Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Legal Commentary Blogs -> LawPundit

Legal Commentary

: LawPundit

Passing and Rushing Statistics Show that the Nebraska Cornhuskers Suffer Under Poor Offensive Playcalling by the Coaching Staff

By Andis Kaulins

One of the excellent and useful sports websites online is College Football Football Statistics (cfbstats.com).

Using that website, one can isolate grievous mistakes that coaching staffs are committing - one would presume - without being aware of what they are doing, otherwise they would change and correct their errors.

We focus here on our own alma mater and the football Huskers of the University of Nebraska.

Let us take, for example, the following interesting question. Which football team, through the first 7 weeks of the 2008 Division I-A FBS college football season, leads the nation in pass completion percentage ON FIRST DOWN?

The astounding answer is, the Nebraska Cornhuskers.

On first down, the Huskers lead the nation by having a 78.7% completion on first down passes, achieved on 48 of 61 completions for 721 yards or a gain per play per pass on average of 11.8 yards.

And yet, the Husker offensive coaching staff, possessed of a relatively weak running game this year, has called many more running plays on first down, even though these are far less effective. Indeed, through its first 5 games, Nebraska ran the ball 91 times on 1st down for 453 yards and a 5.03 average. That is coaching stupidity.

In other words, in spite of a fantastic 1st down passing attack, the Huskers are rushing the ball 60% of the time on 1st down, and are doing so ineffectively.

It is no wonder that they have lost the last three games, and the responsibility lies primarily with the coaching staff and its poor playcalling rather than with the players. Put another way, the Huskers are a much better team than the coaches have been producing.

Another thing that we noticed under the former Callahan teams and a phenomenon that is continuing under the current offensive coordinator, who was an original Callahan hire, is that the offense of the Huskers generally deteriorates as the games moves on, with playcalling becoming more and more conservative and predictable, rather than more creative, as would be needed to make up point deficits if the team is behind, or to pad leads already achieved. And the Huskers have been behind in the last three games, all losses, because they were rushing when they should have been passing. In the 1st quarter, NU has scored 49 points, in the second quarter 40 points, in the third quarter 31 points, and only because they have tried to catch up in losing games have they scored 47 points in the 4th quarter.

In the 1st quarter, the Huskers have completed 27 of 36 passes, a 75% completion percentage, for 348 yards, an average of 9.67 per passing play. That completion percentage ranks the Huskers 11th best in the country - in the 1st quarter. In that same 1st quarter, the Huskers have run MORE and have gained much less, with 42 rushes netting a mere 174 yards for a 4.14 yardage average. If you were the head coach would you have some stern words to say with your offensive coordinator? You bet you would.

In the second quarter, playcalling changes, so that Nebraska has completed only 28 of 49 passes for 57% and 372 yards and the running plays called have netted a mere 100 yards on 32 attempts for a 3.13 yardage average. That is a complete disaster and shows that effective game adjustments are not being made. Someone ought to rewrite the playbook being used, because it is clearly off. Whatever plays are being called in the 2nd quarter, they are the wrong plays, at the wrong time.

In the third quarter, the Huskers, as under Callahan, revert to a head in the sand strategy, even though they may be losing badly, and cut back on their passing, completing 21 of only 29 passes for a 72% completion percentage and 265 yards. What takes over for the Huskers in the 2nd half is the running game, as Nebraska has run 50 running plays in the 3rd quarter for 224 yards for a 4.48 yardage average. Nebraska eats up the clock to its own detriment.

In the 4th quarter, when one would expect the Huskers to rev up their motors to catch up in games they are losing, the Huskers have completed 23 of 37 passes for a 62% completion percentage and 367 yards. Disastrously, they have run more running plays than passes, rushing 41 times for a mere 203 yards and a 4.95 yardage average.

In the first 5 games, Nebraska completed 55 of 85 passes in the 1st half but only 44 of 66 passes in the second half. When the Huskers should have been throwing to try to win games in the 2nd half of games they were losing, they were instead running nowhere up the middle against the opposing defensive lines.

Nebraska has the same passing completion percentage this season as Texas Tech - but the Husker team is nowhere near as successful, because the Cornhuskers are not using their potent passing attack to full advantage and are running the ball stupidly in situations where it is hopeless, given their current manpower.

In rushing yardage per game, Nebraska ranks 72nd. In the first 5 games, the Huskers ran 165 rushes for 701 yards, a yardage of 4.25 yards per play or 33 rushes per game, a per play yardage figure which is not even average for Division IA FBS teams.

In passing yardage per game, by contrast, Nebraska ranks 24th in the country, and yet, in the first 5 games the Huskers threw the ball only 151 times, even though those plays netted 99 completions for 1352 yards and a yardage of 9.0 yards per play on an average of 30 passes per game.

9.0 yards per play on average is exactly the same as achieved by USC in its first 4 games and the USC rushing yardage average of 4.65 yards per play is not that far better than the 4.25 yards per play achieved by the Huskers. However, USC this year is capitalizing on a far superior defense in spite of fielding an offense not that different from what the Huskers are running.

Nebraska ranks 75th nationally in the number of passes thrown. Given the quarterback they have in Joe Ganz, as compared to the meagre rushing game available to them, that statistic is a disaster. The Huskers have installed a modern passing offense and should be throwing as much as they are able, especially given their weak defense, and should be relying on the run only to keep defenses honest. If they want to run the ball again, as in days of Big Red yore, then there are better offenses to do this, as Navy demonstrates. And you need a running QB.

Full post as published by LawPundit on October 13, 2008 (boomark / email).