Nebraska Football Looking Back and Forward

Cowboy Up Ryker, the Huskers head to Nashville!

Anyone have an extra starting quarterback, running back and wide receiver?  How about a starting free safety?  Just asking because the Nebraska team that started 2016 won’t be playing in this bowl game against Tennessee.  Tommy Armstrong, Nathan Gerry, and Jordan Westerkamp won’t be playing and Terrell Newby is banged up, along with Tre Bryant.  You would have hoped that having four weeks off from the last game would allow some guys to get healed up, but the season took a large toll on this team.  I would tell you that it may be this way for a couple of seasons.

Normally when a new staff takes over, there is an acclimation period that players and coaches alike have to account for.  That happened in 2015, as Nebraska struggled through one of the three worst seasons in fifty years and finished 6-7, but won their bowl game against the UCLA Bruins.  That started off a hot off-season that included a big finish to recruiting in February and snowballed into a 7-0 start in 2016.  Heading into Madison Wisconsin things looked like they were finally headed in Nebraska’s favor for a change.

Something was happening along the way though, that if you looked closely, you could probably see it, but to the standard look, nothing seemed out of the ordinary.  Nebraska was suffering injuries along the way, as most teams do.  However, as the injuries started to pile up, Nebraska’s depth was exposed along the way and by the time they played Iowa, the depth issue was a gash that was torn open and inoperable.  Under Bo Pelini, Nebraska always under recruited.  It was going to show in time, probably last season showed it, but we didn’t truly understand it until 2016.

Nebraska has had one scholarship quarterback work out in 5 years.  One.  That’s not only poor recruiting, it was poor development once the players stepped foot on campus.  AJ Bush, Zach Darlington, and Johnny Stanton littered the sidelines as appendages that just don’t fit on a normal roster.  Tommy Armstrong has played basically every game since his redshirt freshman year, with no development behind him.  Ryker Fife has been his back up for two years.  Prior to that, Ron Kellogg, another walk on was a backup.  You simply can’t have a major college football team that has success if your lifeline of backups are walk-ons.  And that is just part of the story.

When Coach Riley arrived at Nebraska, the offensive line looked stocked with some really big upper classmen, some of who you would think would have been able to step in and play and be successful.  They did alright in 2015, but when they left, there were hardly any seniors and juniors to replace them.  Players like Zach Hannon and Dwayne Johnson should be playing every game as upper class leaders.  Neither of them sees the field.  

And when was the last time we had a scholarship center on the roster.  Coach Pelini has played more walk-ons (Mike Caputo, Mark Pelini and now Dylan Utter, a Pelini recruit and Riley player) at center than I can remember playing for the 30 years prior to that.  I’m not saying the walk on tradition doesn’t help, but it can’t be the skeletal support of your entire offensive line. Thank goodness those guys could play or who knows where Nebraska would be.

Throw in a lack of upper class tackles and you have a recipe for disaster should injury strike.  Well injury did strike and it hit with authority.  Tanner Farmer, Gerald Foster, Nick Gates, David Knevel, Dylan Utter and Corey Whitaker all suffered injuries this season that cost them multiple games or even just bits of important games.  There were barely any live bodies to play some days.  You could argue that the four redshirting offensive lineman probably should have played this year, at least a couple of them, but when you are trying to build depth, you sacrifice a lot if you can’t redshirt an offensive lineman.

The point I’m trying to make is, whatever your thoughts on Bo Pelini are, he did a terrible job recruiting quarterback and offensive line during his time at Nebraska.  If you want to win in any conference, especially the Big Ten, you need offensive line depth and quarterback depth.  Hell, you need depth everywhere.  There were times under Pelini’s tenure that we were using less than 80 scholarships out of 85 available and wound up giving them to walk-on players, even if they were just special teams stalwarts.  Basically it’s like putting yourself on probation.  Only Pelini did it to himself and it snowballed on Coach Riley.  Imagine if Nebraska had used those ‘ships on a backup quarterback or a few lineman that panned out. The Iowa game probably has a completely different outcome.

This type of system is hard to overcome.   Redshirting Patrick O’Brien and the entire offensive line class should be a start.  Throw in Tulane transfer quarterback Tanner Lee and spring semester enrolling freshman Tristian Gebbia and the quarterback position should start to shape up in 2017.  Another line class of four to five lineman to redshirt next fall will finally get the numbers where they need to be for 2018.  Yeah, 2018.

So remember while watching this bowl game and seeing all these underclassmen playing vital roles for the Huskers, including key positions like quarterback and running back, it didn’t just happen overnight.  It’s been on the come for nearly five years, it’s just that this time, you are seeing it without a magnifying glass.

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Quick Notes:

Next year’s team will look a lot different. A new starting quarterback, new wide receivers and new tight ends will have to step up big time next year.  Tanner Lee probably has the inside job to lead the offense at QB, but it will be a lot of young guys playing wideout and tight end next year.  Names like JD Spielman, David Engelhaupt, Matt Snyder and Jaevon McQuitty that you have probably not even heard of will have prominent roles on offense.  That’s a heavy dose of change for next year.  Those players that are on campus have had a lot of extra practice during the bowl prep.  They are going to need it.

Finally a committment. Nebraska went over three months without a verbal commitment for their 2017 class.  During that time there were two de-commitments and it felt like the wheel had come to a stop.  A third linebacker added to the class finally broke the ice on Christmas Day.  I expect Husker fans to get a couple more jolts at high school all-star games in January, but the really big fish might not commit until signing day in February.  It’s a different strategy for recruiting than the prior staff had, but if you want to truly get the type of players needed to win big, sometimes you have to wait until the end.  Let’s hope Nebraska finishes as well as they started.  I would tell you the 2018 class is one to watch, Nebraska is already on some pretty big name kids.  It could be the best in a dozen years.  Things are pointing up for the Huskers in that respect.

Tennessee will probably play really well.  Tennessee has had a disappointing season.  The Volunteers were supposed to be in contention for the SEC east title this year.  They did manage to beat Florida for the first time in eons, but the rest of their season fell flat.  Tennessee has really underachieved this season, but for some reason I think they will come ready to play the Huskers.  A semi-home game in Nashville will probably have the natives fired up.  I expect this team to come out with a chip on their shoulder.

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Score Prediction:

Out of all of my picks this year, the only games I felt uneasy with were Ohio State and Iowa.  I thought and still feel like Nebraska should have beat Wisconsin.  I picked the Huskers in each game, even though I probably knew in my head they weren’t going to beat the Buckeyes and I didn’t think that the Huskers were healthy enough to steal a game in Iowa City.  I generally pick with my heart as well, which doesn’t always make you look very smart.  I’m not going to pick the Huskers on Friday.  There are just too many things that have happened since Madison, some of which I wrote above to make me think playing a road game against a team loaded with great athletes is going to get us a win.  I want the Huskers to close out well, but I just don’t see it, Tennessee 31 Nebraska 20.  I really hope I’m wrong.  As always, GBR!!

Editor’s note:  For any of you that have read this blog, I want to say thank you!  We wanted to add a feature to a great Facebook page and when I was asked to write the blog, I was excited, if not a little intimidated. Cornhusker Memes does great work making us all laugh with their clever quips and funny takes on Husker football and all things bashing Iowa. ☺  I told them I would probably chase away followers, but they told me to do it anyway and I’m glad they did. I hope all of you have a great Holiday season and thank you for a fun 2016 Husker Football Season!

Husker Volleyball, Football, and Basketball Oh My!

Nebraska Volleyball Makes another Final Four

I’m not going to sit here and pretend I’m some volleyball expert.  At least that’s what I tell myself when I watch Nebraska’s volleyball team make short work of the Washington Huskies in their run up to the NCAA Final Four.  What I will tell you is that when you watch this year’s squad, I’m left in amazement sometimes at their efficiency and their will to win.  

It’s no secret that Head Coach John Cook has a machine going right now in Lincoln.  I think most national and local pundits would tell you that of all the athletic programs at Nebraska right now, women’s volleyball is the most powerful gem in an otherwise average ring at the moment.  And while football drives the bus, and basketball has the shiniest seat, volleyball occupies all the important seats and draws more attention than anything else in the Star City right now.

How did we get so lucky?  Well there are a number of reasons that Nebraska has risen to this position, most of them too numerous to count.  Terry Pettit of course started this juggernaut and it could be argued that John Cook has been the best hire in the athletic department since Bob Devaney anointed Tom Osborne the head of all things football.

The thing that is amazing this season is how seamlessly Nebraska brought back a core from last year’s surprise National Championship run and integrated two transfers from other programs and may have made the team even better.  Coach Cook has hit his apex in my opinion, and we need to enjoy it.  Nebraska loses a lot of players from this team, including the best sister tandem in the land in Amber and Kadie Rolfzen.  I know Coach Cook generally just reloads, but something tells me this team and this type of team may never come around again.  Imagine, getting Texas in the Final Four….again.  And then imagine if they get past the Longhorns getting an opportunity to avenge their last loss against Minnesota in the final.  These scenarios could play out this week, all too fitting in my opinion.

I think Nebraska can and will win this tournament, I think they had their trying moment facing match point against Penn State and coming back to win the entire game down two sets.  I think this team is too focused and too good to let down in Columbus this weekend.  Of course, as I said before, I’m certainly no volleyball expert.  Either way, GBR!

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Quick Notes:

Tommy Armstrong played with a torn hamstring. We all knew that Tommy Armstrong was less than 100% when Nebraska played Iowa a couple weeks ago.  Now we find out that Tommy has a torn hamstring and that the only reason he played was probably because Ryker Fife couldn’t take snaps with his broken wrist.  No matter what you think of Tommy, the fact that he played basically on one leg has to go down as one of the gutsier performances in recent memory.  Regardless, it shows how bare the cupboard is, when our only option is a quarterback that shouldn’t even be playing in a game.  If there is anything that needs to be rectified in Lincoln it is the quarterback situation.  You can’t be in that type of quandary at that position.  It just can’t happen at a place with as many resources as Nebraska.

Recruiting needs a jolt. If you follow recruiting at all, (and if you don’t, don’t start, it’s a thankless marriage with too many ups and downs) Nebraska has had a bit of bad luck missing out on a lot of targets the last couple of months.  A recent decommitment the day before the “dead period” was certainly not the momentum builder the coaches probably were looking for.  Never fear though, as with most classes, Nebraska will end up with a handful of great players in this class regardless of what has transpired this last couple of months.  I won’t get into the nuts and bolts of it, but Nebraska is sitting very well with a lot of highly rated recruits.  

I often feel like Nebraska is on its way to really breaking this recruiting thing open, but it hasn’t come without some bumps in the road.  I would tell you that the recent addition of Donte’ Williams to the staff replacing assistant coach Bruce Read was done all in the name of recruiting.  Head Coach Mike Riley understands the importance of it.  That’s why if you follow recruiting and are getting restless, I say be patient, there is a lot left on the table.  If you don’t follow recruiting, I say kudos to you!  I wish I had never started.

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Basketball Season has been up and Down.  I haven’t touched much on Husker basketball lately, but I’m going to touch a little on the men’s team.  Coach Tim Miles has a schedule that is rated number 1 in how difficult it is.  That can have a good and bad result.  The bad is, the record that Nebraska has is probably nowhere near where we all wanted it to be.  The good is, this team is really young and gained a great experience.  Outside of Tai Webster, there isn’t one player that couldn’t use a good dose of playing against some of the best teams in the country.  They have had that now.  Regardless, no matter who Nebraska plays in their own conference, they should have the confidence that they can play with anyone.

Nebraska’s chances at the NCAA tournament probably vanished when Andrew White left the team this last summer, but their chances of getting in the NIT still remain and Nebraska may be a difficult place to play this winter for any team in the conference.  You never know how a season will pan out, but I think this year could be a fun year for some growth, even if there are some growing pains.

As always, GBR!!

Nebraska gets a Bowl Game, but the Transition Starts Now!

Donte' Williams, New Husker DB Coach

The last time I wrote this blog, Nebraska was gunning for a tenth win in the regular season for the first time since 2001, with an outside shot at possibly playing for a Big Ten title and even still with an outside shot of playing in the Rose Bowl.  And then this giant thud happened in Iowa and the Huskers have went from having a very successful season to a transition that has been a long time coming.

Despite getting blown out by Iowa in a game that was probably less close than the 30 point score would lead you to believe, Nebraska is closing the door on the Bo Pelini era.  Mike Riley has done a good job getting this team to rebound from the previous year’s debacle, but they just weren’t quite ready for prime time this year, at least not without a healthy Tommy Armstrong.

In college football, much like the pro game, a team only goes as far as the quarterback can take them.  If you aren’t Alabama or Ohio State and recruit four star kids at every position, the only shot you have to win a national title is to have a dynamic quarterback.  Nebraska has been fortunate that Tommy Armstrong is the great athlete that he is, otherwise, another six to seven win season would have happened again in Lincoln.  That’s all fine and dandy, but for Mike Riley to win big, he probably is going to have to do it with his type of quarterback and his type of offense.  Unfortunately, Tommy Armstrong wasn’t that player.

Mike Riley has ran his offense with a pass first quarterback in mind, pretty much his entire coaching career.  It’s not that he didn’t want Tommy Armstrong to play well, but the offense that he has in mind isn’t conducive to Tommy playing to his strengths.  Riley wants a quarterback to look at three or four options in the passing game.  Tommy was often limited to making one or two reads and that was it.  Tommy also wasn’t exactly a master of the short passing attack that so often works as a running game in today’s college game.  This severely limited the types of plays that offensive coordinator Danny Langsdorf wants to call.  Clearly a change is needed for these coaches to coach like they want to.

Imagine if Tom Osborne was dropped into Florida when Danny Wuerful was the quarterback.  Do you think that Dr. Tom would have turned Wuerful into an option running, play action passing quarterback?  I’m guessing he would have made it work with the Heisman trophy winner, but I would imagine that Coach Osborne would have followed up in recruiting to get someone that plays the position more in the mold of the offense that he was comfortable with.

I’m not comparing Coach Osborne to Coach Riley, simply because that’s a disservice to both men.  I’m simply saying Riley needs to do what he is comfortable with.  And so Tanner Lee, Patrick O’Brien and Tristian Gebbia are going to be the new normal in Lincoln.  If Nebraska is going to play for conference titles, they will need quarterbacks that can hit open running backs, wide receivers and tight ends at closer to a 70% clip than the last two years and the 55% clip that Nebraska has had.

It will be an interesting change on the plains here in Nebraska.  The good thing is, from all accounts and having been to practice, the new guys coming in are pretty good.  In some cases I would say that the quarterbacks that sat out this year have a skill set that we have never seen in Lincoln.  For the first time since Sam Keller and Joe Ganz battled it out, we will have an actual quarterback battle in the spring and fall camp.  Riley will continue to bring in his players and for the first time next season, Nebraska fans will see the future of their offense.

That may not mean a conference championship next season, but I will promise you that when Nebraska gets behind, loading nine players in the box won’t be the obstacle that it was this season.

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ON WITH THE REWIND…

Our previous score prediction for Iowa game was Nebraska 21 – Iowa 17.  The actual score was 40-10 and Iowa pretty much kicked the crud right out of Nebraska.  The game itself was disheartening because Nebraska was so limited in their passing game that Iowa was able to load the box and once Nebraska got too far behind, they simply made Tommy try to beat them.  It was a disaster for Nebraska and the score could have been worse than it was.  When Tommy can’t run, it’s basically a surrender flag against a decent defense.  Iowa wanted the game from start to finish and it showed.

Quick Notes:

Nebraska needs more Player leadership.  Iowa came to play and beat the Huskers.  You can’t say that a lot of Huskers came to beat Iowa.  Outside of a few players that play hard every week, it was a snoozefest for a lot of the game.  When Nebraska finally turned up the heat on offense, the defense basically mailed it in.  Not a good look for a team that had a lot left to play for.  Nebraska needs players to step and be leaders.  Performances where Nebraska is that flat require player leadership every bit as much as coaching leadership.  Nebraska needs players to step up and light a fire under the team when they don’t have one.  I just didn’t see it this year out of this squad.

Offensive Line Needs a Boost.  When Nebraska played against Northwestern at the beginning of the season, the offensive line flat whipped the Wildcat defensive line up front.  I expected a lot more of that as the season progressed and yet we got less.  A lot of that had to do with injuries, but recruiting has really left Nebraska helpless.  That should be adjusted next season.  A talented class of redshirts join a group of will be redshirt sophomores that should finally give the Huskers the depth and competition that they need.  Nebraska is probably two more classes away from having the 15-20 players they need to truly rebuild the pipeline.  Next season is a big step forward.  Nebraska also needs more development of the younger guys.  To not have any redshirt freshman able to play this year was a big letdown.

Recruiting, Recruiting, Recruiting.  It can’t be stressed enough, Nebraska needs more athletes and they need to get better in the trenches.  Nebraska for 40 years rolled out athletes on offense and defense that were better than 90% of the teams that they played.  During the last 15 years, it’s felt like the only time that Nebraska has been close to that was the 2009 defense led by highly rated recruits like Ndamukong Suh, Phillip Dillard and Prince Amukamara.  The highest rated offensive lineman in 15 years was Baker Steinkuhler and he played defensive tackle.  

Nebraska needs more Jimmies and Joes to keep up with the best teams in the conference.  Ohio State simply put better athletes at nearly every position than Nebraska.  I’m not saying we have to have 5 star kids at every spot, that’s not going to happen at Nebraska.  What I’m saying is, if you can sprinkle 1 or 2 every year and collect a nucleus of highly recruited offensive and defensive lineman, you can and should start to consistently beat Wisconsin and Iowa, and sometimes upset the Ohio States and Michigans of the world.  Don’t be fooled by the run that Nebraska had under Osborne and Devaney, they recruited highly rated kids from all over the U.S.

Coach Riley has put his focus on recruiting.  He has done it by cutting the fat on the coaching staff replacing coaches with John Parella and Donte' Williams.  Williams is considered one the best recruiters in the entire country.  Nebraska can afford to pay handsomely, it’s imperative that they bring in the best assistant coaches in all of college football.  Coach Riley is doing that.  It should shape up into some of the best classes in recent memory.

Credit needs to be paid.  I think it’s important to keep in mind what this team was able to accomplish this season.  They started out 7-0 for the first time in 15 years.  They were ranked, albeit short lived, in the top ten in the country.  They were an overtime away from playing for the conference championship.  As we saw with Penn State, you never know what can happen when you get there.  This group of seniors had to endure a coaching change that was emotional and sometimes childish for the parties involved.  They came back from a disaster season to get the Huskers back in the nine win column with a chance to win a bowl game and have less than 4 losses for the first time since 2003.  These things need to be celebrated.  

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Score Prediction: Nebraska versus Tennessee

I’m going to hang on to this prediction until closer to game time.  Nebraska will be going into the lion’s den to play the Volunteers, as I would expect the crowd in Nashville to be pretty pro-Tennessee. Never the less, I think Nebraska will come ready to play.  I don’t have a score prediction just yet, but I do know if Tommy Armstrong isn’t healed up by then, it could be a long night.  Let’s just hope that he gets better and the Huskers are ready to finish 2016 on a high note.  As always, GBR!!