"Offensive" issues

The Dude said:
Moos is right about needing a lot more talent if we're going to compete with the Clemsons of the world.

This is what everyone says to justify getting curbstomped by teams we have have a talent advantage over.

Logically it just doesn't follow.
Click to expand...


Isn't this just crazy.  I'm not a doom and gloom kind of guy, and I understand that 3 stars can be developed, but how do you compete with this?  Sorry, I know you were focusing on us not getting rolled, but I just wanted to talk to someone.  :)

image.png

 
Last edited by a moderator:
Moiraine said:
Why is anyone talking about competing with Clemson?

I just want us to beat the teams we have out-recruited the past 8 seasons. 
Click to expand...


I was kinda off topic, I just saw this and went WTF, crazy.  But, yes, I am totally with you, getting rolled by teams we have out recruited is hard to stomach.  

 
Moiraine said:
Why is anyone talking about competing with Clemson?

I just want us to beat the teams we have out-recruited the past 8 seasons. 
Click to expand...


Not sure if such a thing exists, but I'd love to see an adjusted recruiting rankings taking attrition into account. My bet would be that after you account for the massive amounts of attrition that we've had the past 3-5 classes, our recruiting "ranking" would be pretty damn poor...

 
ActualCornHusker said:
Not sure if such a thing exists, but I'd love to see an adjusted recruiting rankings taking attrition into account. My bet would be that after you account for the massive amounts of attrition that we've had the past 3-5 classes, our recruiting "ranking" would be pretty damn poor...
Click to expand...


We are #24 this year - pretty much where we've been the last few years.

Of course, that doesn't account for any development (or lack there of)

 
TheSker said:
Any bets on whether more Huskers or Gophers get drafted to the NFL after this season?
Click to expand...


We kind of went through some of these ideas a couple days ago in the 'Defensive Play' thread. But, I'll make another go at it.

If anyone's interested, I can probably fairly quickly look up Minnesota's offensive & defensive line's recruiting rankings coming out of high school. If I do that and show that they average less talent than our lines, does this count for anything for anyone?

Genuinely asking before I go to the trouble. Because if a lower-recruited player than ours goes to the NFL and ours doesn't, what accounts for that? The recruiting sites being totally wrong...or that Minnesota develops talent better than our program?

 
Mavric said:
We are #24 this year - pretty much where we've been the last few years.

Of course, that doesn't account for any development (or lack there of)
Click to expand...
Not to derail the thread much, but I also want to point out the gap between certain recruiting rankings.

For example, on paper the gap between Nebraska at #24 and #19 Washington might not seem like much. 5 spots.

But they have more than double the number of 4-star players, 41 (and one 5-star) such players compared to our 20.

Meanwhile the gap between #24 Nebraska and #34 Kentucky is five 4-star players.

Talent is overwhelmingly concentrated amongst the top. 

 
Undone said:
We kind of went through some of these ideas a couple days ago in the 'Defensive Play' thread. But, I'll make another go at it.

If anyone's interested, I can probably fairly quickly look up Minnesota's offensive & defensive line's recruiting rankings coming out of high school. If I do that and show that they average less talent than our lines, does this count for anything for anyone?

Genuinely asking before I go to the trouble. Because if a lower-recruited player than ours goes to the NFL and ours doesn't, what accounts for that? The recruiting sites being totally wrong...or that Minnesota develops talent better than our program?
Click to expand...
I did this last weekend and it is surprisingly similar. They have a couple of 0.92 type guys and so do we. They have a two unrated guys that have been in the program for awhile, while all of ours are rated, we have at least one that is rated at a completely different position playing o-line for the first time in his life. They have an upperclassman D line as do we, they have some youth on their o-line as do we. Honestly, it was a wash but Minnesota did seem to have a slight edge when adjusted for years in program. I've been meaning to post the breakdown but just haven't had time yet this week. I can try later today but no guarantees.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
Husker03 said:
I did this last weekend and it is surprisingly similar. They have a couple of 0.92 type guys and so do we. They have a two unrated guys that have been in the program for awhile, while all of ours are rated, we have at least one that is rated at a completely different position playing o-line for the first time in his life. They have an upperclassman D line as do we, they have some youth on their o-line as do we. Honestly, it was a wash but Minnesota did seem to have a slight edge when adjusted for years in program. I've been meaning to post the breakdown but just haven't had time yet this week. I can try later today but no guarantees.
Click to expand...


+1, thanks for that good info.

At the end of the day, it's a waste of time to argue with other fans about whether our problem is talent or coaching. Because in two seasons' time, I don't care whether we're an over-performing team that parallels, let's say, Wisconsin or whether our recruiting classes take a big jump around to around the #10-#12 spot and then we play at that same level. Doesn't matter.

It doesn't matter how we get there. But we looked like a conference doormat again last Saturday and it's a pretty terrible feeling. Mainly speaking to the defensive side of the ball; I realize we weren't poised to do much on offense without Martinez anyway.

 
Mavric said:
We are #24 this year - pretty much where we've been the last few years.

Of course, that doesn't account for any development (or lack there of)
Click to expand...


Not bad. Then take into account how many of those 20 4-star players are 18 or 19 yr olds, while most other teams' higher rated players are upper-classmen... There's no doubt in my mind we will be better as those young studs develop, while Frost & Co continue to bring in impressive talents like those guys

 
Undone said:
We kind of went through some of these ideas a couple days ago in the 'Defensive Play' thread. But, I'll make another go at it.

If anyone's interested, I can probably fairly quickly look up Minnesota's offensive & defensive line's recruiting rankings coming out of high school. If I do that and show that they average less talent than our lines, does this count for anything for anyone?

Genuinely asking before I go to the trouble. Because if a lower-recruited player than ours goes to the NFL and ours doesn't, what accounts for that? The recruiting sites being totally wrong...or that Minnesota develops talent better than our program?
Click to expand...
Great subject. The whole discussion on performance, and how development, raw talent, discipline, confidence, execution all contribute is quite interesting. The service academies are able to compete with teams who, on paper, are quite a bit more talented, including size and speed. But, they are able to compensate somewhat for these shortcomings by executing cleanly for 4 quarters, playing with a consistent intensity, and using schemes that play to their strengths, etc. Boise State seems to do a good job with lower ranked recruits, and have been able to defeat more talented teams over the past several years. We know these things matter, but it's hard to try and quantify exactly how mental toughness, consistency of execution, and high level effort  equates to drives, points, and Defense.........some coaches seem to have it figured out more than others, and seem to squeeze every ounce of potential out of their players, but if someone could solve that equation to a T, then they would be very, very rich...

 
Rewatching the MN game and wow does Frost make some real questionable play calls. Also runs way too many QB runs. We had two good drives initially. One blown by bad play calling and the other by penalties. 

 
Back
Top