After four straight losses, the Nebraska Cornhuskers made a significant change to their coaching staff by naming Dana Holgorsen the team’s new offensive coordinator for the remainder of the season. And on Tuesday in his first press conference in his new role, Holgorsen didn’t waste any time in holding one position in particular accountable for their struggles.
All season long, Nebraska hasn’t had much of a running game to speak of. In their ten games on the season, no player has broken 75 rushing yards in a single game.
Holgorsen, who was named the new offensive coordinator last week ahead of their Week 12 loss to USC, believes that at least part of the problem has been the wide receiving corps not being overly interested in blocking. He relayed the rather harsh message to his wide receivers ahead of this week’s game against Wisconsin.
“I said you guys are fairly big kids,” said Holgorsen, discussing what he had recently told the team’s wide receivers. “I know 17 isn’t a big kid, but he’s a tough kid. But there are some good sized kids out there. You know, 16, 18, 4, 29, I mean these guys are big bodies. I’m like, why are you not blocking worth a crap on the perimeter? It’s embarrassing. Being a receiver, they are like, ‘I want touches, throw me the ball.’ The first thing I said to them was if you don’t start blocking out there then you aren’t going to get the ball thrown to you.”
The players in question that Holgorsen did mention by number include Janiran Bonner, Isaiah Neyor, Jahmal Banks, and Carter Nelson, two of which (Neyor and Banks) play a significant role on the Cornhuskers’ offense this year.
Clearly, it would be an issue for just about any team if your top two receivers aren’t giving all that much effort as blockers in the run game.
But luckily, it seems like Holgorsen got his message across loud and clear. He did add in his presser on Tuesday that he believed that this past week was the best that the wide receiving corps had done as perimeter blockers, which he was quite proud of them for.
“This past week, it was our best perimeter blocking of the season,” added Holgorsen. “I was very happy and proud of those guys because they worked hard on it. That’s where it starts. And just details of route running and ball skills. We’ve got guys that can make plays.”
Perhaps some tough love is exactly what this Nebraska team needs to turn things around for the remainder of the season and potentially qualify for a bowl game. But either way, it seems like Holgorsen has no problem with calling it how he sees it in his new role.
