[Husker] NFL vs College

[weldoc at juno.com]

"...I suspect this has to do with NFL versus College approaches...It
seems to me that the NU style of the 1994-5 teams might work in the NFL
if quarterbacks were not so highly paid and protected in the NFL. The old
NU offense had QBs who would throw a block and run into tacklers rather
than slide. I liked that. Maybe the rules are now so skewed you have to
have drop back passers in the NFL but I wonder of the tough QB paradigm
could not work there if the economics were different. Vince Young has
made a pretty good impact as a young QB who runs with the ball. What do
the experts out there think?" -Stuart Jones
________________

I'm nowhere NEAR being a "great football mind," but interestingly the
newest issue of Sports Ill. has an article by Damon Hack on p. 21 with
the title "Can't Anyone Here Play This Game ?"  (Sorry, I don't know if
it's available online, as I'm an oldtimer who reads paper most of the
time.) The gist of it is that defenses in the NFL have gotten so
complicated that most QB's can't handle them w/o lots of experience.
That's aside from their individual talent levels. Some of the
less-than-stellar guys on the field, in the writer's view include Rattay,
Grossman, Harrington, Frerotte, and Griese. There are only a select few
who CAN perform at the consistently high level of expectations; hence the
writer's sub-headline of "A shortage of qualified QB's is transforming
the NFL."

So trying to impose NFL-complextity-level offensive schemes (and
defensive schemes) onto the shoulders of COLLEGE athletes who may only
play for a team for one or two years may not be the best overall
solution.

Bill Laughlin
Wichita, KS