Nebraska football plots improvements to perimeter blocking

According to Nebraska head coach Matt Rhule, there are three stages that a football team goes through.

Eliminating losing football. Playing winning football. Playing championship football.

Having left losing football in the past, Rhule feels his Nebraska team is in the middle of those three stages with work left to do before it reaches the level of playing championship football. It’s the little things that will get the Huskers over that final hurdle, in areas such as blocking on the perimeter.

As the Nebraska offense looks to continue its improvements over the coming weeks, fixing its perimeter blocking is a top priority.

“I did not like some of the execution and part of that was the perimeter blocking,” Rhule said on Monday about NU’s win over Colorado. “I think it can be way better and it was way better at times last year and it was way better last week; this wasn’t the best week that we had.”

Offensive coordinator Marcus Satterfield agreed, saying that Nebraska is “not very good” at blocking on the perimeter at the moment. It’s a slightly new challenge for the NU offense to conquer given that the Huskers rarely pushed the ball outside the numbers in 2023.

But with starting wide receivers like Jahmal Banks and Isaiah Neyor — both players are listed at 6-foot-4 and 220 pounds — the Huskers should have the physical capacity to exert their will on the outside.

“We’re going to have to improve; we’re going to need to get the ball on the perimeter to win games this season,” Satterfield said. “To have the big wideouts that we have, that has to be a strong suit for us and it’s not right now.”

The Huskers’ struggles in that area have often shown up when Satterfield has dialed up quick passes for freshman quarterback Dylan Raiola. Tight end Thomas Fidone II, a common target for quick throws, has averaged just 3.5 yards per catch as defenders have closed him down quickly.

Other screen passes or touch passes to the likes of freshman wideout Jacory Barney Jr. have been stopped for short gains or called back for holding due to Nebraska wide receivers struggling to block opposing defensive backs.

According to Satterfield, it isn’t just the wideouts — NU’s offensive linemen and running backs need to be better on those looks, he said — but it’s a problem that has lasted too long on the practice field.

“Coach (Rhule) warns us all the time, ‘Don’t wait until something happens to fix something,’” Satterfield said. “We saw this happening and happening during camp and we failed to fix it as coaches. We have to get the perimeter blocking right and we’re going to.”

It’ll fall on Banks and Neyor to set the tone for the rest of the wide receiver room. Both players have seen the field for 110 snaps across NU’s first two games while the likes of Barney and Janiran Bonner are more commonly deployed in a slot role with different responsibilities.

The message has come across loud and clear given that NU wide receivers coach Garret McGuire has a common saying of “no block, no rock” emphasizing that blocking, not just pass-catching, is what gets players on the field.

The Huskers are putting those lessons into action on the practice field. According to Satterfield, it’s simply a case of players needing to adjust their blocking technique by placing their hands in the right place on the defender, moving their feet and not holding.

Alongside technique, the mentality players take into their blocking assignments matters too.

“You can talk about leverage and a good base, but you just gotta have the mentality in mind like, ‘I gotta go kill him; there’s somebody in front of you and I can’t let them get to the ball carrier,’ and execute,” Banks said.

It’s not all doom and gloom for Nebraska’s wide receivers, who’ve blocked well in short doses and showed their power in other ways.

There are good plays on film to contrast with the bad, but as Nebraska looks to elevate its on-field performances and move the needle to championship football, its coaches will be watching for consistency and physicality on the perimeter.

“We need to start making our run plays look like our pass plays (with) the way we come off the ball,” Jaylen Lloyd said.