Speed vs Power
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Hedley Lamarr
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Nebfanatic
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Miami has fairly mediocre talent this season. Richt has done a great coaching job there and now he is backing that up with a great recruiting class. Miami will be more talented than Nebraska going forward but right now I wouldn't say we are too far behind them.
NWHuskerfan
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Championship Football has always been won with Defense and in the trenches both sides of the ball. I could care less about the play fast hype. Until the problems with the O line and Defense are fixed Frost will have his hands full in the Big Ten.
Bigred_inSD
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No. Did you not see what the speed of Ohio State did to Wisconsin?
NWHuskerfan
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Did you see what the Big Powerful D line of Ohio State did to USC. 8 sacks. The Big Ten has all kinds of speed across the board. That Badger Defense has several NFL draft picks. I find it funny that people think the Big Ten is slow just because they play old school Football. Ohio State is complete across the board. The Badgers just went 13-1.
NWHuskerfan
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HIHusker
Banned
This +1000...Miami's offense has been horrible all year, any team with a defense gave them trouble or beat them. Wisconsin's defense had enough up front and in the LB to keep them low'er' scoring. What's wrong with recruiting speed AND power?? Suh, Wistrom, Peters etc... FYI Hornibrook played his rear end off tonight, congrats Wiscy
84HuskerLaw
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It is not a question of which one you need - speed OR power - you need both - period. Either without the other leads to 9 wins and 4 losses. You need strong, powerful and quick lines (both offense and defense) and very fast LBs and secondary that can tackle in the open field consistantly and RBs that can break tackles and turn the corner and make people miss and receivers who can catch the ball and run excellent routes and advance the ball after the catch. It's a bonus to have a receiver who can simply outrun any defender but have elite track speed is rare. Your fastest players will be DBs and safeties followed closely by RBs.Your RBs need elusiveness more than straightaway speed but both is of course preferential. I suppose I'd take a lightning fast TE that can beat a LB would be the next priority. After that, you get receivers that run great routes consistantly and have glue fingers and can catch anything within reach without flinching in the face of hard hitting DBs.
You need a QB who can read defenses and make good decisions and throw the ball accurately. The QB needs to be 6-3" (taller is better as he must be able to see somewhat over the middle of the field with about 8 - 6'-5" linemen dancing around in front of him. A 6-1 or shorter QB will simply not be able to see those LBs and safeties moving aorund behind those big guys and interceptions will inevitably happen. The number will only increase as visibility decreases. You saw Osborne over the years roll his 6' or shorter QBs out to both shorten the throw as well as improve the QBs chances to find an open receiver and create the opportunity to run if the receiver or receivers are covered. You make the QBs decision making easier as you reduce the area of the field the QB must focus on just a portion of the field. You sacrifice a receiver or two away from the ball, but in return you reduce errors and bad plays.
I believe that Osborne approached offensive play design by attacking a specific area and or specific defenders. Offenses that supposedly spread out all over the field and make the defense defend the entire field sound good in theory but the down side of this is that it then requires all eleven offensive players to excecute well vs each and all of the defenders. By targeting weaknesses (areas and individual players), you create advantages, not just in scheme but in matchups which can be exploited.
You want to create mismatches (speed over power or power over speed; height is helpful but speed and power are more essential). I'd rather have a 6 foot tall receiver that runs 4.4 forty that a 6'4" that runs 4.55. That height advantage is helpful for those times when you want to throw that fade pattern in the corner of the endzone over a 5-10 DB but the QB still has to throw a near perfectly placed ball to use that 6" height advantage effectively. A defender can be taller and stronger but if he is not in the right position, it won't matter.
Almost every team will have strengths and weaknesses (except the handful of elites which have exellent talent all over the field in their three deep chart). When faced with such opponents, it will be a real challenge to hang with them (lucky breaks, critical penalties, mistakes, a couple big plays, funny bounces). Wisconsin demonstrated by going 13-1 that they are very talented and clearly a top ten (maybe even top 6) team. They may lack the superstars but they are foundamentally VERY sound and play great football (tackling, blocking, schemes, etc). They are well coached and play hard. If we win the Big Ten west division, it will be a great accomplishment - contrary to what so many say who want to dismiss the Big Ten west as a bunch of mediocres unworthy of praise. Ohio State is one of the three most talented teams in the country - hardly debatable. Wisconsin, Penn State, Michigan are also top ten talent level teams. That is 4 of the top ten in my opinion. That makes the Big Ten the best conference - overall. Even the bottom of the Big Ten teams are well above the bottom of of the NCAA top division teams as a group.
There is more parity from top to bottom in NCAA football than ever before. The success of UCF demonstrates this perfectly. UCF has talent - probably top 20 in most areas. Peach Bowl results may not be indicative with the coaching turmoil, etc of this year but we will see I guess.
You need a QB who can read defenses and make good decisions and throw the ball accurately. The QB needs to be 6-3" (taller is better as he must be able to see somewhat over the middle of the field with about 8 - 6'-5" linemen dancing around in front of him. A 6-1 or shorter QB will simply not be able to see those LBs and safeties moving aorund behind those big guys and interceptions will inevitably happen. The number will only increase as visibility decreases. You saw Osborne over the years roll his 6' or shorter QBs out to both shorten the throw as well as improve the QBs chances to find an open receiver and create the opportunity to run if the receiver or receivers are covered. You make the QBs decision making easier as you reduce the area of the field the QB must focus on just a portion of the field. You sacrifice a receiver or two away from the ball, but in return you reduce errors and bad plays.
I believe that Osborne approached offensive play design by attacking a specific area and or specific defenders. Offenses that supposedly spread out all over the field and make the defense defend the entire field sound good in theory but the down side of this is that it then requires all eleven offensive players to excecute well vs each and all of the defenders. By targeting weaknesses (areas and individual players), you create advantages, not just in scheme but in matchups which can be exploited.
You want to create mismatches (speed over power or power over speed; height is helpful but speed and power are more essential). I'd rather have a 6 foot tall receiver that runs 4.4 forty that a 6'4" that runs 4.55. That height advantage is helpful for those times when you want to throw that fade pattern in the corner of the endzone over a 5-10 DB but the QB still has to throw a near perfectly placed ball to use that 6" height advantage effectively. A defender can be taller and stronger but if he is not in the right position, it won't matter.
Almost every team will have strengths and weaknesses (except the handful of elites which have exellent talent all over the field in their three deep chart). When faced with such opponents, it will be a real challenge to hang with them (lucky breaks, critical penalties, mistakes, a couple big plays, funny bounces). Wisconsin demonstrated by going 13-1 that they are very talented and clearly a top ten (maybe even top 6) team. They may lack the superstars but they are foundamentally VERY sound and play great football (tackling, blocking, schemes, etc). They are well coached and play hard. If we win the Big Ten west division, it will be a great accomplishment - contrary to what so many say who want to dismiss the Big Ten west as a bunch of mediocres unworthy of praise. Ohio State is one of the three most talented teams in the country - hardly debatable. Wisconsin, Penn State, Michigan are also top ten talent level teams. That is 4 of the top ten in my opinion. That makes the Big Ten the best conference - overall. Even the bottom of the Big Ten teams are well above the bottom of of the NCAA top division teams as a group.
There is more parity from top to bottom in NCAA football than ever before. The success of UCF demonstrates this perfectly. UCF has talent - probably top 20 in most areas. Peach Bowl results may not be indicative with the coaching turmoil, etc of this year but we will see I guess.
marko polo
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drfish
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Yes. Speed vs power is a false dichotomy. Why did the Bobfather win MNC? He had a couple of 6-4 years and decided that they needed more speed to go along with the power and they opened up the offense to take advantage of that. Why did the Huskers become dominant in the 90's? They decided to recruit more speed to the defense. They still developed strength and power but they had powerful players that were also fast. It takes both.
ColoradoHusk
Donor
Frost answered some questions at his Peach Bowl press conference which I saw on Twitter. He basically said, he will always recruit speed, because fast is better than slow. Then he was asked about the difference between the Auburn and UCF rosters. Frost said "Auburn is BIG and FAST, while UCF is small and fast". I am sure Frost will be going after the BIG and FAST players to bring to NU.
lo country
Mods
Here is a prime example. Barkley is BIG and FAST.....Granted, he is a rarity, but I agree with your point. Frost did what he did with the talent he could recruit to UCF. Martinez is coming to NU because we are a P5 school......Frost will be able to get the type of guys he wants that he might not have gotten to look at UCF by virtue of G5 vs P5....Not knocking the guys there. I'd love to have some of them on our roster.
Frost isn't an idiot. He knows how to win and what it will take. Just as he evolved Kelly's offense, I am guessing he will continue to evolve his as well.