The Bone Yard

Hopefully he learns his lesson this time.

my posts always hit the bottom of the page. 247 is trying to hold me down!

for the record, sparty i liked your thoughts and thought you brought some good stuff to the table.
thanks

What's with the past-tense?!?! I'm down to keep this party rolling

Here's what I'd like to know about Nebraska:

1) With the new DL coach, are your DTs still going to both be heads up on the OGs playing 2-gaps? Was that just for the "Peso"?

2) Why isn't Baker Steinkuhler an OT? (I'm more interested to know why he was moved to the DL early in his career)

3) Tweaks to Tim Beck's O: Are you guys looking at some I-formation runs and getting away a bit from the option . . . or committing to a full option O?

4) What's up with the JUCO recruiting? Not a ton of Big 10 teams bring in more than 1 JUCO/year save for the Minnesota's and IU's of the conference. Obviously NU's JUCOs are on a whole different level, but is this something that's being done to just address specific areas in the short term, or is this a major part of your recruiting strategy?

5) What's the OL and DL depth look like? # of starts for the back-ups and classes are appreciated (RS Soph / true SR, etc.)

6) Any injury concerns headed into fall camp?

I'm glad to answer any and all questions about MSU; schemes, personnel, whatever you want to know. Thanks again for letting me post on here; BYC is good people.

1) no, we will still play mostly 2 gap. Bo likes it.

2) we needed help at DT, but he would have been a star a LT, instead of just a good DT.

3) option will be a part of our offense, especially since we have a running QB.

4) We need jucos because of our location. We need that talent to take us to the top, because usually Location isn't a factor. They are older, and usually don't go to juco in the same area. I prefer 3-5 jucos in our class, depending on the talent.

Thanks for the responses. Some follow-ups . . .

1. Steinkuhler's a SR, right? He's a solid player and a good DT, too bad we won't get to see what he could have done on the OL.

2. Kind of figured you'd keep some of the option. I'd expect Abdullah to be a nice compliment to Burkhead. You guys could very well lead the league in rushing. Not thrilled that you have a home-run threat like Abdullah in your backfield, but hey, you're Nebraska.

3. JUCO stuff is interesting. I know there are a lot of Junior Colleges in Kansas and the area that probably makes it easier to recruit kids to Nebraska. I wonder if you guys tone down the JUCO recruiting if/when you break into Illinois more.

4. What happened to the DTs? I know Steinkuhler and Rome . . . who's behind them? Same with Meredith and Ankrah (sp?), what's behind them?

5. Any questions on MSU?

Thanks for the quality input and discussion everyone. Rocky, the Yard appreciates your knowledge and insight.

Thanks for the updates; hope your young DTs are o.k. for the fall. That would be rough if you only had 3-4 healthy DTs on the roster for the season.

As for MSU, Andrew Maxwell is a better runner than Cousins, the same way molasses at 34 degrees flows faster than molasses at 33 degrees. Ok, he's a little faster than that (and a state high-jump champ), but MSU isn't expecting Denard Robinson or even Russell Wilson. If he can provide positive rush yardage on the year (as in his scrambling >> sack yardage . . . like + 39 yards total for +3 yards/game) MSU would be thrilled. I believe MSU and Iowa were the only teams in the conference to get negative rush yards from their QBs . . . and MSU only gave up 16 sacks all of last year.

Totally understand why you put "Hendrix" in there; Andrew Hendrix is in the mix for the ND starting QB job and he IS a mobile QB.

Anyways, MSU's O won't change much regarding Maxwell's legs . . . but his arm could shift things a bit. He's a little bigger and stronger than Cousins and the current WRs are faster than last year's group (Seriously. Cunningham was reliable but about a 4.5 guy, Nichol was a 4.55 type and Martin the only 4.4 option), though whether or not they have the hands and route-running of their predecessors (much more important than straight line speed) remains to be seen. Where I'm going with this is that MSU was not a particularly strong vertical passing team last year, and that may change.

MSU's favorite routes last year were bubbles screens and slants. Nothing wrong with those, but those are short routes. The longer TE seam route was abandoned due to an injury to the best receiving TE (Dion Sims, who's back this year), and you didn't see a ton of the post/corner/fly routes that come with a big play pro-style O. That, IMHO, had a lot to do with the fact that MSU really only had 1 fast WR (Martin), who was also the end-around specialist, bubble-screen guy, wildcat QB, punt returner and waterboy. Ok, the last one isn't true, but the point remains; he was so busy with other jobs that he couldn't just be a deep threat. His stats reflected that: 66 catches . . . but just 777 yards, for a relatively pedestrian 11.7 yards per catch. In short, he was catching a lot of short passes and getting some decent yards after the catch. Martin's longest TD of the year came against Indiana, where he caught a 12 yard pass on the sideline, made a defender miss, and raced into the endzone (47 yards).

Ahh, but you say BJ Cunningham averaged 16.5 yards/catch, clearly they went deep to him! Yes . . . but usually on broken or trick plays. Other than a 54 yard bomb against hapless central Michigan, Cunningham's big plays came on either trick/busted plays or yards after the catch. He had a 63 yard TD against Indiana that came on a faked end around. . . which was then faked into a handoff (yes, a double play-action fake, what can I say, it was IU at home on Senior day? Joel Foreman, MSU's LG got a carry in that game ) . . . and Cunningham slipped behind the D which came up to stop either the end around or the faked draw. Easy TD.

Against Wisconsin the first time around, Cunningham averaged 17 yards/catch, including a 35 yard TD. Great, right? Well, that play was on 4th and 3 (or 6 . . . I can't remember) and the pass was to Cunningham about 12 yards downfield. Into triple coverage. Dangerous throw, but the Badgers knocked each other off, and LB Mike Taylor slid off Cunningham, who ran into the EZ. Great play, but hardly a deep pass. In the CCG, Cunningham had TD catches of 30 and 44 yards. The 30 yard TD was off of a faked pitch to Bell on 4th and 1; Cousins ran a bootleg and Cunningham had a step on his man. The 44 yarder was the result of a 6 yard crossing route where Cunningham just ran faster than WI's DBs all the way to the EZ. Again, WI's DBs were not fast last year.

In short, though MSU had some "big" pass plays last year, the ball didn't travel that far in the air. In fact, Nebraska picked off a slant on MSU's first drive in Lincoln (after 2 straight first downs due to Bell's running, still mad at the OC for going away from that) and all the other deep passes were batted away. State didn't have the raw athletic talent at WR last year to run Coach Roushar's preferred routes; the fly, post and corner routes. You just didn't see an MSU receiver streaking down the sidelines and catch the ball in stride. That's something that wasn't part of the offense last year, but should see greater play this season.

Sorry for the giant history-laden post. Basically MSU is going to try and stretch the field this year with younger, but faster, receivers.

Hey, TGD!

Well, as always, we have Husker fans that are already dismissing Taylor's performance...otoh, most of us see a committed athlete and student of the game coming into his own, i.e., Taylor probably had his best game since his injury in the 2nd quarter of the Mizzou game, 2010.

Biggest question going into this game was at center. Justin Jackson is a beast, and now we know he's also a B1G quality center. The OL is the best we've seen in a very long time...depth is the question. This team can score 40 points on anyone...the question is on defense.

The front seven is where the Huskers pin their hopes on the B1G Championship. The UCLA game is a very good tune-up for Denard and Braxton.

I think DA can accomplish that with very little help from any of us. It's kind of in his genes.

In what way? I thought MSU dominated Boise. 460+ yardage to Boise's 206. MSU allowed 3 points on offense to Boise. Bell rushed for over 200 yards. 2/3 of Maxwell's picks were due to receivers tipping easy catches right to the defense. The score was close, but the teams were not.

Right now I think MSU is the best in the B1G, followed directly by Nebraska.

Boise isn't good and we had 632 yards of offense. as far as tip passes if you hit the receivers in the numbers then that doesn't happen ( not putting all the blame on Maxwell but he gets no free pass either). one of my favorite quotes are " numbers don't lie, but they don't tell the whole story" so with le'veon 244 yards (which i'm not taking away from him) they only won by three so the teams are close. also as you'll find out soon if bell carries the ball anywhere close to that all season then good luck keeping him healthy.

I have to remind myself not to post when I'm under the influence. My natural sarcasm always seems to emerge.