Huskers Need To TightEn(d) Up

Paging Mike McNeill. Or Hunter Teafatiller. Or Tyson Hetzer. Or Dreu Young. Or Ryan Hill. Or Ben Cotton. Or Damon Bechtold. Or Jay Martin.

These fellas are all listed as tight ends on the latest Husker roster. I'm issuing an Old Husker Fan all-points-bulletin for one or all to claim the glory that surrounds Husker tight ends.

Think about it. You can go all the way back to the Bobfather days of the mid-1960s, and the tight end position at Nebraska has been a spotlight spot. No second banana here. We've had some memorable guys at that position, but we've hit kind of a dry spell over the last 4-5 years.

So, just to help refresh ourselves in this time of preseason musings, let's take a stroll down memory lane and get reacquainted with some of the best guys to wear the Scarlet and Cream who ever not only got down and dirty next to the tackle, but also broke free and sent our hearts and touchdown balloons skyward:

Mid-1960s---

Tony Jeter. #84. An Ohio boy (Steubenville--also the hometown of running back "Lighthorse" Harry Wilson). I think Jeter would be right at home in Shawn Watson's offense. He was on some awesome offenses, culminating in Devaney's first unbeaten regular season in 1965. And he capped that off by catching 3 TD passes in the national title Orange Bowl game against Alabama.

Dennis Morrison. #89. Took over after Jeter moved on to the NFL. Good hands and was willing to take and dish out a hit. Caught a winning TD pass against Colorado in a game at Boulder in 1966 that our guys won 21-19 because CU flubbed on two PAT efforts.

Late 1960s---

Jim McFarlane. #80. Went through the relatively lean years of '67 and '68 (when you didn't qualify for a bowl game if you won 60% of your games--as our guys did--but I digress). Figured in a VIP (very important play) late in the 4th quarter of the KU game in 1969 during the Devaney comeback season, when he drew a pass interference call on a deep ball with our guys down 14-9. We scored on that possession 16-14, KU coach Pepper Rodgers said something ultra-sensitive about the refs, and KU went into a 0 vs NU spell that didn't end until the Bill Callahan era (2005). McFarlane later served in the Nebraska legislature.

Early 1970s---

Jerry List. #85. He had speed, smarts and hands, and used those gifts to full advantage in the play-action passing game. His offensive coordinator at the time--Tom Osborne. The playcalling scheme to get List open was part of the Husker strategy doctrine for--oh--how about 30-some years.

Late 1970s---

Junior Miller. #89. In my opinion, the best we've ever had at the spot. Johnny Mitchell in the early '90s and Matt Herian pre-Mizzou '04 may have challenged Junior's deep-threat talent, but not his all-around "ath-a-lete-ness" (to paraphrase Barry Switzer). The NFL certainly rated him high---the Falcons picked him in the 1st round of the 1980 draft (7th overall). He also made a BUNCH of All-America teams.

Early 1980s---

Jamie Williams. #80. He was in the mold of Tony Jeter and Junior Miller. Williams made his presence known even with the "Triplets"--Gill, Rozier, and Fryar--dominating the scene. He caught the eye of the pros as well, and put in a solid career for some of the great 49ers teams.

Mitch Krenk. #89. I think of Mitch Krenk and I automatically think of the "Bouncearoosky" play against Oklahoma in 1982--where Turner Gill threw a lateral to Irving Fryar, but BOUNCED the ball on the turf on its way to Fryar. The idea was to make the Sooner D relax, thinking that they were seeing an incomplete pass. But it wasn't--and Fryar threw a strike that Krenk caught for a big gain in an early scoring drive. Krenk's play, overall, was very similar to Dennis Morrison in the mid-'60s.

Monte Engebritson. #83.
Todd Frain. #80.
Both were dynamite blockers with good hands and more speed than opposing defenses thought.
Frain came up with a HUGE play against Okie State during the '83 "Run To Miami Heartbreak" season (my moniker--the regular season was incredible). Our guys were trailing Okie State 10-7 in the 2nd half, when Turner Gill hit Tight End Todd Frain for a 50 yd plus TD. That was the closest call the Huskers had all regular season. (By the way--the Ok State coach that day--none other than Old Helmet-Hair himself, Jimmie Johnson).

Mid to late 1980s---A mix of guys in that spot--all solid team players. I remember Tom Banderas making some terrific catches.

Early '90s--Johnny Mitchell. #86. Speed and hands. Made a great catch and run for a TD against Colorado in a perfectly awful rainy game (which we wore down in and lost). Johnny could have matched Junior Miller, but went to the NFL early instead.

Mid '90s--Another good run of talent at the spot.

Mark Gilman. #87. Caught some big passes, including during the tremendous Orange Bowl comeback against Miami.

William Washington, #99 and Vershan Jackson, #34. I mention these two guys together because both excelled at blocking on the perimeter. In fact, Washington even made All-Conference just because of his blocking.

Sheldon Jackson. #88. He was more of the receiving-type tight end, but was still a capable blocker; thus, teams couldn't forget about the run game when he was on the field.

Late '90s-early 2000s:

Tracey Wistrom. #87. Eric Crouch's favorite target when it was big-play time. What I remember most about Wistrom is his ability to make the catch even when everyone--and I mean our guys, their guys, our coaches, their coaches, and all the fans--knew that he was the intended receiver.

Aaron Golliday. #99. An echo of William Washington with the same number and the same contribution.

Mid-2000s---

Pretty slim pickin's, folks. One guy--#11--Matt Herian. That's it. In full flight pre-Mizzou '04, he was as good as McFarlane, List, Mitchell, Sheldon Jackson and Wistrom. I still rate him a notch below Jeter and Miller, but that's pretty tall company. When Herian broke his leg, the tight end position basically broke down as well.

So, now we come to a new season. Here's hoping that one or more of the 8 candidates--Messrs. McNeill, Hetzer, Young, Hill, Cotton, Bechtold, Martin and Teafatiller-- will "claim the flame," so to speak, of a position that has been a big, big part of the Husker story.

More On Bo Pelini And Spread Defense

A quick-hitter item while I work on a more substantial Tight End tribute---

Reference my earlier post about "Defending The Spread" as gone over by Coach Kerry Coombs when he was a high school winner in Ohio (now on the defensive staff of Brian Kelly at Cincinnati U):

Coach Coombs talked about his spread-defense techniques. I posited that perhaps some of what he was talking about might be part of Coach Bo Pelini's spread defense plan here at NU.

Well, one of Coach Coombs's spread set ID techniques--as he relates in this link: http://www.ohsfca.org/Defend_Spread.htm

is to use a two-number method to identify the set that the offense is in. Here's some excerpted comments from the transcript (with my emphasis):

"I’m going to give you a system that I think will work. It is a numbering system. You give your players a two-digit number. The first number is the number of tight ends on the field, and the second number is the number of backs..A “12” grouping would mean one tight end and two backs. That means there are two wide receivers in the game. A “21,” would mean two tight ends and one back...With these calls, it allows the defense to match up with the personnel on the field."

Now--to World-Herald sports guy Tom Shatel's HUUUGGGEEE summary from last Sunday's paper about his day at "Football 202" with Coach Bo and the staff. This is an excerpt from Shatel's column regarding Bo Pelini and his basic spread defense plan:

He labels the offensive personnel groups "21" for two backs and one tight end, "12 for one back, two tight ends, "11" for one back, one tight end and three wide outs and "10" for one back, no tight end and four wide outs...if the offense comes out in one of those formations, Pelini has his (personnel) grouping ready to go.

See? There is 'way, 'way too much coincidence here.

Now, whether Bo got the idea for this scheme from Kerry Coombs, or the other way around--no matter. We've got ourselves onto something here, Sports and Husker Fans. This is in the same vein that T.O. and Charlie McBride worked in when they revamped the defensive scheme in the early '90s to get more speed on the field vs the southern U.S. teams.

I'm pumped! Gimme a sled!! Go Big Red!

Joe Ganz And The Numbers Game

The Big XII media day carnival is over. Now it's take a deep breath time before the final push toward the start of the season.

There was a lot of ink, video, and sound coming out of this year's circus as well. You and I have looked at it and bathed in FINALLY SOMETHING NEW FOR THIS COMING SEASON!!! (FULL VOLUME ROAR).

Okay--I'll calm down now.

One big impression I got from Our Side was this---did Joey Ganz act like an honest-to-gosh veteran quarterback or what? Showed some class. Showed some spunk. Showed some political chops (in answering a question about former coach Callahan, Joe G said that "...I'm here because of Bill Callahan, but when you have a losing season, well..."---or words to that effect. I am DOWN with that kind of lingo.

Of course, maybe it's the #12 thing.

Number 12 has a stellar track record in the last 40 years at Dear Old Nebraska U.

A tough, gritty guy named Ernie Sigler wore #12 in the '67-'68 season (not the best, but the guys still went 6-4. In this day and age, you win 60% of your games and you're in a mid-level bowl).
Ernie S was followed in the #12 parade by Van Brownson, who shared starting QB duties with Jerry Tagge in the comeback season of 1969, and who started the Sun Bowl game when Our Guys manhandled Georgia 45-6. VB and JT continued dueling it out until mid to late season 1970, when VB got hurt and Tagge took over for the historic 2 titles for the Bobfather.

Then, in the early 70s, David Humm graced the number 12. No great runner, but man could that guy throw! DH was around during the time that Tom Osborne was basically running a pro-set offense.

The drama with #12 continued in the late '70s with Tom Sorley--a tough guy from Texas who was the QB in the "Earthquake" game of 1978 when Our Guys punched OU 17-14. (I say Earthquake game because the hitting--from the stories I've heard and the video I've seen--had to have moved Memorial Stadium.)

Y'all know who followed in the #12 procession---Turner Gill. Need I say more?

There's been a bit of a dry spell since. Titus Brothers wore #12 as a D-back in '03-'05, but that just didn't look right. #12 is a QB number after all. And now it's back where it belongs--on a veteran QB who acts like he knows what's going on.

More from Joe Ganz is in this article: http://journalstar.com/articles/2008/07/22/huskerextra/football/doc48854412eab2e515775405.txt

If This Is Pandering, Give Me More

Well, the cyber-papers are starting to send out their guesses about the upcoming season. And it's a mixed crop, as usual.

There's an always-interesting one here at Nebraska State Paper: http://nebraska.statepaper.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2008/07/20/488379503950e

The crew at College Football News has its latest roundup out too:
http://cfn.scout.com/2/753576.html

Now--the CFN story has some good ideas--some of which I will weigh in on later. (Among other things, it says that 8 wins will be a good year--I agree).

BUT--BUUUUUTTTT---the writer of the story, one Mr. Pete Flutak, had to toss in this little stink bomb about us Scarlet And Cream types out here in the G.A.D. (Great American Desert for all fans of pre-1840s maps). Let's have a look at this little gem:

"Callahan had to make the Nebraska a monster again, and while former athletic director Steve Pederson actually had the right idea in wanting to give the program a make over and a fresh paint job, it happened while cheezing off the Husker nation.

So will pandering to the fan base by bringing back Tom Osborne to run the show and getting more marginally talented walk-on farm kids make Nebraska a national powerhouse again? No, but it makes everyone feel more comfortable again. What's going to change things around will be 1) better coaching, 2) better players, and 3) better schemes." (Emphasis mine)

Wow. As my good friend and walleye fishing expert Mike would say, "Jeepers Criminy." There is so much wrong on so many levels in that set of tripe. (I'm really doing everything I can to keep this a G-rated comment.)

I won't even go into the reference to our former head coach (but I do have a blog item that will relate to Mr. Callahan later this week). Nor will I take the bait of the Steve Pederson comment.

But my big old red-neck Red Neck gets pretty darn hot when this dude talks of "...pandering." My god--what does he think we are? Pimps in a cornfield?

Try this line on for size instead: "Will recognizing that the program was getting its arse handed to it without any fighting back---and asking players who care about doing a good job over the next 4 years instead of waiting for maybe a call from the Not For Long crowd make Nebraska a national powerhouse again? No, but it sure as heck gets the job jump-started."

Pander. I'll tell you what pandering is. Pandering is every magazine and the ESP-freaking-N crowd yelping every year about how the Golden Domers have theee---best coach this side of Song Girl U and will "....yup----this time around fer sure" be in the hunt for the Big One. Pandering is also the constant evangelizing that's done by the aforementioned publication and E-freaking-SPN crew about the absolutely cutting edge game put out by the (not so) Big Ten (plus one).

That, sports fans, is pandering. Putting people in place who believe in and know about such basics as blocking, tackling, speed, and work ethic isn't pandering. It's called having a purpose.

Bo Is Old School (And I Like It!)

You don't see the words "pugnacious" and "scrappy" used in sports articles very much anymore. They're kind of old-school--they worked for awhile, but their tone isn't very flashy. They actually hearken back to a time when in order to survive you had to be "pugnacious" --or "scrappy"--or both. Because these two terms were part of the lexicon of the Depression era--when a whole lot of folks had to fight both poverty and Nature to hang on. We don't like to recall those times very much except maybe in American History class.


Well, I'm old school--after all, I am the Old Husker Fan--but you know what? Coach Bo Pelini strikes me as someone who you could write those two terms about--pugnacious and scrappy--all day long. I like that!

All you have to do is look at how his LSU team handled things after being stung with a long TD run by the Ohio State running back in last January's national championship game.

Let's review: Bo's hiring was done after the Huskers had had the worst defensive meltdown EVER. LSU had Glenn Dorsey, everybody's All-American, Outland Trophy winner, etc etc. Bo's status as defensive coordinator had him practically getting as much face time as LSU head coach Les Miles. And--of course--there was a fair amount of pub over Bo's decision to coach in the title game rather than lock himself in his new office in Lincoln and either look at video of recruits or brood about his new job.

Then, the game began. And Ohio State's RB promptly laid a 67-yarder on the mighty LSU defense.

Right then, I thought--"Oooohhh---kkkaayyy. Let's see how we handle things now."

You know the rest. LSU shut down Ohio State. The D got 3 or 4 turnovers, Bo called some blitzes that fooled the Buckeyes, and LSU won handily.

That, sports fans, is being "pugnacious" and "scrappy". When you get punched, you don't cover up. You hit back.

We've been missing that element for a few years. It's nice to see that it's coming back.

This May Be Bo's Plan

I am no football expert. I played in high school a LONG time ago, but our playbook was about 10 pages stapled together and copied off a mimeograph machine. That was the offense. Defense was 4 pages, showing a 5-man front, 4-man front, and a couple D-line and linebacker stunts. That was it. But, there was enough going on that I've been interested in strategy ever since.
That musing led me to thinking about the challenges that Coach Bo Pelini faces this year in fixing the Husker D. We all know--and want to forget--what happened last year. I mean, when Mark May---MARK FREAKING MAY---starts acting sympathetic toward the Husker defense (like he did upon seeing that KU hung up 76 points on our guys last fall), you know it's bad.

(Oh--and by the way---it took KU the entire stretch of time during Coach Devaney's tenure in the 1960s to score 76 points. Between 1962 and 1969, KU managed to score 78 total!! Yeesh. )

But I digress---this year, who will we face who runs the spread? We'll see at least five--Western Michigan, Mizzou, Texas Tech, KU and Colorado. VA Tech I'm not sure of--but probably at least a modified version. But that's enough. Suffice it to say, Bo was brought in to at least control the spread--something that Kevin Cosgrove could never figure out.

Now, how do you stop it? Again--I'm no expert, but check this link out and I think you may find some pretty interesting details:

http://www.ohsfca.org/Defend_Spread.htm

Several things are of interest here. They start out with the networking side. First---the coach, Kerry Coombs, is an Ohio guy. I think he and Bo may have crossed paths at some point. Second--Coach Coombs is now working at Cincinnati--where Brian Kelly is head coach (former rumored candidate for the NU job after Bill C got let go).

But it gets better. Coombs's philosophy strongly encourages having a versatile defense, so that the offense cannot assume anything. This includes no specialty positions (a la Cosgrove's "base" and "open" D-end positions, which drove me absolutely crackers.)

Second, Coombs has a strategy for slowing down the on-field signal calling. This features both the willingness to use timeouts to break up the offensive rhythm, AND a very well-developed defense communcation system--so that the players on the field can make the defensive calls if they have to.

Third, Coombs emphasizes speed and being able to run. (Which, of course, all Husker fans know and can recite in their sleep after seeing the defenses of the mid-90s.)

And, reading between the lines, this seems to be the type of strategy that Bo was putting into place this past spring---getting the communication lines going on the field. He was emphasizing conditioning in the football sense. And he is returning our guys to the idea of speed. (Say hallelujah!)

So--check this out. I think you'll like it. And I for one am looking forward to seeing these principles get put to use! I do not want Mark May's sympathy again!

Bryce

Gimme A Sled!!

Put me in, Coach. I'm ready to play.



Wait a minute. Great song, but wrong sport. How about this---



Hail to the team. The stadium rings! Yeah, I like that one better.



With that, let me say hello and Go Big Red! This is the first blog from me--the Old Husker Fan. I've been around as a fan from the Coach Devaney years. I hit the jackpot on my first game--a 44-0 beat down of Iowa State in October 1965. That was during the Bobfather's first perfect regular season. I was 12. I've never looked back. I felt the pain of 12-0 to K-State IN LINCOLN on a perfectly brutal November day. I witnessed perfection under the Thanksgiving skies in Norman and under the full moon after rain in Miami. And I've continued to feel the striving for the top---the reach---and then the crash---in all the years since.

Now we're building and going after it again--and I couldn't be happier.

So, what am I adding to this throng anyway? Well, the main reason is--I can. Also--I want to. What Coach Osborne and Bo Pelini are starting on is exciting, uncertain, challenging---but ALIVE! And, as an Old Husker Fan, I see some parallels to the unmatched 40 years of togetherness and success that I want to share with you. During these blogs, I'm going to bring up some names and circumstances that are part of this Old Husker Fan's personal memory I-pod.


I hope I bring up some ideas that you like and find interesting. And I hope that if you're so inclined, you'll send your thoughts along as well.


In the meantime, crank it up! Bo and the guys are ready to go! I'm gonna get to be at the stadium when the BO-dacious Era gets underway! Get fired up! And one more time this time---



GO BIG RED!!!