Breakdown Sports

Corn Nation has produced a couple articles that I'd like to take the time to review: Midway Through Spring Practice, Husker Football Looks Unsettled and Plumbing the Creek: Nebraska, CFB, and Uniforms (I don't think I'll touch on the uniforms). Both are interesting looks at what is going on in Lincoln at the moment. Both point to the uncertain nature that such a transition brings. Both certainly are some cause for concern, but they are not necessarily foreboding doom. I'd like to throw my hat into the ring and give my perspective of what I'm reading from Corn Nation. REBECCA S. GRATZ/THE WORLD-HERALD

As many people know, a nucleate notion in the modern spread offense is to “spread the field vertically as well as horizontally.” They look at the formations utilized by Rich Rodriguez at Arizona or Art Briles at Baylor and they see at the snap of the ball a team that is spread along the width of the field. But this nefarious knowledge isn’t some cozened concept defined distinctly within spread offenses, this is something that dates back much, much further. From a passing game standpoint, Jim Harbaugh’s offense derives very much from Bill Walsh’s “West Coast Offense”. Walsh had a trenchant affinity for forcing the defense to cover the width of the field in order to open up interior run lanes for the offense. Harbaugh differs a bit from the Walsh philosophy in that he still generally prefers to setup the pass with the run. At heart, the soul of Bo Schembechler can still be found with his desire to run the ball first. Some will surely deride “three yards and a cloud of dust”, b

Hit the jump if you're interested in some discussion of Space Exploration for a brief interlude from our football talk.

I thought this was a very interesting and insightful article from 11W that stressed something that is often overlooked by fans. Good performance and even great performance doesn't indicate a finished product, and for those that remember Devin Gardner against Notre Dame in 2013, fans often don't heed the warnings. In that game, Gardner showed an incredible ceiling, but he also showed he still had a lot of things to work on. Once things started breaking down around him - especially on the OL - and there was more tape on his strengths and weaknesses, more teams were able to understand how to attack him and the Michigan offense with quite awful results. For Jones, the outcome likely won't be the same. The supporting cast and the consistent scheme will still allow the offense to perform at a high level. But the goal for Ohio State isn't merely to perform at a high level. A high level wins you most games, but the Buckeyes likely aren't keen on only winning most games.

Lots of people talk about the multiplicity afforded by a zone scheme. It can be run from a single back set or it can be run with several backs; it can be run in a straight forward way or with various tags; it can go to the strong side or the Weakside of the formation; and you can incorporate a couple of these aspects into a read based scheme. But the Power O scheme is really no different. Power O, at its heart, can feature any of the facets described above but maintain its principles. In this article, we are going to look at the many ways that Power O can be incorporated into an offense. vs

This is intended to be a look at the B1G players participating in the NFL combine (and a couple others that I think may get drafted). I include combine results, though that is only a small part of the equation for me. I put much more value into what I've seen on film rather than by how well someone has been taught to run the 40 yard dash. I try to give a basic overview of strengths, weaknesses, fit, and where I'd expect them to be drafted based on "norms". What that means is that I'm not really looking at mock drafts, I don't have my ear to the ground for what Mel Kiper is saying about a guy. It's just based on what I've seen on film. This will be five parts long, with teams coming in alphabetical order. MARK DAVIS/THE WORLD-HERALD Part I Part II

This is intended to be a look at the B1G players participating in the NFL combine (and a couple others that I think may get drafted). I include combine results, though that is only a small part of the equation for me. I put much more value into what I've seen on film rather than by how well someone has been taught to run the 40 yard dash. I try to give a basic overview of strengths, weaknesses, fit, and where I'd expect them to be drafted based on "norms". What that means is that I'm not really looking at mock drafts, I don't have my ear to the ground for what Mel Kiper is saying about a guy. It's just based on what I've seen on film. This will be five parts long, with teams coming in alphabetical order. SB Nation Part I

I joined Unsportsmanlike Conduct to discuss what to expect from Nebraska's offense. Needless to say, I was a bit rusty. LINK