Beck's Offense

[OkiefromMuskogee]

I just wanted to start a topic talking about Beck's offense:  How you think it's going scheme and personel wise?  And what changes do you think can be made to improve it going forward?

For me I wanted to talk about it because of how excited I am for the offense for next season and the for the future.  When I think of this offense personel wise it's easy to be excited.  There are many weapons to be used at all skill spots!  At rb we have Rex and should have an improved Abdullah and Green, lots of weapons and depth there.  At wr we have Bell, Enunwa, Turner, Marlowe, and now Westerkamp for exciting for next season and moving forward.  At te we have Reed and Cotton which we probably don't take advantage of enough.  At qb we know we have Martinez back, the question is how much improvement will we see and if that will be enough to get us over the hump?  But we do have Carnes and Armstrong there now as well which should at least bring up the depth and competition.  On the OL we should see continued improvement, again kind of like at qb the question is will it be enough to get us over the hump? 

As far as the style of our offense I am happy with the direction we are headed in.  I think it's the type of offense where the ball is distributed to the playmakers in space and I like Beck's creativity as well.  I will say that distribution of the ball was an issue last year and I'm not sure if some falls on Martinez or just Beck?  He needs to find a way to get Green and Abdullah more carries in the flow of the game.  But overall I like the style of offense we are running and am excited to watch it grow!

[FreightTrain]

I read the piece Shatel wrote when he interviewed Bo recently.  Bo seems to really be focused on a 50/50 balance.  While Beck seems to be going with what is working.  I'm sure Bo wants to be versatile and get his receivers more involved, especially with the emergence of Enunwa and the potential of Turner and Westerkamp.  I'm more in the view of staying with what's working, until they adjust and stop it.  We seem to be getting back to recruiting roadgraders, while trying to teach them pass pro.  Until we have that quarterback that can develop pocket presence and not take too many direct hits, maybe handing off to Burkhead and the boys maybe be the prudent thing to do.  I'm not to hung up on a 50/50 split just because that means perfect balance.

Having a kid like Westerkamp could change the balance a bit.  Kinnie and his troubles of hanging on to the ball has run out of eligibility.  Cotton seems to be a pretty fair pass catcher.  I wouldn't be too surprised if the balance was toward the passing game however, as that part of the offense looks to be improved on paper.  It all comes down to the quarterback position.  The progress in pocket presence and footwork needs to improve if Bo wants to be perfectly balanced I'm guessing.  Yet there should be more improvement coming one way or another down the road.  The progress should dictate where the balance goes.

[Sexy Leather]

My two biggest criticisms of Beck's offense is that he doesn't utilize the 30 (Diamond) or play action out of the I (especially on 1st and 2nd downs) nearly enough.

In an article that Solly posted Bo said that Nebraska ran the ball 68% of the time last season. 

I estimated in 2011 that on 1st down Nebraska ran the ball upwards of 80-85% of the time and probably 75-80% of the time on 2nd down.

I'd need to go back and rewatch all the games to see if what I think or guess has numerical relevance.

What I do know is that Nebraska is WAY TOO predictable on 1st and 2nd downs.  Every team that has beaten Nebraska has used essentially the exact same gameplan on defense.  Load the box with 8-9 guys on 1st and 2nd down, and sell-out to stop the run and put our offense into 3rd and 10+ yardage situations.  It's playing the odds.  Teams are willing to sell out to stop the run on 1st and 2nd down because they feel very confident that Taylor Martinez can't beat a dime zone coverage consistently on 3rd downs.

(This isn't a "bash Taylor" comment--it's simply my observations about what I've seen from defenses throughout the '11 season.)

[OkiefromMuskogee]

I agree with those statements, I just wonder if some of the predictability of our O last season was 1.  Rex is really really good or 2.  Martinez wasn't efficient enough passing or 3.  Drops by the receivers put us behind the chains.  I think with the improvement of Martinez (I may be wrong but I expect continued growth in him) and improvement in receiver play will lead into less predictability.  Plus with how multi-faceted Rex's game is, I expect Beck to find more creative ways to get him the ball as well.

I will add that one thing I hope to see this season is the ball in Turner's hands about 10 times a game at least.  It reminds me of a conversation I had with the HC at the high school I coach at (I'm not an offensive coach though, I am the DC) where we had a very talented sophomore who was kind of a part time rb and wr and also punt and kick returner.  I told him as a defensive coach my thought was if he didn't touch the ball 10 times you didn't do your job.  Now this was a conversation between friends, but I kind of think Bo should say something similar to Beck.  I do understand he was a true fresh last year and there were issues, and I just want to be clear I'm not saying Beck was in the wrong last season.  I just hope we can find creative ways to get the ball to a special athlete.

[Valiantsailor]

What I do know is that Nebraska is WAY TOO predictable on 1st and 2nd downs

  No kidding, the D justs  sells out to the few plays we  run and you have the huskers "off schedule".  When we get off schedule we become even more vulnerable. We need to throw off of first down more to eliminate the need to throw on third down.