I think some folks have been misinformed about Husker history and are thinking a return to the misconception is where we should head. You can't return to what never was. We never had a pipeline of Samoans, we had 2 decent ones in 50 years. We never ran a very unique offense, TO copied the I formations we used and then later adapted Oklahoma's option principles to his new option attack. Lots of teams were run stuff similar to both back when this was done. Other teams realized the speed of the defenses could negate our lol, "unique" option attack, before we did. That's because TO had us stocked with so much talent at I-back and QB that we were nearly unstoppable no matter the speed of the defense, teams with less talent than us, couldn't keep running option. We found ourselves in their boat when FS couldn't recruit QB's or RB's. So all this talk of being contrarian is just silly...you need talent on both sides of the ball to compete at highest levels. You need coaches that recruit mean, tough and yet disciplined players who prioritize football every day. You get that back here and it won't matter what offense or defense we run or where we get our players.
If there was a big advantage to running a contrarian offense...the best coaches (Saaban. Meyer, Sweeney) would do it, they don't. Instead, there is an advantage to running an attack that can hurt teams on the ground or in the air and having the best players you can get.
Nobody said we've had a "pipeline of Samoans" over the past 50 years. The point was being able to recruit Samoans to Nebraska would help our run game (and help stop the run on the defensive line).
A consistent, well run, mistake free, run game to me defines Nebraska football and not the pro-style, air raid, west coast, pistol, Spread zone read offenses.
We ran a triple option that teams had one week to prepare for. If run well, game planning and teaching assignment based defense can be very tough.
Recruiting Samoans who go on mission trips and come back to play at age 23 along with a well developed walk on program that matures local Nebraska kids who are hungry to play IMO would be a good thing. If we do what everyone else is doing we will be another Iowa. We should focus on winning the BIG west and to do that we have to beat Wisconsin.
Saban, Meyer, and Sweeney don't need to be contrarian, they get the top echelon athletes available in the Southeast year after year and have these type players 3 deep on their rosters. Their scout teams are made up of 4 and 5 star athletes. So why try and beat them at their own game? It's likely they will win the match-ups if we're in a Spread offense.
Not suggesting go flexbone 100% of the time. Make it the base offense and mix in other formations. But we need to have an identity. It won't work unless the defense is one of the best in the nation year in and year out and I think we can get there again but it will take commitment to bring in the top D coordinators available. Not sure if the one we have fits that category.
My 2 cents. Going back to lurking for awhile. I'm not so good at the posting thing I keep hitting the wrong buttons LOL. Good dialogue & Go Big Red!