Does high school football in-state need to improve before NU can?

[MillerHighLife21]

I totally understand what you are saying. The issue isn't offense necessarily. Something I have preached for years is that most any offense can be successful. The issue with hiring offensive minded coaches is that is there main focus. Defense becomes an afterthought and is only important when the HC is about to lose his job. Georgia Tech has stuggled defensively even with an offense designed to keep the ball away from opponents they rarely, if ever, finish higher than top 35 in scoring defense.

Nebraska HAS to have a defensive identity. Without a defensive identity, we will be no better than Nebraska from 1973 -1992 (sans 1982-83) 9 or 10 wins, losing to top teams beating the teams we should.

Nothing about Ken N at Navy or Paul Johnson at GaTech shows me that they give a damn about defense. Its nothing more than Mike Leach but with the run instead of the pass.

Maybe. Personally I think defense depends more on recruiting. The style of offense wouldn't really have any negative effect on the defensive recruiting either. The perk of an offense that keeps the ball off the field is that is also helps keep your defense rested.

Leach wasn't ever REALLY successful until his recruiting picked up significantly. At one point his offensive line was as good as any in the country. I'm not a fan of that comparison just based on that.

 

[Tuco Salamanca]

Maybe. Personally I think defense depends more on recruiting. The style of offense wouldn't really have any negative effect on the defensive recruiting either. The perk of an offense that keeps the ball off the field is that is also helps keep your defense rested.

Leach wasn't ever REALLY successful until his recruiting picked up significantly. At one point his offensive line was as good as any in the country. I'm not a fan of that comparison just based on that.

The comparison is just in the attention to defense.

As I said if Johnson's offense is designed to keep his defense rested, they should do much better than middle of the road in scoring defense, but they don't

 

[jflores]

I believe the Clemson poster is neglecting to point out that Iowa didn't have that much of a time beating GT in the Orange Bowl in 2010.

The lack of Paul Johnson recruiting credentials in a talent hot bed is disheartening to me personally.

Nebraska is going to need a guy who can bring in a great recruiting staff and have a dynamic enough offense that B1G teams like Iowa aren't going to just sit on and be fine with playing assignment football and negating half of your plays until you make mistakes and find yourself in a 3rd and too much on the ground n pound.

 

[MillerHighLife21]

I believe the Clemson poster is neglecting to point out that Iowa didn't have that much of a time beating GT in the Orange Bowl in 2010.

The lack of Paul Johnson recruiting credentials in a talent hot bed is disheartening to me personally.

Nebraska is going to need a guy who can bring in a great recruiting staff and have a dynamic enough offense that B1G teams like Iowa aren't going to just sit on and be fine with playing assignment football and negating half of your plays until you make mistakes and find yourself in a 3rd and too much on the ground n pound.

Iowa did a great job in that game. Stopping the offense boils down to whether or not you can stop the dive with your DTs. Every team with quality defensive tackles has good success against Johnson because he doesn't have an offensive line that can match it.

If he did though....

 

[artguy68]

To me, the biggest difference has been the lack of player development and the weakened walk on program. We used to take young in state kids, beef them up for three years, get two good playing years out of them, and send some of them to the NFL. Add to that 15 years of so-so seasons and televised humiliations, and you just don't have the same ingrained desire that kids have to be a Husker.

 

[SoFL Husker]

So 60 year old Paul Johnson, who has trouble getting southern talent to stay go to Atlanta is going to be able to get them to come to Lincoln?

Hard pass

I agree, at this point. And our Frost ship has sailed. Why the hell would he come here after Smilin Mike recruits a pro-style offense for 4+ years??? That is laughable. Nebraska may always be his "home" to fly back for occasional holidays but it won't be his next coaching stop.

Either Riley instills some sort of baseline for success here and now or we turn into a dumpster fire, IMO. Place your bets

 

[SoFL Husker]

I totally understand what you are saying. The issue isn't offense necessarily. Something I have preached for years is that most any offense can be successful. The issue with hiring offensive minded coaches is that is there main focus. Defense becomes an afterthought and is only important when the HC is about to lose his job. Georgia Tech has stuggled defensively even with an offense designed to keep the ball away from opponents they rarely, if ever, finish higher than top 35 in scoring defense.

Nebraska HAS to have a defensive identity. Without a defensive identity, we will be no better than Nebraska from 1973 -1992 (sans 1982-83) 9 or 10 wins, losing to top teams beating the teams we should.

Nothing about Ken N at Navy or Paul Johnson at GaTech shows me that they give a damn about defense. Its nothing more than Mike Leach but with the run instead of the pass.

Most any offense can be successful? In Lincoln? C'mon man. That's why I LOVED Frost so much. I think we can recruit speed to Lincoln, for an innovative offense.

Now, we're trying to be Bama in Lincoln. WR that demand double teams. Elite OL. Perfect execution and timing.

It is what it is...

 

[oldjar07]

Iowa did a great job in that game. Stopping the offense boils down to whether or not you can stop the dive with your DTs. Every team with quality defensive tackles has good success against Johnson because he doesn't have an offensive line that can match it.

If he did though....

The triple option offense can be very successful in college football. Paul Johnson has proven that along with the Navy coach. Unfortunately Paul Johnson has never really had a good defense and hasn't recruited well enough to have a successful offense year after year. Though some years his offenses can be scary good even with average talent, which is why I think the option still could be successful here.

 

[barney44]

Thanks for stopping by. You used your first post to say something on another team's board? Hmmm

I don't know how it works between the team boards but I post over on the soundoff board and have over 20k posts. Over here after the change I no longer have my total post count.

 

[barney44]

I am not sure that is the point. Johnson is a guy that has won 59% of his games at Georgia Tech. He is 60 years old and hasn't shown the ability to consistently win recruiting battles. What is the reason? There has to be one right? In 9 plus seasons at Tech, his teams have finish ranked 3 times with an average record of 7-5 Sound familiar?

The only thing he does that people around here like is he runs the option.

This is exactly why I wonder about people wanting him here. I just don't think it's a good idea.

 

[MillerHighLife21]

I don't know how it works between the team boards but I post over on the soundoff board and have over 20k posts. Over here after the change I no longer have my total post count.

Just as a bit of proof, I posted on one of the free boards on the Clemson side so y'all could see the post count if you want.

https://clemson.forums.rivals.com/threads/muschamp-reacts-to-last-weekend.143953/

 

[jeans15]

I just want to run the offense we ran in the 80s and 90s.

Power I with the option dimensions.

Iso plays, Toss plays, FB runs, play action rollouts, zone read, option.

That offense was plenty versatile.

And fit in perfect with the talent in the state.

That offense would kill in college football today. Imagine if Wisconsin had an option game too.

 

[ellobo]

Only going to get worse with the trend of less kids playing football...

GBR

Exactly, but it is not that black and white. In fact, in some regards it has never been better in terms of training, sophistication, exposure (that coaches have to talent around the nation), etc. However, with kids playing more of a variety of sports and often specializing in one or two by their teens (if not earlier) there are fewer kids playing football AND MORE IMPORTANTLY it has become more regional than ever.

I have long had the (subjective) belief that a significant piece of NU's past success was that kids in the "plains states" simply were overlooked and at the end of the day an athlete is an athlete whether they come from a one stoplight town or a Miami or Dallas. They were overlooked because the cost of uncovering them was too high. NU fed off this because not only did you have quick access to them but in many cases they came to you because their choices were limited (i.e. your walk-on program).

Today, fewer of those kids are being missed. I'm in particular talking about kids who aren't considered elite prospects in high school but develop in college and become elite - kids who in the past would be considered "filler" in your classes or would walk on. My premise: "The bottom 3rd" of your recruiting classes are way down because those "diamonds in the rough" you used to "fill" your classes with are now going to lower tier schools (or playing other sports)...you've lost a past advantage where the depth of your classes where stronger than most.

To come back to your point: Not only has exposure changed things but there is now a larger comparative gap regionally because in some areas football is not down and they are now being better developed. Certain areas of the country have always produced more players because of the obvious culture and population factors but it is has now gotten to the point where if you don't recruit these areas you can't win (while in the past a great recruiting staff...both in terms of evaluation and closing...could put together a great team with mostly local guys and just some cherry picking). In my opinion, Riley and Co are spending the right amount of time in Cali...however, they need to increase their efforts in Fla, TX, GA, etc...and even more so in places like NJ and Maryland where they have enough talent to make it worth the effort AND the kids aren't lining up to go to their local U.

 

[jay-cheese]

Nice post Ellobo. I agree with most of that. You do have to have some ability but our old physical approach of the 80's/90's allowed for walkon's to fill the gaps and perform on a superior level (I don't recall many walkon's really crushing it at the skills positions during that time...maybe a WR or two. Still had to recruit elite skill players like Tommy, LP, Ahman, etc.). That system was built on scheme, effort, and physicality. It wasn't flashy. Didn't lead to a ton a pro success for the skill guys (outside of RB). Personally I never thought we had much probability of success on 3rd and long under that system-but I acknowledge that system was designed to NOT have a lot of 3rd and long situations (more like 3rd down and less than 4 yards). I don't yearn for that style anymore...I really don't b/c you don't have any shot if you don't have 5 lineman that pancake on every play.

Past walk on's get full rides at lower division schools these days. Its one thing when we can offer "come here and play for championships even though we can't help you financially". The 2nd part of that sentence is actually more damning today than they 1st part for us in 2017 (especially if they aren't from this state).

Oh well, was just told Eich was canned a sec ago so we'll see how this goes...

GBR