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What I expect going forward

I don't have time to read that much, so I will just say I agree with whatever it is you said after the first paragraph. :thumbsup:
Okay, so I decided to make some money on the clock while perusing Huskermax and actually read the entire Op. I couldn't agree more and I think you did an excellent job breaking everything down. Thanks for taking the time to type that all out. Good stuff and I agree with it all. Hopefully Scott does as well. :thumbsup: :cool:
 
Thanks for the analysis, Middle-Age.

Regarding the comparison of Haskins and Fields -- I'm not as convinced as you suggest you are in regards to Fields being somewhat of a downgrade for OSU in regards to competition for Nebraska.

They are two very different quarterbacks. Fields is a true dual threat QB. Haskins was/is not.

Sure, OSU and Fields didn't roll over top 10 teams -- but Cincinnati is not chopped liver. They were 11-2 last season with a top 10 defense statistically. The 42 points Ohio State scored on Cincy was the most allowed since 2017. Fields was extremely efficient in that game last Saturday -- 20 of 25 passing (80%), 224 yards, 2 TDs and another 42 yards rushing and 2 more TDs. In his career, Fields has yet to throw an INT (with 10 passing TDs) and has 1 total fumble. Yes, he was only a backup at Georgia -- and now has two total career starts in Columbus -- but they've been darn good for such limited playing experience. I have a real hard time punching any holes in his production.

Obviously you disagree, but I'd much rather face Haskins defensively than Josh Fields. I guess we'll know soon enough.
 



Thanks for the analysis, Middle-Age.

Regarding the comparison of Haskins and Fields -- I'm not as convinced as you suggest you are in regards to Fields being somewhat of a downgrade for OSU in regards to competition for Nebraska.

They are two very different quarterbacks. Fields is a true dual threat QB. Haskins was/is not.

Sure, OSU and Fields didn't roll over top 10 teams -- but Cincinnati is not chopped liver. They were 11-2 last season with a top 10 defense statistically. The 42 points Ohio State scored on Cincy was the most allowed since 2017. Fields was extremely efficient in that game last Saturday -- 20 of 25 passing (80%), 224 yards, 2 TDs and another 42 yards rushing and 2 more TDs. In his career, Fields has yet to throw an INT (with 10 passing TDs) and has 1 total fumble. Yes, he was only a backup at Georgia -- and now has two total career starts in Columbus -- but they've been darn good for such limited playing experience. I have a real hard time punching any holes in his production.

Obviously you disagree, but I'd much rather face Haskins defensively than Josh Fields. I guess we'll know soon enough.
I agree on Fields. He's much better than Haskins.
 
I agree with your (and MABC) take here. The question that needs to be asked is how many steps backwards is Scott willing to take to give Benhart reps at tackle and to slide Farniok down? If Benhart was deemed ready, I'm sure they would have already pulled the trigger, so I'm assuming the coaches believe this offensive line, as currently constituted, gives the Huskers the best chance to win -- right now.

Until someone tells Scott he is out of contention for the B1G West title, I'm not sure he makes any changes unless Benhart is truly the best man for the job. The margin for error between wins and losses is already razor thin. Tough situation to be in.
Agreed, and well said.
 
Benhart is the logical successor to Farnoik but who would back him up? I suspect this may be as big of an issue as Benhart being ready as coaches would be reluctant to have to move Farnoik back and forth!
Austin already crosstrains his O-linemen to know multiple positions, so he'll purposefully run drills where he inverts the O-line to make people think about it from their teammate's perspective as calls are made and adjustments are made on the fly. Whatever you want to say about Farniok (either Farniok for that matter), I've never heard anyone say that he's dumb or uncoachable, so I suspect that he's probably already in a position where he could slide over to Guard already, but they've needed an OT to take his place that makes the whole an upgrade. Benhart will eventually be that, but when? If Farniok is playing Guard, and his replacement is injured, he just slides back to where he was. Regardless of what the depth charts might say, Austin wants to have his 5 best O-linemen on the field, so it's likely that Farniok would be a backup for Left-OT, too, if something happened to Jaimes. I'm pretty sure that Farniok would suit up at TE or RB if asked, so I don't think that the idea of sliding back and forth as needed will stress him out at all.
 
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I would like to know why we didn’t get these bugs out of our system in spring and fall camp.

Let me answer your question with more questions? Why do you think the NCAA limits the amount of practice time that teams can have in the spring, summer, and fall? Do you think that teams would be better if they had more time together? If so, what happens when the guy who is your best prospect at Center is only a Redshirt-Freshman, and he's missed most of the practices in his first fall on campus, some of the practices in his first spring (he wasn't an early enrollee in 2018), and he missed all of fall camp except for the last handful of practices? Do O-linemen get better when they get a lot of practice time together? What would you expect from them if they don't? What if there is no Option B that's better?

That's where the O-line is. Even if he had taken every snap in the spring and in fall camp, Jurgens would have had a steep hill to climb as a Redshirt-Freshman starting at Center after having never played the position before at any level. The fact that there was/is nobody older than he and Will Farniok to start, right now, shows the lack of depth that Frost inherited.

It's basically the same story with WR, except it's more people involved. WRs and the QB need to practice together as much as possible, and that includes 7-on-7 in the summers in addition to spring football and fall camp. Two of the WRs who were expected to hold down the X-WR position haven't been playing: Hunt got kicked off the team the week before the first game, and Woodyard has been hurt. The Swiss Army Knife guy who organized all of the practices all summer and who knows how to play every WR position--Kade Warner--has also been out with an injury. The guy who has been filling in--Kanawei Noa--is a summer transfer from Cal who had to learn the offense over the summer without the help of the coaches. Even NFL teams wouldn't look good in those situations. If the WRs aren't doing what Martinez is expecting them to do--and it doesn't even matter which one is right or wrong--you're going to end up seeing what we've been seeing: a lot of QB sacks due to the QB holding onto the ball too long because nobody came open. Even Tom Brady couldn't be successful in that scenario. In fact, that's pretty similar to the situations in the past decade or so when he's looked horrible: a veteran WR leaves the team, another is injured, and it takes awhile for the newbies to get on the same page with him.

Next year will be year 3. I hope we drop the get better during the season thing.

If you're saying that you hope that the team looks better at the start of the year than they have this year or last, yeah, I'd say that Frost and everyone else is expecting that also. If you're saying that you're expecting the team to play error-free, veteran football at the start of the year, you're expecting too much. Even Nick Saban and Dabo Swinney will tell you that their teams look like crap in August as compared to what they look like in the first week of December; why? The gametime experience matters, and it can't be perfectly replicated. Some things just have to be learned by going through them in games.
 
Thanks for the analysis, Middle-Age.

Regarding the comparison of Haskins and Fields -- I'm not as convinced as you suggest you are in regards to Fields being somewhat of a downgrade for OSU in regards to competition for Nebraska.

They are two very different quarterbacks. Fields is a true dual threat QB. Haskins was/is not.

Sure, OSU and Fields didn't roll over top 10 teams -- but Cincinnati is not chopped liver. They were 11-2 last season with a top 10 defense statistically. The 42 points Ohio State scored on Cincy was the most allowed since 2017. Fields was extremely efficient in that game last Saturday -- 20 of 25 passing (80%), 224 yards, 2 TDs and another 42 yards rushing and 2 more TDs. In his career, Fields has yet to throw an INT (with 10 passing TDs) and has 1 total fumble. Yes, he was only a backup at Georgia -- and now has two total career starts in Columbus -- but they've been darn good for such limited playing experience. I have a real hard time punching any holes in his production.

Obviously you disagree, but I'd much rather face Haskins defensively than Josh Fields. I guess we'll know soon enough.
When we get closer to the OSU game I'll go into it more, and I'm still watching his games to see if I'm right or not. What I suspect--and what was basically the report card that came out of Georgia--is that he's a phenomenal athlete with all of the gifts that a QB could want ... except he's not especially accurate, and--to recycle a quote from the Nebraska staff--he's not a very fast "blinker." Go watch his Ohio State spring game "highlights" on YouTube. I put "highlights" in quotes because he looked like Ricky "the Wild Thing" Vaughn had taken up QBing, and he was doing it without his glasses. After watching him rifle pass after pass into wide-open grass, THEN read the comments from the Georgia fans below the video who seem legitimately relieved that he left because he had developed a cry-baby reputation while there ... and he couldn't hit the broadside of a barn with a shotgun while shooting from the inside. He also can't take his eyes off of his intended receiver, and anytime he feels uncomfortable, he takes off running. He has a strong arm, and a lot of the throws that he's being asked to make aren't especially hard, but if you look for it you'll see that he wants to take off running whenever he's nervous, and he airmails a pass or two, even though he's mostly throwing simple, short passes.

I could write a lot more, but quite frankly, I doubt that you'll believe me anyway, so go watch for yourself and keep in mind that OSU's talent has so overwhelmed everybody so far, that they really didn't need him to do anything special. What happens when they do?

Also, fwiw, you're undervaluing Haskins. Nebraska was the only team that made him look bad all year, and Chinander called a brilliant defensive game to attack his pre-snap reads and break up his rhythm. Even then, he still had good stats, and they won the game. He took some hard shots, too, and he kept plugging away. I don't think that Fields has that type of bulldog attitude. I'm hoping that we'll find out.
 
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Let me answer your question with more questions? Why do you think the NCAA limits the amount of practice time that teams can have in the spring, summer, and fall? Do you think that teams would be better if they had more time together? If so, what happens when the guy who is your best prospect at Center is only a Redshirt-Freshman, and he's missed most of the practices in his first fall on campus, some of the practices in his first spring (he wasn't an early enrollee in 2018), and he missed all of fall camp except for the last handful of practices? Do O-linemen get better when they get a lot of practice time together? What would you expect from them if they don't? What if there is no Option B that's better?

That's where the O-line is. Even if he had taken every snap in the spring and in fall camp, Jurgens would have had a steep hill to climb as a Redshirt-Freshman starting at Center after having never played the position before at any level. The fact that there was/is nobody older than he and Will Farniok to start, right now, shows the lack of depth that Frost inherited.

It's basically the same story with WR, except it's more people involved. WRs and the QB need to practice together as much as possible, and that includes 7-on-7 in the summers in addition to spring football and fall camp. Two of the WRs who were expected to hold down the X-WR position haven't been playing: Hunt got kicked off the team the week before the first game, and Woodyard has been hurt. The Swiss Army Knife guy who organized all of the practices all summer and who knows how to play every WR position--Kade Warner--has also been out with an injury. The guy who has been filling in--Kanawei Noa--is a summer transfer from Cal who had to learn the offense over the summer without the help of the coaches. Even NFL teams wouldn't look good in those situations. If the WRs aren't doing what Martinez is expecting them to do--and it doesn't even matter which one is right or wrong--you're going to end up seeing what we've been seeing: a lot of QB sacks due to the QB holding onto the ball too long because nobody came open. Even Tom Brady couldn't be successful in that scenario. In fact, that's pretty similar to the situations in the past decade or so when he's looked horrible: a veteran WR leaves the team, another is injured, and it takes awhile for the newbies to get on the same page with him.



If you're saying that you hope that the team looks better at the start of the year than they have this year or last, yeah, I'd say that Frost and everyone else is expecting that also. If you're saying that you're expecting the team to play error-free, veteran football at the start of the year, you're expecting too much. Even Nick Saban and Dabo Swinney will tell you that their teams look like crap in August as compared to what they look like in the first week of December; why? The gametime experience matters, and it can't be perfectly replicated. Some things just have to be learned by going through them in games.

Those extra practices that are gained by going to a bowl probably figure into the equation for the start the following year too I’d guess.
 
Those extra practices that are gained by going to a bowl probably figure into the equation for the start the following year too I’d guess.
Yes, that's an excellent point, and I forgot about that. Moos said that four years of extra practices for a bowl equals an extra season of practices for a player, so it's like getting an extra year for preparation. We assumed that we would go to a bowl game for so long that I never paused to think about what it costs in terms of practices when you don't.
 

Thanks for the analysis, Middle-Age.

Regarding the comparison of Haskins and Fields -- I'm not as convinced as you suggest you are in regards to Fields being somewhat of a downgrade for OSU in regards to competition for Nebraska.

They are two very different quarterbacks. Fields is a true dual threat QB. Haskins was/is not.

Sure, OSU and Fields didn't roll over top 10 teams -- but Cincinnati is not chopped liver. They were 11-2 last season with a top 10 defense statistically. The 42 points Ohio State scored on Cincy was the most allowed since 2017. Fields was extremely efficient in that game last Saturday -- 20 of 25 passing (80%), 224 yards, 2 TDs and another 42 yards rushing and 2 more TDs. In his career, Fields has yet to throw an INT (with 10 passing TDs) and has 1 total fumble. Yes, he was only a backup at Georgia -- and now has two total career starts in Columbus -- but they've been darn good for such limited playing experience. I have a real hard time punching any holes in his production.

Obviously you disagree, but I'd much rather face Haskins defensively than Josh Fields. I guess we'll know soon enough.
I have some of the same concerns regarding Fields. Obviously he hasn’t been tested enough yet but he looks like he could be a huge upgrade. Ohio st. Might finally have a true dual threat. That and if Wisconsin has a real quarterback could make those games even more daunting.
 

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