Nebraska Great Practice for Beating Ducks
September 14th, 2010 by huskyfootballWhen the Nebraska Cornhuskers roll into town they will be bringing back the good old option football game. For years the Huskers pounded you with a 2 back approach that always featured a battering ram fullback and a belly option that gave every one fits. They got away from option football and went to the wide open passing game for a while but now they’re back to making you try and figure out who has the ball.
The belly option, dive option, counter option, wishbone option, split option, and pitch option have all been tried through out the years but now the craze is the read-zone option out of shotgun. It’s called the Wildcat, the gun option, and the read option but it puts stress on your defense mostly because you don’t see it much.
The military acadamies have been using it because it fits their kids and their philosophy of mechanics and angles in warfare. Years ago though lots of teams ran option in college football so your kids played against it all the time in practice. Lately everyone got hung up on spreading the field and stressing coverages with 4 and 5 receiver patterns. Now it’s swinging back to a blend of the two and whaala you have the Ducks.
Oregon’s offense was only slowed down a couple of times last year and that was by teams who had a long time to prepare for them. They lost their first and last games because Boise State had all summer to prepare and Ohio State had a whole month because it was in a bowl. Face it, from a Husky fan’s perspective, beating Oregon has now become an obsession. If I could pick one win this year for Washington it would be going into Eugene and beating the Ducks. Nebraska gives the Huskies an extra week of working on stopping the read-zone option out of shotgun.
Nebraska also helps us by bringing in a similar offense with just as an exciting quarterback as Jeremiah Masoli was. Taylor Martinez is not as thick as the Duck QB but he’s even faster. He is the Cornhuskers leading rusher, averaging 142 yards a game. I’d say the Huskies better stop the quarterback on the option and they’d better communicate either verbally or thru signals who has who for option responsibility and they need to do it every play.
We used to teach each kid to repeat his option responsibility to himself before each snap. Take a quick look at the formation and then do a quick visualization of the phase you’re responsible for.
Then we would mix it up by switching the responsibilities or calling “zap” which to us told the end man on the line to attack the quarterback with your outside arm striking thru his pitch arm but whatever “zap” the quarterback with the best hit you have. We figured that if he pitched the ball then we at least knew where it was and everyone can take the correct angle and rally to it.
Whatever, when a team does something unique either offensively or defensively, it requires you to practice against it. Unfortunately, you can never really duplicate the speed level of the opponent becasue they do it every day. You can use a fast kid at quarterback but he will never be a slick as a kid who does it every day.
It’s the deception that gets you. You think because the line is all blocking in the same direction that the ball is going that way, but the back, if he is given the ball in the first place, is often cutting back with the zone blocking going the other way. It puts those who have “dive” in a bind because they are getting off a block then finding the back to tackle him and often times he doesn’t even have the ball. That’s exactly what the quarterback wants and that is for your defense to all react and attack the back then he quickly pulls the ball out and sprints to open ground himself.
It requires you to play assignment football and you absolutely never leave your spot until you’re absolutely sure your man isn’t getting the ball. If the back is going away from you and you have “keep” then you’d better check out that quarterback everytime for the ball before you start your pursuit. It is amazing how just moving their hands together looks like they still have the ball when you’re trying to get off a block.
So, if Washington’s defense can at least slow down Nebraska’s option and run game, which is 3rd in the nation at 324.5 yards per game, and hold them to say, 200-250 yards rushing, then they will have a much better chance of winning this game. The best way to do that is to keep their offense on the sideline by ball controlling with your own offense. Washington actually runs the read-zone option themselves but not to the degree that Nebraska or Oregon does.
What Husky fans must recognize is that Nebraska is really a big time football program and it will be very difficult to beat them even if you are playing them at home. They are simply huge up front on both sides of the ball and are way faster than either BYU or Syracuse were. Their offensive tackles are in the 6-6 to 6-7 range and 32o pounders. Their receivers are 6-1, 6-3, and 6-5 and the tight end is 6-6 and 255. The also use a hybrid TE/FB they call a Zebra and he’s even 6-4 and 235.
I say this about their size because their backs get lost behind these big bodies and it’s tough to see who has the ball making the deception of the option even harder to recognize.
This game will be partially decided by how quickly the Husky defenders can recognize the option and maintain their responsibilities. They are not going to stop it but if they can make them work a whole field then sooner or later the option will reward you with a fumble. That has always been one of the most negative aspects of option football. There are way more chances to drop the football and Martinez did in fact fumble 4 times in the Cornhuskers win over Idaho. He also had a pick and if the Huskies can get 5 turnovers then they will win this game. Of course, they don’t want any turnovers themselves which would give them a plus 5 on the day and most certainly the victory. Besides, it helps them beat Oregon in an in-direct way.
Scripps Interactive Newspapers Group
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