O-Line seeks consistency, perfection
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BY BRIAN ROSENTHAL / Lincoln Journal Star
Raise your hand if you’ve heard a Nebraska football player or coach use the term “pound the rock” at any point this season.
Know what that phrase really means?
“A lot of people think it means run the ball,” Nebraska offensive line coach Dennis Wagner said.
You wouldn’t be totally wrong. You wouldn’t be entirely right, either.
Pound the rock, Wagner said, means stay constant. Keep plugging away. Running. Blocking. Tackling. Catching. Whatever.
“No matter what it is, be constant,” Wagner said. “Be consistent. Perfect what you’re doing.”
For Nebraska’s offensive linemen, such consistency and perfection is particularly stressed on first-down plays. And through four games, Wagner’s group appears to be, well, pounding the rock.
Here’s some proof:
* Nebraska is averaging 8.1 yards on 122 first-down plays this season. That doesn’t include 10 plays in which NU was penalized on first down, nor does it include two turnovers on first down.
* Of those 122 plays, 80 have been running plays. The Huskers are averaging 5.7 yards on first-down runs. That includes only three quarterback scrambles and one sack.
* Nebraska has had just three first-down plays go for negative yardage. On two of them, Kenny Wilson lost yardage on first-and-goal. The other was a 12-yard sack of Joe Ganz late in the third quarter against Troy.
It’s probably no coincidence, then, that Nebraska has a third-down conversion rate of 57 percent, compared with last season’s mark of 33 percent.
“If we can run the football, then we are going to be able to throw the football,” Wagner said. “We have to have the ability to stay out of third-and-long situations.”
Example: The USC game, when Nebraska averaged a mere 3.2 yards on first down, and finished 5-of-14 on third-down conversions.
“We thought we beat ourselves,” Wagner said. “It isn’t about SC. It’s about Nebraska. You have to execute your plays. The plays that are called are schematically good plays, but if you don’t win individual battles, you’re not going to win.”
If the USC game was a step backward, then the offensive line took about three steps forward against Troy, when the Huskers averaged 10.2 yards on first down in a 56-0 victory.
“USC really taught us … it’s not even about the physical dimension, because USC did not outphysical us as a team,” Nebraska senior guard Greg Austin said. “We made mistakes that were very costly that you cannot make against a team like USC. It’s all about execution. That’s what I say. It breaks down to two things, physicalness and execution.”
Nebraska displayed both against Troy. The Huskers had a season-high 597 total yards, and sophomore Marlon Lucky ran for a career-high 156 yards on 10 carries.
“Our consistency was really good,” sophomore tackle Matt Slauson said. “Our backside blocks were really good, which, seven times out of 10, the ball’s going to cut backside. If you can get the backside blocks, you’re golden.”
That production came following a week of practice in which head coach Bill Callahan, himself an offensive line guru, spent considerable time with Wagner and the offensive linemen.
“His whole game is all technique,” Slauson said of Callahan. “He is really technical. He isn’t about busting out rep after rep after rep. He’s about breaking it down slower, making sure you’ve got every angle right.
“It definitely helped a lot. You can always use a day to just work on technique. Other days, you need to bang out reps.”
Slauson said this week “has been a rep week” as the No. 21 Huskers prepare for their Big 12 Conference opener against Kansas.
“We’ve taken it to heart,” Austin said of the coaches’ plea for execution. “Hopefully on Saturday, it will be the same outcome.”
Reach Brian Rosenthal at 473-7436 or brosenthal@journalstar.com.
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