"We did some good things. We knocked some people
down."
- Tom Osborne
(at the completion of the 1998 Orange Bowl, his
final game as NU coach)
Though this was an apt-- and very Osborne-esque--
description of the win over the Volunteers, it may be better
suited to be etched in stone on a corner of Memorial Stadium
as a simple description of the last thirty years of
Cornhusker football.
For, though Nebraska obviously does much more than just
power football (that's a big reason this web site exists
after all), it is the power game that is most closely
associated with the Big Red. And it is the power game that
is often the best indicator of how great a Husker offense
can be. Because, if they can run right at a defense and get
yards, there will be no stopping them when they unleash the
rest of the offensive package.
Nebraska''s power game is a combination of the simple and
the intricate. The blocking has been simplified in the past
twenty years with the advent of zone blocking rules, that
enable several backfield plays to be run with the same
blocking scheme. The intricate comes when one looks at all
that goes into these seemingly simplest plays in the Husker
arsenal. These are plays distinguished by straight-ahead
blocking, without use of long pulls by the linemen. These
are the plays that Big Red fans like to point to as good
old-fashioned Nebraska football. The Power series has
changed though in the last twenty years.
The blocking has been simplified through the use of two
blocking schemes-- inside zone and outside zone-- for a
variety of different plays. This allows the Huskers to run
several different backfield actions with fewer complications
in the line blocking assignments.
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