Just something to think about while we ponder our offensive line problems. What do the names Richie Incognito, Gary Pike, Jermaine Leslie, Jemayel Phillips, Cory Timm, Brett Byford, Ryan Schuler, Andy Christensen, Lydon Murtha, and Danny Muy mean to you?
If you were a recruitnik, you'd recognize the names of some highly regarded offensive line recruits from the past few years that were signed to be eligible this season.
None of the above are playing this year; many aren't even in Lincoln anymore.
And, just to be fair, we probably could include Seth Olsen, who essentially decomitted after Steve Pedersen decided to make his change.
Sure, there are some talented guys on this year's recruiting class. But there were talented guys in the past classes who aren't contributing. The bad news is that it usually takes a year or two for offensive linemen to adjust to the program before being able to contribute. That may mean that we may have this problem for a while longer, unless Bill Callahan and Dennis Wagner can accelerate the development of some of these players. Or pull some people out of their redshirt years and learn on the job.
Linemen are the anchor. Nebraska was spoiled on both sides of the ball in the 90's. Peter, Wistrom, Zatechka, Wiegert, Stai and the list goes on. Nebraska dominated the line of scrimmage both offensively and defensively during the "Reign of Red". A running back with poor speed and cutting ability would have looked good behind those lines!! So big fricking deal we have Lucky, got to have a line to go with it. The sportsmedia would have you believe that Lucky and Taylor are the knights in shining armor, shows what they actually know about the game.
ReplyDeleteI saw the Husker program taking a turn for the worse when T.F. took off to San Diego, and Riola took off early. If those two guys would have stuck around, they could have anchored a decent line while teaching the young ones how to get the job done.
Frank coached a Heisman trophy winner, did Callahan have an MVP?