Frost Focus: Nebraska’s Offense Fully Operational Against Minnesota

A break down of the plays that ripped apart the Gopher defense.

Despite the general ugliness of Nebraska’s 0-6 start, fans saw glimmers of what Nebraska’s offense under head coach Scott Frost would look like once it was fully operational. Games against Colorado, Purdue, Wisconsin, and Northwestern showed flashes of the offense operating at full sail, but those flashes were often derailed with an untimely penalty or turnover, rendering the offense unable to finish out drives by celebrating in the end zone.

Against PJ Fleck and the Boat Rowers, err Minnesota Golden Gophers, it took all of two minutes of game time to show that the Husker offense came to play, in a foreshadowing of the offense operating at full sail. This first play of the game highlighted a concept that Nebraska’s playcaller prominently featured in this game; running RPOs and quick game passing concepts out of compressed formations.

Compressed formations ostensibly appear at first glance as the direct antithesis of the space & pace philosophy that Scott Frost brought to Lincoln from Orlando, FL. But by aligning skill position players tightly to the box, compressed formations actually create space towards the sidelines for outward breaking routes, in addition to creating natural rubs and pick plays from the heavy traffic of receivers in such a condensed, small area. Compressed formations are favored by Frost due to the fact that they force a defense to cover speed out on the perimeter, while creating space inside the box after the snap for the running game.