Replacing Reed and Cotton as Receivers
In the NFL, the tight end position has become one that can be a real difference-maker. The New England Patriots hope of returning to the Super Bowl took a crushing blow when Rob Gronkowski became injured. Even then, Aaron Hernandez (their other tight end) led the team in receptions in their final game as did San Francisco's Vernon Davis in the Super Bowl. Even Baltimore's Dennis Pitta provided a needed touchdown to deliver a championship in the big game. Last season, Nebraska similarly looked to the tight end to catch passes often at critical times. Now they return only a player with six catches for 55 yards and a touchdown in Jake Long. So how will Nebraska replace nearly 600 receiving yards in 2013?
Kyler Reed and Ben Cotton created matchup problems and had a knack for getting open at critical times. Reed provided NU's final touchdown in the win over Wisconsin. Cotton delivered the winning score over Northwestern. Reed's 38-yard reception on 4th and 10 at Michigan State set up the game-winning score. A 56-yard completion to Reed in the 4th quarter on 3rd and 5 against Penn State put NU in front for good. Cotton caught passes for first downs on scoring drives that produced 10 points in the Huskers' 13-7 victory over Iowa.
What was so devastating about the tandem (and Cotton, in particular) is that they could so credibly block linebackers. Linebackers were constantly seeking to avoid the tight end and yet would then need to change that mindset and blanket them in coverage. It's a seemingly impossible task.
Any offense can sneak out even a lumbering tight end to catch passes now and again. That might be what to expect from Jake Long. Sam Cotton will likely carry some of the load. He's similar in size to Reed and might be sneaky-strong (he threw shot put and discus in high school).
Some of that production though may go to the wide receivers. Jamal Turner seems poised to feast on the single coverage he'll see with Kenny Bell drawing so much attention. Wideout Quincy Enunwa's physicality allows him to play the same kind of head games with a defender that a tight end does. In more dire circumstances, you might have expected coaches to ask Enunwa to bulk up and play the tight end spot like the Washington Redskins did in moving Niles Paul.
Some drop-off from the position seems inevitable. The Huskers don't appear to have another Kyler Reed at the ready. With 17 of 22 members of the offensive two-deep returning, you'd hope the gains at other positions can more than offset the loss of such an outstanding tandem. The tight end position will definitely be one to watch this Spring.
3/5/2013
Why is it that we have so many holes on both sides of the ball, especially defense? I’m getting really tired of it. These guys get paid a HELL of a lot of money so that this does not happen. Is anyone holding these guys accountable? Several positions appear completely depleted of any experience and lacking greatly, while having to rely on REALLY young guys to replace consistent contributors like Reed and Cotton. I don’t get it. Do they not know how to recruit enough players at the right positions, or have we just got hit by the transfer/injury/the guy just didn’t work out bug? How can we find ourselves without hardly any experience at such an important position as Tight End? Where are the systems that used to be in place here? Why didn’t they see this coming like 2-3 years ago? Same goes for the Defensive line, the Offensive line, linebacker and safety. You HAVE to get players at those positions at least 2 years before you need them, and you know when a guy is going to graduate. Never happened under Osborne - hate to compare, but they had 5 years with the 3rd best football coach in college football history right down the hall, and they can’t prevent something like this from happening? Are you kidding me? I’d be fired if I let something like this happen at my job. This is not the kind of program management that leads to success. So what right do we have to expect any? What’s our hope…that the next LaVonte David is waiting in the wings? No excuse. It leads to huge question marks and it makes the other teams coaches drool over the opportunity to attack those areas of weakness like we would theirs. This year, almost our whole defensive team is absolutely new and untested. At this rate, if we do field a great defense, it will be quite surprising. If we have a defensive drop off over last year, one of the worst defenses in Cornhusker history, we can expect blowouts like last year, and again for the season to end in disapointment.
3/5/2013
PE: So many holes. 85 Scholly players, plus walk-ons. I think there will be 11 guys on the field every play. Of course, back in the 90’s NU only needed 9 to beat 11, right? Chill, relax, wait ‘till fall, or at leat the Spring game, to decide there aren’t any good players on the team.
3/5/2013
I haven’t decided there aren’t any good players on our team. Far from it. Except for the TE position, we’re looking fantastic on that side of the ball, and frankly, 600 yards isn’t that big of a deal to make up. One position group being weak suddenly isn’t a crisis, especially at TE. The NE Patriots we aint.
But the holes on defense is atrocious! Almost an all new line and all new linebackers and all new safeties? I can see maybe one of those positions being thin because of circumstances beyond our control, like an over abundance of injuries, but to find yourself here isn’t proper planning. It’s just bad management as far as I can tell. A well run program does not find itself having to rely on freshmen stepping up, RS freshmen and sophomores in 3 out of the main 4 position groups on the field at any one time.
Now, here is the caviat…our defense was horrible at times last year, so there might even be an improvement over last year because, as everyone is saying (which has yet to be proven in real game situations) we have lots of talent and speed coming up. But still we’re relying on a bunch kids to turn themselves into the next wave of blackshirts. The odds that this season will be a dominating defense and come anywhere close to our offense are very low. And what wins championships?
We’ll see if Bo can turn it around (he did in 2008 but he had a wealth of future NFL talent) and be the Guru that everyone thought he was. I hope he can do it. I like Bo and think he’s overall good for our program. It’s a very complex defense everyone says. That worries me. I always hope for the best instead of being so negative, but since 2010 every season has ended in dissapointment.
3/14/2013
Three conference championship games in 4 years? Oh the Humanity!!!! Oh the horror. Bo SUCKS!!!. Please people.
Just have a little faith.