Air Nebraska?

valiantsailor

Coaching Legend
Oct 10, 2013
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We picked up 2 freshmen Qb s, 4 TE, 4 WR and 1 WR (maybe) in the portal. Not one RB to be seen. Are we going to full on air attack?

Not complaining but just looking at the obvious.
 
We picked up 2 freshmen Qb s, 4 TE, 4 WR and 1 WR (maybe) in the portal. Not one RB to be seen. Are we going to full on air attack?

Not complaining but just looking at the obvious.
It looks like complaining, but if not, you may have missed the stud RB we have coming for a visit, and we still have 3 talented players with starting experience coming back next year. We had a need for more explosive players at WR, we needed TEs, and frankly some we have might become Tackles, so what exactly is the complaint?
 
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It looks like complaining, but if not, you may have missed the stud RB we have coming for a visit, and we still have 3 talented players with starting experience coming back next year. We had a need for more explosive players at WR, we needed TEs, and frankly some we have might become Tackles, so what exactly is the complaint?
EJ is the only one rb we have had for a whole season. The other two have been injured most of the past two seasons. Who is the stud who you speak of because if its who I think you are referencing does not have the stats to back it up.
 
Yes, 90 yards in 6 games doesnt get my juices flowing and neither do Gabe and Rasmir either

Just so we understand, what does get your juices flowing? A highly rated HS running back? Someone who has never been involved with S&C at the collegiate level? The kid from Oregon was in a room that was loaded with studs, so his lack of carries shouldn't be all that surprising. If we hadn't lost Ervin, Johnson and Grant hadn't had the fumbles, do we think EJ would have had more than just a couple of carries all year? Yet he was actually a bright spot for us in several games. As for Dowdell, a consensus 4* and top 200 player nationally, I'd say he should get your 'juices flowing'.

H.S. Athletic Background

Also competes in track and field.
Ran 200-meter times of 24.55 and 24.75 as a junior in Spring 2022. Also long jumped 19-4. Ran a 24.52 200 and long jumped 19-3 as a sophomore.
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2022: Finished senior season with 2,165 yards and 31 TDs on 8.4 ypc. Added 3-86 receiving. Finished high school career with 5,301 rushing yards and 65 TDs on 8.0 ypc.
2021: MaxPreps Mississippi High School Football Player of the Year as a junior. Helped Picayune to a 14-1 record and the Mississippi 5A state championship. Ran for more than 2,500 yards, averaging 7.76 yards per carry and 170.2 rushing yards per game. Ran for 100-plus yards in 13 of 15 games and eclipsed 200 yards five times, per MaxPreps.


He wasn't getting carries because he had a JR Bucky Irving getting back to back 1,000 yard seasons, and catching 80 passes for 700 yards. If that isn't enough, you also had Jordan James, a SO who has 140 carries for almost 900 yards. Mix in some Whittingham, who was a stud that got hurt, and fellow freshman Lamar, that doesn't leave many carries to go around for the backups. You also had Bo Nix chucking the ball all over the place, so I think you might want to temper your dismissal of Dowdell's stats. He looks better than most HS kids we may have looked at.
 
Just so we understand, what does get your juices flowing? A highly rated HS running back? Someone who has never been involved with S&C at the collegiate level? The kid from Oregon was in a room that was loaded with studs, so his lack of carries shouldn't be all that surprising. If we hadn't lost Ervin, Johnson and Grant hadn't had the fumbles, do we think EJ would have had more than just a couple of carries all year? Yet he was actually a bright spot for us in several games. As for Dowdell, a consensus 4* and top 200 player nationally, I'd say he should get your 'juices flowing'.

H.S. Athletic Background

Also competes in track and field.
Ran 200-meter times of 24.55 and 24.75 as a junior in Spring 2022. Also long jumped 19-4. Ran a 24.52 200 and long jumped 19-3 as a sophomore.
-----
2022: Finished senior season with 2,165 yards and 31 TDs on 8.4 ypc. Added 3-86 receiving. Finished high school career with 5,301 rushing yards and 65 TDs on 8.0 ypc.
2021: MaxPreps Mississippi High School Football Player of the Year as a junior. Helped Picayune to a 14-1 record and the Mississippi 5A state championship. Ran for more than 2,500 yards, averaging 7.76 yards per carry and 170.2 rushing yards per game. Ran for 100-plus yards in 13 of 15 games and eclipsed 200 yards five times, per MaxPreps.


He wasn't getting carries because he had a JR Bucky Irving getting back to back 1,000 yard seasons, and catching 80 passes for 700 yards. If that isn't enough, you also had Jordan James, a SO who has 140 carries for almost 900 yards. Mix in some Whittingham, who was a stud that got hurt, and fellow freshman Lamar, that doesn't leave many carries to go around for the backups. You also had Bo Nix chucking the ball all over the place, so I think you might want to temper your dismissal of Dowdell's stats. He looks better than most HS kids we may have looked at.
Its obvious you have decided we have and need more WR s and TE s, ok thats your position, have you counted up the positions to know how many we already have? To say the kid from Oregon, who hasnt even sighned yet is an answer is ludicrous. By the way you can say the kid from Oregon almost got them into the playoffs with his puny 90 yrd contribution over 6 games. I was hoping for a mature conversation about the kids we picked up.
 
Dowdell is an upgrade from Ervin and I believe we land him. All the TE’s that Frostz recruited were disappointments. A couple quick and a couple moved to DE this past year. Fidone was not much at blocking.

Rhule will want to establish a ground game to take the heat off DR and make play action more effective. The future of Nebraska football will be brought on slowly. I do think 2025 will see the offense opened up because the defense will lose a lot after 2024.
 
Rhule has said he wants a positionless offense. I think that we will see a lot of carries in the ground game from some of the receivers. Maybe if we changed their position name to say......wingback. Yea, that has a ring to it.
 
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Its obvious you have decided we have and need more WR s and TE s, ok thats your position, have you counted up the positions to know how many we already have? To say the kid from Oregon, who hasnt even sighned yet is an answer is ludicrous. By the way you can say the kid from Oregon almost got them into the playoffs with his puny 90 yrd contribution over 6 games. I was hoping for a mature conversation about the kids we picked up.
Well let's look at the TE and WR rooms. At TE, how many of our current guys do you feel have strong potential to contribute as receivers? Not just the occasional 'bail out' catch, but a true threat that defenses will need to account for? In my opinion, you only have Fidone IF he stays healthy and continues to improve some of the quickness he appears to have lost due to injury, and maybe Ismael Flores, who is currently closer to a WR than a TE. Bork and Lindenmeyer are not going to cause defenses any concern. So do I think we needed more TEs? Absolutely.

So now let's look at the WR room. Who do you see as being a consistent performer? Someone who has experience playing top B1G defenses, has a strong understanding of the offense, and can be a leader in that room? Honestly, I've got bupkis, I see some very young talented athletes, but very light in not just college experience, but in several cases, HS experience. You have the Jailyn, Jayden, Malichai, Demetrius group, who look to have qualities that can be built on, but none are at the point they can lead a room, or have HS stats that pop as definite contributors.

Just for grins, let's remember what it was like when we weren't a threat to throw the ball last season. We may have had one of the strongest running QBs in the conference, but how easy was it for teams to keep us out of the end zone knowing we could only do one thing? So, the assumption now is we have QBs in the room who can throw the ball with some accuracy BUT, they are also young and could benefit from targets who can create a little more space, or have a little more playing experience for consistency to help out the young QBs. It's not about be all one thing, or all another, it's about bringing in talent in areas of need. As for an adult conversation, the only thing childish so far is your refusal to recognize that a team up to it's eyeballs in running back talent, and having a very strong passing game may NOT have had a ton of opportunities for a freshman. Have you ever read Ives bio? Take a look at the level of success he had in HS, because it's impressive. Do you know how many carries he had? ZERO. Do you think it's because he's terrible? Or could it be because he had 3 guys with starting experience, and upper classmen with more experience and time in the S&C program ahead of him?

You might want to ease up on trying to be snarky, I don't think you are very good at it.
 
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Well let's look at the TE and WR rooms. At TE, how many of our current guys do you feel have strong potential to contribute as receivers? Not just the occasional 'bail out' catch, but a true threat that defenses will need to account for? In my opinion, you only have Fidone IF he stays healthy and continues to improve some of the quickness he appears to have lost due to injury, and maybe Ismael Flores, who is currently closer to a WR than a TE. Bork and Lindenmeyer are not going to cause defenses any concern. So do I think we needed more TEs? Absolutely.

So now let's look at the WR room. Who do you see as being a consistent performer? Someone who has experience playing top B1G defenses, has a strong understanding of the offense, and can be a leader in that room? Honestly, I've got bupkis, I see some very young talented athletes, but very light in not just college experience, but in several cases, HS experience. You have the Jailyn, Jayden, Malichai, Demetrius group, who look to have qualities that can be built on, but none are at the point they can lead a room, or have HS stats that pop as definite contributors.

Just for grins, let's remember what it was like when we weren't a threat to throw the ball last season. We may have had one of the strongest running QBs in the conference, but how easy was it for teams to keep us out of the end zone knowing we could only do one thing? So, the assumption now is we have QBs in the room who can throw the ball with some accuracy BUT, they are also young and could benefit from targets who can create a little more space, or have a little more playing experience for consistency to help out the young QBs. It's not about be all one thing, or all another, it's about bringing in talent in areas of need. As for an adult conversation, the only thing childish so far is your refusal to recognize that a team up to it's eyeballs in running back talent, and having a very strong passing game may NOT have had a ton of opportunities for a freshman. Have you ever read Ives bio? Take a look at the level of success he had in HS, because it's impressive. Do you know how many carries he had? ZERO. Do you think it's because he's terrible? Or could it be because he had 3 guys with starting experience, and upper classmen with more experience and time in the S&C program ahead of him?

You might want to ease up on trying to be snarky, I don't think you are very good at it.
I think thats a good thing to be honest. I m not saying we dont need a qb or two, last year proves we do need them and the receivers, but unless we are improving our receivers ability to catch the best QB s in the country wont help us much. WE had like 1200 yds of receiving and that isnt going to catch it in todays game.
 
I think thats a good thing to be honest. I m not saying we dont need a qb or two, last year proves we do need them and the receivers, but unless we are improving our receivers ability to catch the best QB s in the country wont help us much. WE had like 1200 yds of receiving and that isnt going to catch it in todays game.
I don’t think the issue was with the WR’s , many times we had them open and not passed to. I don’t recall a lot of drops , I do recall a lot of miss fires that were in the general direction of WR’s .
 
Its obvious you have decided we have and need more WR s and TE s, ok thats your position, have you counted up the positions to know how many we already have? To say the kid from Oregon, who hasnt even sighned yet is an answer is ludicrous. By the way you can say the kid from Oregon almost got them into the playoffs with his puny 90 yrd contribution over 6 games. I was hoping for a mature conversation about the kids we picked up.

Dowdell is likely, on paper at least, the best available RB in the portal. At least our and a few other staffs think so. Not too many players transferring that were rock-star starters.
 
I think thats a good thing to be honest. I m not saying we dont need a qb or two, last year proves we do need them and the receivers, but unless we are improving our receivers ability to catch the best QB s in the country wont help us much. WE had like 1200 yds of receiving and that isnt going to catch it in todays game.
You know what improves a receivers ability to catch a ball? A ball that’s put on target and on time. When a guy comes out of a break and has no clue where the ball is going to be, it’s hard to develop confidence, especially for young, inexperienced players. We did see some drops, but it’s understandable when those receivers haven’t had a chance to get into any kind of a rhythm. Let’s see what a good trigger man can do to help those young guys take a step forward.
 
Rhule has said he wants a positionless offense. I think that we will see a lot of carries in the ground game from some of the receivers. Maybe if we changed their position name to say......wingback. Yea, that has a ring to it.

I really like the sound of 'positionless offense' (or defense for that matter), but I think the term might just a little bit hyperbole. I'm sure it means using various players in a variety of ways to confuse a defense and add variety to the offense. But every player has strengths and weaknesses., at least to some degree, and every player recruited won't be expected to be completely interchangeable with other players in his position.....or other positions.

An example might be our incoming TE's. Will Flynt catch passes? I'm sure he will, but his skillset isn't exactly like Nelson's. My guess if you need a mean dog helping the Tackle in blocking assignments, he's your man.....most of the time. Will Nelson have to handle blocks? If he doesn't he might not have as much playing time as he'd like. But his pure athleticism is in rare air. Open field blocks, playing out of the H-back position, going deep, crossing routes, and going for jump balls are all well within his skillset. Ingwerson might be the most versatile of the bunch. Maybe not as refined as Nelson, or as brutish as Flynt, but he might be the most general-purpose of the bunch.

I think they all will be used in a variety of ways, but my guess is that those ways won't be completely interchangeable.
 
Our running game last season was among the best in the Big. Our passing game sucked. It is pretty obvious which group was in the greatest need of improvement. With a better passing game our running game is also sure to improve. Rhule knows this and has done an excellent job of filling the positions of greatest needs.

I would like to see a solid RB in this class. I think Dowdell fills that need. I for one like the way Rhule is filling the roster.
 
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You know what improves a receivers ability to catch a ball? A ball that’s put on target and on time. When a guy comes out of a break and has no clue where the ball is going to be, it’s hard to develop confidence, especially for young, inexperienced players. We did see some drops, but it’s understandable when those receivers haven’t had a chance to get into any kind of a rhythm. Let’s see what a good trigger man can do to help those young guys take a step forward.
Ummm about that. Several balls were dropped when they were put on the money. Hit them right in the chest. Too many drops like that to count on both hands. So it's not all on the QBs. Their drops just exacerbated our issues.
 
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