Dana Holgerson Offense - What do we need?

[Baron Winnebago]

Mike Riley is a good guy but holy hell i still dont know how he got that hire.

It was a 1 man search. Eichorst got a lady boner for old man Riley at one of his previous stops and was hell bent on hiring him when he could

 

[2010sarenevercomingback]

Yeah, Gundy has made pretty clear that he’s not into the new normal of college football. It’s ok if we sit out on giving him a landing spot.

I think guys like Gundy will be amazing gets at some type of analyst or assistant role where they can use their considerable knowledge, without dealing with nearly as much of the business and social obligations.

If he came in and coached our QBs, I would be over the moon.

 

[Baron Winnebago]

I think guys like Gundy will be amazing gets at some type of analyst or assistant role where they can use their considerable knowledge, without dealing with nearly as much of the business and social obligations.

If he came in and coached our QBs, I would be over the moon.

Agreed. Put as many smart people in the building as you can

 

[2010sarenevercomingback]

Agreed. Put as many smart people in the building as you can

But also still let me in the building.

 

[Cash68847]

Urban legend says there was talk of Bob Stoops after TO retired

Stoops would have came for sure, but Solich was always going to be the hire. It might not have been a great time for Stoops following a legend. I bet Husker fans wouldn’t have gave him much rope especially since we murdered his defenses in prior years. We were too spoiled. DeBoer is probably going to learn that lesson at Bama and he is another legit coach.

 

[...TrueColors...]

Stoops would have came for sure, but Solich was always going to be the hire. It might not have been a great time for Stoops following a legend. I bet Husker fans wouldn’t have gave him much rope especially since we murdered his defenses in prior years. We were too spoiled. DeBoer is probably going to learn that lesson at Bama and he is another legit coach.

Mack Brown wanted this job too.

To be honest, we could have had whoever we wanted.

Legend has it that Solich grew impatient and TO wasn’t fully ready to retire when he did. He was only 60. Mike Riley was 62 when we hired him. Five more years of TO coming off of 3 natties out of four? Crouch at QB? One more Natty is certainly within reach.

 

[Cash68847]

Mack Brown wanted this job too.

To be honest, we could have had whoever we wanted.

Legend has it that Solich grew impatient and TO wasn’t fully ready to retire when he did. He was only 60. Mike Riley was 62 when we hired him. Five more years of TO coming off of 3 natties out of four? Crouch at QB? One more Natty is certainly within reach.

Stoops would have been a better hire than Mack. Osborne made Solich a promise he was going to retire. He supposedly still had the itch to keep coaching but held true to his promise. There were rumors he thought about going to Houston after he quit.

There would have been a lot going against a new coach from outside the program. They couldn’t really switch the offense and what were they going to do with Osborne’s assistants? Let’s say they actually switched the offense and brought in a new staff shit would have hit the fan. It was going to be an uphill climb for any outsider to change things. I just don’t know if Husker fans would have had any patience.

 

[Huskers633]

Mack Brown wanted this job too.

To be honest, we could have had whoever we wanted.

Legend has it that Solich grew impatient and TO wasn’t fully ready to retire when he did. He was only 60. Mike Riley was 62 when we hired him. Five more years of TO coming off of 3 natties out of four? Crouch at QB? One more Natty is certainly within reach.

Without a doubt. I think the 99 team, Crouch's sophomore year, was one of the best teams Nebraska has ever had.

 

[Cash68847]

Without a doubt. I think the 99 team, Crouch's sophomore year, was one of the best teams Nebraska has ever had.

There were four better teams on the 90s.

 

[...TrueColors...]

Stoops would have been a better hire than Mack. Osborne made Solich a promise he was going to retire. He supposedly still had the itch to keep coaching but held true to his promise. There were rumors he thought about going to Houston after he quit.

There would have been a lot going against a new coach from outside the program. They couldn’t really switch the offense and what were they going to do with Osborne’s assistants? Let’s say they actually switched the offense and brought in a new staff shit would have hit the fan. It was going to be an uphill climb for any outsider to change things. I just don’t know if Husker fans would have had any patience.

I would agree with the notion that this place didn’t have an appetite for change at that time. Unfortunate because had we taken the change to update at that time our trajectory could essentially be like Oklahoma’s over the past 25 years.

 

[Cash68847]

I would agree with the notion that this place didn’t have an appetite for change at that time. Unfortunate because had we taken the change to update at that time our trajectory could essentially be like Oklahoma’s over the past 25 years.

I think after Solich we had our real chance because right or wrong a fair amount of Husker fans were fine with moving on. Unfortunately Pederson botched the whole hiring process. Urb was the hot up and coming head coach, but Pederson went with Callahan.

 

[Huskers633]

There were four better teams on the 90s.

That's fair. 94, 95, 96, and 97. I do think arguments could be made that 99 was better than 94 and 96. But even so, if those 4 are better I still think 99 is one of the best ever.

 

[...TrueColors...]

That's fair. 94, 95, 96, and 97. I do think arguments could be made that 99 was better than 94 and 96. But even so, if those 4 are better I still think 99 is one of the best ever.

When speaking about great Husker defenses that 99 defense often gets overlooked.

 

[Cash68847]

That's fair. 94, 95, 96, and 97. I do think arguments could be made that 99 was better than 94 and 96. But even so, if those 4 are better I still think 99 is one of the best ever.

You have two teams in the 70s who you would have to put higher and you could argue for two Turner Gill teams in the 80s. I would go with the 7-9 range which is still very good.

 

[tman87]

Mack Brown wanted this job too.

To be honest, we could have had whoever we wanted.

Legend has it that Solich grew impatient and TO wasn’t fully ready to retire when he did. He was only 60. Mike Riley was 62 when we hired him. Five more years of TO coming off of 3 natties out of four? Crouch at QB? One more Natty is certainly within reach.

The real impetus was T.O.'s wife. She had been pushing him to retire since the early 90's. Frank knew about this obviously, and at some point T.O. told his wife he would retire sooner than later, and told Frank the same. Promised Frank that he would be his successor.

So the real impetus was T.O.'s wife, and then the promise to Frank, which T.O. stuck to, despite actually wanting to coach 2 to 4 more years. Our long-time group of (very good - great actually) assistants were mostly also all getting up in years, but they weren't done yet. Hindsight T.O. wishes he'd stuck around for 3 or 4 more years. And so do the rest of us.

 

[GBRfr]

Thread started out so great, is it possible to delete everything after the second reply? Thanks for trying OP.

 

[BIG TONE SOPRANO]

Thread started out so great, is it possible to delete everything after the second reply? Thanks for trying OP.

lol happens in every thread

 

[Huskerforlife]

When speaking about great Husker defenses that 99 defense often gets overlooked.

True, IMO the 2009 defense with Suh was one of the greatest defenses we ever had.

 

[...TrueColors...]

Hi guys -

I’ve been thinking a ton about Holgerson’s offense and what we need in order to make it work. It’s obvious he’s got the QB he wants and the most talented one he’s ever had. But what else?

For this exercise I used his 2018 offense that had Will Grier throw for 3800 yards en route to a 4th place finish in the Heisman race. I know; very lofty. But let’s have fun and break down how we get to 3800 yards:

WRs - They come in 3 categories in Holgerson’s offense.

A) 3 guys that catch 700+ yards
B) 1 guy who catches 3-500 yards
C) Everyone else

For this exercise, let’s assume we get Dane Key and can project him in Group A. Let’s also assume we can project Barney to Group A. So the reality is here we need one portal WR (if Key is here) that needs to be a day 1 dude that catches 50 passes for 700-900 yards. This is Jamal Banks level production if you do the math on what he did when Dana took over.

Group B? I feel that you can project a few guys that are on campus now to this group along with guys we signed on Wednesday.

Group C? This is where we can throw the Quinn Clarks and the Keelan Smiths of the world.

Bottom line is I don’t feel comfortable projecting anyone to that top group but Barney and Key (if he’s here). So these are the guys we need.

TE - We need one guy to catch 25-30 passes for around 350-400.

Good news here is that these guys are on campus.

RB - This is where it gets very tough. You need around 3-500 yards receiving from these two And about 2000 yards rushing from this group.

Without EJ, these guys simply aren’t here. This has to have your attention as Dowdell really isn’t a back that’s going to catch out of the backfield and I don’t feel comfortable projecting a true freshman in Parker to give you this either. Dowdell could probably fulfill his rushing quota. But we need two other guys that are going to have to account for another 1000 yards and that’s if you project Dowdell to get to 1k next year.

Where we really need to spend money here is on two WRs including Dane Key and probably two backs that are also healthy Big Ten contributors.

I know most of this isn’t ground breaking stuff. But why I did this is to see just how far away we could be from a top 15 offense next year. The answer is 4 guys, 3 if we can keep EJ.

Now, if we don’t get those 4 we aren’t doomed. But life gets a ton easier to see how this offense will come together if we can add two WRs and two RBs. The good news here is that those guys should be in the portal. We’ve got to come ready to spend some money on them.

Group A is filled out now with Hunter, Barney, and Key. I’d project this group to account for 2200 yards through the air and that’s really not a stretch. Their 2024 numbers look like this:

Key - 47 catches for 715
Barney - 52 catches for 431
Hunter - 40 catches for 578

Group B is a work in progress, but I’m not sure you need to go portaling for that group anymore.

 

[Baron Winnebago]

What we're gonna need is to think about @Jim14510's back fat or we will have throbbing erections 24/7