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Raiola and O Line

juju

juju

The future starts now.
5 Year Member
Not sure how popular I will be for saying this but, Raiola improved the O Line pass protection.

BB and TP improved on the edges. Our line improved at picking up stunts and blitzes. Much fewer deer in the headlights moments.

We rotated a lot of guys at guard and we didn't see a ton of drop off if any.

They played tough. They took the arrows. They stayed together.

We never saw improvement, and often saw regression under Greg Austin.

All that said, we need to work technique and explosiveness in the run game. Prime example yesterday, they showed backfield view of NN going to block an Iowa D linemen and the Iowa DL stayed squared and just ripped NN with his momentum and out of the play. Handwork and footwork need to continue improving.

Raiola already has recruited potentially more talent this year than GA did in his whole time coaching at NE.

Raiola kept those young men bonded and that isn't an easy task when conventional ground game is a challenge.

Scott was a big portal get. We need another center now behind JEJ to develop.

Pretty amazing to me that we accomplished 5 wins, and were essentially in all the games except for Colorado and Michigan, while leading the country in turnovers.

The O Line gave big clean pockets for 3-4 seconds plenty of times. Our QB decision making and experience squandered many opportunities. On TV you could see WRs running open and not getting a sniff of the ball because the QBs didn't have the timing and calmness to see windows come open.

Our discussion has shifted from repeated O line mistakes more to QB decision making. If we had a freshman 2AM or a Tommy Armstrong big arm mobile QB, we get into a decent bowl game, and would have been in serious discussion for B1G West crown.

That is a big credit to the improvement of the O line under Raiola. Not perfect but improving week to week. Kudos.
 

OP got to agree with you on all points. A lot of nation opinions have said HCMR and Railoa have made due with the talent they had at those positions and they have improved

Many here don’t see it that way but when you have 3 OL starters down and it doesn’t change the betting line that should tell you something about the starters and the back ups and the level of talent they had to work with and how they improved it over the season
 
clove8828 said:
OP got to agree with you on all points. A lot of nation opinions have said HCMR and Railoa have made due with the talent they had at those positions and they have improved

Many here don’t see it that way but when you have 3 OL starters down and it doesn’t change the betting line that should tell you something about the starters and the back ups and the level of talent they had to work with and how they improved it over the season
Click to expand...
Rhule and Satt have both coached the OL. They saw something there they liked so they kept him. And before someone says it, no it wasn't a 5* QB they wanted. But when you've got nothing else I suppose you have to come up with something. The line has gotten better, some just have a problem getting past their bias so they don't see it, or don't want to see it.
 



If we do indeed get Brix in addition to our other commits, there could be much to be thankful for in a few years (if we can get a QB to run an offense at a 65% completion clip without turnovers).

I do understand why Rhule had to go the mobile QB route in the first year with this line.
 
juju said:
Not sure how popular I will be for saying this but, Raiola improved the O Line pass protection.

BB and TP improved on the edges. Our line improved at picking up stunts and blitzes. Much fewer deer in the headlights moments.

We rotated a lot of guys at guard and we didn't see a ton of drop off if any.

They played tough. They took the arrows. They stayed together.

We never saw improvement, and often saw regression under Greg Austin.

All that said, we need to work technique and explosiveness in the run game. Prime example yesterday, they showed backfield view of NN going to block an Iowa D linemen and the Iowa DL stayed squared and just ripped NN with his momentum and out of the play. Handwork and footwork need to continue improving.

Raiola already has recruited potentially more talent this year than GA did in his whole time coaching at NE.

Raiola kept those young men bonded and that isn't an easy task when conventional ground game is a challenge.

Scott was a big portal get. We need another center now behind JEJ to develop.

Pretty amazing to me that we accomplished 5 wins, and were essentially in all the games except for Colorado and Michigan, while leading the country in turnovers.

The O Line gave big clean pockets for 3-4 seconds plenty of times. Our QB decision making and experience squandered many opportunities. On TV you could see WRs running open and not getting a sniff of the ball because the QBs didn't have the timing and calmness to see windows come open.

Our discussion has shifted from repeated O line mistakes more to QB decision making. If we had a freshman 2AM or a Tommy Armstrong big arm mobile QB, we get into a decent bowl game, and would have been in serious discussion for B1G West crown.

That is a big credit to the improvement of the O line under Raiola. Not perfect but improving week to week. Kudos.
Click to expand...
thanks for the post JuJu
 
I seen exactly the block from NN you talked about. I almost think it was a laziness there. He didn’t even have to stretch to get on him and should have been able to grab his hands inside on some jersey. NN should have been able to fire out and get into him with any effort at all.
 
Nehunter88 said:
Rhule and Satt have both coached the OL. They saw something there they liked so they kept him. And before someone says it, no it wasn't a 5* QB they wanted. But when you've got nothing else I suppose you have to come up with something. The line has gotten better, some just have a problem getting past their bias so they don't see it, or don't want to see it.
Click to expand...

I think the Offensive line looked much improved from last year.

That's coaching and player development.

I also believe it was easy for our opponents defense coordinator's to scheme against us due to our league leading turnovers.

Opposing Defensive Coordinator's new that getting after our O line and QB's would create these turnovers and it worked.
 




OL definitely improved over last year, that's beyond dispute, and Raiola has definitely pulled his weight since Rhule's arrival.

Imo, the overall improvement by the OL was unfortunately overshadowed by our horrific ball security. That was a 7-8 win team if they cut their fumbles in half, and I think the overall opinion of the OL would be much higher if that had been the case. They played well enough to get us to a decent bowl game, despite numerous injuries.
 
Raiola is a good coach and person. I’m glad he’s on staff. The players have done a pretty good job overall with an absolutely schizophrenic scheme.

Remember Raiola was an outstanding player at Wiscy. I’ve gotta wonder what our record would be if we did more hat on hat with a fullback. The old school Wiscy or current Iowa offense would almost undoubtedly have us bowling regularly. The kids ran blocked pretty well this season. One of the things the good former OLs did was do a few schemes extremely well. I think that’s the biggest issue—we’re a master of none.
 



juju said:
Not sure how popular I will be for saying this but, Raiola improved the O Line pass protection.

BB and TP improved on the edges. Our line improved at picking up stunts and blitzes. Much fewer deer in the headlights moments.

We rotated a lot of guys at guard and we didn't see a ton of drop off if any.

They played tough. They took the arrows. They stayed together.

We never saw improvement, and often saw regression under Greg Austin.

All that said, we need to work technique and explosiveness in the run game. Prime example yesterday, they showed backfield view of NN going to block an Iowa D linemen and the Iowa DL stayed squared and just ripped NN with his momentum and out of the play. Handwork and footwork need to continue improving.

Raiola already has recruited potentially more talent this year than GA did in his whole time coaching at NE.

Raiola kept those young men bonded and that isn't an easy task when conventional ground game is a challenge.

Scott was a big portal get. We need another center now behind JEJ to develop.

Pretty amazing to me that we accomplished 5 wins, and were essentially in all the games except for Colorado and Michigan, while leading the country in turnovers.

The O Line gave big clean pockets for 3-4 seconds plenty of times. Our QB decision making and experience squandered many opportunities. On TV you could see WRs running open and not getting a sniff of the ball because the QBs didn't have the timing and calmness to see windows come open.

Our discussion has shifted from repeated O line mistakes more to QB decision making. If we had a freshman 2AM or a Tommy Armstrong big arm mobile QB, we get into a decent bowl game, and would have been in serious discussion for B1G West crown.

That is a big credit to the improvement of the O line under Raiola. Not perfect but improving week to week. Kudos.
Click to expand...
Well done sir.
 

I agree that Raiola has made steady improvements with the offensive line. While there is much improvement needed, with the young talent in the pipeline there is hope.

Watching Michigan play OSU, the Michigan offensive line is playing great. This needs to be the standard we shoot for.
 
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