So what exactly is wrong with our OLine?

[dand84]

LT: Jaimes - Jr. starting RT in 2017, starting LT in 2018 and 2019.
LG: Hixon - So. walk-on now on scholarship but was a regular sub last year.
C: Jurgens - R.Fr. 4-star TE converted to C.
RG: Wilson - Jr. 2 year starter at RG and a regular sub in 2017.
RT: Farniok - Jr. 2 year starter at RT and regular sub and even starter in 2017.

That is a lot of experience on the line at 3 of those positions and even Hixson worked as a sub last year. It really shouldn't take that long to gel as a unit. Is it really just down to coaching? Are these guys just not good enough? It does look that at least Hixson has lost his job. 3 of these guys are your average 3 star players when recruited just like most other teams in the west.

We are returning 3 starters from a year ago. This line is clearly a lot worse than last year. I don't get it.

 

[TheBeav815]

They look like a bunch of dudes who are trying to do and not just doing. Offense has a terrible case of the overthinks this year and nobody has it worse than the OL.

It's like they get so worried about doing one thing on a play that the other 4 things they need to do go out the window. It's like how everyone thinks they can text and drive. Well guess what, you look down at that phone and you start slowing down and drifting out of your lane even though you've driven a car for years.

Combination of youth and yips IMO. And those things go hand in hand. Yes, you don't have to be 22 to have proper hand placement or footwork. But the thousands of reps you build in those couple years matter.

When you're trying to incorporate doing the physical things well with not getting thrown off by a T-E stunt or knowing 100% who your guy is if there's a line check, or feeling when it's time to scrape off your double team and go get the LB, it matters.

Example is Cam on the snaps. Of course he can snap a ball straight. Of course he can go hit a block. Of course he knows the snap count. So it's all easy, right? Well when his focus is on "go hit that guy as soon and as hard as possible" and suddenly he compromises his snap motion and lobs it in the direction he's pulling.

For whatever reason this team has a HORRIBLE tendency to get in their own head when stuff starts going wrong and overcompensating, overthinking, or both. And when split seconds matter that'll get you killed.

 

[Charlie Marlow]

The OL sucked last year until Farmer took over Center position. Then he graduated. I think we have to wait until next year for a step up in performance. Unless maybe they revamp this mess in the off-week. Why the hell not at this point

 

[MAG]

Like Beav815 stated, this offense especially the O-Line looks way over coached. Trying to process too much info. Maybe the by-week will help.

 

[jeans15]

Just run a fly route 1 time.

How hard is that for a freshmen wr to process?

 

[huskerbaseball13]

A combination of mediocre talent and a coach that is probably out of his element at this point in his career.

 

[mgbreis]

It's a really good question OP, and I think Beav makes some good points as to why. Think about Minnesota, they essentially beat us running a simple counter play. Their offensive line was MAULING guys left and right. Not much thinking involved, just kill the guys in front of you (of course it's more complex than that). Maybe we are getting too complicated, too soon.

 

[headcard]

LT: Jaimes - Jr. starting RT in 2017, starting LT in 2018 and 2019.
LG: Hixon - So. walk-on now on scholarship but was a regular sub last year.
C: Jurgens - R.Fr. 4-star TE converted to C.
RG: Wilson - Jr. 2 year starter at RG and a regular sub in 2017.
RT: Farniok - Jr. 2 year starter at RT and regular sub and even starter in 2017.

That is a lot of experience on the line at 3 of those positions and even Hixson worked as a sub last year. It really shouldn't take that long to gel as a unit. Is it really just down to coaching? Are these guys just not good enough? It does look that at least Hixson has lost his job. 3 of these guys are your average 3 star players when recruited just like most other teams in the west.

We are returning 3 starters from a year ago. This line is clearly a lot worse than last year. I don't get it.

I don't remember Hixon getting any PT last year. I think the only sub that played any meaningful time was Conrad.

IMO there are several issues:
Jurgens just isn't ready yet, I think the staff knows this, but the other options aren't very good so they just roll with him anyway. Hard to imagine going from never playing OL, to starting at Center in the B1G in less than a year.
Hixon probably isn't ready and isn't overly talented. Everyone loves walk-on's but a SO walk-on starting on your OL, is a little troublesome. He has played well at times, but has also been completely overmatched at times.
Farniok really struggles at RT. He isn't very quick and has short arms. I have heard many speculate that he is better suited to play OG and they might be right.
Wilson and Jaimes are both solid, although neither are playing as well as last year.
Losing Decker (injury) and Bland (academics) was a huge blow. Imagine how much better we would be with Decker at C and Bland at OG.

Next year, I think we could show great improvement, if some things fall into place. If Benhart is the real deal and can take over at RT, Farniok can slide inside to OG and Jurgens could/should improve leaps and bounds. Long term, I think guys like Corcoran, Benhart, Jurgens and Teddy P are the kind of high end, talented OL we need to compete, we just have to develop them and get them on the field.

 

[tro80]

There are three juniors with a lot of experience. it isn't youth. And if its too much thinking to handle at this point, then those juniors aren't going to get it, ever (they are well over a year into the system). Time to move on. Was it overthinking that got Hixson trucked? Unfortunately, Hixson is just plain overmatch athletically against BigX D lines/linebackers, IMO. I give Cam a pass this year, but hope he can figure out his snapping issues. The others I am more than ready to move on from. I have seen enough of them not blocking anyone and all standing around when the RB or QB is getting gang tackled at the LOS.

 

[bshirt73]

LT: Jaimes - Jr. starting RT in 2017, starting LT in 2018 and 2019.
LG: Hixon - So. walk-on now on scholarship but was a regular sub last year.
C: Jurgens - R.Fr. 4-star TE converted to C.
RG: Wilson - Jr. 2 year starter at RG and a regular sub in 2017.
RT: Farniok - Jr. 2 year starter at RT and regular sub and even starter in 2017.

That is a lot of experience on the line at 3 of those positions and even Hixson worked as a sub last year. It really shouldn't take that long to gel as a unit. Is it really just down to coaching? Are these guys just not good enough? It does look that at least Hixson has lost his job. 3 of these guys are your average 3 star players when recruited just like most other teams in the west.

We are returning 3 starters from a year ago. This line is clearly a lot worse than last year. I don't get it.

I don't get it either. I could understand them being somewhat average to marginal but being soooooo grossly inept is shocking. It's over my head....

 

[kerpal_68]

Like Beav815 stated, this offense especially the O-Line looks way over coached. Trying to process too much info. Maybe the by-week will help.

The regression in Martinez really stands out here.

 

[slick1979uk]

Farniok and Hixon. A freshman at center due to bad recruiting. Answer complete.

 

[schuele]

I sure hope the people who feel Farniok will perform better if he moves to guard are correct. Color me skeptical.

 

[Child of the Corn]

Strength and conditioning still not where we want it to be? Perhaps they really are physically weaker than the competition.

 

[oldjar07]

From what I see, it doesn't look like they run much full speed stuff in practice. When they get to a game, their heads are swimming because everything is so much faster than they're used to. It's the same thing with the physical side. If you're not used to pushing around 300 lbs guys at full speed in practice, you're not going to do it in a game.

 

[huskerfan66]

From what I see, it doesn't look like they run much full speed stuff in practice. When they get to a game, their heads are swimming because everything is so much faster than they're used to. It's the same thing with the physical side. If you're not used to pushing around 300 lbs guys at full speed in practice, you're not going to do it in a game.

And if that's the case, would explain why the d line looked 2 steps behind against Minnesota

 

[husker2612]

For whatever reason this team has a HORRIBLE tendency to get in their own head when stuff starts going wrong and overcompensating, overthinking, or both. And when split seconds matter that'll get you killed.

I don't remember Bos team having this issue. So Im assuming it started under MR. Which doesn't surprise me because the guy is weak minded so he translated to his team. I know Frost is trying to flip the roster, but my guess is there is till enough MR guys with this mentality that it is still hurting the team. I do wonder if there is trickle down affect as well that is going to the younger guys.

 

[dinglefritz]

The OL sucked last year until Farmer took over Center position. Then he graduated. I think we have to wait until next year for a step up in performance. Unless maybe they revamp this mess in the off-week. Why the hell not at this point

Post of the year.

 

[JaySker402]

do they ever go 1s on 1s? What does the scout team look like? Maybe they are looking really good against an undersized scout team. Should the line be forced to go against the 1st team Dline every practice?

 

[dinglefritz]

I don't remember Hixon getting any PT last year. I think the only sub that played any meaningful time was Conrad.

IMO there are several issues:
Jurgens just isn't ready yet, I think the staff knows this, but the other options aren't very good so they just roll with him anyway. Hard to imagine going from never playing OL, to starting at Center in the B1G in less than a year.
Hixon probably isn't ready and isn't overly talented. Everyone loves walk-on's but a SO walk-on starting on your OL, is a little troublesome. He has played well at times, but has also been completely overmatched at times.
Farniok really struggles at RT. He isn't very quick and has short arms. I have heard many speculate that he is better suited to play OG and they might be right.
Wilson and Jaimes are both solid, although neither are playing as well as last year.
Losing Decker (injury) and Bland (academics) was a huge blow. Imagine how much better we would be with Decker at C and Bland at OG.

Next year, I think we could show great improvement, if some things fall into place. If Benhart is the real deal and can take over at RT, Farniok can slide inside to OG and Jurgens could/should improve leaps and bounds. Long term, I think guys like Corcoran, Benhart, Jurgens and Teddy P are the kind of high end, talented OL we need to compete, we just have to develop them and get them on the field.

Beat me to it on Hixson. He came out of the wild blue yonder this year. I think not so much due to his talent but a dearth of other talent.

 

[bshirt73]

I don't remember Bos team having this issue. So Im assuming it started under MR. Which doesn't surprise me because the guy is weak minded so he translated to his team. I know Frost is trying to flip the roster, but my guess is there is till enough MR guys with this mentality that it is still hurting the team. I do wonder if there is trickle down affect as well that is going to the younger guys.

Heh, interesting........MR leaded us to the bottom of the bucket to be sure. But "something" is very, very wrong but I don't know what it really is. I just can't grasp how horrendously inept our OLine is......I just don't get it. Our kicking/punting game......uuuugh. Penalties, fumbles, dropped passes.....it never stops.

I don't know what is going on.....

 

[oldjar07]

I don't remember Bos team having this issue. So Im assuming it started under MR. Which doesn't surprise me because the guy is weak minded so he translated to his team. I know Frost is trying to flip the roster, but my guess is there is till enough MR guys with this mentality that it is still hurting the team. I do wonder if there is trickle down affect as well that is going to the younger guys.

I don't think it takes that long to fix mentality issues. If the team still has mentality issues, that's on this staff.

 

[otismotis08]

I don't remember Bos team having this issue. So Im assuming it started under MR. Which doesn't surprise me because the guy is weak minded so he translated to his team. I know Frost is trying to flip the roster, but my guess is there is till enough MR guys with this mentality that it is still hurting the team. I do wonder if there is trickle down affect as well that is going to the younger guys.

Hip Hip

 

[oldjar07]

Strength and conditioning still not where we want it to be? Perhaps they really are physically weaker than the competition.

Even if they are physically weaker that doesn't by itself get you blown off the ball right into the qb as soon as the ball is snapped. You can be physically weaker but mentally stronger than your opponent and be able to hold your ground. We don't have a lot of mental toughness at the O line position, or a lot of other positions either.

 

[dand84]

Lots of interesting responses, but not much of a consensus. BTW, Hixon played in 4 games last year, mainly garbage time, and was on the travel squad. So he has game time experience, but "regular" was too strong a word. I think I've captured everything so far?

• Mentality/Complicated Offense
• Key position, center, not being stable enough
• Mediocre talent
• Poor coaching
• S&C
• Not enough "live" practice

I'm not sure I buy S&C and poor coaching. The line, while not great, played better last year, not sure how those two aspects get worse in one year? I have no idea how they practice, are we just guessing there are no "live" practices or is that a fact? My own guess is some combination of the first 3 answers.

 

[rrthusker]

The lack of physicality really jumps out to me. Two of my best friends coach JC football and watched the game with me. Both said that is the least physical OL they’ve seen.
There is no fire in their belly and zero nastiness.

 

[huskerbaseball13]

I don't think it takes that long to fix mentality issues. If the team still has mentality issues, that's on this staff.

Nor does calling a boat load of swing passes per game instill some power mentality.

Unless Frost changes his philosophy, his teams will be just as finesse as the previous guy. His offense may work better but we won’t be looking like Wisconsin any time soon.

 

[otismotis08]

The lack of physicality really jumps out to me. Two of my best friends coach JC football and watched the game with me. Both said that is the least physical OL they’ve seen.
There is no fire in their belly and zero nastiness.

It's been a long while since we've seen nasty players on the OL. Instead just nasty play.

 

[TheBeav815]

I don't remember Bos team having this issue. So Im assuming it started under MR. Which doesn't surprise me because the guy is weak minded so he translated to his team. I know Frost is trying to flip the roster, but my guess is there is till enough MR guys with this mentality that it is still hurting the team. I do wonder if there is trickle down affect as well that is going to the younger guys.

Seriously? That was like the #1 criticism of Bo's teams was they got destroyed in big games and looked like they hadn't ever played organized football and were mentally weak under pressure.

People on here HATED Barney Cotton. Thought there was no way the OL could go anywhere but up under Cavanaugh.

I mean you wanna see a team that looks like nobody coaches them just put this one on. Unranked Wisconsin team that NU had beaten already that year. All they did was figure out the same thing Minnesota just did: That defense couldn't properly run fit if you made them move laterally. Those guys probably still see jet sweep in their nightmares.

 

[jeans15]

Seriously? That was like the #1 criticism of Bo's teams was they got destroyed in big games and looked like they hadn't ever played organized football and were mentally weak under pressure.

People on here HATED Barney Cotton. Thought there was no way the OL could go anywhere but up under Cavanaugh.

I mean you wanna see a team that looks like nobody coaches them just put this one on. Unranked Wisconsin team that NU had beaten already that year. All they did was figure out the same thing Minnesota just did: That defense couldn't properly run fit if you made them move laterally. Those guys probably still see jet sweep in their nightmares.

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And now we look that way against FCS and power 5 teams.

 

[jmliehr]

C is the key to the OL, sets up protection and the point on run blocking assignments. We have a RT that should be a guard, a LT that should be at RT and are undersized at LG.

 

[TruHusker]

The lack of physicality really jumps out to me. Two of my best friends coach JC football and watched the game with me. Both said that is the least physical OL they’ve seen.
There is no fire in their belly and zero nastiness.

There is enough talent, better than most teams we play. The center and guard positions obviously bring that down. Are they the best we have? Why did it take so long to make the change to move Farmer to center last year when it looked painfully obvious there was a problem?

Why didn’t we see these same issues last year? Instead of regressing they improved, and yes the change of center helped. That shows you need your best five out there. Do we now?

Don’t buy the overthinking thing. I don’t see where this O is so complicated it destroys brain cells and causes paralysis. When I watch players get beat one on one, straight up then you have to look at the problem individually first and then the communication between them. But then when you see common problems across the line you have to look deeper to technique and persistence.

I watch them make an initial contact and then release instead of driving their guy back but maybe they do that by design to make everything look like a pass. When was the last time you witnessed a Husker lineman blow a guy back 5-10 yards or drive them to the ground.

Can someone tell me where a coach said M Farniok should be inside? Is that an internet deal or something actually said by a coach.

 

[huskerwa]

The regression in Martinez really stands out here.

Is it really necessary to give the QB's written tests with 800 question (or however many)? Talk about over coaching! The combination of over thinking and bad snaps plus bad Oline play is a recipe for...well, what we are seeing.

 

[yunginsNU2]

Scheme is pretty big.. i havent completely broke down Scott and Gregs scheme but they do a lot of rpo pulling guards tackles and even the center. sometimes intentionally leave defenders on the line unblocked . With the new rules of being able to block down field what 3 yards or something run blocking should be the easiest to teach.. its all about engaging the other guys opposite of you.. getting that initial push should be advantage oline.....its quite a bit different then zone blocking iowa uses or hat on hat wisconsin blocking scheme and it keys on getting to the second level.. lbers.. except these guys are shooting gaps against this scheme and our guys get caught up at the los and sometimes just pushed back.. i like the way stretch zone blocking works cause it gives the rb several options to pick his hole..
On a side note the long run for wandale was blovked so well it was beautiful..everybody did their job and I can only assume this is what they have in mind with their scheme... hopefully a couple years of consistency and drilling it into our guys this becomes the norm.thats my hope anyway.. just my .02 i dont coach but played oline and I watch the guys in the trenches more often before the ball carrier gets the ball and will know whether or not its a + or - gain before he even gets the ball and is what ive noticed..

 

[HuskerBorn]

No nastiness. Need a lot more nasty on that line!

 

[oldjar07]

Nor does calling a boat load of swing passes per game instill some power mentality.

Unless Frost changes his philosophy, his teams will be just as finesse as the previous guy. His offense may work better but we won’t be looking like Wisconsin any time soon.

Frost ran those swing passes all the time at UCF and they worked. It only works if you have the perimeter blocking though, which we don't. It would also help if we had a vertical passing game to open that up, but we don't have that either.

 

[oldjar07]

Seriously? That was like the #1 criticism of Bo's teams was they got destroyed in big games and looked like they hadn't ever played organized football and were mentally weak under pressure.

People on here HATED Barney Cotton. Thought there was no way the OL could go anywhere but up under Cavanaugh.

I mean you wanna see a team that looks like nobody coaches them just put this one on. Unranked Wisconsin team that NU had beaten already that year. All they did was figure out the same thing Minnesota just did: That defense couldn't properly run fit if you made them move laterally. Those guys probably still see jet sweep in their nightmares.

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That Wisconsin game exploited a weakness in our scheme and we also were weak at the safety spot which were tasked with run fits that Wisconsin was able to exploit. It wasn't every big game that Bo got beat, he had wins against good opponents. He certainly hadn't done any worse than Callahan, Riley, or Frost has done in big games.

Barney Cotton was a lot better than given credit for. The biggest issue with his lines was inconsistency. There were times where we were pushing around top 25 teams with ease and other times where we couldn't move an fcs team. He never got close to approaching Cav, or now Austin, level of suckage.

 

[bshirt73]

Nor does calling a boat load of swing passes per game instill some power mentality.

Unless Frost changes his philosophy, his teams will be just as finesse as the previous guy. His offense may work better but we won’t be looking like Wisconsin any time soon.

Wow.....excellent post. It pretty much says it all. You would think that Wisconsin running over us year after year after year would give some folks a clue. Then add how TO won & won & won games. But nope......no way Jose.

 

[phoenix4nu]

All they did was figure out the same thing Minnesota just did: That defense couldn't properly run fit if you made them move laterally. Those guys probably still see jet sweep in their nightmares.

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So is that because of a lack of talent or poor coaching?

 

[TheBeav815]

So is that because of a lack of talent or poor coaching?

Some of it has to be coaching, but it's to me an organizational coaching thing, not a "nobody ever told me where my gap is on run fit or how to tackle" thing. Zero percent chance Barrett Ruud is telling his guys to show up late and half-assed in the run game. But something they're allowing in practice is setting the stage for that.

There is a TON of it, I think, wrapped up in not having guys who are capable of taking a job from somebody. You might suck but the guy behind you sucks even more so we can't demote you for sucking, and also you don't get any better repping against your own team because they suck too.

Of course they're not coached to screw up against the run. But something about HOW they practiced to face that type of outside game didn't translate. To me it looks like the old Callahan defenses did because they weren't practicing striking and tackling good players week in and week out.

Which I understand when you have banged up players at RB and QB and WR but at some point you need reps blocking and tackling against D-1 starters so that you don't find yourself on Saturday going, "Oh, this guy doesn't just quit when I make contact with him...now what?"

This team has a lot of Catch-22 type problems where they can't apply the solution precisely because of the problems they have. They need continued infusion of talent and toughness and that's hard to find on rosters that are 2/3 underclassmen.