Whelp, my Nebraska public education tells me 7 is 50% of 14, but my Huskermax pessimism tells me you have about a 0.0003% chance of eliciting a response along the lines of, "Dang, you are right."
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The three things a team needs to win and where I’m at with it
- Thread starter Nightman Cometh
- Start date
Solid post
Complementary football. No bonehead OC who refuses to play to any strength we may have. More fit team. More physicality. Better tackling. Yeah. I can deal
Not sure I agree with how you are looking at it …
1. Contributors from last year's team - not returning: Hixon, Bando, Hunter Anthony and Brant Banks
2. Contributors from last year's team - returning: Corcoran, Piper, Lutovsky, Benhart, Prochaska
All 5 of those guys returning have starting experience.
Also re-look at your chart, 14 scholarship offensive linemen, 6 are new (5 incoming true freshmen and 1 fourth year portal transfer and presumed starter Ben Scott)
Assume I’m talking about ‘experienced’ Tom Osborne. I’m not sure what coaching decisions he made to induce untimely turnovers, but to the degree a coach can limit that we’ve already heard about Rhule being very sensitive to a turnover in the red zone in practice.
I was referring to the things in a head coach’s control, like play calling and game management. The only potential turnover I can remember Osborne calling was the fumblerooski!
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It’s pretty simple how I’m looking at it it. We don’t know what to expect out of this line with an almost 50% turnover. You argued we didn’t turn over 50%. Not sure how 7 of 14 isn’t that but whatever.
First of all you can't count. 14 scholarship linemen and 8 (not 7)of them are returning linemen. That's not 50%.
Second, its not about scholarship linemen, it is about experience. Last year NU played 12 games with 5 O-linemen per game .... that is 60 starts!
- Returning players with starts - Benhart, Teddy P, Corcoran, Piper and Lutovsky totaled 36 (60%) of those 60 starts
- Non-returning players with starts - Hixon, Bando, Williams & Anthony totaled 24 of those 60 starts. FWIW Bando and Hixon were 22 of those 24 starts.
We've got 5 linemen returning with starting experience. In addition we have Ben Scott with 28 career starts under his belt.
There is not a team in the B1G West that is returning that much starting experience plus you add in Scott and that group is VERY experienced.
I said it’s hard to judge since our turnover is about 50%. 7 of the 14 were not on the team last year.
IMO if we can't win the battle in the trenches on both sides of the ball then we will not have a winning season. Even with returning players that have starting time doesn't improve our chances of winning games as much as coaching, preparation, and development. Our O line did improve some towards the end of last season but we need to be allot better at run and pass blocking to have a winning season. Protection of the QB and clearing holes for RBs needs to improve. Not sure Raiola can do that so will have to wait until the season starts. 
On D, we need to see a difference maker. At least the ability to constantly get pressure on the QB and stop the third and some downs, and be on the positive side in the turnover category. Not sure the spring game will tell us much but will be interesting to see. I'm refusing to get ramped up about NU football until I see we are a better team then we have been in the last 5 years. HCMR says the right things (but so have past coaches) so need to see players response and how that translates to playing the game next season.
On D, we need to see a difference maker. At least the ability to constantly get pressure on the QB and stop the third and some downs, and be on the positive side in the turnover category. Not sure the spring game will tell us much but will be interesting to see. I'm refusing to get ramped up about NU football until I see we are a better team then we have been in the last 5 years. HCMR says the right things (but so have past coaches) so need to see players response and how that translates to playing the game next season.
You are being pedantic.
Here is the list of the 14 from the link you provided. Please identify the 7 players not on the team last year.
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The five freshmen, Hood, and Scott. I get your point about experience, but there are 7 new guys to be fair.
The ones you didn't highlight and Jacob Hood. And for the record you are the one being pedantic concentrating on something that not only were you wrong on but wasn't my point. You can claim the other 7 are as experienced as you want but that was never my point. My point was that we had about a 50% turnover so we have no idea what this offensive line will look like this next year. And since its universally accepted that last years line, with the experience they had wasn't all that great......maybe we should be optimistic that we have half more to choose from.
Good post I feel the same but am more optimistic on the defensive side of the ball. I also believe they have a very deep backfield hopefully with the new staff the running game will improve. The new staff has certainly shown up and will have their team ready to play with attention to detail.
I think the OL can’t help but be better. Those guys have lacked in care, confidence, and will to win. Those things are correctable. Don’t kill yourself with turnovers and penalties, and they’ll win 8+ games. Go back and look at some past seasons. Get rid of the turnovers, penalties, and you’re winning ballgames. Having a few difference makers can take you next level, but being a fundamentally sound team means wins.
Dreaded last words. I remember thinking during the Riley era that it couldn't get worse than this...then Scott Frost came along. The inner-pessimist in me thinks that it can always get worse.
