Here. You. Go.

[dinglefritz]

Thanks for the spot on analysis HTO. You certainly stated some of the issues a lot more clearly than I have been able to. Easy to bitch about our defense without looking at the why of the what is going on. I really think EVERYBODY from Riley on down is working their tale off to try to solve our problems there. Sounds like from Riley's interview that there were a ton of blown responsibilities saturday.

 

[jflores]

Well, you missed it then when his hire was announced, I was extremely vocal against it. I eased in to it when Hughes and Stewart were announced as it brings 4 additional sets of eyes that have coordinator experience, one known for having a strong mind with run defense and another that has experience at the highest levels plus the 3-4. My thought was - and still is - maybe, just maybe, the additional experience on the staff, both that didn't work with or for him at Oregon State, will benefit Banker.

It's a mixture of both but that's what I was getting at with the rest of the OP. IMO, @StrongArm517 and you have put too much emphasis in to 1 sentence early on instead of the overall message. The 1 sentence on Banker was more of a qualifier, nothing else. I felt I was clear on that with 5 additional paragraphs, none referencing him whatsoever, but regardless, it's my message and I'll take the blame for not being clear.

Anyone curious what happened up above to where we're at now? Go look at who is in our roster and tell me who the 2 guys are in level 1, 2 guys in level 2 and 2 guys in level 3. I already helped out with (level 1) Collins, (level 2) Bando / Rose-Ivey and (level 3) Gerry. Sure, there's potential however, that's all it is right now.

^^ if former players are saying we need additional talent, I'm not exactly sure how that's different than what I stated in the OP ^^

Now, when the talent gets here - whether it's redshirting or in future classes - if it ever does, can Banker do something with it? For me, that is part of why I posted this...

That potential (talent) has to be coached - just like the potential (talent) had to be coached back in 2009.

Me, I took it the way you seemed to have intended. The only statement contrary was the qualifier in the first sentence. I don't think Strong did though. I did miss you being vocal at the hire, but you have been more of a "wait and see" guy on the board the last few weeks, so I didn't really think you jumped ship all of a sudden. But you had me confused for a minute.

I haven't heard Brown, but Foreman, Benning, and even Carriker have got in on the action. Benning went on a mini rant the other day about how the fan base, its good that folks talked up the staff to the fans and stuff, but fans are probably expecting too much to have Riley come in here and change a bunch of terminology and and everything that goes with a new program, the injuries, and end up with a finely tuned machine. Its not the type of thing where you make a few flashcards and 10 days later you are ready to roll. Foreman overall has been excited about the Cover 4 scheme, and in particular he was excited for the Front 7 but said there's going to be some bumps along the way because those corners are out there like that and we have trouble putting warm bodies into the front. Carriker seems to have morphed a little over time, I think he started out on the "we need to pound the ball a little more" and now his latest blog post that someone posted seemed to indicate that he thought our identity was a Air Raid throw the ball type of offense.

The overall tenor of the former player base seems to be, sh*t happens and these guys are putting in work, don't throw the baby out with the bath water. Remarkably calm, if you wanted my opinion.

 

[jflores]

No, we're not. Pass defense, we're one of the worst if not the worst. Run defense, not the case through four games. Overall defense, your hyperbole is noted. We've faced 2 of the top 31 scoring offenses in the country, through 4 weeks. In both of those games, we've held them under their scoring average so one can't say the reason their scoring offense is ranked so high is because they played NU.



Nothing to chew on, Mark Banker - and coach Riley - aren't going to have 10 years to, as you hint, "figure it out" like coach McBride did. Also, the knock on McBride wasn't his defense from game 1 to game 12, 13 or 14. The knock on his defense was it couldn't stop a couple teams a year, mostly come bowl games when Miami, Florida State & Georgia Tech had their way with us before the change to the 4-3.

Let's not recreate history, coach McBride had some damn fine defenses prior to 1992...

He had some really bad ones too. Its pretty much baked into Husker lore at coffee shops around the state that a big chunk of the reason that Osborne went for 2 in the Orange Bowl was because he had little to no faith in his defense stopping Miami.

 

[jflores]

I'd feel a lot better about the future if we were lighting it up on the recruiting trail. But we were sitting about 40th last time I checked, behind most of the teams in our own division. It's kind of concerning as the first full recruiting class is often pretty strong for new coaches (Callahan 2005). I know there is a lot of time until signing day and I'll admit I don't follow recruiting closely, but it seems like I haven't heard about many top prospects still on our radar.

I don't know that I'm concerned yet about the class. There's teams in our division that have more recruits than we do, but I feel good about the overall athleticism and capabilities of the guys we have in the stable. I'd much rather have our class, than Iowa's, who is ranked ahead of us by virtue of number of commits, but their head liner is probably Noah Fant. Fant a decent pickup, but probably not a "class jewel" in the traditional sense.

 

[500mileRadius]

He had some really bad ones too. Its pretty much baked into Husker lore at coffee shops around the state that a big chunk of the reason that Osborne went for 2 in the Orange Bowl was because he had little to no faith in his defense stopping Miami.

Comments like this show how stupid our fans are, or that they don't remember history. NU scored the final TD in the 1984 Orange Bowl with 0:48 left in the game.

 

[jflores]

Comments like this show how stupid our fans are, or that they don't remember history. NU scored the final TD in the 1984 Orange Bowl with 0:48 left in the game.

Yah and if Osborne went for 1 to tie the game, he probably doesn't have to worry too much about them scoring in 48 seconds, but he does have to worry about the defense holding up in OT with Miami at home.

 

[headcard]

No OT in 84.

 

[jflores]

No OT in 84.

I was 2

 

[Nebraska Gator II]

No OT in 84.

Correct. Kick the extra point and Nebraska is talking about 6 MNC's instead of 5 right now.

 

[Bremser]

I was 2

No excuses, J.

 

[Harry Caray]

I don't know that I'm concerned yet about the class. There's teams in our division that have more recruits than we do, but I feel good about the overall athleticism and capabilities of the guys we have in the stable. I'd much rather have our class, than Iowa's, who is ranked ahead of us by virtue of number of commits, but their head liner is probably Noah Fant. Fant a decent pickup, but probably not a "class jewel" in the traditional sense.

I understand we have a small class so far (though we are about even with Minnesota in terms of both size and average stars). I hope Riley can fill the recruiting class with quality players. One thing I hated about Bo was that he often signed small classes and then gave a bunch of scholarships to walk-ons, and that's a big reason our depth has sucked recently.

From history and what I've seen so far, Riley/Banker are going to need top talent to compete for championships. I don't see him outcoaching Urban/Harbaugh/Dantonio with inferior talent. It's going to take consistent Top 15-20 recruiting classes IMO.

 

[WiscoSker]

I'd feel a lot better about the future if we were lighting it up on the recruiting trail. But we were sitting about 40th last time I checked, behind most of the teams in our own division. It's kind of concerning as the first full recruiting class is often pretty strong for new coaches (Callahan 2005). I know there is a lot of time until signing day and I'll admit I don't follow recruiting closely, but it seems like I haven't heard about many top prospects still on our radar.

Pretty much where Riley always finished + 5-10 spots because he's recruiting to Nebraska now.

Perhaps Riley is more concerned about what kind of omelet he's going to have at the Embassy Suites complimentary breakfast each morning.

 

[HuskerTimOmaha]

Perhaps Riley is more concerned about what kind of omelet he's going to have at the Embassy Suites complimentary breakfast each morning.

Perhaps you should get with the times, he bought two houses last month.

 

[planored]

It took Wisco a good week to finally finish reading the article HTO, be nice to him

 

[StrongArm517]

Request #2 to share...

OK well I am reading these guys on twitter and they are very supportive and just calling for better execution.
Jason Peter,,,,
"schemes are good,"
Ralph Brown, @foreman5655 Great sack but now someone needs to teach Freedom how to throw the bones"
Jay Foreman.."I'm a fan of the University's coach, period."
"that was past coaches stupid move, "no development"

 

[HuskerTimOmaha]

Okay, thanks. As I already stated, you locked in on one sentence and dismissed the entire package. There isn't anything they've said that I disagree with, or posted opposite of.

 

[WiscoSker]

Perhaps you should get with the times, he bought two houses last month.

Good. Maybe our recruiting class will improve now.

 

[dinglefritz]

Perhaps you should get with the times, he bought two houses last month.

Hmmm. Two houses? Another family member moving to Lincoln too? I don't know if anybody has tried to buy or build an upper tier home lately, but its tough to find something that you like that has everything in it that you want. If you find something close it can take months to get it updated to where the Mrs wants things. The hotel arrangement was actually a great arrangement for him to be close to work and get things done without screwing around with the homeowner crap. He's been working his tail off.

 

[Archie Graham]

@Archie Graham brought something up in a different thread, one that I'll include here....



Interesting you say this, 15 seasons should be a large enough sample size.

Number of teams that give up less than 400 total yards a game
2014 - 69 defenses (Nebraska 383.7)
2013 - 62 defenses (Nebraska 370.7)
2012 - 65 defenses (Nebraska 360.6)
2011 - 75 defenses (Nebraska 350.7)
2010 - 82 defenses (Nebraska 306.8)
2009 - 87 defenses (Nebraska 271.3)
2008 - 91 defenses (Nebraska 349.8)
2007 - 68 defenses (Nebraska 476.8)
2006 - 108 defenses (Nebraska 331.8)
2005 - 76 defenses (Nebraska 332.1)
2004 - 79 defenses (Nebraska 371.6)
2003 - 77 defenses (Nebraska 297.1)
2002 - 80 defenses (Nebraska 361.9)
2001 - 78 defenses (Nebraska 287.1)
2000 - 79 defenses (Nebraska 321.8)

I suppose I should have been more careful with my wording.

It's not that a single number is the one to focus on, e.g., 400 yards, but that the most important metrics for overall success is the turnover margin and PPG. I'm perfectly fine giving up 450 yards if we generate a turnover or two and hold opposing offensives to 21-28 PPG. This, of course, has to be coupled with a good offense.

 

[suhnami]

If we were giving up less than 400 yds/game we'd probably be 4-0.

That'd be about a 10% improvement. That's all it'd take. We're not asking for miracles Banker!!!!

 

[nebcountry]

Gonna ramble a bit, hopefully it comes to a point. We're running a quarters defense. From what I understand it helps to involve ALL players in stopping the run game. I don't know how much the DB's have been contributing in stopping the run game. If someone has a stat breakdown on where the DB's are getting their tackles, I would like to see them. Bump and run coverage is counter to involving DB's in the run game (at least by my opinion), because the DB is placing himself to be blocked if it were a run. The safeties are playing up, giving you hypothetical or actual "more players in the box". The weakness shows up in pass protection (captain obvious). Banker is on record that he wants to run the base defense most of the time. Now, I don't know if we're running the base defense most or any of the time. But, I took his statement as a "one size fits all" type declaration. We need to run packages scheme wise and personnel wise to do better against the pass.

(IF you are a "post is too long" whiner, than you can quit at this point as the rest is just window dressing)

Not that I have compendium of research, but from what I've ever seen, a defense is in trouble when the DB's account for a large portion of the tackles. And so far this year, the DB's are accounting for a bunch (BTW, I stopped after the top 25 in the list below). The data is "clouded" though, because opposing teams have COMPLETED more passes than they have run the ball. I don't have the season average stats in front of me, but seems like opposing teams have completed around 26 passes per game. Subtracting out sacks, opposing teams have run the ball around 24 times per game. Teams have COMPLETED more passes than they are running the ball against us.

So, are the DB's really helping to make a good run defense, or are they mostly an unused allocation that would be better used in pass defense? I don't know the answer to that question (at least the "unused allocation" part). Also, before anybody wants to run tangent and extreme with this, I'm not suggesting that a CB is ever given run stopping as their primary or ultimate responsibility.

Do we need two good players at each level on defense. I don't know, but definitely the more the merrier. I do know that "one size doesn't fit all" when it comes to defense. I do know that holding a team to 18 yards rushing is great, but holding a team to 80 yards rushing is also great especially if it means our pass defense is better than atrocious.

Is it a talent problem, a problem with the players, or Banker's problem. Banker is the DC, no matter how you slice it, it's Banker's problem. It becomes Riley's problem if Banker can't fix it.

 

[Nebraska Gator II]

Gonna ramble a bit, hopefully it comes to a point. We're running a quarters defense. From what I understand it helps to involve ALL players in stopping the run game. I don't know how much the DB's have been contributing in stopping the run game. If someone has a stat breakdown on where the DB's are getting their tackles, I would like to see them. Bump and run coverage is counter to involving DB's in the run game (at least by my opinion), because the DB is placing himself to be blocked if it were a run. The safeties are playing up, giving you hypothetical or actual "more players in the box". The weakness shows up in pass protection (captain obvious). Banker is on record that he wants to run the base defense most of the time. Now, I don't know if we're running the base defense most or any of the time. But, I took his statement as a "one size fits all" type declaration. We need to run packages scheme wise and personnel wise to do better against the pass.

(IF you are a "post is too long" whiner, than you can quit at this point as the rest is just window dressing)

Not that I have compendium of research, but from what I've ever seen, a defense is in trouble when the DB's account for a large portion of the tackles. And so far this year, the DB's are accounting for a bunch (BTW, I stopped after the top 25 in the list below). The data is "clouded" though, because opposing teams have COMPLETED more passes than they have run the ball. I don't have the season average stats in front of me, but seems like opposing teams have completed around 26 passes per game. Subtracting out sacks, opposing teams have run the ball around 24 times per game. Teams have COMPLETED more passes than they are running the ball against us.

So, are the DB's really helping to make a good run defense, or are they mostly an unused allocation that would be better used in pass defense? I don't know the answer to that question (at least the "unused allocation" part). Also, before anybody wants to run tangent and extreme with this, I'm not suggesting that a CB is ever given run stopping as their primary or ultimate responsibility.

Do we need two good players at each level on defense. I don't know, but definitely the more the merrier. I do know that "one size doesn't fit all" when it comes to defense. I do know that holding a team to 18 yards rushing is great, but holding a team to 80 yards rushing is also great especially if it means our pass defense is better than atrocious.

Is it a talent problem, a problem with the players, or Banker's problem. Banker is the DC, no matter how you slice it, it's Banker's problem. It becomes Riley's problem if Banker can't fix it.

I didn't pay much attention to what defense Nebraska played the first 3 games. However, last game, Nebraska ran man cover 1 almost every play all game. They matched up on the receivers with the corners, moved one safety into the box and kept one deep safety. From there, they played man to man. Having the safety in the box helps to stop the run and Nebraska blitzed quite a bit to try and get early pressure on the QB.

 

[SilentCommit]

To my uneducated eye, our defensive scheme more closely matches Ohio State's than it does Michigan State's. I do know that, injuries aside, our talent is better than dead last in pass defense. This scheme, taught well, with the right players, can be insanely effective. We should stick with it and recruit to it as a long term strategy. In the short term, it's up to our coaches to make tweaks. What we've learned with this current roster is that we can stop the run or stop the pass, but not both. Our defense needs balance.

 

[WiscoSker]

To my uneducated eye, our defensive scheme more closely matches Ohio State's than it does Michigan State's. I do know that, injuries aside, our talent is better than dead last in pass defense. This scheme, taught well, with the right players, can be insanely effective. We should stick with it and recruit to it as a long term strategy. In the short term, it's up to our coaches to make tweaks. What we've learned with this current roster is that we can stop the run or stop the pass, but not both. Our defense needs balance.

Good news. We'll just all keep our fingers crossed that Banker is able to improve upon his history of crappy defense.

In the meantime, we'll just watch our Huskers get scorched, all in the hope that the future may be different from Riley's and Banker's past.

Some people here sound like the Cubs fans claiming Bartmann was the reason for them sucking for years.

 

[headcard]

Good news. We'll just all keep our fingers crossed that Banker is able to improve upon his history of crappy defense.

In the meantime, we'll just watch our Huskers get scorched, all in the hope that the future may be different from Riley's and Banker's past.

Some people here sound like the Cubs fans claiming Bartmann was the reason for them sucking for years.

Do you really need to state the same thing a thousand times? Can't you just put it in your signature or something?

 

[WiscoSker]

Do you really need to state the same thing a thousand times? Can't you just put it in your signature or something?

Truth hurts.

 

[HuskerTimOmaha]

Do you really need to state the same thing a thousand times? Can't you just put it in your signature or something?

It's what Blo-hards are known for.

 

[SilentCommit]

Good news. We'll just all keep our fingers crossed that Banker is able to improve upon his history of crappy defense.

In the meantime, we'll just watch our Huskers get scorched, all in the hope that the future may be different from Riley's and Banker's past.

Some people here sound like the Cubs fans claiming Bartmann was the reason for them sucking for years.

Well, I can't stop you from lamenting where we are at as a program. You go right on suffering, and do be sure to share it with all of us. That way we'll be aware that you've been right the whole time. Good for you! As for me, please pity me, as I continue to enjoy watching Nebraska Football.

 

[SDhusker12]

For me it's hard to hate Banker right now. The fact that he has thrown everything at the problems on defense at least show he is willing to change(even in game), Miami was a great example of this.

Couple that with the injuries which are at critical low depth positions and it's really hard to hate him.

At some point excuses have to stop, but Banker so far get's an A for effort. D+ for execution.
The schedule from here on gives him a chance to improve that grade substantially against teams that for the most part(Minus MSU) have much less talent.

How he fares against the B10 west will be very telling.

I can agree with your statement. Very well put. I, personally, dont like his style, but I do not question his effort so for that you are correct A for effort and, so far, D for execution.