Bill Callahan Keys to Victory over Oklahoma State

by Jon Johnston on Oct 28, 2006 3:04 AM CDT in Nebraska Husker Football

Pound the Rock!

Would it be fun to see an explosive Husker offense, like the one we used against Texas! Bill could take the wraps off and big play Oklahoma State to death. Unfortunately what's fun doesn't win a lot of football games. Ask yourself - what do you want to hear about - Husker wins along with whining from those Husker fans who didn't think the West Coast Offense included a heavy dose of a running, or Husker losses with a lot of passing?

We don't want to get into a shoot-out with Oklahoma State because they can score with big plays as easily as we can. We need to methodically move the ball on them, and that will mean running the ball with some short to intermediate passing mixed just to keep them honest. Oklahoma State has been good at getting upfield on defense, with plenty of sacks and tackles for loss. Around a 65/35% run pass ratio would be good.

Brandon Jackson has shown that he can explode when required. I didn't expect him to end up at the top of these four backs, but credit the Husker coaching staff with giving the backs opportunities to shine.

You Can't Stop Him, You can only hope to contain him!

Bobby Reid - don't let him run the Cowboy offense. Don't let him make big plays with either has arms or his feet. What we'd like to see from the Blackshirts is a game similar to what they played against Kansas State where they held the Wildcats to only 22 yards rushing and had a plus two in turnovers. The Huskers finished with two sacks, but certainly did their job well, giving up only three points.

The Husker front seven must shut down the Cowboy running game. We cannot afford to let Adarius Bowman out in the open because he or Woods will burn us deep.

Really, It's About Special Teams

Have I included a special teams component on a weekly basis? I hope so, because lack of good special teams play cost us the game last week against Texas. Kick coverage must get better. Just as bad or worse, Nebraska must do something about getting the ball deep on kickoffs. When you're consistently giving up 10 or 12 yards per kickoff it costs close games like (redundant?) last week against Texas.

Do we have a return team? Where are they? Get someone out there that will field the punts. How 'bout Marlon Lucky?

Nebraska 34, Oklahoma State 21

It's been a lousy week for updating the site. I finally got a decent Internet connection last night, and stayed in the French Quarter 'til, oh, about 3:00 am. 4:00 am? Nice little Irish pub called Fahy's. Then I had site problems most of the day - some of which I caused myself due to working on a customer's Internet lines. I rushed t to the airport to find out my flights are delayed - so I'm stuck here without an Internet connection, and will get home about 3:00 am. Bonus for me, eh?

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shoot out

can come with NU running the ball. It doesnt have to be because of the pass. Example: OSU takes the opening kick and scores quickly. NU responds by scoring on the first play on an 80 yard run. This could continue for the entire game and the score could be 42-41 and would be a shoot out. The only way to stop a shoot out is to play good D. What style of offense you use doesn't mean the game doesn't turn into a shoot out. What NU has to do on offense is figure out what they can and cannot do against OSUs D. If they can run do it, if they can pass do it, if they can do both then do it. If we score 60 points who cares? It will come down to stopping OSUs offense. I say if we can score 60 passing the ball then lets do it. OSU has a good offense but its not USC or Ohio St. and we dont have to use the USC game plan to keep them off the field.

The key to the game will come from the defensive ends. They have to know when the option is coming and string it out and allow the other players to come up and take the pitch man. Once they stop that then they have to get pressure on the qb and make him throw early. If we dont get good play from the d ends we wont have much success stopping OSU.

Special teams: Nunn had a good year last year and has shined at times this year (last week wasn't one of them.). This has been a constant problem since Callahan took over. We have not had real good special teams. Where the heck has Brandon Rigoni gone? He has been invisible here lately. He needs to come back to life.

I say NU 42 OSU 10. I see the blackshirts having a big game and are really angry they lost last week and take it out on OSU. I think we have a good mix on offense and score via both the pass and run. I think we will run more then pass but I think Zac will have a good day throwing. About 20-25 passes with about 70% completions and 2 tds. I see Brandon running for over 100 along with maybe Lucky. Cody wont get alot of carries today but we may see Kenny alot more then in recent weeks.

by taflorom on Oct 28, 2006 10:53 AM CDT reply actions

passing

Callahan has shown his willingness to run the ball ad nauseum on the road.

The second half of the ISU game was about as boring as college football can get, but it was very effective in beating Iowa State, and that's what counts, so I'm not so sure about throwing the ball all over the place.

Go Big Red!

by Jon Johnston on Oct 28, 2006 2:15 PM CDT reply actions