Position Battle Buzz - Offense
With Bo Pelini's disdain for preseason depth charts, we won't likely know for sure who's playing where until Sept. 3. That said, through five days of camp we are starting to get a few clues as to how things are playing out so let's play the guessing game, starting with the offense.
QB: It's Taylor Martinez until he proves, definitively, that he can't do it. Pelini said Wednesday that Carnes "has a long way to go" which isn't surprising for a redshirt freshman. (Martinez can relate.) Remember, Nebraska only had a fraction of the offense installed by the time we saw Carnes in the spring game. Depth is certainly an issue hence the Jamal Turner WR/QB tango and Bubba Starling, on the off chance that he actually stays at Nebraska, certainly seems like a "break in case of emergency" guy now considering he hasn't even practiced yet.
RB:Given that a few scholarship RBs were left of the 105-man roster I think we know what we're getting here: Rex Burkhead and the Thrilling Three. Best case scenario is that Nebraska allows Green, Heard and Abdullah to battle it out in August, nobody gets injured, they settle on three RBs (including Burkhead) and redshirt one of the freshman to prevent a mass exodus four years down the road. Three RBs might seem thin but Nebraska has essentially played two each of the past two seasons. (The third back, in this case Dontrayveous Robinson, didn't get more than 40 carries in 2009 or 2010). Which freshmen will play? Good question but Aaron Green seems to have a slight edge.
WR: Brandon Kinnie is the veteran here but beyond the Twitter king there are a lot of unknowns. Jamal Turner will certainly have a role as will Quincy Enunwa (the only returning WR other than Kinnie with a catch last year). Aside from his opinion of the best college team ever, people seem to like Kenny Bell based on his performance in the spring but I get the sense we'll be seeing a lot of Stanley Jean-Baptiste. He's got the look of a Big Ten receiver - 6-3, 220 pounds - and he seems to be getting a lot of reps with the first unit in the sliver of practice the media is allowed to watch. Baptiste's career is a strange one. After high school he spent a year in prep school, then went to Fort Scott CC and redshirted, then arrived at Nebraska and didn't play last year. If nothing else, he should be a hungry to play a football game. It's been at least two years and did I mention he's a 4.4 guy?
TE: Reed, Cotton, Long. If you view this unit as separate from the WRs it's the surest thing Nebraska has offensively. Kyler Reed sat out Wednesday's practice but Pelini expected him back on Thursday.
OL: The new guy to know is Jake Cotton. People are buzzing about him and he looks like a contender at RG. Brent Qvale is getting reps at RT which could be important as Marcel Jones has yet to practice this fall. Jeremian Sirles started all of last season at LT while Andrew Rodriguez looks to be the leader at LG. We're probably going to see true freshman Tyler Moore in some capacity as well. His teammates rave about his footwork - a tricky transition for high school players - and he has the benefit of being an early enrollee.
8/11/2011
Nice round up, Brandon. The reality is that things are still so early that it is hard to say anything for certain. More unknowns than knows, certainly. Players could easily emerge in mid-season (remember Gomes in ‘09?)
Based on the current state of things, I somehow find myself more optimistic about NU’s running backs than the wide outs. First, Burkhead inspires more confidence than Kinnie. And, after those two at least we sort of know who the contenders are at RB. At WR, there are lots and lots of guys, but no clear cut answers.
Kyler Reed is the X factor in this whole offense. That guy can be a match up nightmare. Just hope they don’t “Mike McNeill” him and waste his considerable talent.
Kansas City, MO
8/11/2011
Considering Reed seems to be TM’s favorite target, I don’t think the coordinators and play-callers could truly prevent him from getting the ball (completely short of benching him).
8/11/2011
Lack of depth and experience at QB and RB is really scary. Especially as we enter the hard nosed and physical Big 10. I am optimistic about the direction of the offense, but I think there is certainly going to be some growing pains.
8/11/2011
RB: considering Heard’s already sat out trying to qualify, I’m sure either Green or Abdullah would be the RS RB, if any, and sounds like Green has the edge. Also, Heard’s style is reportedly more like Burkhead’s. Not worried about mass exodus though, I’m sure over the next 3 years there will be another RB or two.
NC, USA
8/11/2011
Did everyone forget that Curenski Gilleylen switched to RB? Someone who has played before and was a wing back/slot receiver in high school? He had an injury through spring but should be good to go later. He is 6’0” and 215 lbs. He’s a senior. I think he’ll provide something behind Rex. But everyone just forgets about him and talks about the younguns.
8/11/2011
History dictates that NU will be fine at RB, TE, and QB (if there’s no major injuries). O-line will be good - consistency will be the key.
The major question is WR. We never really have depth at WR. The only exception is the 2008 season with Swift, Peterson, and Paul. That year our offense was one of the best in the nation. This year, I’m looking for WRs to step up if NU wants to be a B1G champion. I’m cautiously excited to see what the WRs can do….
8/11/2011
p.s. after checking out that ‘Top 25 names in CFB’ article, I think our offense should be called ‘T-Rex.’ Taylor and Rex will be dangerous this year!
NC, USA
8/11/2011
I just saw that Gilleylen moved back to WR…so that’s good. Gives us some depth there.
8/11/2011
This biggest question is clearly the Quarterback position. As goes the QB goes the team. I think T-Mart will be a terror at QB his Junior year, but probably needs another year under his belt before he really turns things loose.
8/11/2011
I love the T-REX name! That’s great! Good job Austin!
I think when this offense shines, it will really shine. I think it will get stopped too, and then we’re going to see what kind of offensive coordinator Beck is…remember all the perfectly called plays TO used to come up with at just the right time? Plays that totally surprised the defense? That’s what I’m hoping for. Something close to the better half of last season. If I was a B1G team, I wouldn’t want to play us. I think Taylor will rock but his best is yet to come. He will be different from last year. The Thrilling three will dazzle, and the wide receivers…well, we have no choice but be good there…if we want to take pressure off Martinez and the rest of the offense. And I can’t wait to see the speed of all these guys and see if it’s that much of a factor.
Most teams have maybe one or two big stars if they’re a good team, 3-4 on a great team. With Burkhead, Martinez, one of the running backs and one of the wide receivers lets say, we possibly have more than that! Just depends on who steps up. Remember when we had Frazier, Phillips, and Green? What if something like that occurred along with Crick, Denard, David on defense? Wow!
Make no mistake about it, we have the potential to be scary good. Question is…will we be scary good when we NEED to be.
Bellevue, NE
8/11/2011
I find myself more optimistic about the 2012 season than the upcoming 2011 season. New conference, New foes, and a New Offense. Then, add in 3 freshman running backs, 3 freshman linemen, a freshman receiver. Adding these together I get an answer that tells me, NOT THIS YEAR.
I believe that we will certinally be competive and I think exciting. But the composure and the maturity to string together 11 or more wins - thats going to be a reach.
GBR - I’M WITH YOU WIN OR LOSE!
8/11/2011
One could say that looking at it on the surface. Problem is, that’s not where greatness comes from…or great teams. They defy the odds. Would you want Pelini thinking that way?
8/11/2011
Sorry, Austin… I beat you to that nickname on this very site almost a year ago. Check out the first comment.
http://bigrednetwork.com/story/helu_burkhead_make_huskers_a_two-headed_monster/
I do agree, though… that name rules.
8/11/2011
Actually, Hujan thought of it first!
I stand corrected!
8/12/2011
Kyler Reed wasn’t Taylor’s favorite target last year, Brandon Kinnie was. Reed was just way more reliable than Kinnie, who had a case of the butterfingers last year
8/12/2011
We are still a year out…face it. A new offense that is put into a lot of young inexperienced kids hands including Martinez. We could not win last year on D alone. It will take awhile for the youth to develop. We have to be able to run and throw… and we really have not proven that we can do that consistently. The line has to prove that it can be dominate. If not I really do not care how good your 180 lb. running backs are.
NC, USA
8/12/2011
@The Devil,
Not necessarily. This could be one of the most prolific offenses EVER…it all depends on 2 things (and you agree on both of them in your post):
1. Receivers
2. O-Line
I’m not worried about rushing the ball at all…but if that’s all we do, we’re TOAST. We need our receivers to output and keep the defense honest…otherwise they’ll know we’re running it…and that starts on the O-line. Who’s to say that the O-Line doesn’t turn things around this year? Who’s to say that with Turner in there the receivers run wild? We don’t know! There is JUST as good of chance for us to become brilliant and blow things up as there is to not be very good offensively.
8/12/2011
I agree with you DK. If you’ll remember, last year, before Martinez got hurt, we were kicking a$$ and taking names! We were almost unbeatable! That’s when everyone was talking Heisman and National Championships. That’s why everyone is so excited now going into this season. We beat 2 ranked teams that were ranked pretty high if I remember and undefeated at the time (Ok State and Mo). And made minse meat out of two top probably 35 teams in K State and Washington. The receivers lost the Texas game for us, otherwise we’d be 11 and 3 instead of 10 and 4. And remember, those 3 losses, not including the bowl game, were by a total of 13 points…and that’s with a hobbled Taylor Martinez who was largely ineffective BECAUSE of his injuries, and the wheels coming off the wagon. That’s why there is so much intrigue going into this season…Taylors bound to be a whole lot better (although the first half of last year he was absolutly brilliant), the O line is bound to be a LOT better with all the extra attention, and the receivers are bound to be a whole lot better too with speedsters Jamal Turner, kenny Bell, SJB, and the others. No, we’ll be a kick ass team on offense this year no doubt. The fact that we do have a lot of young guys out there just bodes well for the future…because if we are an elite team offensively this year, and I think we will be, just think how much better we’ll be the year after that, and the year after that! We might be looking at another Oregon/ Florida type of team only better.
Is the glass half full or half empty? That’s what The Devil and a lot of others and I disagree with…they are still looking at the last half of the season.
It’s gonna be good!
8/25/2011
I think our offense is going to be better than last year. If we make huge strides in turnovers and penalties we could be real good. It seems to me that we might have more speed on offense than we’ve had in a while, maybe since 1983. The two biggest question marks are T-Mart and the offensive line. They are both really talented but young.
It will also be interesting to see how well our offense executes vs. a stacked box. I can see big X teams putting 7-9 guys in the box often. Daring our offense to throw which will require protection from the line and running backs as well as great decision making skills and accuracy of throws from T-Mart