Concept Wednesday: Triple Motherf*%&^#$ OPTION!

Outside of the fullback trap and the fumblerooski, there is no football concept Husker fans love more than the option.  Even today, when you walk up to an out-of-stater and start talking Nebraska in the glory days, they’re likely to mention the option before anything else.  Scott Frost did away with the fullback and the NCAA did away with the fumblerooski, but the option lives on forever in Lincoln.  For the next two Concept Wednesdays, we’ll talk about three variations of option that Scott Frost runs.

For now, let’s focus on the grand prize of them all: the triple option out of split backs.  The concept itself is nothing new.  Oregon was running it during the Chip Kelly era, and several other teams have had it in the playbook after Chip’s initial success.  And no, Tom Osborne didn’t run the triple option.  But what makes it work for his protege Frost and how he’s different from Kelly is how Frost (a) uses a hybrid player as the second back and (b) marries the concept with a variety of different motions to avoid tipping the play.  Today, we’ll look at a few of those variations for Concept Wednesday #2 of this season.

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Concept Wednesday: The Jet Sweep

After a few days of moping, at some point you have to turn the page.  We’re doing that now as Concept Wednesday slips in just under the midnight buzzer.  During Tim Beck’s four-year run as offensive coordinator, Nebraska WRs had a total of 32 carries, many of which came on reverses or other traditional WR run plays.  Offensive coordinator Danny Langsdorf matched that in his first year, dialing up 32 carries for his WRs in 2015.

So this week, it’s the Jet Sweep, perhaps the most notable aspect of Mike Riley’s offense though he still tries to convince us it’s called the Fly Sweep.  We’ll take a look not only at the sweep itself, but also how Nebraska uses the Jet motion through companion plays even when the WR doesn’t end up with the ball.
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Concept Wednesday: Slot Fade

New feature for this year.  Every Wednesday, we’ll take a look at a core offensive concept that Nebraska uses to put points up on the board.  Sometimes it’ll be a running play, sometimes it’ll be a passing play.  It may even be a trick play depending on what the Huskers offense calls the previous weeks.

This week, it’s one of Danny Langsdorf’s favorite concepts: the Slot Fade.  And with J.D. Spieman finally coming online for the Huskers after a redshirt year, you can expect Nebraska to use this concept frequently in 2017. Continue reading “Concept Wednesday: Slot Fade”

Season Kickoff: Let’s Get This Thing Started

Exactly six days left before kickoff, so I suppose it’s time to fire the Husker hype engine back up.  We’re going to tweak things a bit this year to save me some time, hopefully resulting in more content.  First, the Charting posts will no longer be an every game thing.  Instead, though I’ll still keep the chart for every game, I’ll throw a post up every third game so we can get an idea of Nebraska’s offensive trends.  Second, I hope to get a Concepts post up every week where we’ll take an individual look at Nebraska’s favorite offensive concepts and how they work with current personnel.  Finally, I’m always open for guest posts.  We ran a couple last year, but I’d really like to focus on them more this year.  If you have something to offer, let me know and we’ll work it out.

With that out of the way, let’s focus on a couple things I’ll be looking for early in the season from the Husker offense.  I know, I know, handsome Bob Diaco is the real offseason story.  We’ll get to him soon enough, but I think people are selling the offense short this offseason when they shouldn’t be.

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