My new call for changes at Nebraska

I've stated repeatedly that I dislike the WCO in any form-whether it be Bill Callahan's or Shawn Watson's. I want it gone from Nebraska FOREVER. Rushing for a pitiful 55 yards last night (or whatever miserable number it was) is no recipe for success. Run the ball and stop the run and you win a lot of games in college football. So what if they stacked the LOS with 8 players. Teams regularly did that against Nebraska for the better part of 30 years but the system we ran couldn't be stopped. Teams do it against Paul Johnson-style offenses all the time. They still find success.

My call now is since we didn't get Paul Johnson at Nebraska, we can get the next best thing-one of his assistants to resurrect our offense reclaim our identity. My preference would be either Mike Sewak, the current GT OL coach or Brian Bohannon, the QB and B back coach, who PJ brought with him from Navy. Sewak has extensive HC experience but as a graduate of Virginia, I wonder if he won't be in line for the soon to be open position to replace Al Groh. Bohannon has been with PJ for 12 years. He knows this offense inside and out. Bill Snyder had a bunch of great coaches develop off his tree.

Speaking of Bohannon, found an interesting read from a Booster Club appearance last February, after LOI day. Hat tip to the Georgia Tech Sports Blog. Pay parituclar attention to the philosophy, especially about recruiting.

A Hive member gave a very interesting report on a "Griffin Exchange Club" visit by new assistant coach Brian Bohannon. Bohannon is of course our new QB/B-Backs coach - and of course is also a Georgia grad and former football player. His job is crucial in this offense. Quite frankly it is this QB/BBack relationship that determines so much of the success of the triple option.

You can read the whole thing from the link above, but here are some of the more interesting points for me:

• Talking the talk....... got the crowd going by saying "we would beat Georgia", and something to the effect of - that's why we're here and the old coaching regime is not. We get it................ of course all that talk is great now.........


• Voluntary workouts have started
• First workouts started at 6:00am to get player's attention and make a point - if you are not interested in discipline and focus, then find somewhere else to play. Said they won at Navy because of player attitudes, not just execution of a gameplan. The right attitude leads to the right focus which leads to the right execution. Attitude first. The best players don't win games. The best teams do.
• PJ more concerned with the attitude than X's / O's at this point.
• Everybody starts with a clean slate. They will put the best 22 players on the field - no matter what age or experience.
• Said Morgan Burnett might be the best athlete on the team and they might even look at him at QB if he's interested
• Felt very good about recruiting - that they got what they were after - great kids, athletes, attitudes. PJ and staff have been very impressed with the quality & character of the kids in this program - which rivals Navy.
• Team success will hinge on the "middle 3" - center, QB, B-Back.
• Quote - "We'll throw plenty of passes....... most of them will just be in the pregame warmups (obviously tongue-in-cheek, although anyone who thinks we will pass more than Chan Gailey's teams did is crazy).
• Said we will probably pass 20-25 times per game, but get more yardage per pass because of the way defenses are forced to defend the run. "Not unusual to see a WR catch a pass with nobody within 20 yards of him".
• No easy practices. No special jerseys for the QB's. No half-speed drills. Can't learn this offense at half-speed - will be game-speed so it becomes instinctive.
• Not unusual to end a Friday afternoon practice with a 50-play "scrimmage", then wake up and run a 130-play "scrimmage" 14 hours later.
• We will get a lot of kids at QB that other schools want at other positions.
• If a kid cares about how many stars he has, he doesn't belong here.
• PJ doesn't care a lick about Rivals.com or Scout.com rankings. The formula is: fit-the-system + character + attitude = we want him here.
• Josh Nesbitt - amazing talent but a complete unknown as an option QB. Has a future at many potential positions
• Jaybo Shaw - coach's son, knows the offense
• Tevin Washington - great athlete, could play many different positions
• Richard Watson - prototypical B-Back, can't wait to get him on the field
• Will likely see more OL recruits with burst off the line. That means probably fewer 6'7" 320lb guys.
• Trying to break habits of the current OLine - getting them to move forward at snap - not side-to-side. Quickness + footwork are key.

http://gtsports.blogspot.com/2008/02/football-brian-bohannon-speaks.html

Send Shawn Watson and this garbage offense packing.