The flip side to that argument is after 5 years of Frost and his crappy OC/DC, no game changing recruit will want to come here (and stay). Changes need to happen to his staff sooner than later. This is Calahanish.
Minnesota- What did we learn?
- Thread starter seaofred92
- Start date
Savage Husker
New member
I am curious about those 1s vs 1s scrimmages and what our defense does to our offense. If our O can barely hang with the defense - like reports in the past and judging on what we see weekly - then I also can imagine our D plateauing if they aren’t challenged by the O.
I keep coming back to entitlement as to why they can’t string multiple wins together. Maybe it’s not the reason or even the main reason, but there is simply no excuse for the inconsistent performances and effort -
especially from the O. As soon as they taste success it’s like “We’ve made it and then they get punched in the mouth and can’t recover.
lo country
Mods
Great post. Especially about guys like Fleming. What's the deal with not keeping guys or turning them into producers....Or a guy showing some flash never to be seen again.
Huskers93-97
New member
Just read your own post. There are so many things wrong with this team and program after 3 years. 3 years and 15 million dollars for what we see every Saturday. Sorry but to get that kind of salary and full administration support he should know what to do and the results should be showing by now. Literally we are in year 3, got our a$$ waxed by Illinois. Lovie Smith just got fired. We are so bad in year 3 even Lovie smith beat us. WOW
Packerhuskerfan
New member
I haven't seen anything from Frost that shows he can make adjustments in games when things aren't going right. Nebraska can't score more than a few points in second halves of games. Anybody could see from yesterday's game that Martinez could not hit anything past 10 yards, yet Frost kept going back to the passing game. I don't care what Martinez does in practice when he doesn't have to worry about getting jacked by any defenders or any other game day differences. If he is struggling in the game, help him out by not calling plays that are his weakness. The only time we won this year was when we had huge leads that we somehow still managed to almost lose anyways. Frost needs to fire Frost from playcalling.
Jeremy
New member
I'm not talking Paul Johnson Flexbone Option. I'm talking I-Formation, Power Run football with Play-action. Hat-for-hat blocking. It's simple, but effective.
We would have an identity. We don't have an identity right now.
What Frost is trying to do ISN'T WORKING and it NEVER WILL.
Decked
Active member
Joking but you’re about 65 aren’t you. Good luck running an option offense in 2020 and recruiting guys to that scheme.
I can agree with a power run & solid D team. But good luck.
Last edited by a moderator:
Jeremy
New member
I'm 39. It's NOT AN OPTION OFFENSE. The option is part of it, but only as a way to punish defenses for pinching interior gaps. Other plays, like ISO, Counter, Trap, Toss, and Play-Action are just as important.
How can you defend what happened yesterday, and most of this 2-5 season? Has recruiting been really THAT great for this 5-points-in-the-second-half Offense? Was throwing the ball 31 times on a cold, windy day against a depleted team that was ran over by everyone EXCEPT US the way to go? Should we keep doing the same things, and expecting different results? Has passing the ball EVER brought wins to Lincoln?
Decked
Active member
Jeremy
New member
Good. Trust me, we can DEFINITELY recruit running backs and offensive linemen here to run Power. Even now, Wandale and McCaffrey would EAT if we tossed them the ball and blocked for them. Fidone next year would be WIDE OPEN on play action.
Bosworth once said, 'I liked playing Nebraska. They would line up and say, 'okay, let's see who's tougher.'
THAT'S identity. We need to get back to that.
seaofred92
New member
I really don’t understand. These guys are super talented and can clearly help you. Maurice Washington gets the longest leash ever for some reason, and then we essentially box out Fleming who by all reports was the most dynamic punt returner and absolutely electric with the ball in his hands because he likes Instagram and is “immature”? That just doesn’t make sense to me, this team needs TALENT. It’s on the coaches to evaluate every aspect of a prospect before they get on campus and then when they get here help them succeed. It’s really hard for me to believe in a span of 4 weeks it went from Fleming starting at WR and looking awesome to him not being on the team anymore, it just doesn’t add up. If he’s a Jr in 2 years and still acting up then yes, part ways. But as an 18 year old freshman in a pandemic 1400 miles from home? Maybe help that kid out and keep him around when he’s proven he can help and he knows he’s better than guys like Wyatt Liewer and Levi Falck who are getting reps because they block RB swing passes well even though we can’t execute them in games.
Nothing about the offensive snap rotation has made any sense or been consistent.
QB: Joke of a rotation and the McCaffrey insertions are becoming more and more random and disruptive. They’re probably sticking him out there because they don’t want him to leave but... it’s not helping NU win games and it totally throws off Martinez’s rhythm and confidence. They’re just not necessary.
RB: The best running back on the team is Luke McCaffrey who really should be a WR. Maybe he said he doesn’t want to play there or WR anymore- fine. But what is insane is then you can argue the next best RB we have is also a WR in Robinson. Here are the leading rushers for NU’s offense in total rushing yards this year in order:
1. Adrian Martinez 364/5.4 ypc
2. Luke McCaffrey 364/5.6 ypc
3. Wandale Robinson 216/5.5 ypc
4. Dedrick Mills 205/3.5 ypc
5. Marvin Scott 62/2.6 ypc
6. Rahmir Johnson 30/4.3 ypc
7. Ronald Thompkins 24/4.8 ypc
The “starting” running back Dedrick Mills has played in 5 games and has 59 attempts for 205 yards- good for 3.5 YPC. The next leading rusher from the RB position Marvin Scott averages 2.6 YPC. The two RBs “behind” them- Thompkins and Johnson- average 4.8 and 4.3 YPC respectively How on Earth is anything with this situation possible? For some reason our red zone back is Wandale Robinson? How does that make sense?
WR: Don’t even know where to begin with how poorly this situation has been handled this year. Robinson is the best WR on the entire team and they keep taking him out of the slot to put him at RB. Betts’ potential is through the roof and apparently we just forgot he existed against Minnesota. Only play we seemingly run for him is one jet sweep per game. Cool. Guy couldn’t even get on the field yesterday against a team playing all backups and we actually were trying to take down field chances for once. The best recruit of the entire class last year was Omar Manning and I don’t even know if he’s on the team anymore and has 1 target the entire season. The best HS rated WR we recruited Marcus Flemming we kicked off the team because he liked Instagram. Alante Brown- where is this guy? Dog house? Nance/Houston/Nixon/Hickman- where the heck are these guys? You’re telling me our issues are perimeter blocking and lack of a downfield threat and we have a 6’6 former TE that we moved to WR who’s played snaps on the edge last year in key games and moments in Chris Hickman who is just sitting on the bench? Oliver Martin has actually been pretty good and a pleasant surprise- where are his targets? Kade Warner for some reason was a starter getting numerous targets and now is totally MIA (which I’m fine with but why was he even out there to begin with with all the options listed above)? Meanwhile (and I don’t mean this with disrespect), the group we currently start and play consistently is a complete non-threat to anyone. Seriously- read through all those names above and then think about how all of those guys are on the bench or not even in uniform while we trot out Liewer, Falck, and Warner. I just do not get it at all.
TE: Tight end has actually been pretty solid. They block really well and Austin Allen has made a massive jump. Vokolek was completely overhyped (NU media overhyping a guy? Shocker!) and Stoll obviously is a cornerstone. They’re underutilized as a group and I don’t know that it’ll change going forward or ever- did you know yesterday was Austin Allen’s first TD ever?
OL: Dear God help me. The center finally appears to have fixed the snapping issues but didn’t get benched until the Iowa game of his second season despite not being able to accurately snap the ball to the quarterback. When Jurgens was out, we don’t go to the backup center but we move our RG to C and plug in another backup to the OL at RG? The whole offseason i kept reading about needing Farniok to stay at RG to help Benhart who is young, then Jurgens is out and we immediately throw that out and move him to C when his brother and Wilson both have previous experience with snapping? I’m not an expert in OL play but this unit seemingly has made a jump despite the insanity and inconsistency of the bunch. They struggle with poorly timed mistakes and picks but Nebraska’s entire team does so who knows
So yeah. I don’t know what else to say really. We essentially recruit really good classes, then get the super talented players here and don’t play them. Then when they get mad about not playing over guys they’re obviously more talented than, we get upset that they’re mad and tell them “its gonna be tough! You can leave if you don’t like it!” And so they obviously leave. Then we get a spiel about how kids are impatient and blah blah while the team can’t do basic things on offense well like run the ball with a running back up the middle of the field or throw the ball deep. “We lack explosion and talent at WR”- okay, well everyone you bring in that has it is either gone or sitting on the sidelines. I haven’t even dove into the play calling and our inability to put guys in a position to succeed. The entire situation with our roster management is maddening and I seriously don’t understand why anyone who is a talented player would sign up to play in this version of the offense at this moment in time with how the roster is handled/treated. Scott has a LOT of soul searching to do in the coming weeks- the roster management and play calling have been atrocious. He has every right to establish his culture but he needs to lift the hood on who he is recruiting and what he’s doing when they get to Lincoln to see why they’re leaving and where the disconnect is. Then he needs to swallow his pride and 1. Review the actual plays that are not working (there are a lot of them) and determine in sincerity if 1. They aren’t working because of the scheme/design of the play or 2. If they aren’t working because of who is on the field currently. NU currently can’t throw down the field- that is a talent/athlete issue. Would you rather have more athletic WR’s out there that can stretch the field and make explosive plays but it takes out the short swing passes/quick screens we run? I’d argue yes- we aren’t successfully able to execute those short passes and screens correctly as is.
TL; DR- Scott and the entire staff need to review how they are going about managing their roster and implementing the culture. I’m not saying the culture itself is bad or they’re wrong for emphasizing it- I’m saying they need to reflect on how they’re handling each transfer situation and how they’re trying to merge these guys into the culture they’re trying to instill in the program. There is obviously a disconnect- I’d argue it stems from not playing the most talented and explosive players at their positions even if there are likely to be wild swings in production and errors at times. Roster management needs to be addressed and they need to do better in evaluating kids as recruits before they get here to avoid large departures from the team and guys getting frustrated with their roles.
Scarlet
Active member
I'm not sure what the reason is for the collective allergy on this board to having the option in the arsenal. Hell, I even see Belichik use it now. It's really the same concept as the swing passes we use except Martinez probably wouldn't throw it the dirt.
Last edited by a moderator:
seaofred92
New member
Lol I’ve held a lot in all season but it’s just frustrating to watch us make the same errors over and over again