Nebraska Football: What Offense Would You Run?

I’m asking the question below because two days ago was the first day of summer. In case you’re wondering, I so completely stole this idea from OTE.

So... here’s a question everyone can have fun with...

What offense would you run if you could run any football offense you wanted?

Hoss: Air Raid with a mobile QB, Split Backs formations, and many, many screen passes. Although those of the #RTB ilk may curse my initial hire, they’ll learn to love my offense when the Huskers go on scorched earth campaigns through the Big Ten conference, terrorizing defenses from Iowa City to Happy Valley.

UNLWiebe: I guess an introduction is in order. I’m one of the new members of the Corn Nation team. Currently I am a sophomore at UNL working on degrees in broadcasting, ADPR, and Sports Media and Communication. My main goal is to gain experience covering sports by working for Corn Nation.

Personally I would run a pretty balanced offense. The number one most important part of my offense would be the quarterback. We wouldn’t need a Heisman winner at QB, we’d just need a guy who can stay calm under pressure and not turn the ball over. Our offensive line would be massive, big enough to keep our QB safe and strong enough to open up highways for our backs to run on.

Husker Mike: This is going to be heretical to many of you, but Tim Beck’s offense, to me, was pretty close to what I’d like to run. A mobile, dual threat quarterback who could be paired up with a dynamic I-back that forced you to concentrate on the running game. It’s balanced by a passing game that keeps defenses on their heels with some game-breaking receivers. The characteristics of this offense match up with what the elite teams in college football have been running in recent years.

Of course, before you can fully implement an offense, you’ve got to have players with that skill set. Otherwise, you are merely trying to jam a round peg into a square hole.

Brian: I would go a cross of Urban Meyer’s inside zone plays with some of Jim McElwain’s concepts of motion and misdirection. Probably a fairly decent running tilt, but at the same time you want the flexibility that the play-action passing game to keep folks off balance.

I would say that in the base offense, you’d run 21 personnel so that you can use that Fullback for misdirection and such, but with the way that most teams are going strictly 11 personnel or even 10 at times like the full Air Raid, it’d be an interesting curveball to throw in.

Huskrboneyard: RUN.THE.DAD.GUM.BALL. DANNNNNNYYYYYYYYY is what I hear all the time from the multitude of elite coaches sitting in the student section. Except replace the word dadgum with a much less kind one.

I tend to think that a balanced offense is the most potent offense. The only exception would be when the team has an elite player at running back. I would say the same about quarterback but that hasn’t happened in decades...

Jon J: If you'll notice, not one of our participants selected to run a triple option – based offense. What this means is I run a site full of heretics. I make no apologies, but resolve to find at least one completely batshit insane nutball who still insists that the triple option will be the only way Nebraska ever wins championships again.

When it comes to offense I must admit that I suffer from Stockholm syndrome. Like Mike, I like Tim Beck's offense when he was here although I felt that Nebraska suffered from a lack of talent throughout most of Beck's tenure.

Now that Danny Langsdorf is our offense of coordinator I tend to like what he's doing. I am like the idea of a prostyle offense that will attract quarterbacks who mission to make it into the NFL. It appears that Nebraska can be successful within the current coaching staff of recruiting highly touted wide receivers, in it that's the case then let us pass.

I like a good running game is much as the next guy, but I would also point to the Green Bay Packers as evidence that you can have a successful passing offense in a cold-weather environment. Granted, the Packers do not do well if they cannot run the ball successfully at least some of the time. They have historically been incredibly successful at running screens, and I love screens.

I guess what I'd like to see is the Green Bay Packers offense being executed at Nebraska.