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.

Huskers, Navy and a Wild Week of CFB

Thoughts on Nebraska's 35-30 loss to Virginia Tech last night:

-I am actually a little surprised by the outcome of this game. I thought it would be too much for a young Virginia Tech team to go on the road and pull out a victory in Lincoln. However, Nebraska's lack of an identity on offense and inability to run the football are the biggest reasons why I think the outcome was as it was.

-Nebraska doesn't have an identity on offense. And if you can't run the football at least somewhat effectively, you won't win many football games against quality opponents. Period.

-I make no secret that I'm not a fan of this style of offense that Nebraska plays. Call it the WCO or a pro style offense or whatever you want to. Right now we're not really good at any particular facet of executing it. What's more disturbing is that the offense hasn't really changed-these players and this offensive line know this system well, as its a watered down version of Callahan's offense. However, Callahan's teams ran the ball far more effectively than what I've seen thus far this year.

-Shawn Watson was highly criticized by Colorado fans during the latter stages of his tenure there. Could it be that the dope smoking CU fans actually got it right, for once??

-It gets much much tougher from here on out. Missouri's defense isn't great and we should put some points up on them. But again, if we can't play ball control and run the football, Chase Daniel will hang a half hundy on this this team.

-Congrats to the Middies of Navy and new Coach N for their signature win yesterday at Wake Forest. This was the first time since 1985 that Navy got a win over a ranked opponent. The Mids jumped all over Wake and led 17-0 at halftime. However, the offense started to get stalled when Kaipo went down with a hamstring injury. I haven't watched the film yet but a W is a W.

-Duke and new Coach David Cutcliffe will be a formidable opponent for Georgia Tech this week. The Blue Devils are now 3-1 after trouncing a hapless Virginia team yesterday in Durham. I expect GT to win and PJ will not allow this team to be overlooked. Duke's only loss was a close 24-21 loss to unbeaten Northwestern. They also beat Navy 41-31. It shou.ld be an interesting game-especially if Nesbitt is held out to heal his hamstring.

-Clemson now looks to be in full collapse and might be a winnable game in a few weeks. After yesterday's meltdown to Maryland, I'm wondering if Tommy Bowden's team, chalk full of talent, is ready to mail it in for the year.

So with the week off

With the Georgia Tech bye week there's still plenty of activity around the program:

ESPN weighs in on exactly what I talked about in a post following the Mississippi State game. Johnson's offense works and works against anyone. Anywhere.

Meanwhile, Paul Johnson and his staff have used the off week to "teach."

A sports betting website calls Paul Johnson's team "scary."

Also, Johnson's ex team Navy, has caused Wake Forest coach Jim Grobe a ton of headaches in preparation for their game this weekend. What an offense.

Comments are Welcome...Again

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Some More Misc Miss State Notes

Plenty of records will be broken very soon.

-PJ got his 110th career victory, tying Amos Alonzo Stagg for the eighth-most wins in the first 12 seasons of a college coaching career.

-Georgia Tech recorded the fifth-highest single game rushing total in school history with 438 yards on the ground.

-Tech’s 438 yards rushing were the most since 1978.

-Jonathan Dwyer’s Record-Breaking 88-Yard Run In The Third Quarter was the longest run from scrimmage in school history, breaking the previous record of 87 yard by Bob McCoy vs. The Citadel in 1948.

Telling Words

From the NE Mississippi Journal:

MSU knew coming in that this rarely seen brand of offense - Bulldogs coach Sylvester Croom called it a "wingbone" because of its wishbone and wing-T elements - would be tough to defend. They said they felt prepared, but it's one thing to prepare for it and another to actually stop it.

"We ran the option offense in high school, and you've got to read your keys every play," said free safety Derek Pegues. "If one man slips up, you've seen it out there, it can be a touchdown any time."

Pegues said too many missed assignments hurt, but strong downfield blocking was a big factor, too.

In the end, Shaw and the rest of them were too much for MSU to handle.

Some Stats

After 4 games, three of them against BCS teams with pretty salty defenses, the young and rapidly improving Paul Johnson offense is 3rd in the country in rushing yards per game, at nearly 307 yards per game. This is behind his former team-Navy-the national leader; and Oklahoma State. The Jackets are also averaging nearly 6.5 yards per carry. When you consider the youth on this offense and the fact we're only 4 games into the PJ era-pretty amazing. Look at who the key players on offense are:

QB Josh Nesbitt-Soph
QB Jaybo Shaw-true freshman
RB Embry Peebles-true freshman
RB Jonathan Dwayer-Soph
RB Lucas Cox-Soph
RB Quincy Kelly-Soph
RB Roddy Jones-RS Fr
RB Greg Smith-Jr
WR Tyler Melton-true freshman
WR Damaryius Thomas-Soph
OL Joseph Gilbert-RS Fr
OL Zach Krish-Soph

That means Paul Johnson will have nearly every statistical element of his offense around for the two seasons after this one. The defense, outside of the DL, is nearly as young. Can you say BCS? Or maybe more. And don't forget Louisville transfer Anthony Allen, who may allow Dwyer to slide over to the A back posistion like he did a few times yesterday. Scary.

Also wanted to mention that 71 players (nearly everyone on the sideline) got into the game yesterday. Even walk-on QB Bryce Dykes and Calvin Booker got snaps.

I don't know-just watching GT yesterday reminded me so much of what Tom Osborne's teams used to do. Run roughshod over a team powerless to stop you and then get a bunch of backups into the game to build up depth and experience.