I Stand Corrected

Upon the firing of Frank Solich, I was first in line to support modernizing the Husker offense to the West Coast style. I still believe removing Solich needed to be done solely on the fact the players lacked desire and discipline under his leadership.

Here is what I was wrong about. The belief in the Huskers inalienable right to be on top of college football every year would continually attract top talent. Also, the pre-game understanding of Husker opponents they were undermanned against Nebraska and were going to lose and probably lose badly.

After watching other programs follow the same path as Nebraska by bringing in new coaches with the high flying offensive attacks and seeing them fail as well (i.e. Arkansas, Texas A&M, and, Auburn) I have figured out why.

Two reasons:

One, and most important, are the facilities. Osborne had a state of the art fitness facility in the Boyd Epley Fitness Center. If a player wanted to be the biggest, fastest, and strongest he could be his best choice was to go to Nebraska. Now every school in the country has as good of facilities as Nebraska so we have lost our edge. The athletes also understood they would be playing in front of the most amazing fans in the country and they would be treated and viewed as state heroes. And don’t forget about the stoic Dr. Osborne himself.

Second, there is not enough talent to go around with the new scholarship rules. Every team in the country has at least a few top athletes because the top programs are not allowed to stock pile talent simply because they could afford it anymore.

So Huskers, what to do about it?

Go back to the Triple Option offense and here’s why. Very few programs run it now so you have little competition in recruiting for the top athletes. Do you think Southern Cal is out there looking for the next Tommy Frazier? If you are the next Tommy Frazier where are you going to go? Also, run blocking is easier than pass blocking and allows the o-line to punish the defense as opposed to being knocked around themselves all game.

Unless you are able to stock pile talent every year the West Coast and Spread offenses are too complicated for college students. So, go after the punishing style offensive players and run the ball to the short side of the field. By doing this the smaller speedy guys on defense are unable to benefit from their speed and simply get run over.

Steve Grandinetti
10/10/2008