Toughness

[ShortSideOption]

Let's start on offense by not running OOB.

It was interesting with Martinez last year, as he needed to avoid injury. They started using him in the run game more towards the end of the year, and it really helped us gain some momentum. I've showed this clip before but here is an example of our QB being the "power" part of our run game.




There are a ton of variations off that, where you could bring in your "power" back and have him be the hammer and Martinez read the edge. While this concept isn't different from Oregon, it is a way to incorporate the power/speed combo. We just aren't beating people up like we did at Nebraska in the 90s for 50% of the game. We are making them tired tho!

 

[huskrthill]

Love where his heart is, pretty tough to do running the spread tho.

It's certainly tougher on pass plays because the blocking is more passive (for lack of a better word), but that's true of any style of offense, right? But I think you can certainly still punish people on running plays all over the field. Linemen, backs, and receivers can be more aggressive and tenacious blocking for a ball carrier and make opponents feel it.

And let's not forget the other phases of the game - our defense and special teams can certainly strive to "beat the piss" out of teams.

Some of the toughness comes from an attitude, too. If you get banged up on a play, are you going to lay there and show weakness or get back up and play football? Too often in the last several years I've seen guys have to be tended to on the field, only to come back a couple plays later. If you're not actually injured, get up! It's a little bit old school, but it's an attitude that's lacking. I don't want people being stupid about it, but guys need to learn the difference between being hurt and being injured (hat tip to "The Program").

 

[ShortSideOption]

It's certainly tougher on pass plays because the blocking is more passive (for lack of a better word), but that's true of any style of offense, right? But I think you can certainly still punish people on running plays all over the field. Linemen, backs, and receivers can be more aggressive and tenacious blocking for a ball carrier and make opponents feel it.

And let's not forget the other phases of the game - our defense and special teams can certainly strive to "beat the piss" out of teams.

Some of the toughness comes from an attitude, too. If you get banged up on a play, are you going to lay there and show weakness or get back up and play football? Too often in the last several years I've seen guys have to be tended to on the field, only to come back a couple plays later. If you're not actually injured, get up! It's a little bit old school, but it's an attitude that's lacking. I don't want people being stupid about it, but guys need to learn the difference between being hurt and being injured (hat tip to "The Program").

Good post. Offensively, we are looking for more athletic linemen rather than squatty powerful linemen in the 90s.

 

[Husker Country Doc]

It's certainly tougher on pass plays because the blocking is more passive (for lack of a better word), but that's true of any style of offense, right? But I think you can certainly still punish people on running plays all over the field. Linemen, backs, and receivers can be more aggressive and tenacious blocking for a ball carrier and make opponents feel it.

And let's not forget the other phases of the game - our defense and special teams can certainly strive to "beat the piss" out of teams.

Some of the toughness comes from an attitude, too. If you get banged up on a play, are you going to lay there and show weakness or get back up and play football? Too often in the last several years I've seen guys have to be tended to on the field, only to come back a couple plays later. If you're not actually injured, get up! It's a little bit old school, but it's an attitude that's lacking. I don't want people being stupid about it, but guys need to learn the difference between being hurt and being injured (hat tip to "The Program").

I've heard that forever, and I get the gist, but what was the context in the movie, I guess?

 

[huskrthill]

I've heard that forever, and I get the gist, but what was the context in the movie, I guess?

Freshman running back Darnell Jefferson got popped in practice, fumbled, and was laying on the field. The coach asked him if he was hurt or if he was injured. Jefferson asked what the difference was, and the coach told him that if he's hurt he can still play, if he's injured he can't. He said he was just hurt and got back up.

 

[Middle-aged_Ball_Coach]

It's absolutely possible to play power football out of a spread offense. Urban Meyer built a career out of doing it. Anybody remember Ohio State running a spread variation of the Counter Tray until Oregon ran out of bodies? Malzahn is a pass-first guy, but that's why he uses his Buck Sweep so much: it's a power-running look that allows linemen to get out and pancake people. If you bring an H-back/TE in motion behind the line, you can use him as a lead blocker on an ISO type play, you can have him seal the backside for a Counter Tray, and you use him to take out the play-side DE and then pull an uncovered Guard or Center to lead through the hole, and you've got a traditional Blast/Power look.

Frost already runs some of this stuff, and he had a bird's eye view from the booth of Ohio State using a spread variation of Osborne's Counter Tray--a play that Osborne modified for Frost so that Frost would be the ball carrier in '97--so I'm pretty sure that he wants to do that at Nebraska, too. When Frost talked about Mills allowing him to do some things because of his option background, he's NOT talking about Mills being a pitch-back. He's talking about Mills being a dive-back (versus reading the LB as is what is typically done with the Zone running plays), but that also means Mills can do some of the FB Trap looks of old off of that dive-play/Veer option look.

Coming soon to a Sea of Red near you.

 

[Husker Country Doc]

It's absolutely possible to play power football out of a spread offense. Urban Meyer built a career out of doing it. Anybody remember Ohio State running a spread variation of the Counter Tray until Oregon ran out of bodies? Malzahn is a pass-first guy, but that's why he uses his Buck Sweep so much: it's a power-running look that allows linemen to get out and pancake people. If you bring an H-back/TE in motion behind the line, you can use him as a lead blocker on an ISO type play, you can have him seal the backside for a Counter Tray, and you use him to take out the play-side DE and then pull an uncovered Guard or Center to lead through the hole, and you've got a traditional Blast/Power look.

Frost already runs some of this stuff, and he had a bird's eye view in the booth of Ohio State using a spread variation of Osborne's Counter Tray--a play that Osborne modified for Frost so that Frost would be the ball carrier in '97--so I'm pretty sure that he wants to do that at Nebraska, too. When Frost talked about Mills allowing him to do some things because of his option background, he's NOT talking about Mills being a pitch-back. He's talking about Mills being a dive-back (versus reading the LB that is what is typically done with the Zone running plays), but that also means Mills can do some of the FB Trap looks of old off of that dive-play/Veer option look.

Coming soon to a Sea of Red near you.

I think that was all of his highlights i saw of him at GT

Dive back.

 

[Hville]

I seem to remember a certain QB wearing number 7 being both powerful, fast and a little nasty. Really not sure why SF offense can't have skill positions like that.

 

[Red Falcon]

Toughness is the quality that most of the Texas teams lacked for most of this century. All the talent in the world, but no toughness. Even Mack Brown acknowledged it on occasion.

 

[Husker Country Doc]

They say a team takes on the personality of the coach. So I think SF will make this happen.

Also, TO seemed meek and mild, but he was a stone-cold killer. His teams reflected that.

 

[Oracle of Lincoln]

NU wasn’t tough last year? Who knew?

 

[Red Dead Redemption]

NU wasn’t tough last year? Who knew?

Derp.

Tougher than they were the previous 3 years

 

[cthusker]

It's certainly tougher on pass plays because the blocking is more passive (for lack of a better word), but that's true of any style of offense, right? But I think you can certainly still punish people on running plays all over the field. Linemen, backs, and receivers can be more aggressive and tenacious blocking for a ball carrier and make opponents feel it.

And let's not forget the other phases of the game - our defense and special teams can certainly strive to "beat the piss" out of teams.

Some of the toughness comes from an attitude, too. If you get banged up on a play, are you going to lay there and show weakness or get back up and play football? Too often in the last several years I've seen guys have to be tended to on the field, only to come back a couple plays later. If you're not actually injured, get up! It's a little bit old school, but it's an attitude that's lacking. I don't want people being stupid about it, but guys need to learn the difference between being hurt and being injured (hat tip to "The Program").

We've also had years of players "tapping out" after just a couple of plays. Not really hurt but simply tired and requiring a blow or so they thought. RG used to do it all the time which said he really wasn't in great condition. With our new S&C I'm hoping that we see a lot less of players tapping out simply because they had a couple of tough plays...........

 

[huskrthill]

We've also had years of players "tapping out" after just a couple of plays. Not really hurt but simply tired and requiring a blow or so they thought. RG used to do it all the time which said he really wasn't in great condition. With our new S&C I'm hoping that we see a lot less of players tapping out simply because they had a couple of tough plays...........

It's interesting that you bring this up, because I've noticed it as well. I remember even guys like Abdullah tapping out in the middle of a series, especially after a nice run. I've been watching a lot of old games, and that never really happened much under Osborne and Solich.

I also noticed that it happened less last season - guys remained in the game for the whole offensive series. I expect that to continue to get better.

It's a completely different mindset.

 

[huskrthill]

I seem to remember a certain QB wearing number 7 being both powerful, fast and a little nasty. Really not sure why SF offense can't have skill positions like that.

I agree, but it may take some depth to get to that point. I have confidence in our 1's, but I'm thinking the dropoff has been more pronounced than we'd like. That should be getting better, too.