What Kind of Production from New Backs?

Hmmmmm…....very good break down.  With Beck as new OC, everyone will be learning a new offense, so to speak.  I’m sure it will be similar, but definitely more wide open.  This year will be a learning curve for everyone.  Just want to point out how well Burkhead did as a Frosh.  Aaron Green will makie more of an impact…...maybe not as consistant as Rex, but definitely more explosive.  Given Martinez will be a year older and hopefully tougher and stronger, (Good back-ups as well) this should be a “Good” solid backfield.  Losing Helu is huge, and Jones has impressed the most out of the other 3 backs, but we need atleast 1 of them to step up with Rex and Green. Ameer will not be strong enought to have more than 15 carries next Fall.  Green around 115 sounds about right…....Rex about 200 sounds about right.  Maybe a few more, but with our running QB taking more and more carries…....Burhead will not have to carry a 225 or 250 carry load next year.  You mentioned the Wild-Cat, maybe that might be a Turner or Starling spot next year to limit Burkhead’s beatings througout the year.  Remember, Bo told Bubba that he WOULD NOT RED SHIRT!!!! 
Just my take on all this, not the best situation in the backfield, but “IT IS WHAT IT IS.”

The freshman duo will have a good year n will have impact immedately here’s why:
1. Were using a spread offense tha was similar to ku in 07 remember how they were able to run n pass with ease
2.becks offensive stragety is n will be more open to screens,draws,some zone read, n other plays tha will get the fast rb in space
3. Burkhead did very well his freshman yr even tho helu was the only experience starter rb wise
4. These backs have incredible speed both run 4.4 both are small fast backs that will expose the slo big10 defense.
5. Last but not least our qb will be fast too whether its starling tmar turner or carnes we will have a qb tha will be a homerun threat.

Our freshman duo will do fine their smart quick n fast n they will be playing in similar offense that they ran in high school.

Comments are like wishes. Sometimes they come true and some times they don’t. And as far as the Big 10 defenses being slow, when was the last time our offense won a track meet? They have average speed at best. These new guy’s might not see the field for awhile and when and if they do they will be a little on the light side to really do damage on the linebackers that we are about to see. Nebraska is not the only school in the country that has recruited for speed at the backer and safety positions.

In the 2005 section, who is “Cody Green”?

first, let me say this, i don’t think either of the freshmen will come even close to the 100 “carry” mark. 

but if they do, here’s something that i think will help.  burkhead, jones, okafor, and ward are all downhill runners (with burkhead being much shiftier than the other 3, but he’s still a get upfield type guy).  from what i’ve seen of heard, he’s a downhill guy too (if he qualifies).  green and abdullah are anything but downhill guys.  so to me, what that means is, when they’re on the field, they won’t be the feature back almost ever.  one of the returning backs will be in the backfield next to the qb, and ag or aa (or both) will be in more of a wingback role (getting carries on sprint sweeps and screen passes and whatnot).  this is good because NEITHER of them are ready to be in charge of picking up blitzes in pass protection (which is the hardest thing for a true frosh to learn).

so i could see one or both of those guys getting 30-40 carries this year, with another 20-30 touches via the passing game, but i doubt we see much of them in a traditional running back sense.

i think he meant cody glenn

Steve, how soon you forget 2009! Other than Helu, the returning experience was practically zilch. Burkhead was a true freshman who ended up with 80-plus carries.

Well, after listening to a “few” comments from coaches. reading more than a few boards and doing a little research, this is my *insert word* view of our upcoming running game. 
I do think that the new running back will be utilized.  I think it is telling that Brown was moved over to coach them 1-because he is the most seasoned coach, but also 2-because these backs will be asked to catch a lot of balls out of the spread.  As has been stated, they aren’t the biggest set of backs, which is interesting given that the B1G is known to have large defenses set to stop runners.  Looks like they want to attack by getting these guys open in space - see Lucky’s best plays - and to have a power running options behind - see Rex and mobile qb to be named later - we should have a couple even if MLB comes calling.

It would be fun to see this out of some triple option, but when operated correctly, we have seen it work well out of shotgun too.  With good coaching on the same page…. this looks like a great combination to expose weaknesses in the current Big 10 d’s.  It wasn’t that many years ago the Big 8/12 was set up similarly to run smashmouth and load the box. I think we will be coming into the B1G with 10 years of evolved football and ready to take over whichever L-word division we get to play with. 

In the game the glory.

I think losing D Robinson hurts us more that we realize.  I know he didn’t get many touches last year but next to Burkhead he’s one of our most experienced backs.  I also think he would fit into the big 10 physical style of play.  Any word on Braylon Heard?  Someone please find him a good tutor.

It also makes sense to think that Beck knows what he is talking about when he thinks these two new RB’s will contribute.  Beck did recruit both Green and Abdullah with Brown in on Green as well.

I also like the rate these guys are growing.  Ameer started our a little small - though Beck says he plays big - but has already grown from 5’8 170 to 5’9 180 on most sites.  Green has been reported at 5’11 191, but I fully expect him to match Marcus Lattimore 6’1 218 by the time we hit OSu.  Speaking of Lattimore - he was a true freshman for S.C. last year and only managed to put up 1,600 yrds and 19tds last year (with no fumbles) while sharing significant time with a senior and sophmore - and playing for the visor!  I would take that kind of production from a freshman any day.

Great insight, All signs are pointing to a simple and agressive offense.  Now simple does not mean that a 3 year old can understand it.  It is running the same play out of different formations or working the heck out of a play until no one can stop it.  I recall when BC was coach there was a reported 500plays he could choose from per game.  You only need about 10 different plays to be successful if your team is disciplined and aggressive enough.  So with this type of offense, a young speedster that will make you miss like green could prove to be just as large an asset as Burkehead.  Look for Rex to get 150 carries, Green to get 100, and a commitee to hit about 100 together ( that includes QB runs).  Also the fact that all of our QBs run like recievers, that could take away from carry totals.

Darren, don’t forget about the 10.4 yards per carry on Zimmerer.
I really hope that Beck’s philosophy has an offense that incorporates the counter of a fullback. Just like the old days.

Great assessment. It all bodes very well for the Huskers. I think Green and Abdullah will bring a lightning strike RB approach to the NU offense next year. Both should see ample playing time in support of Burkhead. And with Martinez and Turner and Carnes and Starling (jeezus 4 QB’s!?) in the possible fold, this offense may be very special in the next couple of years. I think Beck will shine. Maybe not right away, but at least we have hope with a new OC.  A special OC IMHO.

GBR

It’s going to be interesting to watch how they come out this year…how it looks and who they get involved. But I don’t think this is all Becks visions here as some would say, I think this offense has Bo written all over it. And if I know Bo…which I don’t…I think this is his oppertunity to insert the kind of offense he has always wanted. I like the way they say the offensive approach is going to be the same as the defensive approach…to attack, go for the throat, be aggressive, physical, and be otherwise ferocious in general. I like that. That means imposing your will. What a concept! That’s the swagger we need to get back to on offense. And that is what we have to look forward to…I hope.

People will understand how good Green is after next year. Think about what LaMicheal James did at Oregon last year. Green will be that type of play maker. Im not saying he will have the year James did last year, but I think he will impress. He will be the change up back to Rex’s physical style. Wouldn’t be suprised if Green gets over 800 rushing yards with a couple hundred receiving thrown in there. Any way you break it down, no matter who starts, Skers will be more of a running team. None of the qbs are very good passers. Green is lightning in a bottle. There is a reason the pete carol usc offered him his soph year. Abdullah will be good imo too but I think will RS. I think he has the frame to pack on mass and be a very good and elusive bowling ball type back. Just my opinions though.

Temper your enthusiasm. The Freshman might not be ready to
contribute heavily next year.  Everyone wants to try to put a positive spin on things.  We have a new OC with a new offense and
a reciever coach coaching runnning backs with very little experience returning in backfield.  This doesn’t sound like the formula for instant success.  We are coming off 3 losses in our last 4 games.  No Kansas, K St, Ia St, Colorado on the schedule next year.  I would prefer not to have so many unanswered questions.  This is Bo’s 4th year.  We went backwards last year.  Everyone needs to take their NU glasses off and look at reality Bo may be in over his head.  It may be that he is just a good defensive coordinator.  After 3 years we are starting over with a new offense?  Our OC had success at Kansas 4 years ago?  This isn’t Kansas and it isn’t 4 years ago.  It seemed like alot of teams had success against our defense that year.  I remember all the bravado from Bill Callahan and his good recruits.  The Washington game will tell us how the season is going to go.  It could be an ugly year next year.  I am waiting to see evidence on the field.  I hope I am wrong, but talk is cheap.  How many other head coaches are defense oriented?  It seems that they normally are offensively oriented.  You don’t have to be smart on defense to be good.  You just hit people.  I like Bo and I am sure that he is dedicated.  You can’t fault his defenses.  Not everyone is meant to be a head coach.

BubbaH I agree with you on the whole waiting to see how good they are. The thing is we can’t relax and look at “how good we are” until the season is over. To prove our talent to others day in and day out. However, I don’t agree that most coaches are focused on offense. For example: Pete Caroll of USC was a Defensively oriented coach for the 2004 team. That’s the only example that pops in my head, but I don’t believe his Defensive Knowledge makes him any less of a head coach then someone else. However, if you look at Tom Osborne, it’s hard to argue that. But if your team allows 40 points/game (like Bill Callafag) it doesn’t matter if you are scoring 35 points/game.

What if Bo was Bill Callahans defensive coordinator?  Things could have been different.  Just because a coach is good at offense or defense doesn’t make him a prime head coach.  A lot of coaches
aspire to be head coaches, but not everyone is meant to be a head coach. Time will tell.  I am just concerned that this is year 4 and we are starting all over on offense.  How did we get to this point?  Fans seemed to know what Bo should do.  As fans we think we know what a coach should do, but we are hoping that he does things his way and is right. When what he does is what fans can see, it is a little concerning.  Jim Harbaugh was a qb.  Turner Gill was a qb.  Frank Solich was a rb.  Oregons coach is offensive minded.  A head coach is steering the ship.  If he gets too far into the weeds, it can be hard to steer the ship.  It would have been nice to see Bo coaching under Osborne for a few years.  He is definitely learning on the job.  Solich was under Osborne and once he was gone the coaching job has become an experiment. Under Tom Osborne we had coaches who were lifetime assistants and they were good at what they did.  I look to the past to see where we have gone wrong.
People want to say this is now and it is different, but it really isn’t.  There was a reason NU has been successful all those years.  Stability was a large part of it.  We had an offense that didn’t change much and it was sucessful for a long time.  We started changing offenses and we could never match the success.  Maybe we should go back to what was successful.  The only thing I really know is that there is something missing that we used to carry over from year to year.  We used to get beat by OU, but eventually we mastered them.  Then we used to get beat by the Floridas in the bowls and we mastered them.  We didn’t change things a lot, but we tweeked them.  At some point we need to have some basis and then we just need to tweek it each year based on what we learned the previous year.

BubbaH, you’re right, AG might not be ready to play a lot next year. You never know how someone is going to make the transition from HS to college. To say that “you don’t have to be smart on defense to be good.” AND “you just hit people.” Is like saying I have absolutely no idea about football what so ever. A guy messes up on defense and its often times 6 points. A guy messes up on offense and often times you lose yards or, Worst Case, its a turn over. which would you prefer? As to how many coaches are defensive oriented? Pete carol was one, Les Miles, Gene Chizik who just won a national championship, Bob Stoops, Saban likes his share of D, just about every big 10 school, but other than that, who cares? Callahan under coached his players where as this staff coaches them up. Also, Aaron Green played in the toughest Highschool football class in the COUNTRY, played with a bad QB, a coach who had no offensive creativity, against defenses that knew what was coming and always stacked the box and still produced good numbers and made people look dumb. So yea, I like his potential ;)

I guess what I meant is that a player on defense can be agressive
and get by on that.  I remember hearing the Selman brothers at OU didn’t have to practice.  They just showed up foir the game and dominated.  The defense is more reactive where the offense has
to develop more of a strategy.  I guess there are more defensive minded coaches than I thought.  A lot of players that are hyped don’t always pan out for various reasons and not necessarily lack of talent.  I remember Marcus Dupree.  I watched a show about him.
He had so much talent.  I saw him run for an 80 yard touchdown as a freshman against NU in 82.  Green was a 4 star quarterback recruit and Taylor Martinez was only a 3 star one.  Marlon Lucky was a 5 star recruit Suh was either a 4 star or 5 star and Bo didn’t think he was very good when he got there.  Harrison Beck was a can’t miss prospect.  Henery the kicker was a walk on and he became one of the best ever if not the best.  Hopefully all the recruits pan out, but we know they all aren’t going to for various reasons.  Niles Paul
had all the potential in the world.  He had a slight fumbling problem
and some inconsistency problems.Freshmen can become as much a liability as an asset.  Hopefully we won’t need them and they will have time to develop at their own pace.  We don’t want to put too much pressure on them.  I think it is asking a lot for someone to start college in Aug and be ready to play in Sept.  I would prefer to see them put into situations where there is no pressure.  I would prefer to see their potential in a blowout game than relying on them.
Sometimes if success comes too early it can go to their head.  The recruiting prognosticators pick other recruits as our best recruits or earliest to make an impact than the running backs.  I think if you ask players to do too much too early you risk injury.  Players are bigger and faster in college.

BubbaH I do agree with you on the surface things don’t look all that promising going into this upcoming season, what with trying to count on all the Freshman and inexperienced coaches and all. If you add it all up, it doesn’t seem to make sense that we could have a lot of success at first. Look at it…only one returning running back in a primarily run offense; an OC that has never lead a team onto a football field or called a play in college football; a receivers coach straight out of high school (a prep school at that!), and a receivers coach that is now coaching the run game, although he has never coached that position or played that position. On paper it looks like Bo has no clue of what he’s doing. Do you believe that? I don’t.
I think it will all gel and be OK in the end. He thinks long term and when he has explained himself he makes sense…to go out and get young hungry coaches and coach them up at the same time your coaching the kids. The first year will be a tune up year. I think down the road 2,3 years into this we’ll be scary good, but as for now, we’ll probably have some rough areas that need smoothing out. But, we all could be wrong too and this could work perfectly and we come out blazing like we did last year. Remember, we were on pace to possibly compete for a national tittle last season before “the injury”.
Bo knows a lot we don’t and he keeps things a little tight lipped if you’ve noticed (I’d hate to play poker with him), which is good in the sense he doesn’t want to give it away to our opponents. They’re watching believe me. But your right, not a typical formula for success. But is Bo different? Is there a method to his madness? Or, does he have some talent for knowing what’s needed, seeing diamonds in the rough and making it work? I think he does. He’s good that way. And it’s way early in his career. He HAD to rebuild this offense…what else could they do? Keep running the same things that clearly didn’t work? I think there will be growing pains but in the end I think he’ll be hailed as brilliant. I do expect them to come out firing on all 8 cylinders, but to be realistic, it might be a learning curve year…good, hell very close even, but not championship level quite yet. We are Nebraska though, we have a long tradition of winning. It’s only been the last7-8 years (since Callahan actually) that we’ve been bad…excluding the last 3, the Bo era, where we’ve been good again…but not so much on offense as it wasn’t really his. You have to start somewhere and looking at this long term the outlook is much brighter.

I still can’t believe people thinking Pelini is over his head or that we took a large step back last year… It was a 10 win season last year, I do recall about 4 seasons there that we didnt get 10 wins, and one that we had a losing recored…

One our loses weren’t huge loses , we were competitive in all of the games, except maybe for a horrible bowl game in which there was nothing for the team to get up on.. Playing a team you beat earlier, in the same venue as the last bowl game.. NO Im not making excuses, they lost and played crappy, nor do I have the NU blinders on ... Its obvious to everyone with college football experience that Pelini is a good coach, regardless if the media hates him…

Also when you look at our current I back Situation, we are in pretty good shape… REX was our best back at the end of last year, as much as I like Roy, and the two young ones coming in are both very talented.. It would be foolish of us to think either of them are going to be Marcus Lattimore, but realistically they dont have to be .... If Becks offense is going to look anything like the Ku offense of years back, which Im sure it is, these young backs are going to get screen plays and quick sets that will use their talents on the outside.. Also everyone seems to be forgetting that whomever is the QB at NU, you might as well put a RB tag on them as well…

Exciting times!
Soon, we’ll get to see what Becks is brewin’.
Not sure how much the I-Back position will be simplified. Certainly, it won’t have all the wco read responsibilities. Even Watson cut down on the pass protection and recieving, you’d see I-Backs doing so much of, in previous seasons. It’s not as though those things won’t exist anymore, but the ball carriers jobs will be integrated to accommodate and proceed from the quick reads, these inexperienced option quarterbacks will be doing. They won’t be wco I-Backs, anymore.

At least Beck has got a heady, experienced guy in Burkhead, who really is good at everything and should be another year better. While not so much a threat to go “house,” he’s going to always be a known multi-threat, to opposing Ds, because of what he can show. Little things, like any slight hesitation or off alignment, can be exploited to create that extra half foot of space, which can allow for more of the big plays you saw, before Martinez got clipped.
Picture Burkhead in the Wildcat, in the middle of conference play, with Green or Abdullah, a step to his side.

Nebraska HAS to be able to run, now. They’ve got to be good at it. Since a good, contending team has to average well over 400 yards, and they probably won’t average more that 150 or so, passing… They’re going to have to approach 280 or more, on runs. Obviously, they’re not trotting out that much against a THE Ohio State, but, they’ll need to be good for 200 and some play-action passes.
They’ve positioned themselves into this, over the course of these recruiting cycles. Which, is good. It’s meat, meet potatoes.
More athletic, run oriented linemen, more blocking emphasized recievers, fast and faster QBs and big play potential from the new I-Backs. All, bum rushing out of a “simpler” offense.

According to some scribes, not sure what we’re supposed to expect. But, I think I know what Pelini expects.

Thank you Rod and PE on your comebacks to Bubbah. Bubbah wrote a lot but, no offense guy, there was not much substance or accurate keen insight into what you said. Good comments but well, lets look at a couple….

I’m old enough to remember Osborne’s first 6 years at NU. 1973 to 1978. He went 55-16-2. A little better than 9-3 a year. He scrapped a pro set style offense for the Option I in 1978 and things started to gel. And there was great fan pressure on him to resign because he could not beat OU. He finally did in 1978…. coincidence? IMO, Bo is ahead of the legendary Osborne at this stage in his young career.

Bo is 29-12 in 3 years. He has made changes even before TO did.  Primarily on offense because that is where he sees the leak in the damn. As for BubbaH saying there are very few D minded coaches in the NCAA, thank you Rod. You mentioned them all. Saban, Stoops, Miles, Chizak, Carol to name a few. Let’s not leave Tressel and Ferentz out, our new Big 10 friends. There are a few NT’s there in that group don’t ya think?

Bo coaches an attack D. We will have 3 preseason 1st-Team All-Americans coming back in Crick, David and Dennard. I like his early recognition that the same will work on the O side of the ball. There is youth but there is talent too. Martinez and Burkhead will be the leaders but I see Green and Turner and Abdullah contributing right away. Sure, there will be growing pains with the new playbook but I am sure they will be far less painful than the O performance of the last two years.

I see no less than a 10-2 reg season, Legends Division Championship and a rematch with Ohio St in th B1G 10 title game. 11-3 or 12-2 is not out of the question.

The backs will be fine if we can just get some production out of our offensive line.  One only has to remember the bowl game to remind us how they got pushed around. 

You can get a lot of production out of an average back if you have a great offensive line as with the pipeline of years past.

Hopefully, with a new OC that will improve.  If it doesn’t then I think we will be lucky to win 9 given the opponents in the B1G.

I’m happy the Callahan era finally ends this year!  The last vestiges of that dismal period have been cast overboard, including the WCO!!!  So, has Pelini been building to this moment?  My guess is yes.  Look at R. Rodrigez who was hired the same year Pelini was.  He walked right into Michigan and over-hauled the offense by installing the spread with personel that coudn’t run it, and their record suffered because of it.  Finally, he has the players who can run it, but the fans had grown impatient already. We may not see miracles this year, but I like the philosophy.  It works at Ok, at Florida, and at Oregon, I am sure it’s going to work at NU.  But we are going to have to be patient.  It’s going to take a couple years to really get it perfected.

I couldn’t agree more with Bill in Iowa and Husker in Atlanta. We will be fine. I think it might take a while to really get good at this new offense like anything else you do. No one is perfect at doing something right off the bat. At least the WCO offense is hiistory and the Callahan era is officially over. We can all celebrate! We can move on now and revel in the knowledge that we’re totally on the right path and it will lead us to much success…albeit not soon enough for most Husker fans, including myself.
It’s rare that a freshman contributes in a meaningful way, but I wouldn’t put it past Bo to do just that and make it work. Look at Marcus Lattimore. I live in South Carolina and they ran him seems like on every down! I think just about anything Bo does, he does for a reason and he doesn’t owe anyone an explanation. We just have to have faith.
The hard thing for us Husker fans is we have been horrible for the last several years before Bo. So the last few years have been great, we all feel it building. Finally! We come out with this new quarterback and WOW! We might just have a chance at a National Championship we were thinking…this year! Wupee! Our season was heading straight up, no one could stop us hardly and we all couldn’t be happier. Then the injury happened and then the wheels come off the wagon and nobody seemed to know what to do.
But the things that I’m seeing lead me to believe good times are right around the corner. With 2 guys coaching the offensive line, great recruiters, great recruits, new coaching blood, new coordinator, new offense, what is there not to look forward to?