is he really good or do we have a lot of improvement to do in the secondary/coverge?
Last edited:
Laviska Shenault
- Thread starter WestCoastCornhusker2
- Start date
Probably both. Although I though our secondary was much improved over last year. Hoping to see continued improvement week to week.
The guy is really good. Big, fast, physical with good hands. Give him credit. He is really good.
Give CU some credit, they made plays when they needed to make plays even when they were getting outplayed most of the game. Most QBs would fold after 7 sacks, lots of hurries and hits and a running game that made last year's Riley NU team look brilliant.
He is a damn good receiver and their QB is a damn good QB. I thought we did reasonably well against them. Take away our turnovers, stupid penalties, and dropped passes and they probably would have scored around 7-10 points less than they did.
Here is what I took away from that game as well: despite the loss, and despite how good CU's offense was at times, our offense was better than their offense. If hwe had scored more points, as we damn well should have, we would have forced them out of their game plan and left them less clock too. I think our offense, with a healthy AM and without the brain farts, can be scary good
Here is what I took away from that game as well: despite the loss, and despite how good CU's offense was at times, our offense was better than their offense. If hwe had scored more points, as we damn well should have, we would have forced them out of their game plan and left them less clock too. I think our offense, with a healthy AM and without the brain farts, can be scary good
6'2" 220 runs a 4.4 and throw in his stats through two weeks...yeah, I'm going to go with he's really good. They gave him the ball twice on 4th and short, and he dragged our LBs into the end zone. Then he beat our fastest DB deep twice for crucial catches. Yep, I'm convinced.
Our secondary did well at times and fell apart at times. No consistency but they did look improved. That could’ve been due to our defensive front mauling that Buff offensive line though..
several of those catches and TD's would have been made against most secondaries - it is not like we did not have a player contesting it they were just tremendous passes and catches
Possibly the best name in college football, too. Sorry, Devine Ozigbo.
Safeties were late on both of his big catches...they were supposed to supply over help. That was what was impressive about our pass rush and run game...we played the safety over the corners most of the game...safeties were step slow...that being said our corners were isolated 1 on 1 a lot and made some plays on the ball. Had the safeties been a step or 2 faster...
I was just telling my younger brother what a stud Shenault is. My brother is a Husky alum and they get the Buffs at home this year. I think he is a really physical receiver. Tough guy.
Bryce Swackhammer and Bull Barge may beg to differ.
Laviska Shenault and Jay Maclntyre just played their best day! They just nothing last year...
DeCaprio Bootle did wonderful job last Saturday but of course our secondary and coverge will need more work for next games.
On the two wheel routes by Shenault, there was really good coverage by Nebraska. Those are just great passes and catches. Nebraska defense was impressive imo.
Considering his QB threw for 3,000 yards last year, and is on the Maxwell watch list this year, that makes for a pretty decent combination.
Shenault is good, but our DBs were the weakest part of either side of the ball. I think we were being careful with them, and giving a lot of cushion, but I saw way too many wide open receivers.
Shenault is good, but our DBs were the weakest part of either side of the ball. I think we were being careful with them, and giving a lot of cushion, but I saw way too many wide open receivers.
I agree about our secondary, but I saw improvement over last year. Furthermore.... and I hate to sound like a broken record or repeat the obvious... had we been able to play Akron I think our CU coverage skills would have been better. How much better? Probably only marginally. But a marginal improvement may have been all the safeties needed to provide over the top assistance on those two big receptions.
Finally, the two position groups on any team that require the most complicated choreography in order to be successful are the secondary and the offensive line. In those two groups you are only as strong as your weakest link and everyone has to be on the same page. Just one busted assignment and your fourth and one gets blown up, or a wide open receiver catches a game changer. So one hopes that, barring injury, we will see both of those units progressing as they gain more game experience. Missing Akron was a bigger deal than I think most people want to admit. Nobody wants to be seen as an excuse maker or a whiner. But that game getting cancelled was huge in my view.
I have no doubt in my mind that we beat Colorado by at least 2 TDs if we play the Akron game a couple weeks ago. Like Frost said, it's just too bad that the lessons had to be learned at the cost of a loss.
The dude is only a Sophomore. Plus only played in 3 or 4 games last year. Our DB need to improve but the guy is good. Probably one of the better WR we will see this year.
Agree 100% There are not to many teams who will put up 350 yards rushing, almost 600 yards total offence, and hold the opposing team to 44 yards rushing and still walk away with a loss. We lost this game due to game 1 mental errors only. Those mistakes happen against Akron we still probably get the win. If even half of those mistakes are cleaned up against CU, we get the win. Hopefully this lost will be a small blimp on a good season and decades to come.
Bingo. It sounds like sour grapes and excuse making, but damn it, a lot of the mistakes we made were first game type mistakes. Granted, those same mistakes could be made even later in a season. But ask any coach about mistakes and jitters in an opening game and they will all tell you it is a real fear. It is the first time in a year that you are hitting someone other than your own teammates. I knew as soon as that Akron game was cancelled that it meant trouble.
What really sucks too is that we really needed to be 3-0 going into B1G play. And we would have been. Now, most likely in two weeks, we will be 1-2
With a game on tape, I am not sure Nebraska gets 7 sacks.
With a game on tape, I am not sure Nebraska has 565 yards of offense. They made adjustments in the 2nd half that we didn't. Our offensive production fell by 93 yards from the 1st half to the 2nd, rushing yards dropped from 243 yards in the 1st half to 86 in the second. They forced us to throw and we only scored 7 points in the second half. They had 100 more passing yards in the 2nd half than in the 1st.
If they made those adjustments at halftime, what would they have done with a week to prepare?
Those are good points Tuco and I was thinking about those facts as well. But I have to think that we were not running a radically different offensive or defensive scheme from what Frost ran at UCF. Or did we? I have no idea.
And are you sure CU made adjustments at the half or did they just start playing better ... in particular ... picking up our blitzes better with better execution. Or did we just come out in the second half and not play as well as the first? So was it a change in strategy, adjustments, or just better execution by CU and worse execution by us?
These are real questions. Not rhetorical. No agenda. I really would like to know the answers to those questions from someone with better knowledge than I have and who has really analyzed the game.
All that said, I think we still would have won, despite adjustments CU may or may not have made, if we had not fumbled and we had not dropped passes, and we had not made boneheaded penalties. And those things are often, though not always, things you see in opening games.
As far as the blitzes go, they adjusted their pick ups and forced the blitzers to go around the outside and not right up the gut.
I think defensively they adjusted to stopping the run and we didn't throw more. I don't have an answer as to why we didn't throw more in the second half. Statistically we did, but Bunch threw 9 of the 18 second half passes in his two series at the end of the game.
Ok. So did Frost's teams at UCF not blitz up the gut? Or was that something new that CU was not expecting? Plus, teams will often change things up a bit just to throw the opponent off, so even if we had played a first game we might have had a different blitz package for this game that CU would have to adjust to.
But I agree with you totally about not throwing more in the second half. Maybe the success of the running game in the first half so impressed them that it took them too long to realize it was not working in the second? Who knows?
One thing is clear to me though. It does seem that we got out-coached in the second half. CU adjusted their approach and we didn't. Part of that could be that CU's coaches thought they were getting outmuscled and outplayed by NU and that they could not count on turnovers in the second half. So adjustments were needed. However, Frost and staff may have thought the same thing: "Hey we are playing well. Let's not change a thing and execute better, eliminating our mistakes".
In other words, Frost and staff did not do a good job of anticipating what changes CU might make in response to our attack.
Edit: My last point is important for my understanding of what happened. Given our success in the first half running the ball, why did our coaches not anticipate that CU might load the box and force a true freshman to throw? Was it hard to anticipate such a change? Did they not discuss among themselves the following question: "What will be our response if they load the box and stop our running game?"
There was a dude a couple of years ago that played for Cincinnati (NCAA) with the name Leviticus Payne. Still one of my favorites along with Bubba Diggs from Clemson circa 1981.
I don't know if UCF blitzed up the middle or not. I know Nebraska did in the 1st half and I know that in the 2nd half that the middle was closed and the blitzers had to take a longer route to get home.
Frost's offense is about making adjustments on the go. Every play has a run or pass component to it. Not always an RPO, but there is a pass play that can be audibled to out of the same formation. For what ever reason we threw about 19 passes in the game when not in hurry up at the end of the game. By not showing more passing, we didn't counter their move to stop the run. Perhaps Frost isn't quite comfortable with Martinez in those situations. IDK. It just seems that we had an advantage on the outside that we didn't take advantage of. By throwing a little more in the 1st half, we could have maybe kept them from making the adjustments to shut down the running game.
I agree with that. I think Frost was not wanting to put Martinez in too many situations where he would have to make fast decisions about the passing game. Look at the interception in the fourth quarter after we stopped them on fourth down. Frost said he called a very "safe pass" for Martinez to make. And he still got baited into the pic. So I think your analysis has legs....
Sheesh, I said the same thing in another thread about the blitzes being pushed to the outside and got hammered for it. Tuco has some very good points.
CU did make adjustments to their O line pick up of the blitz and they dared Frost to throw it. I researched one play where Honas came on a blitz the second half and there was no opening so he went outside and made such a big loop to get to the QB they didn't even worry about him out there. The difference between the half's is stark in adjustments.
Personal opinion is the the staff felt they were in control without taking chances. They actually were but not enough to overcome the mistakes. So the combination of playing somewhat conservative and making mistakes caught up to them. I could be all wrong on that, just an opinion.
CU did make adjustments to their O line pick up of the blitz and they dared Frost to throw it. I researched one play where Honas came on a blitz the second half and there was no opening so he went outside and made such a big loop to get to the QB they didn't even worry about him out there. The difference between the half's is stark in adjustments.
Personal opinion is the the staff felt they were in control without taking chances. They actually were but not enough to overcome the mistakes. So the combination of playing somewhat conservative and making mistakes caught up to them. I could be all wrong on that, just an opinion.
Last edited:
I agree, great route running/route combos plus great passes on those plays. 99 times out of a 100 I want the safety over the top in that situation but you can't fault the safety for not being there due to the route combo. That's more on the coaching staff than the players imo.
I think you are correct. As I told Tuco, I think the CU staff thought they were getting outplayed in the first half (and they were) and knew they needed to make adjustments. I think the NU staff thought we were in control as well and decided to stay with what was working.
And once again... if Spielman catches that third down pass and Reed does not have a total brain fart, we still would have won that game. So we can talk until the cow's come home about what the coaches should and should not have done in the second half, but the bottom line is that some of our better players did not execute in key situations.
Correct. And what concerns me is who and when mistakes were made. I expect freshmen to make mistakes. The int was a downer after the big stop. The fumble, yea he will learn to take care of the ball but too many mistakes by experienced guys - Reed, Morgan, Spielman, Conrad and Bell primarily. When things are on the line you have to make the big plays - they did and we didn’t. It’s that simple, just don’t think things are all hunky dory because there should be concern.
If UCF didn't show everything but the kitchen sink against 12 opponents and Auburn last year, I would be surprised. And if Colorado didn't watch those tapes, then shame on them for not doing so.