What Worries You Most About the 2009 Husker Football Season?

by corn blight on Aug 18, 2009 7:00 AM CDT in Football Comment 6 comments

Nebraska's Zac Lee throws during football practice - are you more worried about Lee's performance than anything else this coming season? If so, you're probably in the majority.

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I did an interview last night at 8:45 pm,with Lane Grindle on KFAB. It's kind of weird doing these things because I never know what questions they're going to ask ahead of time. There's nothing wrong with that - obviously I was on the radio to talk about the Nebraska yearbook and the upcoming season - two subjects I'd better know something about, eh?

Anyway, during the interview, Grindle asked me what I thought was the biggest issue for the 2009 season, basically, what should Husker fans be most concerned about?

My answer wasn't all that stunning, I'm sure 95% of Husker fans would come up with the same answer (the other 5% being stoned on allergy medicine might say something weird involving Bob Devaney and hats).

I'm sure that most people are worried about the quarterback position, about Zac Lee, but that's not what I'm most concerned about. I'm worried about the offensive line. You get a good enough offensive line and your quarterback doesn't have to do all that much, the greatest proof of that being that Trent Dilfer has a Super Bowl ring while Dan Marino doesn't.

We lost two right tackles from last season, Lydon Murtha and Jaivorio Burkes. That's not a good thing because we really need to find two right tackles to replace them. The right guard position isn't settled, the hope being that Ricky Henry can get his stuff together and assume the position. If he doesn't, we'll see Jacob Hickman move to right guard, and Mike Caputo take over center. Maybe that's not such a bad mix, but what it does is point out the weakness in the overall rotation.

I didn't sound this articulate while on the radio - that's the beauty of writing - you can go back and edit yourself and make yourself sound a lot better. However, that is what I'm most worried about this season - can Barney Cotton get his line unit together for the season?

Maybe others are more concerned about the quarterback. Actually, I'm guessing most are, in fact, way more people are concerned about the quarterback, like I'm part of that 5% group that's stoned on allergy medicine. Is that the case? What are you worried most about?

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I completely agree

that a strong O-Line is key to this season. However I am not as concerned about RT as you are. Although he is very talented, Burkes missed a ton of time last season and wasn’t a factor when the line seemed to gel. Murtha was also out a lot, this gave a lot of playing time to Marcel Jones. Jones by all accounts aquitted himself well last season as a RFr. and seems to have played well enough this Spring and early Fall to have a hammerlock on the RT spot, in fact I have yet to hear a negative thing about Marcel from any of the coaches. The spot that worries me, and frankly it is the only spot you hear anything negative about from the Coaches, is RG. That spot does seem to have issues. Ricky Henry is talented, but doesn’t seem to grasp the position well enough to be consistent and DJ Jones wasn’t good enough to unseat Ricky and got moved to back up Mike Smith after the Spring. Derek Meyer seems like a nice player, but again hasn’t unseated an inconsistent Ricky Henry. Now we are hearing about Qvale, this bodes really well for 2010, 2011, and 2012 even but not for this year. The RG spot needs to get solved in order to keep teams to from slanting to the Left side of NU’s O-Line all of the time to stop the run. At this point I get the impression that Ricky Henry is the best option and the only way to solidify the spot is for Ricky to finally click in the scheme and let his talent start to make RG a solid position of play for the line. Here’s to hoping that Ricky “gets it” and soon.

by caveman99 on Aug 18, 2009 8:49 AM CDT reply actions 0 recs

what the heck

happened to Andy Christensen that he’s become a complete non-factor there?

I suppose that if Henry doesn’t gel, though, Hickman moves over and Caputo goes at center.

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by corn blight on Aug 18, 2009 7:01 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

here's an update

on the line positions

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by corn blight on Aug 18, 2009 7:08 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

I found it interesting

that Barney said Marcel Jones was the Swing Tackle and not DJ Jones, but Marcel is slightly ahead at RT over DJ. Brandon Thompson listed as the primary back up at LT right now, so I guess if DJ beats out Marcel then Marcel becomes the primary back up at both positions? I feel OK about either one at RT, just a bit different than what we had been hearing thus far.

Is AC backing up Williams at LG? Is he not good enough right now to push the RG spot?

by caveman99 on Aug 19, 2009 9:56 AM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

i would hope

that Christensen can come around. Maybe by the time Va Tech rolls around Christensen will be in the rotation, but I wouldn’t expect much by the first game.

They’re looking for 10, right…?

LT – Smith/Thompson
LG – Wiliams/Christensen
C – Hickman/Caputo
RG – ? —→ Henry/Meyer/Christensen
RT – DJ/Marcel Jones

That about right?

Go Big Red Nebraska!
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by corn blight on Aug 19, 2009 8:38 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

It sounds like

AC was moved to RG recently and is pushing Ricky for the starting job. Meyer is now backing up Williams. If AC is in good shape physically and mentally, this is good news. Sounds like the RG spot may finally be clearing up.

by caveman99 on Aug 20, 2009 10:27 AM CDT up reply actions 0 recs