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Linebackers LR and NH

juju

juju

The future starts now.
5 Year Member
Got to thinking today after reading Pernell LB post spring assessment, how do LR and NH fit into this scheme.

Hate saying it but I don't think Ruud brought very much to the table. We saw them time and time again looking a little robotic and not seeing their athleticism.

I think it is fair to say they neither shy from contact.

We started seeing LR make some athletic plays backing into coverage. Has some fluidity in his hips and some solid speed. I wouldn't call him a cover LB like JoJo, but he has some athleticism. Not ideal size for a B1G Mike.

NH has been a tough cookie battling injuries from the beginning. Not sure we can say we have seen his full athleticism because he was more of a downhill gap filling LB in the past. He has decent Mike size but I have concerns about his ability to get east and west and backpedal.

LR has some ability to drop back into coverage but I haven't seen it demonstrated yet.

It is crazy how many totally different body type/skillsets we have in our LB room.
I for one am definitely excited to see how rotations work and scheme plays out in the second level of our defense.

It will be nice to have Knighton getting that front in right gaps/leverages etc after having such questionable DL play slowing our LBs down. Fingers crossed anyway.

GBR
 

juju said:
Got to thinking today after reading Pernell LB post spring assessment, how do LR and NH fit into this scheme.

Hate saying it but I don't think Ruud brought very much to the table. We saw them time and time again looking a little robotic and not seeing their athleticism.

I think it is fair to say they neither shy from contact.

We started seeing LR make some athletic plays backing into coverage. Has some fluidity in his hips and some solid speed. I wouldn't call him a cover LB like JoJo, but he has some athleticism. Not ideal size for a B1G Mike.

NH has been a tough cookie battling injuries from the beginning. Not sure we can say we have seen his full athleticism because he was more of a downhill gap filling LB in the past. He has decent Mike size but I have concerns about his ability to get east and west and backpedal.

LR has some ability to drop back into coverage but I haven't seen it demonstrated yet.

It is crazy how many totally different body type/skillsets we have in our LB room.
I for one am definitely excited to see how rotations work and scheme plays out in the second level of our defense.

It will be nice to have Knighton getting that front in right gaps/leverages etc after having such questionable DL play slowing our LBs down. Fingers crossed anyway.

GBR
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Don’t necessarily disagree with you about Ruud but I do think better S&C will help them with their health. Nothing you can do about a broken hand but knee injuries and ACLs are connected to poor S&C IMO.
 
Nebraska Red said:
Well by listening to JoJo's pod cast things. Seems like the speed and athleticism was coached out if them.... maybe this change is good
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We saw some things last fall after Chinander's firing that should encourage most folks in regard to our talent on the LB and DB rooms. What I will say about both Reimer and Heinrich is they need to speed some quality time on tackling once fall camp starts. Both would frequently be in the right place at the right time and just not finish. Heinrich had a bigger issue with it than did Reimer, but neither looked like a tackling machine last fall. Clean that up and you're instantly a better defense. Giving up first downs when you had the right defense and were in position to make the play and get off the field should be the easiest thing to fix.
 



LR is a stud but very injury prone. NH was a liability until mid season 2021. After that he really came around.
 
CrabHusker said:
We saw some things last fall after Chinander's firing that should encourage most folks in regard to our talent on the LB and DB rooms. What I will say about both Reimer and Heinrich is they need to speed some quality time on tackling once fall camp starts. Both would frequently be in the right place at the right time and just not finish. Heinrich had a bigger issue with it than did Reimer, but neither looked like a tackling machine last fall. Clean that up and you're instantly a better defense. Giving up first downs when you had the right defense and were in position to make the play and get off the field should be the easiest thing to fix.
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The biggest thing last season is the scheme was simplified.

I do not know enough about the 3-3-5 but I hope it allows players to play fast, downhill and loose.

We have the athletes to play that way … especially in the secondary.
 
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wcbsas said:
The biggest thing last season is the scheme was simplified.

I do not know enough about the 3-3-5 but I hope it allows players to play fast, downhill and loose.

We have the athletes to play that way … especially in the secondary.
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I've been doing a lot of digging into the 3-3-5 and from an alignment standpoint, most folks aren't going to be able to tell the difference between it and our 3-4 from recent years. The biggest difference will be aggression. White coaches to play fast and that will be noticeable.

Agree on the athletes. We have a few guys who few people know about that are going to shine this fall, IMO.
 
CrabHusker said:
I've been doing a lot of digging into the 3-3-5 and from an alignment standpoint, most folks aren't going to be able to tell the difference between it and our 3-4 from recent years. The biggest difference will be aggression. White coaches to play fast and that will be noticeable.

Agree on the athletes. We have a few guys who few people know about that are going to shine this fall, IMO.
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I think folks should be prepared for aggression, an increase in TFLs, sacks, and turnovers, but also an increase in big plays allowed, especially early in the season and the players are still learning their assignments and responsibilities.
 
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Turd Ferguson said:
I think folks should be prepared for aggression, an increase in TFLs, sacks, and turnovers, but also an increase in big plays allowed, especially early in the season and the players are still learning their assignments and responsibilities.
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I agree, but its eerily similar to what we heard about the switch to Chinander's defense.
 
Turd Ferguson said:
The difference is we have already seen the increased pressure his defense can provide as it was evident in the spring game. We waited 5 years for Chinander to do something other than his base defense.
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Exactly! In the past 5 years in the BIG the best the Huskers ranked defensively was 6th. Yea our offense didn’t help much but nevertheless a 6th ranked D in the BIG isn’t going to get much done especially when you don’t have a dynamic offense.
 
Turd Ferguson said:
The difference is we have already seen the increased pressure his defense can provide as it was evident in the spring game. We waited 5 years for Chinander to do something other than his base defense.
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I didn’t like all the results, but he changed a lot the year before last. Not as aggressive as White's version, but you're not nearly as passive as the year previous or last year. Domann was part of why he did what he did.
 



CrabHusker said:
I didn’t like all the results, but he changed a lot the year before last. Not as aggressive as White's version, but you're not nearly as passive as the year previous or last year. Domann was part of why he did what he did.
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If you are talking about 2021, I think the biggest reason Chinander could be more aggressive with his linebackers that year was because Damion Daniels did a good job of clogging up the middle and holding the point of attack. That allowed for lot more creativity and aggressiveness on the backside.
 

Warzone said:
LR is a stud but very injury prone. NH was a liability until mid season 2021. After that he really came around.
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Agree about LR, he is a stud. NH is not very good IMO, I don't know how many missed tackles I saw from him, it made me crazy last season and before. He's a great kid but football is not in his long term future.
 
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