OWH Pick Six Podcast 4/18 - Spring Observations

Red Five

Red Five

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Was listening to the lastest podcast with Sam M and Jon N last night while working out. Some things that Sam said stuck out to me. Lets see if I can remember them all

He is not too high on the offense. Thinks they will average in the 375 yd/game range, doesn't see them as a 400 yd/game team

Wonders if the OL is "big enough". Thinks Gates is a guard playing at tackle because OT has been a deficiency for a while.

The Diaco D is fairly similar to Bo's as far as big picture concepts - limit the big pass play with a lot of 2 high safety's.

Diaco's coaching style is about "85%" the same as Bo, basically everything but the negativity, keeps it positive.

Interesting discussion about getting scholarship guys on the field vs walkons. Do they worry about a scholarship player getting their feelings hurt putting a walkon ahead of them?

Says that Wyatt Mazour should be getting play. Austin Rose is just as good as Devine Ozigbo. Wonders if Ozigbo should take a RS this year to get fully healthy and "figure out what kind of RB he wants to be".

Says that Reed Karel (soph safety from Seward) should be running with the 2s.

Its debatable if Lamar Jackson is the 2nd best corner. Is Lee the 2nd best?

Wonders how they will handle Tyjon in the fall. He'll probably play, but how much will be ready to contribute?

Here is the OWH link. You can also download on itunes or whatever the android store is called.

 
Sam is not very high on our o-line and the running game under Riley. He thinks NU will average around 125 yards rushing per game. With that lack of success in the run game, Lee would have to be a great QB in order for NU to get to the 400 YPG figure.

I don't disagree with Sam's thoughts. I understand Lee will be an upgrade in the passing game, but I am still not very high on the offense for next year. The line is still suspect, and after the top 3 WR's, the WR corps is young and inexperienced. I think NU may move the ball in between the 20's, but NU will struggle in the red zone. The passing windows get smaller in the red zone, and the red zone is where the QB run game has the biggest impact. I can see NU settling for a lot of FG's this year.

 
ColoradoHusk said:
Pedro Guerrero said:
125 rushing yards a game? So in his "expert" opinion this is going to be one of the worst rushing offenses in Husker history?
Click to expand...
It certainly has the potential to be one of the worst.
1. Undersized and inexperienced o-line.

2. RB's that haven't shown much in the past

3. An OC that has a propensity to abandon the run game during games
Click to expand...
Undersized claim is far fetched. Backs as a whole will be better than last year. OC might run them less, but they will get more screens and plays out of the backfield.
 
Probably the dose of realism we need. There's reason to be excited, of course, but OL is going to be a concern until they show otherwise. Cav's gotta get that unit in shape!

 
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Last year we averaged 155/game. Toss out the 292 yard performance vs Fresno in game 1 (we only threw 13 passes), and we averaged 144/game.

We lost a mobile QB that escaped a few sacks (negative rushing yards) each game. And all spring long we have heard grumblings about the OL not being up to par.

So is 125/game that far fetched? I don't think so.

 
Sam's additude about Nebraska football has been pretty negative for quit a while now. I am not sure he is a real expert on player evaluation though.

He is completely enamered with the style of offensive line that Wisconsin has. Wisconsin is a great line, but they are asked to do different things than what MR and DL want their offensive line to do. They want a quicker line, and that is going to make for a bit smaller line. They want these guys to be able to move and run and get out in front of screen passes a lot.

Foster and Farmer look a lot more like the type of guards that Nebraska used to have in the glory days. Quick and compact. Sam loves the thought of everyone being 6'5 and 325 across the board. If you look at classic WCO NFL lines they are not always super huge. San Fran back in the Montana/Young days was not huge. Randy Cross, Jesse Supolu, were like 275. Denver when Elway won 2 in the late 90's was not a huge line.

Sam wants the line to look like the Dallas Cowboys.

As far as the defense goes I agree that Diaco will employ some of the basic concepts BP wanted to employ. But I also think his defense will be a lot more aggresive and take more chances. BP defense was all based on eveyone being in the right place all the time and not making mistakes. The 3-4 is a much more blitzing take chances defense.

I am really not sure what Sam wants this team to be, most likely something along the the lines of the mid 90's. I used to really like reading Sam's stuff, but I am starting to really tune him out. It is all pretty negative most of the time. You have got have a little balance.

 
I wish people would go back a watch the pressure TA "escaped" from. Yes there were times when he needed to use his athleticism to get away from a true threat but most of the time he felt a little heat and was on the move. He missed plenty of open rec because of this. He also caused a lot of pressure because he held onto the ball to long waiting for the 40 yrd route to come open. Also it's harder for am OLine to block for a mobile qb. You are trying to set up a pocket for the guy bUT her refuses to stay in it. Same as having zone blocking and a RB who can't read blocks. If anyone on here knows anything about football you can go back and watch some games and you will see those are two big problems. Peyton Manning is one of the least mobile qbs and played behind some bad lines in Indy, he helped them out by getting rid of the ball as quick as possible. I think every one will be surprised by how night and day this offense will be from last yeae. Ps. LAmar jackson needs to step it up or they need to look at other options. They didn't pay Deon Sanders to tackle but the sure did to have him guard people.. Lamar isn't doing either very well

 
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