I have been beating this horse to death (and received a lot of criticism on this forum) ever since joining this site. Great, not good or average, football teams are built from the inside out. Recruitng flash and dash guys will get you to a point, but to win championships, one must recruit and develop the line of scrimmage, both sides of the ball.
It's hard to say and given that smarter people than me get paid a ton of money to think about this I don't know that I can improve on what they are thinking
That said. I think it's a few things
1. OL play is a unit based group for performance. 2 great linemen with 3 lousy ones makes for a lousy OL
2. Even the best HS conferences are going to have teams where the better teams will dominate them up front physically and with scheme, potentially making mediocre interior linemen look dominant
3. Scheme from HS to college matters. A guy like Foster could be an excellent in a scheme with narrower splits, for instance. A guy who thrived in the old Denver scheme would struggle in the scheme Foster liked... and it's hard to project outside of the extremes
4. More and more guys are looking physically maxed in HS now. Great in HS, but nothing left when they get to college
5. The measureables are a good question. I like looking at shuttle times for the big, interior guys. Better shuttle usually means that short space agility, but some guys can be great at that and not move their feet good enough to not trip over the action on the inside of the line.
It's tough, but that's a bit of why I like using the walk ons so much they add depth at the least, but a combo of numbers, Duval, Ellis and Austin might give us a huge leg up over the competition in that area
)I agree... here's something interesting for both sides to be able to stand on with "rankings matter" or they "don't matter".
My wife is making me go to some home and garden show... i'm bored too... let's combine these!Iowas Numbers (I'm bored
2011 .8923 (3)
2017 .8912 (2)
2010 .8871 (2)
2019 .8761 (4)
2015 .8653 (5)
2018 .8649 (4)
2013 .8628 (2)
2016 .8357 (3)
2012 .8235 (4)
2014 .8198 (3)
I agree with you. Not every player canbe a "project," but I'm ok with things right now. I think the staff knows what they want, and they're going after them.
Balls to the wall correct.It's hard to say and given that smarter people than me get paid a ton of money to think about this I don't know that I can improve on what they are thinking
That said. I think it's a few things
1. OL play is a unit based group for performance. 2 great linemen with 3 lousy ones makes for a lousy OL
2. Even the best HS conferences are going to have teams where the better teams will dominate them up front physically and with scheme, potentially making mediocre interior linemen look dominant
3. Scheme from HS to college matters. A guy like Foster could be an excellent in a scheme with narrower splits, for instance. A guy who thrived in the old Denver scheme would struggle in the scheme Foster liked... and it's hard to project outside of the extremes
4. More and more guys are looking physically maxed in HS now. Great in HS, but nothing left when they get to college
5. The measureables are a good question. I like looking at shuttle times for the big, interior guys. Better shuttle usually means that short space agility, but some guys can be great at that and not move their feet good enough to not trip over the action on the inside of the line.
It's tough, but that's a bit of why I like using the walk ons so much they add depth at the least, but a combo of numbers, Duval, Ellis and Austin might give us a huge leg up over the competition in that area
Huskers are making serious gains in the weight room, and getting healthier too!
That article is actually what concerns me. Doesn’t give me hope. Lol. But I look at things differently.
Hard to believe, but some posters will be concerned about an article that says our players are bigger, faster, stronger, having fun, and have greater comraderie. For those, anything jointly out of S&C/SF may be part 2 of the marketing campaign they sold us last year. Frankly, I'm enthused to hear of all the progress...but, I'm all in with SF and Duval.
The only thing you've been criticized for is your silly assertion that the staff can't recruit both skill players and linemen simultaneously. Literally no one is arguing with you that recruiting skilled linemen is essential, but you act like every staff at NU is only recruiting skill players and then you crap in threads where people are discussing non-line recruits. We go through this at least once a recruiting cycle with you.
I will repeat - IT'S ALL GOOD!!!
Something tells me that we will never again have major weaknesses in skill guys at Nebraska. Man, if you look at who these coaches have brought in already, it's very impressive. Hoping Mills turns into the banger that most think we need (and I sure as heck enjoy), he will have complimenting players all around. The QB recruiting is off the charts so far...though Scott did say that having Mariotta at Oregon did cause them to take a hit for a couple years in recruiting high end QB's.
I'm glad you chose to focus the microscope on the O-Line in this thread as well. These guys don't get nearly the media attention of the skill guys, yet are arguably more important play in, play out. I can't wait to see what Austin and company (including Duvall) can do with this current crop.
And I hope you are spot on in your observation that we are taking "under-ranked" OL and turning them into beasts. Nothing would make me happier than seeing a modern-day "pipeline" emerge before my eyes. It's so stinking exciting to potentially be in on the ground floor of improvements that I can really, really appreciate how difficult it is to make.
