I think there are some really big takeaways from week 1 that we as fans can be proud of as the team looks to build from. My thoughts:
We as fans only get to see game days and don't have access to watch the guys compete in each practice. I have reason to believe the coaching staff witnessed some guys that may have struggled with consistency, but have the ability to really turn it on when it matters most - game day. Kieron Williams wasn't awarded a blackshirt yet at times looked like an All B1G safety last night. He can cover receivers, close separation with his speed, and really lay the wood with open-field tackling. I think the coaching staff will struggle to keep him off the field when Reed is healthy and Gerry returns.
Lamar Jackson may have looked like he was getting picked on at times last night, but I think he played exactly into the scheme the coaches wanted him to last night - bend but not break, take away the run and force the redshirt freshman QB to throw style of defense. I could tell they wanted to get him reps as a true freshman and have him play off the receivers until his confidence is higher that comes from more game day experience. I think he will be very very good for us and may eventually move to a safety spot in the future.
Some of the takeaways I got from the game as a group as a whole is our players up front are more physical and seem to play with a higher level of nastiness we've been missing for several years. Watching Stoltenberg, Gates, Knevel, and some of the other big men up front was a thing of beauty at times, especially considering position changes, experience, etc. I think our lines have a ton of upside and as our depth gets better and better under Cavanaugh and Parella we're only going to get better.
Ball swarming on defense - countless times in the past several seasons we've relied on an open-field tackle that either happened and we all breathed a sigh of relief or didn't happen and a big offensive play did happen. I saw some serious ball swarming last night where the ball carrier didn't stand a chance. Countless times Fresno ran the ball and in a blink of an eye the ball carrier was no longer visible and was being wrapped up by 4+ Husker defenders. Our run defense, with our almost unbelievable depth that happened at LB in the past 12 months might be the best we've seen since in a long time.
Conditioning - this might be helped by depth at several positions and strategic substituting, but there were guys running around, even jumping around congratulating teammates on a big play all night. Nebraska was much better conditioned than Fresno last night and it wasn't even close.
Call me crazy but I really think this coaching staff is on to something and I think competing with the big boys, Alabama, Ohio State, etc. is closer than many people think. We're already winning recruiting battles against those schools today. The athleticism we have on our team right now is really really ming-boggling and it's only going to get better. We all know how stacked we are at WRs and knew it coming into the season. What about our RBs? What other programs have 4 solid running backs that they can plug in without skipping a beat? How many of those programs that have 4 solid running backs have a freshman and sophomore back as good as ours? How about LBs? Outside of 2009 and having LaVonte David, you could argue our 2nd string LBs were as good or better than a LB group in the past 6-7 years. Safeties? Corners? We are stacking up on athletes right now which creates competition which ensures the best players see the field. I'm very excited to see what the next 2-3 seasons look like.
I put my money where my mouth is and bought season tickets for the first time ever this year because I see the direction Riley is taking this program and I love it.
PH
We as fans only get to see game days and don't have access to watch the guys compete in each practice. I have reason to believe the coaching staff witnessed some guys that may have struggled with consistency, but have the ability to really turn it on when it matters most - game day. Kieron Williams wasn't awarded a blackshirt yet at times looked like an All B1G safety last night. He can cover receivers, close separation with his speed, and really lay the wood with open-field tackling. I think the coaching staff will struggle to keep him off the field when Reed is healthy and Gerry returns.
Lamar Jackson may have looked like he was getting picked on at times last night, but I think he played exactly into the scheme the coaches wanted him to last night - bend but not break, take away the run and force the redshirt freshman QB to throw style of defense. I could tell they wanted to get him reps as a true freshman and have him play off the receivers until his confidence is higher that comes from more game day experience. I think he will be very very good for us and may eventually move to a safety spot in the future.
Some of the takeaways I got from the game as a group as a whole is our players up front are more physical and seem to play with a higher level of nastiness we've been missing for several years. Watching Stoltenberg, Gates, Knevel, and some of the other big men up front was a thing of beauty at times, especially considering position changes, experience, etc. I think our lines have a ton of upside and as our depth gets better and better under Cavanaugh and Parella we're only going to get better.
Ball swarming on defense - countless times in the past several seasons we've relied on an open-field tackle that either happened and we all breathed a sigh of relief or didn't happen and a big offensive play did happen. I saw some serious ball swarming last night where the ball carrier didn't stand a chance. Countless times Fresno ran the ball and in a blink of an eye the ball carrier was no longer visible and was being wrapped up by 4+ Husker defenders. Our run defense, with our almost unbelievable depth that happened at LB in the past 12 months might be the best we've seen since in a long time.
Conditioning - this might be helped by depth at several positions and strategic substituting, but there were guys running around, even jumping around congratulating teammates on a big play all night. Nebraska was much better conditioned than Fresno last night and it wasn't even close.
Call me crazy but I really think this coaching staff is on to something and I think competing with the big boys, Alabama, Ohio State, etc. is closer than many people think. We're already winning recruiting battles against those schools today. The athleticism we have on our team right now is really really ming-boggling and it's only going to get better. We all know how stacked we are at WRs and knew it coming into the season. What about our RBs? What other programs have 4 solid running backs that they can plug in without skipping a beat? How many of those programs that have 4 solid running backs have a freshman and sophomore back as good as ours? How about LBs? Outside of 2009 and having LaVonte David, you could argue our 2nd string LBs were as good or better than a LB group in the past 6-7 years. Safeties? Corners? We are stacking up on athletes right now which creates competition which ensures the best players see the field. I'm very excited to see what the next 2-3 seasons look like.
I put my money where my mouth is and bought season tickets for the first time ever this year because I see the direction Riley is taking this program and I love it.
PH
