scott frost

Previously: Offense.

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Formation Notes: Way too many goofy things Nebraska did to show them all. Demi means the WRs are not wide (normal) and not tight.

I pulled “Fritz” out of the 2011 Offense vs Minnesota for this formation that’s reminiscent of 1890s football:

Imagine the QB under center and you get why the backs were named quarter, half, and full. I also started noting some of their motions. Also in History of Football Formations 101, Michigan used an Eagle with a standup nose (Morris), which was the formation that originally gave rise to the 4-3 defense.

I’m sure there’s a more fascinating name for this formation that I called Zero:

Nebraska also made heavy use of Gun Bunch Z Cross OMFG the OT is in the Backfield Again!

Substitution Notes: Ojabo got the start and starter’s minutes at OLB. Mostly nickel personnel the whole way: Hinton/Smith were 1st team, Jenkins came on when they needed a 5th lineman, and Speight/Jeter were the team when the starters needed a breather. NHG and Colson split time and Barrett got a couple of drives as an HSP version of the WLB. Corner was the usual rotation, with the CBs coming off for goal line.

[After THE JUMP: Sixty minutes of linebacker hell]

That was... a lot. In a contest that lasted nearly four hours to finish regulation, Michigan emerged from Lincoln with a narrow 32-29 victory. It was not the prettiest or the smoothest, but it's a win all the same. And it came against a desperate Nebraska program in need of a win and in front of 90,000 angry fans in Memorial Stadiums. Cade McNamara said after the game that he believes that many of the past Jim Harbaugh Michigan teams may not have won that game. He might be right. 

The first half was a one-sided effort. After a creative Nebraska drive ended on a Michigan defensive stand at the four yard line, the Huskers sputtered on offense for the remainder fo the first half. Meanwhile Michigan cobbled together a couple long scoring drives, and took a free three points after a spectacular Daxton Hill interception. A bizarre sequence saw Michigan twice fail to score a TD at the goal line due to video reviews and forced the Wolverines to settle for a field goal, but the Maize & Blue led 13-0 after two quarters. They had out-gained their opposition by nearly 100 yards and were the clearly the better team. Then the third stanza started. 

The Nebraska Cornhuskers need to beat somebody they normally don't to get to bowl eligibility after blowing two winnable games against Illinois and Michigan State. They needed to topple either Michigan, Iowa, or Wisconsin, three teams who they have struggled against in recent years, to get to six wins- the mark required to perhaps salvage the Scott Frost era. The Husker coaching staff believed that this night, in front of a raucous crowd, could deliver them the marquee win they needed. They came out of halftime with the game plan to try and win the game. 

Haskins had Michigan up early [Patrick Barron]

The third quarter was an offensive coaching clinic put on by Frost's staff. They relentless targeted Michigan's youth and inexperience across the defense, getting RJ Moten and Junior Colson (and Josh Ross) to bite hard on a play action TD pass to Austin Allen that went for 46. Then they confused Nikhai Hill-Green on a beautifully drawn up wheel route to Rahmir Johnson that went for 41 and a TD. The Huskers capped it off with another genius screen pass to Levi Falck that resulted in a TD after being handed a short field. Martinez scrambled for the two point conversion and at the end of the third quarter, it was 22-19 Nebraska. 

While the defense was getting clocked in the head repeatedly, Michigan's offense had mixed success in the third quarter. There was a strong TD drive that hinged on a Daylen Baldwin 35 yard reception and was then capped off by a Hassan Haskins TD scamper. But bookending that drive was a 3 & out and a disastrous 3 play sequence that ended in Cade McNamara's first INT as a Michigan QB, which gave Nebraska the aforementioned short field. 

After falling down 22-19, Michigan had a tremendous gut check drive. A key 3rd down conversion to Erick All got it moving and then Blake Corum finished it off with a 29 yard electric TD run to put the winged helmets back on top. Nebraska came back with their own drive. It appeared to be finished early when a seeming interception passed through the arms of Gemon Green and instead was caught by Oliver Martin for 30. Nebraska's up-tempo play, and willingness to hurry up the snap after making a substitution, giving Michigan little time to get set before the play, paid dividends on an Adrian Martinez read option keeper TD that beat Aidan Hutchinson and gave the Huskers the lead back with 7:08 to play. 

Blake Corum broke a long run in a big moment [Barron]

Michigan quickly charged down the field on the back of an incredible Haskins 50 yard run that included a mind-bending hurdle, but the drive stalled out inside the 10 after the boisterous Memorial Stadium crowd caused another Michigan false start penalty. Jake Moody split the uprights to even the game at 29. 

The Huskers got the ball back with 3 minutes to go and quickly faced 3rd & 1. They called a Martinez keeper that got enough for the first down, but then Brad Hawkins made the play of the game and ripped the ball free, recovering it himself all in one motion. It was Nebraska's second turnover, and a backbreaking mistake in a big moment that has become all too familiar for Husker fans this season.

Michigan burned all three Nebraska timeouts, but a pair of questionable playcalls on 2nd and 3rd downs lined Jake Moody up for a 39 yarder— by no means a sure thing for a college kicker— with 1:24 to go. Moody, who has proven time and time again to have ice in his veins this season, banged the kick through the uprights. 

Nebraska got the football back with 84 seconds to play. A quick 25 yard strike to Samori Toure got the Huskers to midfield in the blink of an eye, but then they ran into resistance. A pair of incompletions set up 3rd & 10. Frost and his staff dialed up a screen pass that Gemon Green played perfectly, stopping Rahmir Johnson dead in his tracks for no gain. Nebraska proceeded to strangely hurry up as if they had no time left, despite there being a full 54 seconds remaining in the contest. The rushed 4th & 10 play landed incomplete as Daxton Hill ran step for step with Toure, and Michigan had survived. Two Cade McNamara kneel downs sealed it. 

[AFTER THE JUMP: Some concluding thoughts]

Previously: Nebraska Offense 

We return to our regularly scheduled FFFF programming on this fine Friday morning. Yesterday we looked at Nebraska's offense, which was described as the Adrian Martinez show. Though the Huskers torched Northwestern on offense, it's actually the defense that has been carrying the weight for the team. The blackshirts held Oklahoma to just over 400 yards of offense and 23 points, and Michigan State barely got over the 250 yard threshold against this unit. How for real is the defense? Let's investigate: 

The Film: We used the Northwestern tape on offense because we had to, due to Nebraska's OL shakeup. It was not my preferred choice, and some of those clips were just astonishingly bad. Thus, free from the confines of having to use the NW tape for this side of the ball, I selected Michigan State, as they are the best team that runs a similar style of offense to Michigan that Nebraska has faced (Oklahoma's offensive philosophy is a poor match for this Michigan team). MSU won that game 23-20 in OT, a game Nebraska famously lost due to a bizarre punt return TD they ceded to Jayden Reed. Step outside of special teams, and Nebraska was clearly the better squad, especially in this side of the ball. Their defense kicked MSU's butt, and I will show you how shortly. 

Personnel: The chart 

Nebraska runs with a front seven that shifts around an awful lot in terms of how it looks. On technicality, you would say that they run a 3-4, with a NT and two DT-ish players, much like Michigan. But as we've learned from watching the Wolverines this year, the actual formations that are trotted out there rarely look like a traditional, Wisconsin-type 3-4. Also like Michigan, the "OLB's" are just defensive ends. Unlike Michigan, there's a true Hybrid Space Player who normally takes the spot of the other "OLB". We'll dig into how this looks on the field in a bit. 

The three DT-ish players are Ty Robinson and Ben Stille, with Damion Daniels as the nose. Deontre Thomas rotates in quite a bit, and those four are the extent of the true linemen you need to know. This is a Nebraska defense that is not heavy on rotation, unlike Michigan (you can tell from how all the starters are "solid red" in the chart above). The DE's masquerading as OLB's are manned by Garrett Nelson and Caleb Tannor. They may play together on pass rushing downs, or it may be just one or the other, but they are largely out there to rush the QB and don't provide much else. Phel Payne is another backup to mention who sees the field some here. 

The LB level sees two traditional ILB's, Nick Henrich and Luke Reimer. Typically it's just two of them out there, and when one comes off, we see Chris Kolarevic rotate in. The Hybrid Space Player (Nebraska does not name it, which is very disappointing) is JoJo Domann, who decided to come back to school rather than to test his chances as a potential late round draft pick. Domann lines up as a DB more often than as a LB, but he has responsibilities in both run defense and coverage. There is not an obvious replacement for him on the defense among the second-stringers. 

The secondary features veteran corner Cam Taylor-Britt, as well as first-time starter Quinton Newsome, who is a tad wobbly and earns this defense's only cyan. Braxton Clark comes on as the third option at corner, but when Nebraska rolls with 5 DB's, it's far more likely they use Domann as the fifth than go with a nickel corner. The two safeties are both grizzled veterans and returning starters, Marquel Dismuke and Deontai Williams. In total, this defense features 8 returning starters from last season and has now been operating under Erik Chinander's scheme for four years. Inexperience is not their problem. 

[AFTER THE JUMP: Nebraska!]