Actually, we'll call this a Sam Keller and Marlon Lucky scouting report.
Sam "Jesus" Keller
Strengths
* Physically impressive. There's no doubting that. A blitzing LB got his arms around Keller in the 2nd quarter, and Keller was still able to shot put the ball to the RB.
* When he has time, he makes a good throw. If he has the opportunity to assess the defense and make a decision, he delivers.
Weaknesses
* The slightest bit of pressure, and he seems to panic. Either he freezes (as he did with the interception/fumble/weird play in the fourth quarter that could easily have cost them the game if Wake had an experienced/good QB), or he rushes the pass and throws off-target.
* He's not a quick thinker. When he makes a decision, he makes a good throw...but it seems to take him a while to make a decision.
Verdict
He's no Jesus. He might not be Zac Taylor either. He's physically gifted, but I'm not sure about his mental strength. Wake does some weird things on D--they confuse you on both sides of the ball to make up for the gap in talent--so maybe it was a unique situation, but he didn't handle it too terribly well, averaging just 6.1 yards per pass and throwing two picks (not to mention going 3-for-15 on 3rd downs). You can win with him as your QB, but only if the running game is clicking, I think. And speaking of which...
Marlon Lucky
Strengths
* Follows blocking as good as anybody I've ever seen. Along with that, he's got very strong vision. He sees the holes as they're about to form.
* Good straight-ahead speed. If he spots a hole forming, it takes him just a couple steps to get to full-speed.
Weaknesses
* Definitely isn't a shake-and-bake guy. Has decent moves, but comes to a complete stop to make them.
* Can't create on his own. If the blocking's there, he's fantastic, but as he showed on the short yardage plays that could have clinched the game late for NU, he follows his blockers...even straight into the ground.
Verdict
Really good speed, but is only as good as the linemen ahead of him.
Both Keller and Lucky can be cornerstones of a good offense as long as the 300-pounders up front are shouldering a good portion of the load. So far NU's O-line has done enough to take the offense to good places, but they couldn't make the plays to clinch the game against Wake--they had to rely on their defense to win the game in the fourth quarter. A team with a good D-line (something Nevada isn't, and Wake Forest isn't really) might be able to create havoc, making Keller rush his throws and forcing Lucky to make a couple moves to get his yards, and I don't think that will end well for Nebraska. Is Mizzou's D-line good enough for that? Not yet. They can develop pressure on the interior, but the DE's will have to produce, and they didn't do much of that against Illinois. We'll see. USC, however...pretty sure they'll be able to handle the NU O...to say the least...
Saturday, September 8, 2007
Nebraska Scouting Report
Thursday, August 30, 2007
Mizzou Links, 8-30-07
- I was a day early in my 'why blogs are great' sentiment. Yesterday produced the best reason yet: "Cut to the Chase." I love that Pinkel agreed to this, I love that it's going to be a weekly thing, and...yeah, I love blogs.
- Today's player profiles: the Trib talks to Darnell Terrell, the Missourian profiles asst Cornell Ford and a couple of his prized recruits, PowerMizzou also takes on some "St. Louis sons", and the KC Star takes on Juice Williams and...Kirk Farmer?
- In basketball recruiting (basketball? what's that?), Inside Mizzou has a Laurence Bowers update. Spoiler Alert: he likes Mizzou. Meanwhile, back to football, Tyler Wilson's still down to just two teams (Spoiler Alert: one of them's Mizzou), but he still isn't deciding...
- Clone Chronicles takes a look at the ISU depth chart for tonight's game against Kent State.
- Corn Nation does the same for Saturday's NU/Nevada game.
- Looks like KU will be playing as many freshmen as Mizzou this year. Followers of Mizzou recruiting will recognize two of the names on the list...former Mizzou targets Carmon Boyd-Anderson and Dezmon Briscoe.
- Buffs.tv previews CU/CSU.
- Via Bring On the Cats, here's a quick (and relatively optimistic) look at the KSU season. It doesn't make much mention of the turmoil and strangeness presenting itself over the last few weeks, but...I'm not sure that makes a difference with this team. Ron Prince did a lot of things that annoyed the crap out of me last season and made me think KSU was going to stink for quite a while...then I looked up at the end of the season and they were 7-5. So whaddo I know...
Monday, August 20, 2007
Mizzou Links, 8-20-07
I'm running late on the Links now because I had to watch that Indy Bowl highlight video from top to bottom again...I take complete credit for that comeback, by the way. I was recording the game, and I turned it off about two plays before Marcus King's interception. That was obviously the catalyst.
- Another new O-line commitment over the weekend. The Beef made a great point on the phone this weekend...with as many high schools that incorporate the spread offense now (especially in Texas), there's really no need for us to ever recruit another O-lineman who isn't fully versed on the spread's intricacies. I haven't paid attention, but I'm sure folks on the message boards are whining "Ohhhh, he's not a big-time recruit!" or whatever, but...well...tough. Meanwhile, Jeff Ermann catches up with Cahokia's finest...new TE commit London Davis.
- Graham Watson summarizes the offense's massacre of the defense on Saturday's scrimmage. I'd like to point out that this was mostly done against the #2 defense, not the #1, and while that shows that our depth isn't very good...well...that's not as much of a problem as not having a decent #1, right? Honestly, with two weeks to go before the season starts, I'm still a bit worried about our pass rush, which was my #1 concern all along. Sounds like the run defense might get a boost from formations where Ziggy Hood occasionally works from the DE slot, and it also sounds like Sean Weatherspoon and a healthy Van Alexander will make the losses of Marcus Bacon and Deke Harrington pretty palatable. If Darnell Terrell can get back to full speed by September 1, then I'd say the #1 defense is in pretty solid shape. All the defense has to be this year is competent. That's what I keep telling myself.
- Gabe has a nice Week Two Recap for your reading enjoyment. We bag on Gabe for always being wrong in his recruiting predictions (well, it seems that way anyway), but there's no doubting that he goes all-out on coverage.
- LOTS of practice coverage in Sunday's Trib. Joe Walljasper has his own Week Two Recap, and then he catches up with Mr. T Rucker, while Dave Matter talks about Tony Temple's damn-impressive recovery from the bruised knee that scared the bejeezus out of everybody a couple weeks ago. Meanwhile, if Danario Alexander is the best #4 receiving option in the conference, and Jared Perry is maybe the best #5, I guess Jeremy Maclin might be the best #6? Sweet merciful crap, do we have some weapons...
- The Missourian takes a look at Derrick Washington and his chances of avoiding a redshirt in 2007. Actually, so does Mike Dearmond. Mike also takes note of Chase Patton's impressive play.
- Things aren't too hot in Manhattan at the moment...to say the least. Zero completions? Really?
- Iowa State is looking into a new uniform design for 2008, and you can vote on your favorite helmet right now. I've gotta say...I'm not sure why, but I LOVE all three of those choices. Guess I'm a fan of white helmets or something...who knew? I'd say I-State is my #1 choice, ISU my #2.
- Via Rock Chalk Talk, it appears that, as expected, Todd Reesing is your KU starting QB. Ouch. Who knows...maybe he's improved significantly in the offseason, but...I think that says more about Kerry Meier than it does about Todd Reesing.
- Meanwhile, also as expected, Coach's Son Hawkins is officially the Colorado starter.
- Finally, in Lincoln it looks like Zackary Bowman has begun practicing again. I don't expect much from him after 19 knee injuries, but I guess it helps with depth in a pretty thin secondary.
Monday, August 13, 2007
Mizzou Links, 8-13-07
Fun night last night...70 mph winds came out of nowhere...good times...anyhoo...now that we've got a pretty good idea of what's going on in Columbia, let's look around the Big 12 North.
- So in 1995, Nebraska had to replace three DL starters, and those replacements ended up being named Wistrom and Peter, and the Huskers won another national title. Apparently 2007 will be just like that. Good to know. In other news, Marlon Lucky (mild concussion) and Cody Glenn (tight hamstring) both missed out on some scrimmaging over the weekend. See, Jeffrey? Every team has injuries. And finally, Sam Keller drops jaws. No comment.
- One of KSU's major question marks, wide receiver, has gotten a boost from the emergence of JUCO transfer Deon Beasley. Another boost could come from remembering that Jordy Nelson is pretty good. In all, I think Josh Freeman is pretty overrated (and apparently not in the best of shape), but I also think that there are enough unknowns involved with K-State that they are pretty much the North wildcard.
- Another weak WR corps--Colorado's--might get a boost from a freshman or two, though that's rarely an optimal solution. Even less optimal: freshmen on the O-line. Dan Hawkins really doesn't have much of a choice--he barely has enough scholarship OL's to fill out a 2-deep. I do figure that line play (on both sides of the ball, really) will hold CU back more than playing a RSFr QB. They do have one thing going for them, though: here's a feature on one of the conference's most underrated RB's, Hugh Charles.
- Here's a new candidate for Best Nickname in the Conference: Tang "Hostile" Bacheyle. He could provide a nice physical presence in the Jayhawk defensive backfield...though physicality wasn't the main problem for the KU DB's last year--it was speed. And with no Jon Cornish in the backfield, it's time to "open up the offense." Not a bad thing per say, though when your QB's are Todd Reesing and Kerry Meier, it's not necessarily a good thing either.
- So the ISU offense has Bret Meyer and Todd Blythe. Great. It appears that the other 9 starting positions on offense are still up for grabs, including RB (Jason Scales, J.J. Cass, Cameron Bell, Alexander Robinson, Michael Atchison, The Beef) and Other WR (R.J. Sumrall, Wallace Franklin, Euseph "Awesome Name" Messiah, Doug, The Boy, Bill C.). Also, Meyer is getting a bit of competition from RSFr Austen Arnaud. Meanwhile, the 'Clones have one less LB in the mix, as veteran Adam Carper is out for the season.
- Finally, back to Mizzou...DE was my main concern heading into this year, and a resurgent Stryker Sulak could be a positively huge boost for the Mizzou defense. Meanwhile, Mike Dearmond looks into the Mizzou punter battle (or lack thereof), and Graham Watson talks about the true freshman emerging in the defensive backfield.
- And Mizzou's Roger Wehrli sits down for the Trib's Sunday Q&A...
Friday, August 10, 2007
Mizzou Links, 8-10-07
The Beef called me after work yesterday to slap me around for jinxing practice yesterday. No injuries? JINX.
- That's right, Van Alexander joined the injury train yesterday. Granted, it doesn't seem serious enough to miss major time, but it's an annoyance. More playing time for the Redmond's, Lambert's and Keck's of the world, I guess. It appears that Justin Garrett got some minor dings as well. But hey...the heat index was about 143 yesterday, so I guess we should count our blessings in the end...at least that's what I'm saying to convince myself I didn't jinx anything...
- Interesting notes from Gabe's practice report: Sean Weatherspoon just keeps getting better and better, Carl Gettis is threatening for playing time, Pig Brown didn't have a great day, and Bart Coslet & John Stull are doing great things at DE (meanwhile, I haven't heard a word about Jaysen Corbett or Tommy Chavis so far in August).
- Best thing about Chad Moller's FootBlog post from yesterday: Greg Bracey's Residence Hall Linebacker skit gets a mention! Of the thousands of silly skits and videos show in the Mizzou dorms over the years, this is the best I've seen. Bracey's a character. And he's really really fast. We really just need to throw him one bomb per half and see what happens. Too bad I can't actually find the video. Anyone wanna help with that one?
- Dave Matter discusses my least-favorite rule change of the offseason: backing kickoffs to the 30. Even if we had a Mason Crosby on the team, I wouldn't like this rule.
- Correction: if we had a Mason Crosby, I wouldn't mind this rule at all. I shouldn't lie to Mizzou Links.
- Matter also continues his Big 12 profiles...this time it's Nebraska's turn. Guess I should just be thankful that he interviewed Ruud without mentioning that there's at least one Mizzou blogger who thinks Ruud's the most overrated defender in the conference, huh?
- Oh, and I meant to post this about five days ago: the NY Post's Mark Cannizzaro loves Brad Smith (he wrote this last October too). Who doesn't?
- Oh this is fantastic: not only does mutigers have a great 2007 Volleyball Preview up today (which will deserve it's own post some time soon)...that's right, they've got a VolleyBlog! Blogs are the greatest invention in the history of the world. Well, blogs and Hot Pockets.
Either way, The Beef's not a fan of the Weatherspoon's and Howard's of the world losing their redshirts. For me, it's a bit of a gray area. Weatherspoon is apparently looking unbelievable in camp right now, and who's to say whether that's because he's naturally a badass who's worked really hard, or if it's at least partially because his relatively minimal playing time last year got him accustomed to the speed of the game? Obviously the Pete Carroll's of the world have no problem playing true frosh, even if just for special teams, because he knows he'll be able to replace them with ease when they finish their eligibility one year earlier than they would have with a redshirt. But will we be as ready to replace Sean Weatherspoon (and Del Howard) after 2009 as 2010? And did their 2006 experience develop them in ways that made it worth it?
Bottom line is, if Gettis outplays Castine Bridges and Paul Simpson (and Kevin Rutland, Tremane Vaughns, and Trey Hobson, for that matter), he should play. But the question is, where's the line? If he's fighting it out for the nickel back position (which, it sounds like, belongs to Justin Garrett), is it worth it?
(In other news, the damn "Read More..." button is being screwy again, so you're just going to have to scroll through this long post. Sorry.)
Monday, April 16, 2007
Nebraska Spring Football Preview
2006
After a five-year absence, Nebraska was back in the Big XII Championship in 2006. Granted, they got walloped by OU, but ask any Nebraska fan, and this was just a sign of things to come. Whether or not it actually is, has yet to be determined.
The 2006 Husker offense best represented what was expected all along from Bill Callahan. Nebraska rushed the ball about 40 times per game, and though their rushing attack didn’t threaten to break any records, when it was clicking, it opened up the passing game and made Zac Taylor’s job pretty easy.
The “Big Red is back!” talk peaked somewhere around the 4th quarter of the Texas game on October 21. At that point, NU was 6-1 (with only a road loss to USC) and leading the Longhorns. However, Texas came back to win, 22-20, and Nebraska was simply above average from then on out. Home wins against Missouri and Colorado, a road loss to Oklahoma State, and a narrow road win against ATM set the stage for the 9-3 Huskers to face a surprising Oklahoma team in the Big XII Championship. Nebraska lost, 21-7 (it really didn’t ever seem that close), then lost in the Cotton Bowl to Auburn. The 17-14 loss was highlighted by two things a) Nebraska holding its own physically against an athletic Auburn team, and b) Bill Callahan getting horrifically outcoached. That ended a 9-5 Husker season.
In all, NU’s offense tailed off over the last four games of the season, but not enough to keep Zac Taylor from winning the conference’s Offensive Player of the Year award and Nebraska from having their most successful season since Frank Solich was fired (for, ironically, winning only nine games).
Key Returnees
Nebraska lost two key contributors on offense—QB Zac Taylor and RB Brandon Jackson. Taylor was the award-winner, but he was nothing if Jackson wasn’t running (and catching) the ball well. We’ve all heard everything we need to hear about Sam Keller, Taylor’s likely replacement, but replacing Jackson will be the major key to the Huskers’ success. Marlon “Four Heismans” Lucky injured his knee in the spring game (though it’s likely a minor injury) and spent part of the offseason in the hospital for undisclosed reasons, and backup Kenny Wilson is out for the season already. It’s also been a while since Cody Glenn was 100% healthy.
In other words, RB is a huge question mark for Nebraska.
The WR position, however, is not. Maurice Purify is underrated, and along with Terrence Nunn, Nate Swift, Frantz Hardy and Todd Peterson, Callahan finally has the receiving resources available to run the offense he’s always envisioned. The O-line has key cogs returning as well; the unit showed improvement in 2006, though I still wouldn’t label this one of the better O-lines in the conference. We’ll see what another year of experience does.
As for the defense...there were losses galore. Like seemingly every other team in the conference, the Defensive End position is a question mark, as NU will have to replace both Adam Carriker and Jay Moore. The interior of the D-Line should be solid, as Ndamukong Suh looks like he could be a star. At LB, somehow Bo Ruud and Corey McKeon both have eligibility remaining. I could have sworn they were both seniors last year, but whatever. The secondary’s success will depend on JUCO transfers. Rarely is that a good thing, but you never know. It looks like Zackary Bowman will once again miss significant time due to a knee injury, and though the Huskers are expecting him to be ready to play at some point this season, how often do guys come back from multiple knee injuries to play at a super-high level?
One thing that could jump up and bite NU is special teams. Nebraska was averaging in the punting and return categories last year, but they had a steady kicker in Jordan Congdon (he didn’t have a booming leg, but he was steady within his range). Well, Congdon transferred, so this could be a mediocre unit all around.
Spring Developments
I complained last week about how some schools just don’t have much in regard to Spring Football coverage. Well...needless to say, that is not the case with Nebraska. There are plenty of good outlets for Husker football. This Journal Star article is a good, concise summary of NU’s spring goings-on. The main storyline, of course, was the QB battle. Sam Keller seemed strong throughout the spring, but he’s gotten a nice battle from Joe Ganz, whose physical non-prowess is balanced out by his strong grasp of the West Coast offense. You have to figure Keller wins the job in the fall, but Ganz is putting up a fight.
On defense, the story was the retooled D-line. Not only does NU have to replace four starters, but they also had to replace their D-line coach. Suh looks like a stud, but all the other positions are still a bit up in the air. NU seems pretty high on Ty Steinkuhler, who is roughly the 194th Steinkuhler to play for Nebraska. If the D-line can’t find consistency, the strong LB corps will be neutralized. And considering the secondary is every bit as shaky as the D-line, this might not be a wonderful season for the Black Shirts.
Fun With Numbers
As discussed previously, here were the five statistical categories that were most directly related to NU’s success/failure last year:
1. Rushing Yards
2. 3rd Down Conversion Ratio
3. Rushing Attempts
4. Pass Completion %
5. 3rd Down Conversion Rate
I’ve been tinkering with numbers a lot recently, and no matter how I look at it, the rushing offense is absolutely vital for NU’s success. Marlon Lucky needs to be a) healthy and b) every bit as good as he was supposed to be when he arrived in Lincoln if the Huskers are going to be successful. The passing offense should be strong with Keller throwing to Purify, etc., but that won’t matter if the running game isn’t a threat.
A fun schedule awaits Nebraska in 2007. A trip to Winston-Salem (where Wake Forest will look to duplicate last year’s unprecedented success...though I doubt they will) follows a tricky season opener against Nevada. After that comes (I assume) the College Gameday crew for a September 15 game against USC. Assuming NU’s 2-0, that could be a matchup of two Top Ten teams. NU will get to ease into the Big XII schedule, as three of their first four games are at home. They should find themselves 3-1 (I’m counting their road game in Columbia a loss, dammit!) heading to the back end of the schedule. They finish with three of four on the road, but only the trip to Austin is too daunting. They will probably need to avoid tripping up at Boulder or Lawrence to have a shot at the North title. In all, I’m think 8-4/5-3 is the most likely scenario for a team with this many question marks (RB, DL, DB, special teams, Callahan), but I’m admittedly biased against the Huskers (what Tiger fan isn’t?). I really don’t think Nebraska is back in elite territory, but I’ve been wrong before.
