[Husker] the D

[weldoc at juno.com]

I sent "Cousin Rich" Skylar's "Opposing Receivers 2006 Stats" which I
found intriguing, and he said this: "Great stats!  Too bad that Callahan
doesn't read stuff like this."

Then he sent this:

Our problem is not o-line.  Of course, I know that you think you know
what I am going to say next, because I'm sure it is what EVERYBODY
complains about . . .

And no, it is NOT Courtney Grixby and our d-backs.  We will never really
know how good (or bad) Courtney or any of our d-backs are because of the
total lack of coaching.  The coaches are questionable and the schemes are
"high school"at best.  

Grixby and Jones have to play man-man every down and get no help from the
safeties.  The difference on how OU plays in the secondary vs. how we do
it is incredible.  Just watch the interceptions that Zac threw.  There
was always a safety there to make a play or if the cornerback didn't.
Simple zone defense.

Zac would throw for 400 yards against our pathetic coverage.  We made
Thompson look like a good QB.  All he had to do was lob balls out in
front of receivers and they run under them.  He never had to try to
figure out what coverage we were in, because it never changes.  If the
corners get beat, it's all over, because our scheme is so bad.  

And what is worse is Cosgrove never changes anything, never mixes
coverages.  Every "blue moon," we go to a nickel.  We blitzed OU ONE time
and got Thompson to panic and throw an interception.  Where was that
blitz a 2nd time?  

Zac Taylor, after the game: "They did a great job disguising their
coverages, that was probably the thing that gave me the most trouble".
Wonder if Callahan and Cosgrove heard that one?
 
If someone had asked Paul Thompson about "reading" our coverages, his
quote probably would have been: "are you kidding?  I saw more complex
coverages when I was in the 7th grade".

It was pretty cool to watch OU's defense line up in what looked like
man-coverage, and then at the snap of the ball, they would rotate their
safeties over to a different coverage.

Without changing a few defensive coaches we will never get back to where
we want to be.  Better corners and safeties are not the answer.  By the
way, it was recently pointed out to me that Zac Bowman was a 5-star
recruit, Grixby a 4-star and Andre Jones a 4-star.  Not the players, but
the coaches!

And then we can get to the offensive problems  . . . I don't have time
right now, but how about zero rushes in the last 25 minutes!
_____________________________

(I've invited "Cousin Rich" to get on the List several times, because his
level of intensity re: NU football has always been several notches up
above mine. But he's not gonna do it.)

FWIW, there's another opinion...

Bill Laughlin
Wichita, KS