Why we were ranked #123 in punt returns last year

[Jack_John_Mark]

I can't seem to figure it out.......it baffles me.

I took a couple screen shots from the Penn State game that's playing on BTN right now to see if you guys can see anything wrong.

Looks normal to me, no?

1st punt of the game:

2nd punt of the game:

 

[Jack_John_Mark]

The first punt JW actually tries to return and he about gets his leg snapped off.

This shit makes no sense......yet it is obvious we are doing it purposely.

 

[oaknightshockey1]

I can't see the pictures but I watched the northwestern game earlier today on btn and it almost looks like our whole team drops into coverage. They don't go after the punter and they don't block anyone. Whenever a returner catches the ball there are 4 opposing player in his face and none of our other guys to be seen.

 

[Blackshirt]

Our special teams have sucked under Pelini in general. Sure we had a good kicker/punter in Henry, but take away him and look at our returns and we are awful.

 

[Jack_John_Mark]

I can't see the pictures but I watched the northwestern game earlier today on btn and it almost looks like our whole team drops into coverage. They don't go after the punter and they don't block anyone. Whenever a returner catches the ball there are 4 opposing player in his face and none of our other guys to be seen.

I can't see the pics on my phone for some reason either.

In both pics there are 7 Penn State players running like a pack of wolves towards our return man with not 1 single Husker in sight.

What we did on both plays was purposely just stand at the line of scrimmage and let them blow by us......apparently so we could eliminate the possibility of one of our own guys getting in the way of fielding the punt. On one of the returns we actually tried to return the ball still

 

[Jack_John_Mark]

I'm not exaggerating on saying there are 7 either........

You can literally count them. There are 10 guys in red standing at the other end of the play, 1 guy in red fielding the punt, and 7 guys in blue swarming him.

 

[iruletheskool]

Yea we seemed to not rush the punter, giving opposing teams ample time to get to our return man all while not blocking at all either

 

[Red_Alert]

LOL

The issue was discussed ad nauseam in 'multiple' Game Threads last season. It never changed all the way through the bowl game w/ Georgia, so it has to be intentional, but why?

Truly the definition of insanity and it's no wonder Nebraska plays like a 3rd tier program (or worse) in virtually every other facet of the game.

The not attempting to either pressure an opponents punter OR set up a return can only be a coaching thing. The players are either doing what they're told or confused about what they're supposed to be doing.

It's either Els (w/ a lack of supervision), or Bo directing Els.

Do they evaluate game film or do they just immediately move on to the next game thus the same problems surfacing in every game?

There's good reason why the over/under is 7.5 games in 2014.

Talent cannot overcome a lack of fundamentals, discipline, and overall organization.
However, good fundamentals, discipline, and organization can overcome a lack of talent to some degree. That's why Nebraska is involved in so many close games against teams they should be handling fairly easily. Those other teams are just executing better. They're not beating themselves.

Nebraska lacks the organization necessary to be an elite team and continued shoddy play will result in a nice lump sum payment to Bo.

PS: He hates you.

 

[tometom]

man, i said this all of last year. no punt rush, so punters could take their sweet time kicking it. no blocking, so guy's just taking straight off from the line and getting down field fast.

what i heard, bo was so scared of fakes, he was basically leaving his normal D on the field with a punt return back. the normal D didn't do anything but make sure there wasn't a fake. which left our return guy back to make the catch. I just didn't understand why he was scared, had anyone done a fake on us all year?

supposedly they did a bunch of work on it this spring, so hopefully we see remarkable improvement. I'd just like to see guys blocked at the line, if you can hold them up a second or so, that should be enough time to at least give out return man some room to get a few yards. plus if it's someone like Bell, maybe we could break one.

 

[Red_Alert]

man, i said this all of last year. no punt rush, so punters could take their sweet time kicking it. no blocking, so guy's just taking straight off from the line and getting down field fast.

what i heard, bo was so scared of fakes, he was basically leaving his normal D on the field with a punt return back. the normal D didn't do anything but make sure there wasn't a fake. which left our return guy back to make the catch. I just didn't understand why he was scared, had anyone done a fake on us all year?

supposedly they did a bunch of work on it this spring, so hopefully we see remarkable improvement. I'd just like to see guys blocked at the line, if you can hold them up a second or so, that should be enough time to at least give out return man some room to get a few yards. plus if it's someone like Bell, maybe we could break one.

It's not just the punt return game. There's a lack of quality preparation across the board. Hence Nebraska coming out of the locker room flat and playing from behind so often. There are very few exceptions to it. When they win it's often in spite of themselves.

 

[bigred472]

Nebraska lacks the organization necessary to be an elite team and continued shoddy play will result in a nice lump sum payment to Bo.
--------
And yet our new "AD" gives him a vote of confidence. Why? I'm not an x's & o's kind of Nebraska fan but what RA said above hits the nail on the head. Yes the players rally around Bo....so what? Despite what the media says about winning 9 games per year we can and should do better than that.


GBR

 

[Jack_John_Mark]

I can't read too much into the 7.5 over/under simply because Vegas determines their lines completely off of computer simulations, and those simulations come from whatever data they have stored.

Vegas always gets raped in the first 4 weeks of College Football because all they have to go off of is last year's data. So, for instance, they see what we have returning as far as production from last season and the computers automatically see all these turnovers and what have you. Not to mention, Tommy Armstrong is seen as weak by the computers because he didn't compile any statistics in the first 1/4 of the season last year and then had to share the rest of the year with Kellogg.

It's all about returning production and then comparing it to other teams that you're facing and figuring out who has the best opportunity to win. Right now the computers have us at 7 and some odd games, but as the season moves along and they get more data things will change.

It's the same exact thing that I did a few years ago with that program I made, except mine wasn't nearly as accurate because I didn't have the abundant amount of data that they have.

 

[tometom]

well, see, i think I'm going to disagree. sometimes I think Bo and Co overprepare for games. They spend too much time evaluating film and trying to figure out what the other team is going to do. then the other team goes and does something different that they didn't expect. so Bo and Co spend the first quarter adjusting to that.

or maybe that is an underpreparedness. in the fact they can't think of new places that teams will try and attack their weaknesses.

man, I'm glad I'm not a coach.

 

[Footballnut]

we were ranked 1st 2nd and 3rd? Wow, we did much better than I thought.

 

[Jack_John_Mark]

we were ranked 1st 2nd and 3rd? Wow, we did much better than I thought.

2nd to last

 

[corn train]

With all the problems they had to work on last year maybe the special teams took a backseat? No excuse however Shirley the Bo knows how bad it is and how it puts they whole team in bad position. At seasons end I was just happy to see the PR or KR field the ball without turning it over, anything more and I won't know how to act

 

[blkflagmafia]

maybe Bo is scared to lose a game because of special teams.

last time we rushed a punter it was Michigan 2011 game. that call changed the monument back to Michigan. that's also the same year we were feared in returning kickoffs and punts.

since then we play so safe on punts, that sometimes I don't see the point of even putting players on the field outside of the player returning the ball. either he is scared to lose because of a special teams miscue or they don't put emphasis on special teams in practice

 

[HuskerPower52]

Natty

 

[Brasky]

Ross Els' opinion about our return game since he's been here:

 

[Red_Alert]

The "plan" puts the offense in a situation that Bo's very defensive philosophy is based. Bend But Don't Break. The more plays and farther the offense has to go to score, the more likely they'll shoot themselves in the foot along the way.

Nebraska's not good enough up front for either to have elite success.