U.H., OK
U-backs? H-Backs? Uh, Okay.
Nebraska fans feel like we knew option football as well as an old family friend. The switch to the West Coast offense has left the Husker Nation shaking its collective head trying to get its bearings. Up to this Spring, we at least knew what the positions were. Now comes the H-back (or is it U-back?). Whatever it is, it's not something most of us ever recall seeing on an NU football team.
The H-back did pop up recently on the Washington Redskins. Chris Cooley made a splash at the position with 774 yards and 7 touchdowns in 2005, helping the Redskins get back to the playoffs for the first time this century.
If the U-back/H-back is replacing the fullback, how will that change what we see now? The answer, I suspect, is not a whole lot.
Just like a tight end or a fullback, the H-back is primarily a blocker. Ideally they are strong enough to take on defensive ends and quick enough to handle linebackers or even a blitzing safety. The H-back (at least in the Redskins offense) doesn't carry the ball but is a receiver. In that sense, it's like a tight end. Where it differs is that the H-back frequently lines up in the backfield, like a fullback. When offenses want to get really cute they motion the H-back into a tight end position or even at times out wide. A man in motion is often a nice way to read a defense (a zone defense may not flinch but in man coverage someone will usually shift with the man in motion). In that sense, the H-back is just another way to get the defense to tip its hand.
Of course, you don't need an H-back to have motion in your offense. You also may have noticed this past year that the NU fullbacks didn't carry the ball much. Actually, not at all. Dane Todd had 0 carries in 2005 but did pull in 8 receptions (and was targeted a few more times as well). In a sense, NU had H-backs last year and we didn't even know it.
So in reality, it's very likely that nothing changes but the name and some of the faces. The former tight ends need to learn how to play out of the backfield too (to play like fullbacks). It's fun to think that the H-back will be used more creatively (e.g. more motion) but that's nothing a fullback or tight end couldn't do before.
So now they want to call them U-backs or H-backs. Uh, OK. Whatever.
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