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Developing players is hard

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EastOfEden

Junior Varsity
15 Year Member
We get enough good recruits to have a better record than we do. Some teams seem to have the knack of developing their recruits. Think Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin for example. And take the Ohio State Michigan rivalry, in the past few years Michigan is getting more 4 and 5 star recruits than Ohio State, but Ohio State gets more players drafted in the first round in the NFL. Its really hard to get a machine rolling that develops players and we don't seem to be there yet. I hope SF thinks hard about that aspect of the program, and if necessary makes some hard personal decisions on personnel.
to me, that is the major weakness of the staff, and while it is easily stated, it is hard to fix.
 
We get enough good recruits to have a better record than we do. Some teams seem to have the knack of developing their recruits. Think Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin for example. And take the Ohio State Michigan rivalry, in the past few years Michigan is getting more 4 and 5 star recruits than Ohio State, but Ohio State gets more players drafted in the first round in the NFL. Its really hard to get a machine rolling that develops players and we don't seem to be there yet. I hope SF thinks hard about that aspect of the program, and if necessary makes some hard personal decisions on personnel.
to me, that is the major weakness of the staff, and while it is easily stated, it is hard to fix.
There were some guys that have developed under this regime IMO, Jurgens, Lamar Jackson, Alex Davis (drastic jump statistically), Mills in latter half of season, Cam Taylor, Khalil had his best 2 years with this one being his best.

What's alarming to me is the regression of players that I thought would be solid this year like AM, Mo B, Jaimes, and lack of WR's able to contribute.

There's signs of development, but I think it's hard to gauge the staff's ability at this point.
 
There were some guys that have developed under this regime IMO, Jurgens, Lamar Jackson, Alex Davis (drastic jump statistically), Mills in latter half of season, Cam Taylor, Khalil had his best 2 years with this one being his best.

What's alarming to me is the regression of players that I thought would be solid this year like AM, Mo B, Jaimes, and lack of WR's able to contribute.

There's signs of development, but I think it's hard to gauge the staff's ability at this point.

I think the guys who regressed are most explained through injury.

- I don't know that Jaimes was 100%. I'm not sure he can be much better than he is at his peak, but it looked to me he lost mobility after the injury against IL.
- AM would shock me if he didn't have shoulder and/or knee injury he's recovering from
- Mo Barry to me was less regression and more about being put into a situation where he would always struggle. To me he's an in the box/phone booth player and last year that was valuable because our NT situation meant our LB was going to get hit a lot, so he was OK with that. This year NT was better, so teams looked to open up space toward the sideline and downfield. He struggled with that (lots of us wanted more passing substitution at the ILB spot)
 



Best way to help develop players more consistently is to not change systems and coaching over and over again.. and if you do, don't switch from one end of the spectrum to another.
This (bolder) may be one of the biggest issues we have brought onto ourselves. Each coaching change consisted of a 180 degree change in philosophy. We allowed each coach only about enough time to fill the pipeline with his style players then we went in a completely different direction. Bo probably handled this the best at the start of his tenure but it may have handicapped him a little further into his time here (along with the conference change). Developing players is hard enough as it is, it is raised a level of difficulty when trying to do it with players meant for a different style of play.
 
This (bolder) may be one of the biggest issues we have brought onto ourselves. Each coaching change consisted of a 180 degree change in philosophy. We allowed each coach only about enough time to fill the pipeline with his style players then we went in a completely different direction. Bo probably handled this the best at the start of his tenure but it may have handicapped him a little further into his time here (along with the conference change). Developing players is hard enough as it is, it is raised a level of difficulty when trying to do it with players meant for a different style of play.
While what you say rings true to an extent, I am tired of hearing it for 15 years and am beginning to view it as an only somewhat legitimate reason the team struggles, and more of just another excuse. Sure, I see difference between option QB's and pocket passers, but - OLB's, ILB's, DB's, OL and WR should work fairly well if they are legit recruits no matter what system they are in. JMHO
 
While what you say rings true to an extent, I am tired of hearing it for 15 years and am beginning to view it as an only somewhat legitimate reason the team struggles, and more of just another excuse. Sure, I see difference between option QB's and pocket passers, but - OLB's, ILB's, DB's, OL and WR should work fairly well if they are legit recruits no matter what system they are in. JMHO
Kinda agree, kinda disagree. If we have a junior ILB that was playing in 'A' scheme for two years, learning the philosophy, living and breathing it, then all of a sudden, another D coordinator comes in and wants to run 'B' scheme, there is a lot of undoing and redoing that has to take place in habits, muscle memory, mentally, etc. Players are recruited to play specific systems. It's not just plug and play.
 



Truth to moving from system A to system B can cause issues.................

But a Bada** in one system tends to be a bada** in the next system and very quickly I bet.
That's true, but who honestly gets the title "badass"? Chase Young does. AJ Epenesa does. Those types of guys yes. But anyone else and you're going to have some growing pains.
 
While what you say rings true to an extent, I am tired of hearing it for 15 years and am beginning to view it as an only somewhat legitimate reason the team struggles, and more of just another excuse. Sure, I see difference between option QB's and pocket passers, but - OLB's, ILB's, DB's, OL and WR should work fairly well if they are legit recruits no matter what system they are in. JMHO

Maybe the best way to find out is to not change every 3-4 years. The 15 years occurred because it is an accumulation of 4 bad 3-4 year cycles.
 
Kinda agree, kinda disagree. If we have a junior ILB that was playing in 'A' scheme for two years, learning the philosophy, living and breathing it, then all of a sudden, another D coordinator comes in and wants to run 'B' scheme, there is a lot of undoing and redoing that has to take place in habits, muscle memory, mentally, etc. Players are recruited to play specific systems. It's not just plug and play.
OK well it shouldn't have much of an impact on recruits, should it? For example recruits who are committed to a coach, then he is fired. Those recruits should be fine in the new system because they haven't learned it yet, right? Their offer lists typically include teams which run various, different types of offensive and defensive systems. But I do get your point, I just think it's overused as an excuse.
 



We get enough good recruits to have a better record than we do. Some teams seem to have the knack of developing their recruits. Think Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin for example. And take the Ohio State Michigan rivalry, in the past few years Michigan is getting more 4 and 5 star recruits than Ohio State, but Ohio State gets more players drafted in the first round in the NFL. Its really hard to get a machine rolling that develops players and we don't seem to be there yet. I hope SF thinks hard about that aspect of the program, and if necessary makes some hard personal decisions on personnel.
to me, that is the major weakness of the staff, and while it is easily stated, it is hard to fix.
It really is... and then it compounds itself when there are changes every year. The biggest problem our players have had is that they ran something different nearly every year. 2014 Pelini defense, 2015 Banker defense, 2016 Banker Rugby Tackling Defense, 2017 Diaco Defense, 2018 Chinander Defense, 2019 is finally the same and we looked really good against Iowa if you ask me. You take it a step further and guys like Lamar Jackson, Alex Davis, and others seemed to thrive being more sure of themselves. You talk to some of these players and you really understand why they looked the way they did, they were confused. Imagine telling your kid something different every year when it comes to normal every day things. Now think about it on the football field.

You can take it into the weight room from there as well. The S&C staff have to be lockstep with what the coach is wanting to do. I don't believe in what we hang our hat on in the weight room currently, but what is going to pay off in spades is Duval and Frost being in sync with each other and knowing what the other wants. We should see improvement everywhere for 2020. Hopefully it results in more wins.
 
We get enough good recruits to have a better record than we do. Some teams seem to have the knack of developing their recruits. Think Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin for example. And take the Ohio State Michigan rivalry, in the past few years Michigan is getting more 4 and 5 star recruits than Ohio State, but Ohio State gets more players drafted in the first round in the NFL. Its really hard to get a machine rolling that develops players and we don't seem to be there yet. I hope SF thinks hard about that aspect of the program, and if necessary makes some hard personal decisions on personnel.
to me, that is the major weakness of the staff, and while it is easily stated, it is hard to fix.
I agree with your analogy. It does seem to take a machine-like system to maximize player development. I believe one key aspect of developing players at many programs but Nebraska in particular is the walk-on program. For many reasons the importance of a walk-on program has fluctuated with the head coach and these fluctuations have been exacerbated when the athletic department isn't strong enough to carry the system when a head coach isn't fully committed. From HCSF and ADBM's comments we know that they both place high value in the walk-on program. Hopefully their efforts here will start to show more in player development soon.
 

It really is... and then it compounds itself when there are changes every year. The biggest problem our players have had is that they ran something different nearly every year. 2014 Pelini defense, 2015 Banker defense, 2016 Banker Rugby Tackling Defense, 2017 Diaco Defense, 2018 Chinander Defense, 2019 is finally the same and we looked really good against Iowa if you ask me. You take it a step further and guys like Lamar Jackson, Alex Davis, and others seemed to thrive being more sure of themselves. You talk to some of these players and you really understand why they looked the way they did, they were confused. Imagine telling your kid something different every year when it comes to normal every day things. Now think about it on the football field.

You can take it into the weight room from there as well. The S&C staff have to be lockstep with what the coach is wanting to do. I don't believe in what we hang our hat on in the weight room currently, but what is going to pay off in spades is Duval and Frost being in sync with each other and knowing what the other wants. We should see improvement everywhere for 2020. Hopefully it results in more wins.

The last 6 games next year will be tough at best so I hope there is improvement from consistency in coaching.
 
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