https://forum.huskermax.com/threads...ol-today-so-lets-talk-spring-practice.116007/
Offensive Summary
I’m not sure how many of you read the article from anonymous B1G coaches and some of their thoughts on Nebraska, but one of the people (that I’m assuming is Brian Ferentz) said something that I’ve been harping on for years. If you run the offense we run, you make sacrifices, and one of those is having a defense that can’t be as good as its potential because you put them in bad spots many times. Now, he goes on to say that the defense can’t be good because the style of play in practice doesn’t allow for it, but I’m not sure I agree with that reasoning. What IS interesting though is how we practice could be a decent talking point. We want a ton of reps for guys, but we do not correct things on the field, we correct it in the film room (for the most part). This anonymous coach would say that’s detrimental, but I think it’s like anything else, you have to believe in what you are doing. It’s just like us believing in morning practices due to the science, but Penn State shifting away from morning practices due to the science. At the end of the day just believe in what you do and you should be fine. But with that said, our offense really left us hanging last year. Take the last game of the season for example… in the 3rd quarter, our defense forced 2 3 and outs which resulted in negative yards for Iowa and 14 points for our offense. We tied it all up based on our defense getting us the ball back. But the 4th quarter, for whatever reason, was a different story offensively. Our defense starts the fourth with another 3 and out, and our offense returns the favor failing to get a first down. Luckily, our defense again forces another 3 and out against Iowa, and we are all feeling pretty good about ourselves. Unfortunately, our offense yet again goes 3 and out. While the next possession for Iowa wasn’t a 3 and out, it still only netted 19 yards on 6 plays, and a punt. Our offense AGAIN goes 3 and out and the game is still tied 24-24. Our defense then forces a fumble on the second play from Iowa to get the ball back to our offense. We then go 6 plays for 9 yards offensively, and after our defense did all that for us, it finally broke and allowed the game winning field goal.
I don’t mean to pour salt in a wound and relive that, but for all the heat Chinander gets, games like Iowa are not our defenses fault and if we are going to run the offense we do, they have to win those games for us. We were 72nd in scoring offense last year, and Chinander had us at 66th in scoring defense. That just can not happen with how we play.
So what went wrong last year? There’s probably a multitude of answers, and gone is Troy Walters from last year. But since it’s spring, I’ll dive back into something I brought up as a possible issue that stopped our development and improvement for 2019. If you remember, last year, Dedrick Mills wasn’t here in the spring, JD Spielman and Wandale Robinson both sporadically sat out of practices, Kade Warner was out during the spring as well, and I believe Jack Stoll was wearing a green no contact jersey. So if Adrian Martinez wants to work on timing and getting better, who is he working on that with? If you look at the spring game stats, our leading rushers were Jaylin Bradley, Miles Jones, Austin Hemphill, and Brody Belt. Our leading receivers were Todd Honas, Wyatt Mazour, Jaylin Bradley, and Miles Jones. I don’t need to point out the correlation, but I will, did any of those guys have anything to do with helping or hurting us in 2019? No. Martinez didn’t get the reps he needed as we were protecting him a bit, but I also get it from the coaches perspective, who was he going to work on those things with? We have to make sure we progress this spring and don’t take any steps backwards. And if our offense doesn’t roll our defense in the spring, I will be worried. We have a 2 deep OL that can steamroll our DL. Let’s dive into the positions.
Quarterback
Returning: Adrian Martinez, Noah Vedral, Luke McCaffrey, Matt Masker
Recruits: Logan Smothers
Remember last year when I told everyone we had the deepest QB room in the conference? I still remember telling people Vedral was much better than he showed in the 2018 spring game, and people didn’t believe it. Then come 2019 season, people are clamoring for him to start over Martinez. Social media is a funny thing. If I thought our room was deep last year, now imagine that we have everyone back, but replaced Andrew Bunch with a four star recruit in Logan Smothers. We have an embarrassing amount of talent there. I still am extremely confident in stating that Adrian Martinez is our starter against Purdue, but he will have a shorter leash in season for 2020. What I will find interesting though, is who the backup is. If Martinez is rolling like he is a preseason Heisman candidate, do we put Vedral as our #2? If there looks to be struggles or injuries, our future is definitely with McCaffrey or Smothers. You also have to wonder what they are going to do with LM. Sometimes you look at a guy and say “I can’t believe we aren’t playing him”, but moving him to WR and splitting some of his reps from QB may not help him develop as much as he needs. Remember, LM has only started at QB for 1 year as a senior in high school. But long story short, we have plenty of options. I think if we get rid of fat Adrian Martinez and he’s healthy, people are going to forget all the things they were saying negative about him this past fall. His ceiling is higher than anyone else’s for the 2020 season, and that’s why Frost is rolling with him. Luke McCaffrey as a junior may have a higher ceiling than Martinez, but not right now. Not this year. Logan Smothers (who will be here for the spring) and him are going to be fun to watch battle it out.
Runningback
Returning: Dedrick Mills, Rahmir Johnson, Ronald Thompkins, Brody Belt, (Wandale Robinson)
Recruits: Sevion Morrison, Marvin Scott, (Will Nixon)
So this is where it gets tricky, because priority #1 is keeping Dedrick Mills healthy for the fall. If we lose that guy, we are screwed. But priority #1B is finding a way to not make Wandale Robinson need to shoulder such a load in the backfield in 2020. Especially if JD Spielman is gone. We brought in a great crop of talented freshmen RBs, but that’s exactly what they are, freshmen. Remember, we all were extremely high on Rahmir Johnson, and it just didn’t click for him right away (not taking anything away from him, he redshirted last year). But I do think we have a couple guys more ready for D1 ball coming in. We need one or two of them to show they can spell Mills for a series or two. And I would love to tell you that’s what this spring will be about, but Morrison and Scott don’t get here until the summer. So Johnson needs to separate himself early, and Thompkins needs to get back healthy.
Wide Receiver
Returning: JD Spielman, Wan’Dale Robinson, Demariyon Houston, Jamie Nance (Chris Hickman)
Recruits: Omar Manning, Zavier Betts, Marcus Fleming, Alante Brown, Will Nixon
Keeping JD Spielman on here for now, but it’s not looking good currently. So we have 4 scholarship WRs for this spring, which is not ideal at all. Especially when you think that the keeping Wandale Robinson healthy is going to be a priority (he struggled with that last spring). It is a big 15 practices for guys like Houston and Nance. There are some big dogs coming in, and a guy like Alante Brown will be here for the spring. We MUST get Omar Manning and Zavier Betts qualified. And it will be interesting to see what they do with Chris Hickman, he’s still pretty slender, so moving him outside could be an option. However, if you do that, your TE room gets upperclass heavy in a hurry with the departure of LeGrone. But we are worrying about 2020, and if you grab Fidone over in Council Bluffs, you should be set at that spot. I worry a bit that Houston and Nance couldn’t see the field when we so badly needed people to step up last year, but it is what it is. And it won’t get easier for them with highly recruited guys coming in. What will be interesting is how we manage practices with such a thin WR core.
Tightend
Returning: Jack Stoll, Kurt Rafdal, Austin Allen, Travis Vokolek, Chris Hickman
Recruits: Zero
Deepest room with experience on the team. And last year I told everyone you would see a ton of 2 TE sets because of it. I was wrong. However, with our lack of depth at WR and our experience at TE, I think you finally do see it for 2020. Vokolek who sat out after transferring from Rutgers the coaches are extremely high on, as he is basically a mix of receiving and blocking that is tough to find. You return a steady Jack Stoll, and a guy like Austin Allen has pro scouts drooling with his potential. Kurt Rafdal always shows well, but his consistency is lacking a bit, so it’s a massive spring for him. We need to bring in at least 2 recruits in the 2021 class here, if not 3. But I’m not worried about TE, it will be fun to watch and see who separates themselves.
Offensive Line
Returning: Brendan Jaimes, Matt Farniok, Boe Wilson, Christian Gaylord, Broc Bando, Trent Hixson, Matt Sichterman, Will Farniok, Cam Jurgens, Matt Anderson, Brant Banks, Bryce Benhart, Jimmy Fritzsche, Michael Lynn, Ethan Piper
Recruits: Turner Corcoran, Alex Conn
We return everyone. Every single starter is back. But is that our best play for our best line in 2020? I am saying no. You look at the guys returning, and we have so many options that Coach Austin has to be extremely happy. This is a going to be a position group that will be fun to watch in terms of “do we stay with what we’ve been” or do we go with a different lineup as we think that elevates our game? I’ll say we go with the latter and we see a new face on the offensive line in 2020 despite returning all 5 starters. What Coach Austin is going to figure out is if we have a viable option at RT between Benhart, Bando, and Gaylord (throw Corcoran in there for good measure). If we have someone that can get it done, then Farniok to LG becomes a real possibility. We also have a guy like Ethan Piper chomping at the bit to take Hixson or Wilsons spot, and as I’ve said before, if that guy isn’t a 2-3 year starter for Nebraska something went horribly wrong. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg, if you remember after the 2019 class signed, I stated that the S&C with the OL recruits was going to be so cool to watch. Guys like Anderson, Banks, Fritzsche, and others came in lean and athletic. Who was able to put the weight on and keep their athleticism? Who is going to be ready to step in when seniors Jaimes, Farniok, Wilson, and Gaylord are gone? Long story short, we have about 8 maybe 9 guys I think our coaches are comfortable playing right now. It’s just putting the pieces together in the best fit. I also think that our S&C is going to be fun to watch with the 2019 class where we brought in a bunch of tall, thin, and athletic guys and tried to put weight on them. With guys like Jaimes, Farniok, and Wilson, it afforded us the luxury of having 2 years to get them ready instead of needing it instantly.
Offensive Summary
I’m not sure how many of you read the article from anonymous B1G coaches and some of their thoughts on Nebraska, but one of the people (that I’m assuming is Brian Ferentz) said something that I’ve been harping on for years. If you run the offense we run, you make sacrifices, and one of those is having a defense that can’t be as good as its potential because you put them in bad spots many times. Now, he goes on to say that the defense can’t be good because the style of play in practice doesn’t allow for it, but I’m not sure I agree with that reasoning. What IS interesting though is how we practice could be a decent talking point. We want a ton of reps for guys, but we do not correct things on the field, we correct it in the film room (for the most part). This anonymous coach would say that’s detrimental, but I think it’s like anything else, you have to believe in what you are doing. It’s just like us believing in morning practices due to the science, but Penn State shifting away from morning practices due to the science. At the end of the day just believe in what you do and you should be fine. But with that said, our offense really left us hanging last year. Take the last game of the season for example… in the 3rd quarter, our defense forced 2 3 and outs which resulted in negative yards for Iowa and 14 points for our offense. We tied it all up based on our defense getting us the ball back. But the 4th quarter, for whatever reason, was a different story offensively. Our defense starts the fourth with another 3 and out, and our offense returns the favor failing to get a first down. Luckily, our defense again forces another 3 and out against Iowa, and we are all feeling pretty good about ourselves. Unfortunately, our offense yet again goes 3 and out. While the next possession for Iowa wasn’t a 3 and out, it still only netted 19 yards on 6 plays, and a punt. Our offense AGAIN goes 3 and out and the game is still tied 24-24. Our defense then forces a fumble on the second play from Iowa to get the ball back to our offense. We then go 6 plays for 9 yards offensively, and after our defense did all that for us, it finally broke and allowed the game winning field goal.
I don’t mean to pour salt in a wound and relive that, but for all the heat Chinander gets, games like Iowa are not our defenses fault and if we are going to run the offense we do, they have to win those games for us. We were 72nd in scoring offense last year, and Chinander had us at 66th in scoring defense. That just can not happen with how we play.
So what went wrong last year? There’s probably a multitude of answers, and gone is Troy Walters from last year. But since it’s spring, I’ll dive back into something I brought up as a possible issue that stopped our development and improvement for 2019. If you remember, last year, Dedrick Mills wasn’t here in the spring, JD Spielman and Wandale Robinson both sporadically sat out of practices, Kade Warner was out during the spring as well, and I believe Jack Stoll was wearing a green no contact jersey. So if Adrian Martinez wants to work on timing and getting better, who is he working on that with? If you look at the spring game stats, our leading rushers were Jaylin Bradley, Miles Jones, Austin Hemphill, and Brody Belt. Our leading receivers were Todd Honas, Wyatt Mazour, Jaylin Bradley, and Miles Jones. I don’t need to point out the correlation, but I will, did any of those guys have anything to do with helping or hurting us in 2019? No. Martinez didn’t get the reps he needed as we were protecting him a bit, but I also get it from the coaches perspective, who was he going to work on those things with? We have to make sure we progress this spring and don’t take any steps backwards. And if our offense doesn’t roll our defense in the spring, I will be worried. We have a 2 deep OL that can steamroll our DL. Let’s dive into the positions.
Quarterback
Returning: Adrian Martinez, Noah Vedral, Luke McCaffrey, Matt Masker
Recruits: Logan Smothers
Remember last year when I told everyone we had the deepest QB room in the conference? I still remember telling people Vedral was much better than he showed in the 2018 spring game, and people didn’t believe it. Then come 2019 season, people are clamoring for him to start over Martinez. Social media is a funny thing. If I thought our room was deep last year, now imagine that we have everyone back, but replaced Andrew Bunch with a four star recruit in Logan Smothers. We have an embarrassing amount of talent there. I still am extremely confident in stating that Adrian Martinez is our starter against Purdue, but he will have a shorter leash in season for 2020. What I will find interesting though, is who the backup is. If Martinez is rolling like he is a preseason Heisman candidate, do we put Vedral as our #2? If there looks to be struggles or injuries, our future is definitely with McCaffrey or Smothers. You also have to wonder what they are going to do with LM. Sometimes you look at a guy and say “I can’t believe we aren’t playing him”, but moving him to WR and splitting some of his reps from QB may not help him develop as much as he needs. Remember, LM has only started at QB for 1 year as a senior in high school. But long story short, we have plenty of options. I think if we get rid of fat Adrian Martinez and he’s healthy, people are going to forget all the things they were saying negative about him this past fall. His ceiling is higher than anyone else’s for the 2020 season, and that’s why Frost is rolling with him. Luke McCaffrey as a junior may have a higher ceiling than Martinez, but not right now. Not this year. Logan Smothers (who will be here for the spring) and him are going to be fun to watch battle it out.
Runningback
Returning: Dedrick Mills, Rahmir Johnson, Ronald Thompkins, Brody Belt, (Wandale Robinson)
Recruits: Sevion Morrison, Marvin Scott, (Will Nixon)
So this is where it gets tricky, because priority #1 is keeping Dedrick Mills healthy for the fall. If we lose that guy, we are screwed. But priority #1B is finding a way to not make Wandale Robinson need to shoulder such a load in the backfield in 2020. Especially if JD Spielman is gone. We brought in a great crop of talented freshmen RBs, but that’s exactly what they are, freshmen. Remember, we all were extremely high on Rahmir Johnson, and it just didn’t click for him right away (not taking anything away from him, he redshirted last year). But I do think we have a couple guys more ready for D1 ball coming in. We need one or two of them to show they can spell Mills for a series or two. And I would love to tell you that’s what this spring will be about, but Morrison and Scott don’t get here until the summer. So Johnson needs to separate himself early, and Thompkins needs to get back healthy.
Wide Receiver
Returning: JD Spielman, Wan’Dale Robinson, Demariyon Houston, Jamie Nance (Chris Hickman)
Recruits: Omar Manning, Zavier Betts, Marcus Fleming, Alante Brown, Will Nixon
Keeping JD Spielman on here for now, but it’s not looking good currently. So we have 4 scholarship WRs for this spring, which is not ideal at all. Especially when you think that the keeping Wandale Robinson healthy is going to be a priority (he struggled with that last spring). It is a big 15 practices for guys like Houston and Nance. There are some big dogs coming in, and a guy like Alante Brown will be here for the spring. We MUST get Omar Manning and Zavier Betts qualified. And it will be interesting to see what they do with Chris Hickman, he’s still pretty slender, so moving him outside could be an option. However, if you do that, your TE room gets upperclass heavy in a hurry with the departure of LeGrone. But we are worrying about 2020, and if you grab Fidone over in Council Bluffs, you should be set at that spot. I worry a bit that Houston and Nance couldn’t see the field when we so badly needed people to step up last year, but it is what it is. And it won’t get easier for them with highly recruited guys coming in. What will be interesting is how we manage practices with such a thin WR core.
Tightend
Returning: Jack Stoll, Kurt Rafdal, Austin Allen, Travis Vokolek, Chris Hickman
Recruits: Zero
Deepest room with experience on the team. And last year I told everyone you would see a ton of 2 TE sets because of it. I was wrong. However, with our lack of depth at WR and our experience at TE, I think you finally do see it for 2020. Vokolek who sat out after transferring from Rutgers the coaches are extremely high on, as he is basically a mix of receiving and blocking that is tough to find. You return a steady Jack Stoll, and a guy like Austin Allen has pro scouts drooling with his potential. Kurt Rafdal always shows well, but his consistency is lacking a bit, so it’s a massive spring for him. We need to bring in at least 2 recruits in the 2021 class here, if not 3. But I’m not worried about TE, it will be fun to watch and see who separates themselves.
Offensive Line
Returning: Brendan Jaimes, Matt Farniok, Boe Wilson, Christian Gaylord, Broc Bando, Trent Hixson, Matt Sichterman, Will Farniok, Cam Jurgens, Matt Anderson, Brant Banks, Bryce Benhart, Jimmy Fritzsche, Michael Lynn, Ethan Piper
Recruits: Turner Corcoran, Alex Conn
We return everyone. Every single starter is back. But is that our best play for our best line in 2020? I am saying no. You look at the guys returning, and we have so many options that Coach Austin has to be extremely happy. This is a going to be a position group that will be fun to watch in terms of “do we stay with what we’ve been” or do we go with a different lineup as we think that elevates our game? I’ll say we go with the latter and we see a new face on the offensive line in 2020 despite returning all 5 starters. What Coach Austin is going to figure out is if we have a viable option at RT between Benhart, Bando, and Gaylord (throw Corcoran in there for good measure). If we have someone that can get it done, then Farniok to LG becomes a real possibility. We also have a guy like Ethan Piper chomping at the bit to take Hixson or Wilsons spot, and as I’ve said before, if that guy isn’t a 2-3 year starter for Nebraska something went horribly wrong. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg, if you remember after the 2019 class signed, I stated that the S&C with the OL recruits was going to be so cool to watch. Guys like Anderson, Banks, Fritzsche, and others came in lean and athletic. Who was able to put the weight on and keep their athleticism? Who is going to be ready to step in when seniors Jaimes, Farniok, Wilson, and Gaylord are gone? Long story short, we have about 8 maybe 9 guys I think our coaches are comfortable playing right now. It’s just putting the pieces together in the best fit. I also think that our S&C is going to be fun to watch with the 2019 class where we brought in a bunch of tall, thin, and athletic guys and tried to put weight on them. With guys like Jaimes, Farniok, and Wilson, it afforded us the luxury of having 2 years to get them ready instead of needing it instantly.
