What an enormous upgrade!

[Hville]

I would need to know who first as far as the HC.

To me Whipple did a great job with Pickett. He also coached Roethlisberger lest you forget. So it goes deeper than Pickett.

I personally think there's more talent at RB that has shown so far. Applewhite opens up Texas for us. TCU RB have shown up pretty well.

I agree the talent is there at running back. Held was regarded as one of our best recruiters so we lose that. I’m more of the belief blocking schemes and the line play are at fault for the lack of production at running back. I do t see this changing that if it is scheme.

 

[Hville]

Sorry that’s pure bovine scatology. No one is rooting for failure. I don’t think the current head coach has a chance in hell of making this work but I would be thrilled with some nine or 10 wind seasons out of him.

I think it’s a defense mechanism for some. They can’t argue the truth so they attack the posters for stating our results and any opinion that questions beliefs that it could be the same way going forward. No different than last year when said posters called us idiots for not seeing how Covid was the reason for the poor season. They said we’d have to eat crow but be afraid to man up in 2021.

 

[CrabHusker]

Ok I stand corrected. I was generalizing it to the northeast. Most of his career was spent at The likes of Brown, St Augustine, Umass, New Hampshire and New Haven. Only 5 of his 42 years of experience have been in P5. That’s about 12 percent. And those only in ACC.

By comparison, Matt Lubick has 16 years in power 5 experience and Troy Walters 10 years. So yes my red flags are still up and it is why I’m not in as much agreement with the OP and was specifically asked to clarify in post 33. I have tried to support it with some reasoning and facts that a certain poster wants to ignore in favor of his beliefs. I’m fine with that. I just wish if he asked for my clarification he wouldn’t use a drunk as my source of information.

Just so no-one gets confused, I quit drinking during the week and @Hville hasn't asked me anything about Whipple, so I can confirm I was not the alleged source.

Your points on his stops are noted and I can understand a raised eyebrow. When I'm looking at what he's done at those stops I'm at the same time intrigued/hopeful and concerned because it looks like the exact opposite of what I'M looking for in the way of changes. Granted, if he can elevate QB play and improve our passing game, that's not going to hurt, but I just don't know what we're going to see this coming fall. A blend of the Oregon/UCF/Nebraska Frost offenses blended with Whipple's ideas or 100% Whipple's offense.

One thing I don't think can be argued against at this point is that we've massively upgraded our recruiting chops. Jospeh and Busch are putting in the miles and getting in front of a lot of kids.

 

[Hville]

Just so no-one gets confused, I quit drinking during the week and @Hville hasn't asked me anything about Whipple, so I can confirm I was not the alleged source.

Your points on his stops are noted and I can understand a raised eyebrow. When I'm looking at what he's done at those stops I'm at the same time intrigued/hopeful and concerned because it looks like the exact opposite of what I'M looking for in the way of changes. Granted, if he can elevate QB play and improve our passing game, that's not going to hurt, but I just don't know what we're going to see this coming fall. A blend of the Oregon/UCF/Nebraska Frost offenses blended with Whipple's ideas or 100% Whipple's offense.

One thing I don't think can be argued against at this point is that we've massively upgraded our recruiting chops. Jospeh and Busch are putting in the miles and getting in front of a lot of kids.

Well thankfully someone from “the other side” can see the whipple concerns. Now in fairness…..in the form of wins and losses the offense didn’t seem to be doing enough to get us wins. In spite of a fairly productive yardage output. So maybe this mix of new coaches can get it to gel

But looking from the outside I felt our three weakest links was lack of running game blocking (either scheme or technique), line play as a whole, and aggressive receivers that own the ball in the air.

Now I know many believe AM was our weakest link so that’s another reason for koolaid for many. I’m just not sold that other than MJ coming in that we have upgraded our offense for the B1G. But heck maybe these guys gel and make me look like an idiot.

 

[Hville]

Just so no-one gets confused, I quit drinking during the week and @Hville hasn't asked me anything about Whipple, so I can confirm I was not the alleged source.

And for the record I’ve been in Key West all week so I’ve had to make up my own chit with no inside sources…..whomever that is. .

 

[Phillysker]

I agree the talent is there at running back. Held was regarded as one of our best recruiters so we lose that. I’m more of the belief blocking schemes and the line play are at fault for the lack of production at running back. I do t see this changing that if it is scheme.

We agree on pretty much everything. So would you take a former NFL line coach (Raiola) over Austin who was dead weight? I would.

 

[Phillysker]

Rock on buddy. I see you still have problems with reading comprehension.

So you are? Whipple coached Pickett, Big Rape and Donovan. Verdu coached Milton and Vedral. True or false?

 

[Frank The Tank]

Just so no-one gets confused, I quit drinking during the week and @Hville hasn't asked me anything about Whipple, so I can confirm I was not the alleged source.

Your points on his stops are noted and I can understand a raised eyebrow. When I'm looking at what he's done at those stops I'm at the same time intrigued/hopeful and concerned because it looks like the exact opposite of what I'M looking for in the way of changes. Granted, if he can elevate QB play and improve our passing game, that's not going to hurt, but I just don't know what we're going to see this coming fall. A blend of the Oregon/UCF/Nebraska Frost offenses blended with Whipple's ideas or 100% Whipple's offense.

One thing I don't think can be argued against at this point is that we've massively upgraded our recruiting chops. Jospeh and Busch are putting in the miles and getting in front of a lot of kids.

My biggest hope with regard to Whipple is that he's able to bring infuse some attitude into the offense and his experience and maturity will rub off on Frost.

 

[Frank The Tank]

So you are? Whipple coached Pickett, Big Rape and Donovan. Verdu coached Milton and Vedral. True or false?

McNabb had already been in the league for years by then lol. Whipple had a more direct influence on Brandon Weeden who lost his starting job after his first year than he did McNabb and I wouldn't use Vedral's career as a resume booster for Verduzco either considering his best year was his junior year at Rutgers where he threw 9 TD's and 8 ints as a part time starter.

 

[Hville]

We agree on pretty much everything. So would you take a former NFL line coach (Raiola) over Austin who was dead weight? I would.

I’m not sure on this one. I wish I knew more about our line play. I suspect several things. I hate their attempts at zone blocking. Scheme or technique? I don’t know. Way too many whiffs where guard and center double up on a guy and a second lineman or linebacker come through untouched. Is this by design? Are the players screwing up? Is the line coach designing the offensive blocking schemes or is it done in the Scott frost offense.

To answer your first question I would have gone after someone other than Donovan. Someone who has been a proven head line coach at a level above Aurora State. He was assistant at Chicago and graduate assistant at Notre Dame. I think it’s a huge risk. Just my opinion though.

 

[Oracle of Lincoln]

Well thankfully someone from “the other side” can see the whipple concerns. Now in fairness…..in the form of wins and losses the offense didn’t seem to be doing enough to get us wins. In spite of a fairly productive yardage output. So maybe this mix of new coaches can get it to gel

But looking from the outside I felt our three weakest links was lack of running game blocking (either scheme or technique), line play as a whole, and aggressive receivers that own the ball in the air.

Now I know many believe AM was our weakest link so that’s another reason for koolaid for many. I’m just not sold that other than MJ coming in that we have upgraded our offense for the B1G. But heck maybe these guys gel and make me look like an idiot.

Realize you’re talking offense, but the weakest link by far was special teams with the lack of coaching acumen and enough talented athletes to compete in P5. That and NU lost most of the battles in the trenches.

 

[Hville]

My biggest hope with regard to Whipple is that he's able to bring infuse some attitude into the offense and his experience and maturity will rub off on Frost.

Here is one thing that I’m hoping Raiola might add to the mix. He is supposed to be high energy.

 

[Hville]

The weakest link by far was special teams with the lack of coaching acumen and enough talented athletes to compete in P5.

I agree but the question posed at me was towards Whipple and the offense.

 

[CrabHusker]

Well thankfully someone from “the other side” can see the whipple concerns. Now in fairness…..in the form of wins and losses the offense didn’t seem to be doing enough to get us wins. In spite of a fairly productive yardage output. So maybe this mix of new coaches can get it to gel

But looking from the outside I felt our three weakest links was lack of running game blocking (either scheme or technique), line play as a whole, and aggressive receivers that own the ball in the air.

Now I know many believe AM was our weakest link so that’s another reason for koolaid for many. I’m just not sold that other than MJ coming in that we have upgraded our offense for the B1G. But heck maybe these guys gel and make me look like an idiot.

I can equally see the opinion that we've upgraded at OC as well, I just have no idea what we're doing with their collective ideas and what Nebraska's offense will look like next year. We shifted from '20 to '21 on a few of the less productive ideas/play calls and that helped us retain the ball and move between the twenties. Was it Lubick that went away from the mandatory bubble/WR screen on every Nebraska possession this past fall? Was it Frost? Was it a combination?

I watched a few of Pitt's games on Youtube since the Whipple hire and they actually do some interesting things and some of it looks pretty familiar, but the things that make it go are better line play, receivers that own the ball and an accurate delivery. You mention two of the three in your post and we're in agreement. If we can't run the ball at least moderately well when we want to or have to, protect (insert starting QB here) next fall, and we don't go after the ball like it's our lunch money, we're likely to have the same issues.

Back to the Pitt games and Martinez. I realize it's not a fair comparison, but you plug Pickett and his accuracy on the move into our offense last year and we win some of those close ones. I'm a big AM fan, but he wasn't developed, IMAO, for four years. Mario either allowed or taught some of the bad habits that caused AM so much grief in close games. I love the kid and hope he lights it up in Manhattan, but an amicable separation was really likely the best for all involved.

 

[CrabHusker]

My biggest hope with regard to Whipple is that he's able to bring infuse some attitude into the offense and his experience and maturity will rub off on Frost.

He'll likely be a mentor to Frost and the younger coaches and players. I think Joseph will do exactly that with the attitude in theWR room.

Stanley Morgan was the last guy we had that was going to fight you tooth and nail for the ball. We need that kind of attitude to be the rule, not the exception.