Doctors Diagnosis Returns



Dr. Rob

 I am happy to inform you that the Doctors Diagnosis is back!   For years on my television show former Nebraska All-American offensive lineman Rob Zatechka (he's now a doctor) gave his expert analysis.  Since he's the smartest man I know and I played off his new profession and called it the "Doctors Diagnosis".

Rob is going to be a regular contributor to HuskerHawkeye.com,  he will write blogs as well as participate in audio and video pod casts with me.  I know he played at Nebraska, but he also considered Iowa, being an offensive lineman he knew Kirk Ferentz could develop talent so Rob will be giving his thoughts on both Nebraska and Iowa.

Here is his breakdown of the Nebraska spring game.

I've always been one to consider spring football a period coaches use primarily for overall player evaluation, fundamentals development, and basic installation of schemes.  If anyone was looking to see an overall picture of Tim Beck's offense or the newest wrinkle on NU's defense as they look to merge into the Big10, they had to be disappointed.  Beck kept things fairly simple, as he had to, while players adjusted to a new offense--essentially NU's third system since 2007.  On defense, Pelini will never show anything more than a bare bones front.  All he wants to do in the spring is develop some more depth and break the players into a couple of new coaches.  As far as Nebraska fans are concerned, don't worry about the defense.  They'll be fine, that's never been an issue on a Pelini coached team.  And frankly, he now has just enough depth, he can probably go into "reload mode" as opposed to rebuilding when he loses players like Suh two years ago and Amukamara last season.  The one big surprise for me was how well Eric Martin looked playing defensive end after one month of practice.  Given his overall athleticism, aggressiveness, and nose for the ball, I really think he could emerge in the fall as a play maker in the mold of Demorrio Williams back in 2003.   Once Crick is healthy again, with Steinkuhler, Randle, and Meredith, the defense should be loaded up front...and if the front is strong, everyone looks good.

The offense, however, while not needing a total rebuild, is definitely in need of serious remodeling.  While I found it difficult to get a read on Beck's overall philosophy (which it'll be hard to do in a couple of regular season games, let alone one spring game), I did like the fact that the coaches don't seem afraid to move guys around position-wise.  When was the last time you saw coaches dare to draw the ire of a highly touted multi star recruit by switching him from a position like quarterback to wide-out/kick returner?  I think it says a lot about this staffs priorities as well as Jamal Turners maturity when they make a move like that and he responds with over 200 yards of offense.  Brion Carnes was fun to watch but you have to remember, he was facing lower tier units on defense for most of the time he was on the field.  At the same time, the kid should actually still be in high school right now and the fact he can maintain composure and effectively perform against college athletes of any tier speaks volumes.  At this point, looking at Martinez (and Cody Green before that), you have very unproven personnel at that position.  Given that all these QBs are starting off in a new system at the same time, I have a hard time discounting Carnes as a strong potential starter come opening day.  I like the way Gilleylen looks a running back so far, but really, this position is just the Burkhead show until the freshmen show up in the fall.  Given the fact that outside of Ahman Green, very few freshman can truly thrive in the high school to college football transition, I have a lot of reservations about the stability of this position.  I think Beck is going to have to incorporate more of a classic fullback role in the offense that we haven't seen for 4-5 years if there is to be any consistent productivity without the risk of undue injury to Burkhead.  We saw bits of that in the spring game, I'd like to see more, even to the extent of using guys like Gilleylen as a receiving fullback.

As for special teams, collectively, I think they'll be fine.  Individually, I like Maher and think he'll be a fine kicker/punter.  Of course, he's no Alex Henery.  But then again, who is?

About Rob:
Former Husker
4th Round draft pick of the N.Y. Giants
Currently an Anesthiologist at the Nebraska Orthopedic Hospital