Vanilla Spring Game Defense

Savage Husker said:
I still believe that if you are an elite team, you can show whatever the heck you want for opponents to tape and study film,
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Or just flat out tell the other team where the play is going...
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EmeraldIngot said:
My real gripe is how little pass rush we saw until late in the game, and only against the 3s and 4s on the o-line. Though whether this is an indication of a lack of pass rushing capability of our D-line or a statement of how much improved our O-line is I can't tell.
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Or if they called off the dogs so that the O-line wouldn't look so bad...

 
I was excited to see our new defensive look yesterday though. Oh well. Guess we'll wait until Arkansas St.

 
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It seemed to me that when our offense did well, our defense let down their guard and conversely when our defense stepped up and made a big play, our offense really sucked on that play. If we could just balance it out to a stalemate and hand out mini Husker footballs to the kids it would be ideal.

Handing out vanilla ice cream to the kids during the game is a good idea too.

 
You'd be suprised by what happens when you show your base defense and play a whole game "showing your hand". It entirely makes sense why they did this. When you get tired on the football field, you show where you step, where you look, where you react, where your assignments take you. Regardless of what you think, your tape shows exactly to what you automatically resort to when you're tired.

It's a very smart move, it shows our coaches are aware of how the Ohio States and Michigans prepare and study. If you want to be the best you have to see the big picture.

That includes our defensive tendencies that the untrained fan eye doesn't see.

 
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NAVBIA* has requested that the title of this thread be changed. Spokesperson Patricia Rain stated, "I am sick and tired of people implying that vanilla is boring. Clearly this stems from the fact that North American Manufacturers went away from the use of PURE Vanilla during the vanilla crisis of the early part of this decade and people got used to the taste of IMITATION vanilla extract and its bland and boring taste. However, PURE vanilla has a wonderfully rich flavor. Calling a base 4-2-5 defense like what Nebraska used in its spring game does a tremendous disservice what is really a great flavor."

*North American Vanilla Bean Importers Association

 
I suppose not showing your hand is one read on the situation.

To me, it seems to be overcomplicating it to some degree. Couldn't it also be that transitioning to a 3-4 no one has played in before is just difficult? As such, if I was leading that transition, I wouldn't want to try to heap a bunch of exotic blitzes and different packages on my guys, either. I'd want to go out there, work on the basics, and continue to develop the finer points in practice.

I'm sure it's a bit of both, though.

 
Honestly, Riley's decision doesn't bother me that much. I find the decision silly in some ways and understandable in others.

For example, a lot of coaches will be studying Diaco's old teams prior to playing Nebraska this year, so they'll already have a decent idea of how he'll plan to attack an offense.

That said, the spring game isn't the best practice format, and a lot of people (including coaches) understand that modern day spring games are usually more for the fans' sake than the players, even if only marginally so.

 
Enhance89 said:
Honestly, Riley's decision doesn't bother me that much. I find the decision silly in some ways and understandable in others.

For example, a lot of coaches will be studying Diaco's old teams prior to playing Nebraska this year, so they'll already have a decent idea of how he'll plan to attack an offense.

That said, the spring game isn't the best practice format, and a lot of people (including coaches) understand that modern day spring games are usually more for the fans' sake than the players, even if only marginally so.
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Agree with the bolded. And add in that the spring game now is basically a recruiting event.

 
I think it is a very understandable decision. Riley signed off on it, but I am sure it was Diaco's call or idea. I think they had seen what they wanted to see in the 2 previous scrimmages and didn't feel the need to put something on Video for other teams. Either way it was going to be vanilla. You saw no blitzing at all, not stunts, nothing but base defense. Anyone watch the OSU scrimmage earlier in the day, they might as well have been going against air as against a defense.

 
Nebraska – That new 3-4 defense

If you watched Nebraska’s spring game hoping to get a peek at new defensive coordinator Bob Diaco’s 3-4 scheme, well, you went to the wrong place. The Cornhuskers were as vanilla as possible defensively, showing mostly four-linemen fronts along with some work in the nickel and dime packages.

Diaco’s system is supposed to be fast and blitz heavy, but for now secrecy and paranoia reigns in Lincoln.

“This game now, being on TV like it is, just becomes another evaluation scouting tool for all of our opponents next year,” said Nebraska head coach Mike Riley. “So there was no way we wanted to do anything out-of-the-box at all. … I don’t want that on tape for somebody. So this was a pre-planned deal. I’m kind of sorry to have to say that, but that’s the way it is. And that’s a really smart thing to do.”
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