Nebraska...not feeling Frosty anymore

[WM Wolverine]

(not talking about Nebraska...) Cover 2 as a zone and/or man-under as a base defense is easily adjusted in many forms to fit the down/distance/offensive personnel. Lots of successful college defenses run this with varying degrees of success. Both Wisconsin & Iowa did very well with this for much of the 2000's; Iowa often brought up a strong safety to play near the linebackers when the situation (short yardage, 2 or less WR) called for it. Wisky just moved to a 3-4 this season.

[iam416]

UNL's cover 2 can behave like a cover zero, as hoss described in another thread. With a running QB, you are -2 in the numbers game in the box.

I still think this is the big problem. As I posted in the other thread, I think C2, in any variation, is, against the spread, an approach that first stops the pass then stops the run. With a quality running QB, that's a fucking disaster. At best you end up with your LB 1v1 against the QB or RB. At worst, as Entropy noted, you end up with no one as you're in a deficit in the box.

Also, as Entropy alluded to, different spreads to different things well. The Brandon Wheeden spread at Okie State was all pass all the time. Bo's scheme might have had success against them if his players could handle Okie State's skill players. Against Braxton Miller, it was a fucking trainwreck.

Also, as Buchanan/WM said, I'm sure how good UNL is talent-wise. Hoss said Wyoming was, at times, whipping the DL. That's not good. And, that would explain Wisky's non-spread bludgeoning UNL.

[Jeff Buchanan]

So, as I understand it from all contributors to this discussion, Neb's problems on defense are a result of talent deficiencies and the failure of coaching staff to either teach or implement a decent C2.

Shocking.

M d?j? vu M defense during RR's reign of error.

What else is new here?

[THE_WIZARD_]

STFU

[Wild Hoss]

Insofar as NU is concerned, the Cover 2 discussion is irrelevant. We don't play C2, and we don't align like it...we just have 2 high most plays, and suffer the same consequences from that as Cover 2 does.

We play a Man coverage scheme that happens to look like zone, because it utilizes zone principles to dictate man coverage assignments. That's why motion disrupts us so much. The impact motion has on zone defense is far less, and sometimes non-existent; heck, the main purpose of motion is to determine if the defense is in Man or Zone presnap, based on the reaction to it.

[entropy]

talent... There were time UNL's DL wipped Wyoming as well. Redshirt Freshman have a tendency to stand and lose form.

[entropy]

http://hailvarsity.com/2013/09/tale-of-the-tape-wyoming/

some review of UNL's dime play last saturday

[Wild Hoss]

Significant defensive improvement today IMO. Southern Miss is awful, but we saw a different defense today. Played a lot of actual zone, and let our front play the run and rush the passer.

Offense- which was being compared to the 1983 "Scoring Explosion- has thus far been pretty flat.

[entropy]

And yet, UNL dropped in the ap poll...

[lineygoblue]

so did ohio

[entropy]

watching the replay on the BTN...

While I don't think this will be a dominant defense, you can see a marked difference in the play of the young guys from last week to this week. UNL has 10 Freshman or RS Freshman in the 2 deep. Both starting LB's are Freshman..

[Wild Hoss]

You don't get that kind of improvement in one week. They changed the defense, swapped a little bit of personnel around.

Hope they keep it up.

[Wild Hoss]

Last week: 0 sacks against 44 pass attempts, 1 TFL on 30 rush attempts

This week: 1 sack against 37 pass attempts, 12 TFLs on 27 rush attempts.

[entropy]

NU Visit Sets the Bar for Rivals150 Center Robinson

Seeing how Nebraska has only been seriously recruiting Elbert Robinson for a little less than three months now, it's understandable that Robinson and his family didn't quite know what to expect when they traveled up to Lincoln this weekend for an official visit.

By the time the 7-foot-1, 320-pound four-star center from Garland, Texas, boarded the plane after his visit wrapped up on Sunday, though, he had gained a completely new perspective of what NU had to offer. According to Robinson's LBA Seawolves AAU coach, Lawrence Johns, the Huskers are now among the leaders to land the No. 51 player in the 2014 class.

2014 Rivals150 center Elbert Robinson felt at home during his official visit to Nebraska, according to his AAU coach.
"He had a blast," said Johns, who accompanied Robinson and his family on his visit and is handling the bulk of Robinson's recruitment. "He really liked it. He liked it. I know he did. He was just smiling the whole while. I know Elbert, and he really liked it. He really enjoyed himself."

The weekend was Robinson's second of five official visits, as he went out to Georgia Tech last weekend. While the Lakeview Centennial (Texas) High School product has been to several other campuses on unofficial visits, Johns said Nebraska was on a different level than any program they had seen so far.

After getting into town on Friday morning, Robinson's group toured the campus and the new Pinnacle Bank Arena and Hendricks Center practice facility. During their tour, Johns said they met with everyone from Bo Pelini to Tom Osborne to athletic director Shawn Eichorst. They capped off the day by taking in Nebraska's sold-out volleyball match against Villanova at the newly remodeled Devaney Center.

"That's unheard of for a volleyball game to be sold out like that," Johns said. "They had that whole place sold out. I watched that game and I was like, 'Oh my God. This is a volleyball game?' Ya'll got some great facilities here, and everybody here treats you real nice. It was really nice."

As could be expected, seeing the brand new Pinnacle Bank Arena was definitely one of the highlights of the tour as well.

"That thing is bigger than (the Miami Heat's) American Airlines Arena," Johns said. "That's for a college? Man, that's unheard of. They did their job on that. I was really impressed. Elbert was too."

On Saturday, Robinson met individually with head coach Tim Miles and lead recruiter Kenya Hunter, who has been recruiting Robinson since he was an assistant at Georgetown and has developed a very close relationship with Robinson and his family. During their meetings, Johns said Miles and Hunter took a laid back approach in selling Nebraska, which he said was a huge plus in NU's favor.

"One thing I really liked about them was they didn't pressure him," Johns said. "They didn't have to be like, 'We want you.' We know they him. Everybody knows that. It's no secret. They just said, 'I want you here, Elbert. I've been recruiting you since I first saw you.' I'll tell you what that did, it made him feel comfortable. They didn't pressure him. He came here for, 'These are the facilities here. You come here, you work hard and you come to play ball.' Ain't nothing guaranteed in life. It's all about hard work. You get what you put into it."

From there, the group made their way to Memorial Stadium for Nebraska's football game against Southern Miss. When all was said and done, Robinson, his family, and Johns couldn't help but walk away totally impressed.

NU assistant Kenya Hunter has helped the Huskers rise near the top of Robinson's list.

"The only way you can fail here is if you fail yourself," Johns said. "I told him that. The only thing that can fail you here is yourself. All that you need is sitting here waiting for you. The only way you can fail is if you just got up and said 'Coach, I don't want to be here anymore.' That's the only way I see it, it depends on what you do. I think there's a lot of people that think Nebraska's behind the eight ball - their facilities are A+. That's what most kids see today, are facilities. They might not be Oregon, but they're OK now, trust me."

Johns said they were definitely impressed with the commitment Nebraska has shown to its basketball program with all of the new facilities, as well as the fact that the program is one of the only shows in the state.

"I told him, one of the best things about this place is you don't have to share the limelight with a pro team," Johns said. "It's the only show in town. I told him, that's something you need to really start thinking about."

After the game, Robinson went off on his own to spend time with some of NU's current players, including sophomore forward Walter Pitchford, who went to the football game with Robinson on Saturday night. Johns said he could tell right away that the Husker players fully embraced Robinson, and that there were no ego issues whatsoever.

"I told him, these guys want you here, I can tell you that now," Johns said. "Some programs, the kids don't want you. You can tell. They're too big of a star. But not these guys. These guys are like, 'Man, I want you here.'"

Up next for Robinson is an unofficial visit to Texas A&M next weekend, and then he'll take his third official visit to Ohio State the weekend of Sept. 28. He also plans to take a fourth official visit to Georgetown sometime in October.

While Robinson wants to fully explore his options before hopefully deciding on a school this fall, Johns said, for him at least, it would be hard for any visit to top their time in Lincoln, starting with Ohio State.

"I'm not looking real forward to that, though," Johns said of the OSU visit. "After you're coming from something like this, it's kind of hard to deal with, I'll tell you that. I know about Ohio State's facilities. I know where they play. I already know. I've been there. I know they play at the Value City (Arena), and it's a big arena but kind of old. I already know all that, trust me. It's not the Pinnacle (Bank Arena), though. It's going to be hard to deal with that, I can tell you that now."

Still, as of now the plan remains for Robinson to take at least two more officials to Ohio State and Georgetown, with a fifth and final visit to potentially be added to that list. Johns and Robinson's family are going to have a major influence in Robinson's decision on a school, but Johns said he knows Robinson will make the right choice when the time comes.

"He'll get the best sense of what he'll want to do," Johns said. "That's how you know what you need and what you don't. You'll know what you like. You'll know that. Your heart will tell you what you want to do. It's like dealing with a girl, your heart starts beating all fast. You'll know. You'll be like, 'Yeah, this is the place I want to be. This is the place for me.'"

[entropy]

trying to decide on my score predictions for this game..

I'm thinking the D will play better than most expect (better than last year) and special teams will play well (last year were horrible in this game)... BUT... I can't shake this thought the O is all hype. UNL can't seem to run inbetween the tackles and if I was a D coordinator, I'd let Taylor pass on me all day... he'll make mistakes... I think the O will have 2-3 of them..

I'm thinking UCLA 25, UNL 28