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I miss our old offense (power football)

Slantsflood7

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Nov 3, 2012
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1. The Shotgun, cute, bells and whistles stuff just opens up a huge amount of things that can go wrong.

2. I guess I admire and miss the way Wisconsin runs downhill out of under center formations.

3. I'm not saying you have to run option. But it's interesting with everyone Scott has coached with, he chose Chip Kelly's offense over Tom Osbornes?

Big red overreaction, I know
 
1. The Shotgun, cute, bells and whistles stuff just opens up a huge amount of things that can go wrong.

2. I guess I admire and miss the way Wisconsin runs downhill out of under center formations.

3. I'm not saying you have to run option. But it's interesting with everyone Scott has coached with, he chose Chip Kelly's offense over Tom Osbornes?

Big red overreaction, I know
I think we all just miss winning. We just happened to run power football while we were winning.
 
1. The Shotgun, cute, bells and whistles stuff just opens up a huge amount of things that can go wrong.

2. I guess I admire and miss the way Wisconsin runs downhill out of under center formations.

3. I'm not saying you have to run option. But it's interesting with everyone Scott has coached with, he chose Chip Kelly's offense over Tom Osbornes?

Big red overreaction, I know
Great post. I wondered that as well.
 
I think we all just miss winning. We just happened to run power football while we were winning.
I think this is true. I remember when Osborne’s teams couldn’t beat the speed schools from Florida and lots of people complained that Osborne couldn’t win the big game because his offense was too one dimensional. We need to remember that 1993-1997 was an anomaly even by Husker standards.

We all have seen the success that Oregon had under Chip Kelly. We saw Frost’s success at UCF. If we were winning games right now nobody would be complaining. The fact is we lack depth and experience on the offensive line, we lack talent at wide receiver and, to an extent, at running back.

So my number one concern right now isn’t whether or not Frost’s offense can work. My concern is recruiting. We are already behind the curve in recruiting this year, and if we have another mediocre season, how much of the gild will off of the Frost lily? That is why the loss on Saturday was so awful. We needed that win to get the momentum going and the media attention ramped-up. Now.... pffffft goes the balloon.
 
Just miss the winning part really.

Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't mind some power/option attack...if it was winning games. I could also watch Mike Leach tear it up at Nebraska tbh.
 
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1. The Shotgun, cute, bells and whistles stuff just opens up a huge amount of things that can go wrong.

2. I guess I admire and miss the way Wisconsin runs downhill out of under center formations.

3. I'm not saying you have to run option. But it's interesting with everyone Scott has coached with, he chose Chip Kelly's offense over Tom Osbornes?

Big red overreaction, I know

Be prepared to be called a db.
 
1. The Shotgun, cute, bells and whistles stuff just opens up a huge amount of things that can go wrong.

2. I guess I admire and miss the way Wisconsin runs downhill out of under center formations.

3. I'm not saying you have to run option. But it's interesting with everyone Scott has coached with, he chose Chip Kelly's offense over Tom Osbornes?

Big red overreaction, I know

You get it. I am of the belief that there are times you MUST manufacture a running game to regain momentum.
That means o-linemen as TE's and FB's and not just a play or two. WEAR THE DEFENSE DOWN.
 
College football today is owned by the South and a few outsiders like Ohio State, and I don't see Nebraska or cu joining that club for quite awhile.


Hope that major black athletes start going to HCBUs.

Dilute the talent pool.
 
They are building the RB position but this is a painful year for their development. They don't have a guy they trust to take a handoff and get 4 yards. I'm also not sure they have 5 OL they consistently trust to create 4 yards worth of running room.

Mo is a talent but he's not "between the tackles" guy. He doesn't really like contact, he's not able to add a lot of muscle. You'd call him a 3rd down back in the NFL. So as a defense you know to key on the outside stuff when he's in the game.

Wandale is better inside than Washington but it's still not how he's best used.

I think we'll be happy with Mills eventually, but the game is moving too fast for him right now. He isn't trusting his eyes and he tends to just ram through the first hint of a gap he sees. So as a defense you know to key on the inside stuff when he's in the game.

What that leaves you with is Adrian Martinez as your inside runner. That's not something you wanna do as a bread and butter offensive cornerstone because you're afraid to get him hurt.

That also leaves the OL unsure how to block because different backs hit the gaps differently. You *should* block the same way every time but you don't though. Chemistry and knowing how guys execute is a real thing.

I think that engine may turn over at some point here and they suddenly will have a game where they blast a team for 300 yards of rushing because it clicks. But right now it's sputters, coughs, brief explosions, but ultimately stalls.
 
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College football today is owned by the South and a few outsiders like Ohio State, and I don't see Nebraska or cu joining that club for quite awhile.

There are 7 Big Ten teams ranked in the Top 25 this week (SEC has 6). We'll never be dominant like in the 90s again, but being a consistent Top 10-20 team should be realistic. If Utah, Washington St, Boise, and Wisconsin can do it, we can't use geography as an excuse.
 
People think they miss power football, but I remember very well people yelling obscenities at the television every time Dr. Tom would run a short-side option or a fullback trap on third and long.

What people really miss is lots of touchdowns and being fresher than the other team in the 4th quarter. Frost's offense really should be able to provide those things.
 
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People think they miss power football, but I remember very well people yelling obscenities at the television every time Dr. Tom would run a short-side option or a fullback trap on third and long.

What people really miss is lots of touchdowns and being fresher than the other team in the 4th quarter. Frost's offense really should be able to provide those things.

While TOs offenses were usually at a minimum, pretty good, they looked better and he looked a lot smarter as a coach during the periods when the talent peaked. Think the Gill/Rozier/Fryer, Taylor/Dubose/Rathman, Frazier/LP, and Frost/Green eras.

Speaking of Ahman Green, I saw him walking down the street in Boulder after Sat's game. He looked about as upbeat as the rest of us 30K NU fans who attended.
 
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While TOs offenses were usually at a minimum, pretty good, they looked better and he looked a lot smarter as a coach during the periods when the talent peaked. Think the Gill/Rozier/Fryer, Taylor/Dubose/Rathman, Frazier/LP, and Frost/Green eras.

Speaking of Ahman Green, I saw him walking down the street in Boulder after Sat's game. He looked about as upbeat as the rest of us 30K NU fans who attended.

Don't forget the Russ Hochstein era!
 
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Especially watching Army against Michigan prior to the Neb/CU game - I absolutely miss smashmouth, power football - it was easier to recruit to - one thing we have in abundance is road grading thick white guys in Nebraska, didn't need to import as many dynamic players, better fit culturally. I think our old power running scheme mixed in with some option would work even better in these days - pretty much no one runs that type of offense now and it is very difficult to prepare for. Even with inferior talent, you can compete with teams much better than you simply by shortening the game and capitalizing on mistake - and when we did have top end talent, we were very tough to deal with for anyone. Seems like teams with a power offense always have very tough defenses, almost like they feed off the offensive philosophy. Eh I am making it sound too easy, but we are just a different shade of gray offensively - our opponents see teams like us multiple times throughout the year and are prepared for us. Makes me puke when I see Wisky and Iowa run a watered down version of our old offense and be (relatively) successful with it, especially against DONU.
 
People think they miss power football, but I remember very well people yelling obscenities at the television every time Dr. Tom would run a short-side option or a fullback trap on third and long.
haha that was a reaction to the play calling on 3rd and long and not a disgust for the power football style the OP referenced. A FB trap on 3rd and long is very questionable play call no matter what offensive style you employ.

Programs like Michigan State, Iowa, and Wisconsin utilize a power run style offense but it is run/pass balanced approach - somewhere between 60/40 and 40/60 depending on the game and circumstances. These offenses operate out of a pro-style formation (Wisconsin and Iowa heavily use a fullback too) and intend to establish the run first in order to set-up the pass. On the spectrum of offense styles, it is on the side opposite of the spread offense. On 3rd and long, they pass.
 
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1. The Shotgun, cute, bells and whistles stuff just opens up a huge amount of things that can go wrong.

2. I guess I admire and miss the way Wisconsin runs downhill out of under center formations.

3. I'm not saying you have to run option. But it's interesting with everyone Scott has coached with, he chose Chip Kelly's offense over Tom Osbornes?

Big red overreaction, I know

We don't have a FB. Sigh.
 
What I don't understand is, in OT when you line up in shotgun with Mo back with AM, the defense knows that he is going to run outside of the tackles, so you don't need to defend as much up the middle. Why not line up with AM in shotgun, with Mills on one side and Mo on the other? Then the defense has to account for both, including a lead blocker as well.
 
1. The Shotgun, cute, bells and whistles stuff just opens up a huge amount of things that can go wrong.

2. I guess I admire and miss the way Wisconsin runs downhill out of under center formations.

3. I'm not saying you have to run option. But it's interesting with everyone Scott has coached with, he chose Chip Kelly's offense over Tom Osbornes?

Big red overreaction, I know
What I don't understand is, in OT when you line up in shotgun with Mo back with AM, the defense knows that he is going to run outside of the tackles, so you don't need to defend as much up the middle. Why not line up with AM in shotgun, with Mills on one side and Mo on the other? Then the defense has to account for both, including a lead blocker as well.
Offenses come and go. When I first started watching college football in the late 70’s the Wishbone was big. Before that it was the Veer. Now they are non existent at the college level. If Osborne would have somehow hung around another 15 years no doubt he would have tweaked/changed your offense some. As more and more people catch onto the Spread you can rest assured something else will come along.
 
Especially watching Army against Michigan prior to the Neb/CU game - I absolutely miss smashmouth, power football - it was easier to recruit to - one thing we have in abundance is road grading thick white guys in Nebraska, didn't need to import as many dynamic players, better fit culturally. I think our old power running scheme mixed in with some option would work even better in these days - pretty much no one runs that type of offense now and it is very difficult to prepare for. Even with inferior talent, you can compete with teams much better than you simply by shortening the game and capitalizing on mistake - and when we did have top end talent, we were very tough to deal with for anyone. Seems like teams with a power offense always have very tough defenses, almost like they feed off the offensive philosophy. Eh I am making it sound too easy, but we are just a different shade of gray offensively - our opponents see teams like us multiple times throughout the year and are prepared for us. Makes me puke when I see Wisky and Iowa run a watered down version of our old offense and be (relatively) successful with it, especially against DONU.
Problem is at the high school level it’s a lot harder to find guys like Frazier or Gill or Taylor because option football is pretty much dead even at that level at least on a percentage basis.
 
Especially watching Army against Michigan prior to the Neb/CU game - I absolutely miss smashmouth, power football - it was easier to recruit to - one thing we have in abundance is road grading thick white guys in Nebraska, didn't need to import as many dynamic players, better fit culturally. I think our old power running scheme mixed in with some option would work even better in these days - pretty much no one runs that type of offense now and it is very difficult to prepare for. Even with inferior talent, you can compete with teams much better than you simply by shortening the game and capitalizing on mistake - and when we did have top end talent, we were very tough to deal with for anyone. Seems like teams with a power offense always have very tough defenses, almost like they feed off the offensive philosophy. Eh I am making it sound too easy, but we are just a different shade of gray offensively - our opponents see teams like us multiple times throughout the year and are prepared for us. Makes me puke when I see Wisky and Iowa run a watered down version of our old offense and be (relatively) successful with it, especially against DONU.

Did Army beat Michigan?
 
What I don't understand is, in OT when you line up in shotgun with Mo back with AM, the defense knows that he is going to run outside of the tackles, so you don't need to defend as much up the middle. Why not line up with AM in shotgun, with Mills on one side and Mo on the other? Then the defense has to account for both, including a lead blocker as well.
Because down a FG in overtime with everything on the line, they don't trust Mills enough to put him in that backfield with Mo.

What I don't understand is where the outside zone read and inverted veer action is. I guess they don't want Adrian getting banged on, I dunno.

They're coaching scared in the aggressive times and coaching aggressive when they need to bleed it.
 
They're coaching scared in the aggressive times and coaching aggressive when they need to bleed it.[/QUOTE]

This is a great point that not enough people are talking about.
 
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College football today is owned by the South and a few outsiders like Ohio State, and I don't see Nebraska or cu joining that club for quite awhile.
totally true.. not sure if you caught the tulane game, but they were pretty impressive in trying to stick with auburn. final score doesn't represent what happened on the field. I don't think you can schedule those kinds of teams, even south alabama, and assume it is a gimmie anymore.
 
If people are talking about championship level football CFB is owned by the south and a few outside element like OSU. Wisconsin Iowa and others in the B1G can be in the Top 25 but are rarely a threat to win it all.

So yes I think NU can be a Top 25 team same as any other B1G squad but if the goal is ultimately championship level football modeling ourselves after a couple of teams that don't win anything of significance unless the big dogs are down is probably not the way to go.

I'll also add in that given what we are trotting out on the field on Saturdays we'd hardly look more dominant out of the Osborne I than we do already. Not having an OL is lethal to power football as well
 
I think this is true. I remember when Osborne’s teams couldn’t beat the speed schools from Florida and lots of people complained that Osborne couldn’t win the big game because his offense was too one dimensional. We need to remember that 1993-1997 was an anomaly even by Husker standards.

We all have seen the success that Oregon had under Chip Kelly. We saw Frost’s success at UCF. If we were winning games right now nobody would be complaining. The fact is we lack depth and experience on the offensive line, we lack talent at wide receiver and, to an extent, at running back.

So my number one concern right now isn’t whether or not Frost’s offense can work. My concern is recruiting. We are already behind the curve in recruiting this year, and if we have another mediocre season, how much of the gild will off of the Frost lily? That is why the loss on Saturday was so awful. We needed that win to get the momentum going and the media attention ramped-up. Now.... pffffft goes the balloon.
Our recruiting momentum just died as did our home run "ohio st" "espn gameday" official visit weekend.
 
They are building the RB position but this is a painful year for their development. They don't have a guy they trust to take a handoff and get 4 yards. I'm also not sure they have 5 OL they consistently trust to create 4 yards worth of running room.

Mo is a talent but he's not "between the tackles" guy. He doesn't really like contact, he's not able to add a lot of muscle. You'd call him a 3rd down back in the NFL. So as a defense you know to key on the outside stuff when he's in the game.

Wandale is better inside than Washington but it's still not how he's best used.

I think we'll be happy with Mills eventually, but the game is moving too fast for him right now. He isn't trusting his eyes and he tends to just ram through the first hint of a gap he sees. So as a defense you know to key on the inside stuff when he's in the game.

What that leaves you with is Adrian Martinez as your inside runner. That's not something you wanna do as a bread and butter offensive cornerstone because you're afraid to get him hurt.

That also leaves the OL unsure how to block because different backs hit the gaps differently. You *should* block the same way every time but you don't though. Chemistry and knowing how guys execute is a real thing.

I think that engine may turn over at some point here and they suddenly will have a game where they blast a team for 300 yards of rushing because it clicks. But right now it's sputters, coughs, brief explosions, but ultimately stalls.
I think this is a very good breakdown of where we're at in the run game. We're not there yet. DO I think we will get there? Yes. Guys have to learn how to play in this offense as a group of 11. When they do, you'll see returns like we saw toward the end of the year last year. It's an extremely inexperienced group as a whole, right down to the QB. We will be fine.
 
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People think they miss power football, but I remember very well people yelling obscenities at the television every time Dr. Tom would run a short-side option or a fullback trap on third and long.

What people really miss is lots of touchdowns and being fresher than the other team in the 4th quarter. Frost's offense really should be able to provide those things.
You comparing Dr Tom to the past 15 years of wtf we've had? Dr Tom would win 9 to 10 games and we had an identity.
 
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