A trip to Lincoln, Nebraska is not on the list of places many college football teams would pick to open the season. Nebraska hasn’t lost a home season opener since 1985 (a 17-13 loss to Florida State) and this is where the Cowboys will start their 2013 campaign. There is good news though for the Pokes, this current Huskers team isn’t your grandfathers, fathers or even older brothers Nebraska program. The Nebraska mystique has been gone since 2001 and the Big Red are currently just another college football program with a rich and storied tradition. Nebraska is no longer feared and the days of Tom Osborne running a triple option attack are a distant memory. It is a tough ask but there are several factors that should give Wyoming hope that they can pull off an upset at (the other) Memorial Stadium come August 31st.
The Blackshirts
Bo Pelini is a defensive oriented coach and over the last four seasons his defense has become progressively worse since the loss of the NFL quality talent that was recruited by previous head coach Bill Callahan. In 2009 Nebraska had the number one ranked scoring defense in the nation allowing just 10.4 points per game and have since slipped to 9th (17.4), 42nd (23.4) and 58th last season (27.6). I wouldn’t expect the Nebraska defense to improve this season having lost eleven seniors from the two deep depth chart that saw significant playing time last year. Even with an experienced defense Nebraska gave up over 35 points four times last season, with so many new players in the mix the 2013 Nebraska defense is one in transition.
Why the decline? There are two reasons. First, Pelini isn’t as good of a recruiter as Bill Callahan was and second the system Pelini uses takes several years for players to feel comfortable in. Bo is a stubborn coach who prefers to play those who have a grasp of the entire defensive system even if a player is much less athletic than those behind him who may not have a complete understanding of the defense. This lack of overall athleticism has limited Nebraska’s defensive play making ability and last season they ranked just 65th in fumbles recovered, 48th in tackles for loss and 44th in interceptions marks well below those of a top notch Husker defense the program is used to having.
Dave Christensen is an experienced game planner and he is sure to borrow concepts from UCLA, Ohio State, Wisconsin and Georgia that saw the Huskers give up an average of 53.5 points per game last season. In those contests the Nebraska opposition did a great deal of pre-snap shifting. This caused the Nebraska defense to not be aligned properly as they looked towards the sideline for guidance while the ball was being snapped. This resulted in big play after big play for the offense due to misalignments and blown assignments. Another area teams took advantage of were the edges of the Husker defense. Toss plays were ran to the outside of the Nebraska defense as well as wheel patterns in the passing game in the flats to running backs and tight ends with great success. Look for Christensen and his staff to test Nebraska in these two areas early and often.
Taylor Martinez
Statistically speaking Taylor Martinez on the surface looks like a pretty good college quarterback (3,890 yards of total offense with 33 TDs last season). The truth is Martinez is a below average passer, that pads his stats versus lower competition who turns the ball over too much. In 39 career games Martinez has turned the ball over 42 times (27 interceptions and 15 fumbles) while fumbling the ball an astonishing 32 additional times that Nebraska recovered. You would be hard pressed to find another program in the country who would commit to playing a quarterback who was so careless with the football.
Martinez also has many flaws as a passer, a poor throwing motion that looks more like a shot put than a proper release, he throws off his back foot, he stares down his primary receiver and has a hard time reading defensive coverages (especially intermediately over the middle). These are all factors Wyoming can take advantage of and the Cowboys can limit Martinez’s production and force him into the mistakes he has so often made by doing the following things:
1. Play bracket coverage on the outside receivers and force him to throw over the middle where he has not been proven to be an accurate passer.
2. Keep Martinez in the pocket with a containment philosophy that does not blitz often. Blitzing is the only way Martinez will hurt you on the ground. He only has elite straight line speed and does not have the ability to make people miss in the hole or in the open field. By blitzing you give him a wide lane to run through if the blitz is picked up and he will hurt you.
3. Mix up your coverages. Martinez has a hard time reading a defense presnap and Wyoming’s switch to the 3-4 (with no film on it for Nebraska to look at) could give the Cowboys an advantage in confusing Martinez by masking coverages where the fourth pass rusher is coming from.
So there you have it, if Wyoming can take advantage of the weaknesses I have outlined above the Cowboys could be making national headlines come Saturday night.
WyoNationDotCom Thanks! If Neb fans get a hold of this we may crash the website.
WyoNationBlog Yeah, definitely going to implode the site. So long, webserver!
Regarding T-Magic’s “shot put” throwing motion, have you seen Brett Smith throw a ball?
Is this a serious article??? While I am not going to get into an argument about QB stats, defense stats, or even coaching stats…..I am going to point out that this is Wyoming! You were 3-5 in the MWC….seriously. We may not be our grandparents/parents/brothers Huskers, but YOU ARE still your grandparents/parents/brothers Cowboys. With an overall win percentage of 486–520–28 (.484) and 21–27 (.438) under Christensen playing in a top 10 college venue. Yeah good luck guys…I needed a good afternoon chuckle.
I should have stopped reading at triple option….and shot put throwing motion? Were you watching old film of Scott Frost?
Wow, I was kind of hoping for something much more substantial than this…
Regarding the D. We’re talking about teams with players like Montee Ball, Aaron Murray, Brett Hundley, Johnathon Franklin, Braxton Miller… Sure, that many yards and points should not have been given (we will be the first to tell you that), but we’re talking about a level of talent that is top notch. Nothing against the talent at WYO (Smith will probably give us some problems), but they are not as recognizable as the ones stated above.
And as for Martinez, sure, you can do all that you said with coverages and containment. But you do realize that this Husker offense was 8th in rushing in the NCAA right? If anything, the best game plan against this offense is to stop the run. That should be #1 on the list.
Want to win? Get the ball first. Score early, score fast, score often. Trick plays and wildcat screwed the Huskers over big time in the Big Ten Champ game against Wisconsin. It forced the offense to find ways to score quicker than they wanted to.
BigRed817 Typical Husker fan, bringing up something from 10 years ago. Did anyone ever make the argument Frost was a good passer? Don’t think so…
AlwaysReal Again, Nebraska fans seem to have a major problem with reading comprehension. The title of the article is ‘Why Wyoming CAN beat Nebraska” not Why Wyoming WILL beat Nebraska.
Exclamation_KYou make some solid points.. the Husker secondary seems vulnerable..
attack them early and often.. hopefully mistake free football makes this
into a real football game.
I think it’s your reading skills that need some evaluation…it was in reference to Taylor’s throwing motion being like a shot put…Scott Frost had a shot put motion not Taylor…try again Cowboy
cowboytoughblog AlwaysReal I belive the title should have read more like “if we can get x,y,z, and then some more help we may be able to stay within 2 touchdowns.” I have no doubts there will be times I yell at the screen durring bad plays, but lets be honest. It is a win for the Cowboys if they are within 14 at the end of the day. Put the koolaid down and dont build them up so much that they are crushed after the first half is over and we are brining in our 2 deep at every position.
BradReed Exclamation_K I’d disagree about our secondary. That is actually where we have the most experience coming back on the defensive side of the ball. And our overall passing numbers were pretty solid. Overall opponent completion percentage was 47% for only 168 yds per game.
All that being said, it’s a new year, anything can happen. All these stats are pretty meaningless when both teams get on the field. I predict Smith hurts us more than we’d like with his feet. It’s a good matchup for our young D. Let’s see how they react and learn from it.
Here’s hoping both teams play well and stay healthy. I am definitely looking forward to seeing the game! Good luck to WYO, but GBR!
WyoNationDotCom WyoNationBlog love the optimism! #gowyo
tillitthurts WyoNationBlog We’re not here to be debbie downers! 🙂
WyoNationDotCom WyoNationBlog I’m optimistic too, just very cautious. I believe bsmithwyo16 & the boys might cook up a great year.
WyoNationDotCom WyoNationBlog and thanks for you coverage, much appreciated.
tillitthurts WyoNationBlog Thanks! We’re workin’ it this week.. another blog up tomorrow and Friday.
WyoNationDotCom WyoNationBlog looking forward to it!
kaylaaaaGBR I would destroy this guy… He makes one valid argument… Wyoming doesn’t have the talent of a Georgia or Wisconsin… #dumb
JS_Husker I mean honestly. all those points were given up to Montee, Murray, Braxton, etc. not friggin Wyoming.
kaylaaaaGBR like I said to people who asked me who wins… If Nebraska doesn’t win by 21 plus I will be absolutely surprised..
JS_Husker they don’t just put the line at 28 points for no reason. Wyoming won’t even get close. they only won 3 MWC games.
TheRedOne93 isn’t it funny?! oh my god. honestly.
kaylaaaaGBR all good in theory – now let’s see what happebs when we match up athlete for athlete #BringIt
TheRedOne93 I’m not worried.
kaylaaaaGBR 55-20
TheRedOne93 roughly. with our offense, I don’t see us NOT covering.
kaylaaaaGBR YAWN
ericjay_840 go read their twitter, too. or the tweets I RTed. it’s not the 90s anymore Eric! in case you hadn’t heard.
kaylaaaaGBR LMAO WTF. He said Martinez is a below average college qb LOOOL
GBRfan below average quarterbacks always lead the best offenses right?
kaylaaaaGBR hahahahahah of course
kaylaaaaGBR He has a lot of IFs in there in order to contain ONE player
ericjay_840 kaylaaaaGBR I wonder their plan for Ameer, Kenny, Jamal, Quincy, Terrell, Imani, Cethan, etc
TheRedOne93 ericjay_840 maybe they’re just hoping they all get hurt or don’t play.
WyoNationDotCom WyoNationBlog Now that I’ve read the blog I see how you have created such an uproar……
WyoNationDotCom WyoNationBlog You have some valid points, many over stated but valid
1ILLHusker Uproar is a pretty loose term.. lol
ericjay_840 a player who is at least twice as good as they are making him sound. below average QB. goodness.
You’re an idiot. The NU secondary is one of their best and most experienced units. Thought to be one of the best in the country.
@GBRfan kaylaaaaGBR Average is a better description, IMO.
ericjay_840 Thanks for whatever that was. I hope he doesn’t get paid for that garbage
Well then your a moron. TM had the best stats of any B10 QBs last season, & will finish his carrier at NU as the most prolific QB in Nebraska history.
Hardly average.
Buck I The B1G had some of the worst QBs in the country last year. Martinez was 40th in passing efficiency.. and that led all B1G QBs. I wouldn’t be thumping my chest..
Also, finishing as the most prolific passer at Nebraska is hardly anything to get excited about considering Nebraska is, and always has been, a run-first team that featured the QB as a runner not a passer. But hey, if calling names makes you feel good, then cool story, bro.
Also, you’re*
JS_Husker “I would destroy this guy… He makes one valid argument… Wyoming doesn’t have the talent of a Georgia or Wisconsin… #dumb”