Everything New this Spring in Lincoln!

Come On Bobby!!!

When we last blogged about our beloved Huskers, they were headed to Nashville to play Tennessee. Nebraska went with a backup quarterback, a banged up offensive line, a defense that was sputtering on fumes and little did we know at the time, a different defensive coordinator, defensive backs coach and a special teams coach.

My how things have changed in a couple months.  

One of the biggest letdowns in 2016 after a great 7-0 start was how quickly the team unraveled after losing in overtime to Wisconsin.  Nebraska had a chance to lock down a spot in the Big Ten title game, and when they didn’t hold serve, the wheels came off.  The defense that had played well enough to get to seven wins was destroyed against Ohio State and embarrassed against Iowa.  Not that it mattered a lot, but they were hammered against Tennessee as well, pretty much letting them run and pass wherever and whenever they wanted.

After that game, some major changes happened from a coaching staff standpoint.  Long time Mike Riley assistants that had been with him as far back as his NFL gig over 16 years ago, were released.  Special teams coordinator Bruce Read was first to get the axe, followed by defensive coordinator Mark Banker.  After that, secondary coach Brian Stewart took a defensive coordinator position at another school.  It was a rather shocking short burst of development.  So let’s look at why these changes had to be made.  

Nebraska’s special teams, outside of Drew Brown were anything but special.  Nebraska’s kickoff units ranked 94th (out of 128 teams) in returns, the punt unit 59th in returns, and 44th in overall efficiency according to ESPN.com statistics.  Add to that, Nebraska was dead last…let me repeat that…dead last in total net punting in 2016.  When you have a specific coach for special teams like Bruce Read was, you expect to at least finish in the top half of Division one football in most categories.  Nebraska was scraping the bottom of the barrel.  Read also didn’t recruit, or at least didn’t appear to recruit, and he needed to go.  Whatever ancillary help he supplied to Coach Riley in scouting or game prep wasn’t enough to overcome the disaster that was Nebraska’s special teams in 2016.

Defensively, Nebraska wasn’t much better at the end of the year.  However, when you look at defensive statistics and yards allowed, Nebraska wasn’t the worst in the country.  Nebraska did finish 19th overall in the country in yards given up, which was pretty good on the surface, and they finished 31st overall in points given up.  The Huskers finished 37th in the country in total passing yards give up and 32nd in rushing yards given up.  Not bad right?  Nebraska ended up 55th overall in total defensive efficiency. They finished tied for 65th in country in sack.  At Nebraska, finishing that low should never happen.  Unfortunately, you know there wasn’t a lot of fear struck into the hearts of quarterbacks on the schedule.

But when Ohio State hangs 62 on you and Iowa, who is pedestrian at best, hangs 40 on you, statistics don’t mean as much in the overall scheme of things.  You simply can’t get run over in the biggest games of the year at Nebraska. By the end of the season, teams had pretty much handled the Huskers D.

So in a surprising move, Coach Riley let go of Mark Banker.  Banker had worked with Riley for over 20 years. As a long time Husker fan it was a bit surprising, but Mike Riley doesn’t want to be average at Nebraska and this pretty much showed how serious he is about it.  

Mike Riley’s first replacement was defensive backs coach Donte Williams.  Williams came from the University of Arizona.  What separates Williams from the normal rank and file is that Williams is considered a top ten recruiter out West.  Nebraska finished second place for too many players in California the last couple of years and Williams should help keep that from happening.  He is a young up and coming coach that hopefully will provide some stability.  He will be coaching the cornerbacks.

The bigger surprise though, came when Riley hired new defensive coordinator Bob Diaco, the former head coach of Connecticut.  Diaco is considered one of the brightest young defensive minds in the country.  In his prior stints at Notre Dame Diaco was voted by some publications as the assistant coach of the year when he helped lead the Irish into a National Championship game appearance.  When you talk about hiring assistant coaches, Diaco being hired is considered a grand slam hire.  It’s the kind of hire we haven’t seen at Nebraska in a long time.

And to put the cherry on top of the replacement coaches, Bob Elliot was hired from the Notre Dame staff as well to coach the secondary with Williams and help Diaco with implementation of his defense. (Side note: Elliot has worked with Diaco and coached him when Diaco was a linebacker with Iowa in the 90s.  Yes, you read that correctly, Coach Riley hired two coaches with direct ties to Iowa.  Be still my beating heart…)

Why does all of this matter?  A big part of what separates good teams from great teams is recruiting.  All coaches that were let go weren’t what one would consider to be great recruiters.  All of the replacements were upgrades over their previous inhabitants and in a case of Williams was an upgrade of gigantic proportions in the recruiting world.

The other big part about great teams is that they all seem to have great assistant coaches leading their programs.  Bob Diaco runs a 3-4 defense, but more importantly, he has had success in the recent past, defending teams that run today’s high octane offenses.  Coach Banker had no such recent success and it felt like the Huskers were really out manned at a lot of positions in Banker’s scheme.  Diaco was brought in to shore that up.  We will see if Riley’s gambles pay off.  Something tells me will.  

Carriker Chronicles

Quick Notes:

Position Battles. As we move closer to the spring game, we will focus in on position battles throughout the team.  The biggest battles as of right now are quarterback, center, tight end, running back and who is going to rush the quarterback on defense.  A lot of new faces need to step up in a lot of areas on this Husker team.  We will discuss that a little more in depth as the spring moves along.

Recruiting. Nebraska as a state has had some pretty decent talent the last couple of years, but this next class of seniors may be the most talented Nebraska has had in the last 10 years.  Cam Jurgens of Beatrice and Masry Mapieu of York have already committed to the Huskers.  At least 3 other players in the state will be worthy of offers in 2018.  Nebraska will have a nice base of players to choose from, in what should be a rather small class.

Spring Time is here!  You can already smell it, the green is starting to return, the days are getting longer and spring is almost upon us.  That means spring football and more spring football.  Enjoy it, once the annual Red White scrimmage is over in April, It’s a long 4 months of no football.  Stay thirsty!

On with the Rewind:

Our prediction for the year end bowl game was Tennessee 31 – Nebraska 20.  The final score ended up with Tennessee 38 Nebraska 24.  We knew it would be tough with a backup QB and backup players or injured players across the board.  Nebraska needed to survive the bowl game as much as anything.  They couldn’t provide enough protection or block well enough on offense to give the Huskers much of a chance and the defense looked disinterested at best sometime.  We all know what off season changes have happened since.  Hopefully next season we will be signing a different tune after the bowl game. GBR!!