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Winning the West: Who must step up on defense in 2019?

Nice write up @ShortSideOption !!!

No argument here, more a couple of observations on some incoming linemen...

I'm really shocked Banks is going to play on the defense. I thought he was very sound as an offensive lineman and his defensive film is meh. On the flip side, considering Piper's athleticism, I thought they'd put him on the O-line. I always put my most athletic linemen on the offensive side of the ball. Any insight into their decision making or was this simply the coaches giving the kids the choice to start?
 
Nice write up @ShortSideOption !!!

No argument here, more a couple of observations on some incoming linemen...

I'm really shocked Banks is going to play on the defense. I thought he was very sound as an offensive lineman and his defensive film is meh. On the flip side, considering Piper's athleticism, I thought they'd put him on the O-line. I always put my most athletic linemen on the offensive side of the ball. Any insight into their decision making or was this simply the coaches giving the kids the choice to start?
I am baffled by them putting Banks on defense. Agree with you completely on his film and I don’t think it’s coincidence every other team offered him for the offensive side of the ball, his film is more impressive over there. But like I said in the recruiting forum, this is one I’ll be watching to see his development. I’m sure the staff knows what they are doing. But if we move him to offense after a year or two that would be frustrating.

Piper I think will have success on either side, I would put him where we need the most help.
 
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Intrigued why you think it's dependent on how the offense plays? For me, it's all about the defense because we will have a top25 offense, but i'd be curious your view.
I guess my perspective is that the defense won't be any better next year than this year. The offense and special teams must carry the day, so to speak.
 
I am baffled by them putting Banks on defense. Agree with you completely on his film and I don’t think it’s coincidence every other team offered him for the offensive side of the ball, his film is more impressive over there. But like I said in the recruiting forum, this is one I’ll be watching to see his development. I’m sure the staff knows what they are doing. But if we move him to offense after a year or two that would be frustrating.

Piper I think will have success on either side, I would put him where we need the most help.
Sometimes it pays to take a good athlete who wants to try out a position that might not be his best. Ameer came to Nebraska because we told him he could start out at RB. Not every experiment will turn into an Ameer, but if the kid is a better fit on the offensive side, it can be okay to get him in the program, let him work through his redshirt year and figure that out for himself. If we had insisted on O-line, maybe he would have gone elsewhere?

We lost Marshall Faulk because we told him that we wanted him to play DB. Maybe he would have been an even better DB, but I doubt it. As long as the guy is a good athlete and is coachable, get him in the system and things will sort themselves out.
 
We lost Marshal Faulk because we wouldon't let him play RB? I never heard that before. Amazing. Who was our top RBs then?
 



I guess my perspective is that the defense won't be any better next year than this year. The offense and special teams must carry the day, so to speak.
I can convince myself both ways. But for right now I’m thinking year 2 in a system is going to trump all the key losses and how lowly ranked we were last year so that we are better.

But I completely get what you’re saying.
 
Hoping so. I don’t think effort was Damions problem. Older brother knowing best will go a long way for him.

The tank running dry after only a few snaps has me shaking my head. I'm not saying the guy didn't work, but i'm thinking he didn't work nearly as hard as he could have or should have the last 4 years. Something tells me he's been out of shape for a long time, and only his talent to play football has covered that up. Big brother seems to have more gas, so maybe he's been a harder worker for a while. Let's see if another year in the system, plus big bro leaning on him will step up that conditioning to something closer to what someone we desperately need to play, should have.
 
We lost Marshal Faulk because we wouldn't let him play RB? I never heard that before. Amazing. Who was our top RBs then?

Well, Faulk was a freshman in '91 and went pro in '94. So he played just before Damon Benning and Lawrence Phillips were there. He would've been the star RB.

Here's another crazy story, TO passed on recruiting Barry Sanders because he thought he was too undersized for RB.
 



Well, Faulk was a freshman in '91 and went pro in '94. So he played just before Damon Benning and Lawrence Phillips were there. He would've been the star RB.
In '91 and '92 we had Derek Brown and Calvin Jones, and we couldn't get enough touches for the two of them. In '91 Scott Baldwin hadn't yet developed the mental issues that later crushed him, and he was a very highly regarded backup. I doubt that Faulk would have seen the field either year at RB. Before the '93 season Derek Brown went pro early because he thought that he'd get more carries in the NFL than sharing duty with Jones at Nebraska, and he was right. That '93 season would also be the year that Benning and Phillips showed up, both of whom were highly touted. Don't forget Clinton Childs and Jay Sims (then still named "James" Sims) as well. As great as Marshall Faulk was, I'm not sure that his skills would have shown out as an I-back in the Nebraska power offense of that era. Because he had such great hands, he probably would have been shifted to a Wingback.
Here's another crazy story, TO passed on recruiting Barry Sanders because he thought he was too undersized for RB.
There have been different versions of what happened with Barry, but Charlie McBride said this past fall that he wanted to take him, and that Barry visited, was on the sidelines, wanting to come, but Osborne said that they were out of scholarships for RBs in that class as they had already several commits. His (and his dad's) dream school had been Oklahoma, but they weren't interested at all.

In case you're curious, Sanders was a member of the recruiting class of '86, which for Nebraska included scholarship recruits Terry Rodgers (Johnny Rodgers' son), Tyreese Knox, and Richard Bell, and Jeff Wheeler was a walk-on I-back. Sanders hadn't played much until part-way through his senior year of high school, so he probably projected as a Wingback. Rodgers was also a shifty, small RB, so it makes sense that they didn't have a scholarship for him. He might have walked on, too, but other schools started to give him some late scholarship offers, which he couldn't turn down.

McBride claims that every time he scored against Nebraska, he mentioned to Tom that it was too bad that they hadn't found room for him.
 
We lost Marshal Faulk because we wouldon't let him play RB? I never heard that before. Amazing. Who was our top RBs then?

It's not like Nebraska screwed the pooch on Faulk, every major college wanted him to play DB. He went to San Diego St. because they offered him as a RB.

Also with Barry Sanders, Terry Rodgers was way more highly touted coming out of HS than he was, and he was working on having a great career and then he hurt his knee and that was that.
 


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