Good Philosophy, Joker!

Just read where Joker had made the comment that he would emphasize taking speed over skillset at any position. Let me say (for what it’s worth) outside of Kickers and QB, that is exactly the right idea.

Some of you may recall the prime of Nebraska under Tom Osborne. Now, despite the fact that Osborne had his flaws, he had a great philosophy that was the cornerstone of his programs. He recruited speed and then added size. Osborne would take a guy recruited as a big corner, and beef him into a safety. He would take guys recruited as safeties and beef them into OLBs. LBs in DE’s, and DE’s into DTs. Obviously, he had a big head start to doing this, and that didn’t mean he always did that with every player, but it was a general practice. He could preserve some speed and add beef, but it’s hard to add beef AND develop speed.

THAT was what lead to so many of those great Husker D’s. A guy recruited as a 6’2″ 194 lb safety with a 4.48, was a monster at 225 with a 4.5-4.6 (See Danny Trevathan). A LB that was 6’1″ 231 was DE beast at 252.

This is what I felt UK should have done with Micah, two years back. Made him a DE and let him attack the backfield. Might have spared him some knee injuries from the blind sided cut blocks and O line doubles that come with playing the middle.

The nice thing is, I think UK is almost to the point where we can ‘afford’ to make those kind of changes in a player while he isn’t pivotal in the current plan.

Of course, one of the things that Tom DIDN’T have to contend with as much was players telling recruiting coaches “what” they were, which is also something I *think* was involved in Micah’s career. Too many players think they KNOW what they are or what they will allow a team to play them as, and pick accordingly to the school that signs the promise.

At any rate, Joker has the right idea. McDermott is a prime example.