[Husker] My Husker thoughts

[JEN_SENS]

I don't think it is odd to have to continue to stress fundamentals. Bad 
habits constantly develop that detract from good fundamental play. Part of 
good coaching is recognizing and correcting these abberations.

I believe the problem, at least on the high school and college levels, is 
there are very few players who are fundamentally sound. (Kind of like, how 
many good shooters are there in the NBA?) Everyone is looking for the 
highlight hit and so there is the bumping with the shoulder or the body 
rather than squaring up, wrapping up, and taking down. Brandenburg may be 
slow, but he tackles. Remember Clint Finley? People raved at what a big 
hitter he was, but he whiffed a lot because he didn't wrap up, and just 
tried to blow the other guy up.

I further believe that our coaches are stressing creating a turn-over 
machine. So instead of wrapping up and taking the guy down, they are 
grabbing at the arm or trying to punch the ball out. The result is arm 
tackling  and missed tackles, with increased yards after contact. We need 
players who when they hit someone, the ball carrier goes backwards rather 
than five (or fifty) yards up field.

Gerald


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Alan Siporin" <alans at efn.org>
To: "Dick Karre" <dkarre at comcast.net>
Cc: <husker at tssi.com>
Sent: Wednesday, September 19, 2007 2:02 PM
Subject: Re: [Husker] My Husker thoughts


>
> A solid point made by Dick Karre about the need to teach fundamentals in 
> the
> middle of the season (or even three games in to respond to another post as
> well). What's worse is that we hear this same excuse after nearly every
> loss. It seems to me that whatever the problem (fundamentals, technique,
> scheme) after the first offensive series, the defensive coaches should be
> able to gather the players and say you are doing X wrong, or you forgot to
> do Y. Focus and do it right the next series.
>
> The one element that wouldn't work this way (and that Mike Nolan brought 
> up)
> is a talent gap. That would take time, and very successful recruiting. 
> Which
> brings me to my main point of concern:
>
> When Pedersen changed coaching staffs he implemented a major shift in
> program philosophy. The old philosophy was still to recruit the best 
> talent
> possible, but countered some inherent Nebraska weaknesses in attracting 
> top
> talent with a unique offense that allowed us to cherry pick those kinds of
> players, much as USC cherry picks from the whole pack. Nebraska was the 
> best
> at what it did, so we got a pretty good shot at the best of the lineman 
> and
> qbs that ran that offense. We will always have to compete with everybody 
> for
> running backs, but with the best rushing offense year in and year out, 
> that
> should be a wash, at worst.
>
> As we recover from a hard loss, several possibilities exist. On the bright
> side, maybe what's in place is working and just needs more time. On the
> gloomier side, maybe the new overall direction for the program dooms us to
> years of mediocrity. Or yet another possibility is that what Callahan is
> trying to do can work, but Callahan isn't the guy to make it work. 
> Perhaps
> it's none of the above (talent, technique, etc). Instead its the staff's
> inability to motivate properly. Osborne was the master and that, and 
> spoiled
> us rotten.
>
> The feature on USC's Friday approach to practice (having fun and goofing
> around keeps them loose) struck me as a possible key, especially when we
> were missing tackles right and left (and center). Maybe the Husker players
> were over-revved and consequently kept over-running the play.
>
> That's long enough for now. I'm ready to move on to Ball State.
> Alan Siporin
>
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