2023 - 2024 Portal - Ins and Outs

ZRod said:
Honestly this is a tired and lazy take at this point. The O line showed significant improvement throughout the year, and there is enough talent/development that I'm not too concerned. You're not the 2nd best rushing team in the B1G and 3rd best in the future conference with a s#!tty line.

I do think the RB room was very lacking after our 1st and 2nd stringers went down, and not knowing if they will come back 100% is concerning. We have athletic and strong guys in the backfield but they all lack vision. There were so many missed cut backs this year that it made my head spin. We needed somebody with the vision of an Ameer or Rex (not even the athletic ability) and we'd be bowling this year even with the QB situation.
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2nd best rushing team in the BIG, only when we played other BIG west teams. Our oline was owned by every team we played from the east, and lets not forget that a lit of our rushing yardage came from QB scrambles that only happened because opposing team's dline got so much penetration that they failed to maintain contain. 

"We're the second best rushing team in the BIG" is a lazy take that ignores the quality of teams we faced and the obvious line deficiencies masked by outlier large gains that were created much more by QB athleticism than oline play.

 
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I don't fault Rhule for saying this.  

I fault him a little for thinking this.

I understand the numbers are probably as low this year as any year.  But this is only two guys per year.  I really think Nebraska can/should be in the 4-5 range each year.  Maybe that will be adjusted in time.


 
Mavric said:
I really think Nebraska can/should be in the 4-5 range each year.
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I agree, and that was always my opinion when it came to JUCO players back in the day because they filled a similar sort of role to team composition as the transfer portal does now.

I don't think Rhule really sat down and did the math when he made that comment. He's just sort of exaggerating making a point and I think we will see him take on average about the range we are thinking he should.

He's the same way when he describes the weather/running game. Listening to him you'd think the Big Ten sat in some hellscape where passes go to die when he knows full well some of the best passers of all time played in northern climates and much further into the winter months than college football sees.

He's going to take more than 2 guys a year the same way he's currently spending millions of dollars of someone's money to purchase a passing game (if rumors are true).

 
brophog said:
I dont think he's a QB. I've never thought he was a QB. In the spring I commented on him potentially being a Wildcat guy because Satterfield and Rhule have a past history of doing that. In reality, it was also because I just didn't think he should be an every down QB.

I like him a lot. Great person, great competitor and a good athlete. I think he's a guy that can help the team elsewhere and maybe if he doesn't do it via switching positions it could still be as a Wildcat. The rumored incoming QB options aren't exactly mobile. Haarberg can put his head down in tough situations to get yards and throws a decent deep ball when they cheat on that.
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Well I'm a longtime Saints fan and Taysom Hill has been very effective in New Orleans.  Especially under Sean Payton who is a much better coach than Dennis Allen but I digress.  Heinrich as Lincoln's Taysom Hill I could get excited about.  Tanner Mangum was the guy that 'Husker fans would cringe a bit about.

 
Born N Bled Red said:
2nd best rushing team in the BIG, only when we played other BIG west teams. Our oline was owned by every team we played from the east, and lets not forget that a lit of our rushing yardage came from QB scrambles that only happened because opposing team's dline got so much penetration that they failed to maintain contain. 

"We're the second best rushing team in the BIG" is a lazy take that ignores the quality of teams we faced and the obvious line deficiencies masked by outlier large gains that were created much more by QB athleticism than oline play.
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In the back half of the season when we played our best competition, please show me these teams getting so much penetration that we "failed to maintain contact" and were owned.

Of guys with more than 10 carries we have 8 who averaged over 4 yards per carry. 3 are RBs with more than 20 carries, and 3 are the QBs. We had 642 more rushing yards than 2022 and average 53.5 more rushing yards per game than last year. Like I said, I'm not a fan of our running backs who played the majority of the season and I think that is a position of need, but combined, our top 3 RBs accounted for over 1000 yards on the season. QBs were 846 yards, and we all know HH had plenty of designed runs called, not just scrambles. Sims long run against CU was also a designed run if I remember right (and that one play is almost a 3rd of his rushing yards)

Regarding pass pro. Iowa was probably the 2nd best defense we played all season and was one of our offensive line's best games I'm pass pro. In another thread I noted that there was only one real break down in protection from the OL when Iowa brought 6 guys on a blitz. The 2 sacks are on Purdy. His fumble, and another when he stepped up instead of rolling out with decent protection. Most of the game Purdy was scrambling when he had a clean pocket but no one open, not because he was actually feeling pressure.

Honestly the biggest liability this season in pass pro and run blocking was our TEs, but nobody ever mentioned that. It's too easy to blindly blame a historically bad group even if they are better now.

 
ZRod said:
In the back half of the season when we played our best competition, please show me these teams getting so much penetration that we "failed to maintain contact" and were owned.

Of guys with more than 10 carries we have 8 who averaged over 4 yards per carry. 3 are RBs with more than 20 carries, and 3 are the QBs. We had 642 more rushing yards than 2022 and average 53.5 more rushing yards per game than last year. Like I said, I'm not a fan of our running backs who played the majority of the season and I think that is a position of need, but combined, our top 3 RBs accounted for over 1000 yards on the season. QBs were 846 yards, and we all know HH had plenty of designed runs called, not just scrambles. Sims long run against CU was also a designed run if I remember right (and that one play is almost a 3rd of his rushing yards)

Regarding pass pro. Iowa was probably the 2nd best defense we played all season and was one of our offensive line's best games I'm pass pro. In another thread I noted that there was only one real break down in protection from the OL when Iowa brought 6 guys on a blitz. The 2 sacks are on Purdy. His fumble, and another when he stepped up instead of rolling out with decent protection. Most of the game Purdy was scrambling when he had a clean pocket but no one open, not because he was actually feeling pressure.

Honestly the biggest liability this season in pass pro and run blocking was our TEs, but nobody ever mentioned that. It's too easy to blindly blame a historically bad group even if they are better now.
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Better doesn't mean good. A 2 star oline will make a 5 star RB/QB look like an FCS player. Maybe we achieved 3 star Oline play, I'll concede they did play "better." Doesn't mean that Oline shouldn't be upgraded, and my point take is it should be a higher priority than RB. I'd rather have 5 star oline play with 3 star QBs/RBs, than a 3 star line and 5 Star skill.

 
Keith Williams is from Missouri. Big dawg.... couldn't be Cayden Green could it? Could it?? 

 
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