Riley even knew each other...He was buds with Banker.

And he lived in the dorms! Love it!

He will not fire Read...Read might "retire" to a position in the athletic office but he will not be fired.

 
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i want to give these special teams coached some benefit of the doubt becuase i think it's just ridiculous how the punt game has become so technical across college football with the rugby stuff and playin on reads and punters having green lights to run if they want. And what these things have done to the return game. And the strategy of punters to punt the ball in low directional squibblers that dont allow for returns anyway. Obviousl we'd like to see better blocking but at what expense? I think there's too much concern of punters running with their rugby stuff. And that delay in the rugby style allows speedy cover guys to get down field faster anyway. So i see a lot of mindset of a return team being, when in doubt, let it bounce, and lets just get the ball and play O and wait for them to make the mistake of kicking a fieldable punt. My idea for a rememdy of this is why dotn people take their best athlete (a Kieron Williams or Tre Bryant type) and just send them after the punter and force a hand? Dont give them the time for this rugby crap and take that strategy out of the hands of the kick team, and give our guys the freedom to turn and block. i dont know. i dont make 6 figures to figure it out. But obviously punt and punt return are far more technical than it was 10 years ago. i think it's ridiculous and far too gimmicky, as opposed to just lining up and executing a simply basic. it's 4tha nd 8. line up and punt the dman ball and go cover. I think it's another instance of coaches trying to find an advantage by overthinking what is supposed to be a simple part of the game, as opposed to expending that extra energy and resources on your team's actually identity.

 
RedDenver said:
NUinID said:
I think some of you guys have no clue about ST. All you look at is that we aren't averaging 15 yards a return on punts. DPE or Westerkamp really hasn't had a punt to return.

The one you should worry about is punt. You got a freshman trying to replace a dead all conference punter. The at really isn't doing all that great.

The other teams a very solid. Is Read earning his money? Not really, but from what I hear he might be gone next year to make room for the TE GA Thompson.
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Nobody is even talking about the punt return yards. Just look at the images in the OP. There's 4-7 unblocked guys bearing down on our punt returner. It looks exactly like 2013.

And, yes, our punting is also not good, but that can be attributed to other factors.
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You nailed it, RedDenver. The punt coverage scheme is so poor, there are 4-7 unblocked opposition players reaching the ball and the punt returner. When you have such terrible punt coverage, of course, DPE and Westy do not have an opportunity to return punts. This is mind-numbingly simple and clear. Bo turned our punt coverage team from one of the worst nationally to one of the best in one year. It was not just picking up DPE, which helped clearly as he was the one finding lanes and running through them, but the new blocking scheme created those fits that did not exist the previous year by making it difficult for the punting team to know which of their players Nebraska was going to block, jammers stopping gunners, and even how they used outside speed rushes to attack the punter around the shield, using Kieron and others.

Our offense and defense are playing well-enough (even excelling at times) to win us games, but our SP (besides Drew Brown) is a dumpster fire, or cartoonish like Riley said.

 
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