We already know Dana Holgorsen is calling plays from the coaches’ box Friday at Illinois. Now we know how he’s thinking about it.
Holgorsen spent eight years coaching from the box at Texas Tech, the Hastings Tribune reported, and he admitted sideline tablets have shrunk the old advantage of being upstairs. He’s going anyway.
“If you need to change some personnel to shake things up, let’s change some personnel to shake things up,” Holgorsen said, per the Tribune. “Maybe me going up will make me focus a little bit on what exactly they’re doing.”
Too amped on Halloween
Anthony Colandrea threw three interceptions against Washington, a sharp turn from the ball security Holgorsen had praised all year. His explanation was the moment, not the player.
“We’re asking him to do so much, and he’s handling it at a very high level,” Holgorsen said. “Unfortunately, he was so damn amped up, you know, the best atmosphere in college football, the best crowd in college football.”
Holgorsen also said defenses have made Nebraska’s option game more complicated, putting more keep, give or throw decisions on Colandrea. Matt Rhule pointed Monday to the pick-six as a small breakdown with a big price: Colandrea expected tight end Luke Lindenmeyer to break across the field, while Lindenmeyer read the coverage differently and stayed on the seam.
The proof he points to
Nebraska put up 220 first-half yards against Washington and got seven points out of them. Holgorsen pointed to the Huskers averaging 45 points across two Big Ten games earlier this season, and 17 against Indiana, as evidence the offense can produce. The fix, as he framed it, is to stop trying to manufacture big plays and run the offense as designed.
One more note worth filing away: Holgorsen called the Washington game potentially the offensive line’s best of the season, saying the effort and physicality were there even when the points were not.
Nebraska (5-3, 2-3 Big Ten) plays at Illinois Friday at 7 p.m. CT on FOX.
Featured image: Photo: KT King from Stillwater, OK, US. CC BY 2.0. Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Dana_Holgorsen_watches_the_offense_prepare_(5670147045).jpg.
