ShortSideOption
Guest
Just wanted to give a few thoughts on things that have come up this week...
Continuity:
To me, this is the biggest factor on why we are where we are. You can not expect 18-22 year olds to be good at what they do when you change things as often as the University of Nebraska administration, and frankly the head coaches as well have. Our redshirt seniors have played in 5 different defensive schemes in 5 years:
2014: Bo 4-3
2015: Banker 4-3 spill
2016: Banker 4-3 rugby tackle (Eichorst paid for the tackling expert)
2017: Diaco 3-4
2018: Chinander 3-4
You can't expect kids that are already volatile, to be able to handle things like that well. Frost needs to keep this staff in place for a minimum of 3 years, and then address things after that. We can not make any changes now, we have to keep things in place for 2019. Now... I will say that I love the idea of bringing his whole staff with him from UCF. That being said, I do think there is a guy or two that probably isn't quite suited for P5 football. But i'll take that continuity over just trying to insert a Diaco or Williams at the expense of the kids being told yet another something different year after year.
Who's left from Riley?
I have to admit, this was sent to me from someone belonging to another board (I belong there too). This was staggering to me... This is who was left from Riley recruiting classes on this current roster that they actually recruited. Again, this isn't mine, so I hope it's accurate. But keep in mind this is only game 5 of Scott's first year:
QB: 0
RB: 2 Ozigbo, Bradley
TE: 4 Stoll, Allen, Rafdal, Jurgens
OT: 3 Farniok, Jaimes, Sichterman
OG: 3 Raridon, Wilson, Bando
C: 1 Farniok
WR: 2 Spielman, McQuitty
DE: 5 Stille, Thomas, Walker, Wildeman, Alston
DT: 1 Daniels
OLB: 3 Ferguson, Davis, Thomas
ILB: 2 Barry, Miller
CB: 2 Jackson, Bootle
S: 4 Reed, Dismuke, Domann, Butler
So, that's 32 position players that are left on the roster from Mike Riley recruiting classes? And we wonder why we are sitting winless now. We are trying to win games with either guys recruited by Bo on their 5th defensive scheme, or first year guys that Frost has brought in, or these 32 guys. I'm not trying to make excuses here, but that's a tall task. We should be better than 0-4, but I can see why we are struggling.
Getting to 85:
With the exodus of Lindsey that I was telling people about, and Bell leaving this week which is a total shock, there is no way that we can get to 85 guys on scholarship for fall camp without taking grad transfers or giving them to walk-ons. That's a huge problem when you are trying to deal with depth and turn around a program. Now, next year we won't have QB depth issues due to Vedral and McCaffrey coming on board, but we will still have some problem areas, especially with more underclassmen leaving after fall semester. I can promise you this tho, Frost and company want all the scholarships they can have right now to get their guys in. The problem you will run into, is if you start needing to get 30 guys in a recruiting cycle, at what point is there a diminishing return on who you can get and you just start "filling spots" and sacrificing some ability? Further, at what point to you sacrifice other things and look the other way for things that would be red flags when you only have 15-20 spots? We were just trying to fill spots in 2 months when SF got here, and Greg Bell/Will Jackson were two guys we took, both aren't here anymore and we are less than half way into the season. Gross.
"Draining the swamp":
I've heard this mentioned a few times when it comes to getting rid of the people we don't want here, and I agree with it. The issue is starting to get a little too broad for me tho, when we start losing guys like Will Jackson and Greg Bell who are guys that you spent valuable resources on (coaches time, money, scholarships), and then they leave and/or you let them leave and/or force them out, that's a bit concerning to me. In business, you always talk about how it's better to keep current clients than go out and try to continually get more. At some point, and hopefully it's the 2019 season, we are past the point of having people not wanting to be here so that we are developing who we need to. Think about all the reps Andrew Bunch missed then Gebbia took off. Think about all the reps Mazour, Bradley, and Jones missed so Greg Bell could get touches. It's hard to do in your first year, and sooner than later the coaches will start having a good feel for these players and who is wanting to take off so they don't "waste their resources". But they need to be careful, I don't mind them losing guys they didn't recruit like Avery Roberts, Tristan Gebbia, etc. When you start losing 4 star JUCO All-Americans that you brought in and started 75% of the time, not a great look.
JUCO Recruiting:
So this will go along with "draining the swamp" and "getting to 85". But JUCO recruiting is still such a big piece of what Nebraska wants to do as a program and will have to do when we are "filling spots" early in the Frost regimes tenure. Here's a few reasons:
1) We have a ton of really good programs very close to us. Iowa Western, Garden City, those are all place that are a state away. And guys like Sims funnel people our way to put us in a great spot.
2) You cut out a lot of the guess work for the kids. Many times, it's not a kids athletic ability that's the question, but it's how he will deal with being away from home and away from family. Guy Thomas is dealing with that right now, it's not a football ability thing for him. But when you are able to see that guy from Florida at Butler Community College, you can automatically see if he is thriving away from his support system at home, how he is dealing with college academics, etc.
3) When you are wrong on a JUCO, it can be a 1 or 2 year thing. When you are wrong on a high school kid, it's a 4-5 year miss. I'm not saying don't take your developmental guys like Anderson on the OL, but what i'm saying is, you can afford to miss on JUCO because it doesn't hurt you as bad due to how long you have to carry that scholarship.
4) You can see if their high school film translates to JUCO. You will now have two different competition levels to gauge a prospect on making your miss rate lower.
Those are 4 huge things for me. Guys like Lavonte David, Stanley Jean-Baptiste, Ricky Henery, Yoshi Hardrick, Damion Stafford, they all can help if you do it right.
Other random thoughts:
- We have so many injuries right now my head is spinning. Stoltenberg and Thomas out on the DL before heading to Wisconsin is not good. Honas out before heading to Madison, not good. Martinez knee not 100% before Wisconsin, not good. That's just as much on lack of depth as it is on S&C. When you practice the way we want to and have minimal depth in some spots, it is tough to stay completely healthy. But there are some things within the weight room that are starting to give people pause. For example, if we have all these guys squatting close to 800 pounds, how are we getting beat by Michigan players that are doing functional single leg lifts around 225? As some people have mentioned, winning goes a long way, but doubt can creep in just as fast to an 18-22 year old. I won't go too much into it, but the injuries and then some of the other things we need to keep an eye on.
-Sticking with that, everyone blows up our previous S&C staff (which is fine they were part of the problem, just not all of it). But think about this... Mark Philipp almost left to be LSU head strength coach after our 9 win 2016 season. LSU went 9-4 in 2017 while Nebraska went 4-8, and LSU is currently sitting 5-0. Would people have been blaming the loss of MP as the reason things went so far south looking at our results compared to LSU? But as it stands since he stayed at Nebraska in 2017, he's a whipping boy. Crazy how a narrative can change based on circumstances to me.
-Will we keep our safeties up on the LOS against TEs like we did against Michigan and Purdue in 3 TE sets today? If we do, hammer the Wisconsin line of -17.5.
-This is our first true test against 2 backs (remember I made a thread how we install against 1 back sets). Michigan did a little of it, and racked up 56 points and 6.3 yards per carry. Will our second go around be better? I kind of doubt it. We lost Honas which means a guy that has been making the same mistakes for 3.5 years all of a sudden has to figure it out against the best RB and OL he has faced to date.
Summary:
I'm not saying we should be 0-4 right now, but I was just trying to give some reasons on why we are struggling. It's a lot of things jumbled into one. But today is going to get ugly, so I wanted to put this out here because no matter what happens against the Badgers, these things aren't changing until 2019.
Over and out.
Continuity:
To me, this is the biggest factor on why we are where we are. You can not expect 18-22 year olds to be good at what they do when you change things as often as the University of Nebraska administration, and frankly the head coaches as well have. Our redshirt seniors have played in 5 different defensive schemes in 5 years:
2014: Bo 4-3
2015: Banker 4-3 spill
2016: Banker 4-3 rugby tackle (Eichorst paid for the tackling expert)
2017: Diaco 3-4
2018: Chinander 3-4
You can't expect kids that are already volatile, to be able to handle things like that well. Frost needs to keep this staff in place for a minimum of 3 years, and then address things after that. We can not make any changes now, we have to keep things in place for 2019. Now... I will say that I love the idea of bringing his whole staff with him from UCF. That being said, I do think there is a guy or two that probably isn't quite suited for P5 football. But i'll take that continuity over just trying to insert a Diaco or Williams at the expense of the kids being told yet another something different year after year.
Who's left from Riley?
I have to admit, this was sent to me from someone belonging to another board (I belong there too). This was staggering to me... This is who was left from Riley recruiting classes on this current roster that they actually recruited. Again, this isn't mine, so I hope it's accurate. But keep in mind this is only game 5 of Scott's first year:
QB: 0
RB: 2 Ozigbo, Bradley
TE: 4 Stoll, Allen, Rafdal, Jurgens
OT: 3 Farniok, Jaimes, Sichterman
OG: 3 Raridon, Wilson, Bando
C: 1 Farniok
WR: 2 Spielman, McQuitty
DE: 5 Stille, Thomas, Walker, Wildeman, Alston
DT: 1 Daniels
OLB: 3 Ferguson, Davis, Thomas
ILB: 2 Barry, Miller
CB: 2 Jackson, Bootle
S: 4 Reed, Dismuke, Domann, Butler
So, that's 32 position players that are left on the roster from Mike Riley recruiting classes? And we wonder why we are sitting winless now. We are trying to win games with either guys recruited by Bo on their 5th defensive scheme, or first year guys that Frost has brought in, or these 32 guys. I'm not trying to make excuses here, but that's a tall task. We should be better than 0-4, but I can see why we are struggling.
Getting to 85:
With the exodus of Lindsey that I was telling people about, and Bell leaving this week which is a total shock, there is no way that we can get to 85 guys on scholarship for fall camp without taking grad transfers or giving them to walk-ons. That's a huge problem when you are trying to deal with depth and turn around a program. Now, next year we won't have QB depth issues due to Vedral and McCaffrey coming on board, but we will still have some problem areas, especially with more underclassmen leaving after fall semester. I can promise you this tho, Frost and company want all the scholarships they can have right now to get their guys in. The problem you will run into, is if you start needing to get 30 guys in a recruiting cycle, at what point is there a diminishing return on who you can get and you just start "filling spots" and sacrificing some ability? Further, at what point to you sacrifice other things and look the other way for things that would be red flags when you only have 15-20 spots? We were just trying to fill spots in 2 months when SF got here, and Greg Bell/Will Jackson were two guys we took, both aren't here anymore and we are less than half way into the season. Gross.
"Draining the swamp":
I've heard this mentioned a few times when it comes to getting rid of the people we don't want here, and I agree with it. The issue is starting to get a little too broad for me tho, when we start losing guys like Will Jackson and Greg Bell who are guys that you spent valuable resources on (coaches time, money, scholarships), and then they leave and/or you let them leave and/or force them out, that's a bit concerning to me. In business, you always talk about how it's better to keep current clients than go out and try to continually get more. At some point, and hopefully it's the 2019 season, we are past the point of having people not wanting to be here so that we are developing who we need to. Think about all the reps Andrew Bunch missed then Gebbia took off. Think about all the reps Mazour, Bradley, and Jones missed so Greg Bell could get touches. It's hard to do in your first year, and sooner than later the coaches will start having a good feel for these players and who is wanting to take off so they don't "waste their resources". But they need to be careful, I don't mind them losing guys they didn't recruit like Avery Roberts, Tristan Gebbia, etc. When you start losing 4 star JUCO All-Americans that you brought in and started 75% of the time, not a great look.
JUCO Recruiting:
So this will go along with "draining the swamp" and "getting to 85". But JUCO recruiting is still such a big piece of what Nebraska wants to do as a program and will have to do when we are "filling spots" early in the Frost regimes tenure. Here's a few reasons:
1) We have a ton of really good programs very close to us. Iowa Western, Garden City, those are all place that are a state away. And guys like Sims funnel people our way to put us in a great spot.
2) You cut out a lot of the guess work for the kids. Many times, it's not a kids athletic ability that's the question, but it's how he will deal with being away from home and away from family. Guy Thomas is dealing with that right now, it's not a football ability thing for him. But when you are able to see that guy from Florida at Butler Community College, you can automatically see if he is thriving away from his support system at home, how he is dealing with college academics, etc.
3) When you are wrong on a JUCO, it can be a 1 or 2 year thing. When you are wrong on a high school kid, it's a 4-5 year miss. I'm not saying don't take your developmental guys like Anderson on the OL, but what i'm saying is, you can afford to miss on JUCO because it doesn't hurt you as bad due to how long you have to carry that scholarship.
4) You can see if their high school film translates to JUCO. You will now have two different competition levels to gauge a prospect on making your miss rate lower.
Those are 4 huge things for me. Guys like Lavonte David, Stanley Jean-Baptiste, Ricky Henery, Yoshi Hardrick, Damion Stafford, they all can help if you do it right.
Other random thoughts:
- We have so many injuries right now my head is spinning. Stoltenberg and Thomas out on the DL before heading to Wisconsin is not good. Honas out before heading to Madison, not good. Martinez knee not 100% before Wisconsin, not good. That's just as much on lack of depth as it is on S&C. When you practice the way we want to and have minimal depth in some spots, it is tough to stay completely healthy. But there are some things within the weight room that are starting to give people pause. For example, if we have all these guys squatting close to 800 pounds, how are we getting beat by Michigan players that are doing functional single leg lifts around 225? As some people have mentioned, winning goes a long way, but doubt can creep in just as fast to an 18-22 year old. I won't go too much into it, but the injuries and then some of the other things we need to keep an eye on.
-Sticking with that, everyone blows up our previous S&C staff (which is fine they were part of the problem, just not all of it). But think about this... Mark Philipp almost left to be LSU head strength coach after our 9 win 2016 season. LSU went 9-4 in 2017 while Nebraska went 4-8, and LSU is currently sitting 5-0. Would people have been blaming the loss of MP as the reason things went so far south looking at our results compared to LSU? But as it stands since he stayed at Nebraska in 2017, he's a whipping boy. Crazy how a narrative can change based on circumstances to me.
-Will we keep our safeties up on the LOS against TEs like we did against Michigan and Purdue in 3 TE sets today? If we do, hammer the Wisconsin line of -17.5.
-This is our first true test against 2 backs (remember I made a thread how we install against 1 back sets). Michigan did a little of it, and racked up 56 points and 6.3 yards per carry. Will our second go around be better? I kind of doubt it. We lost Honas which means a guy that has been making the same mistakes for 3.5 years all of a sudden has to figure it out against the best RB and OL he has faced to date.
Summary:
I'm not saying we should be 0-4 right now, but I was just trying to give some reasons on why we are struggling. It's a lot of things jumbled into one. But today is going to get ugly, so I wanted to put this out here because no matter what happens against the Badgers, these things aren't changing until 2019.
Over and out.
