The modern option offense might be what finally works well enough against this division’s stout defenses. 

When Nebraska left the Big 12 for the Big Ten, it looked like a no-brainer, even beyond the increase in income and stature.  Their eventual landing spot in the Big Ten West seemed rich with easy marks like Northwestern and Iowa, making the Huskers a near-permanent fixture in the Big Ten title game.  While they were leaving the fertile recruiting grounds of Texas, Nebraska had thrived for years in the Big 8 without recruiting the Lone Star State. 

Things have not gone as planned.  The Huskers’ only appearance in the Big Ten Championship saw them lose 70-31 to a 7-5 Wisconsin.  Nebraska has gone 4-3 against Northwestern in this time, 3-4 against Iowa, and just 1-6 against Wisconsin.  Nebraska’s averaging multiple-score losses against Iowa and Wisconsin. 

Big Ten Network money has been good, and recruiting has been around Nebraska’s standards, but it has not translated to victories.  This is the dilemma Scott Frost must address. 

Nebraska’s opponents are, ironically, heavily influenced by the Tom Osborne tradition at Nebraska. 

There’s really no reason that a state like Nebraska, the smallest of any school in the Big Ten, should regularly dominate on the gridiron.  Osborne achieved it in part by harnessing the locals, teaching his brilliant offenses to the high schools in the region, using grayshirts and walk-ons as cogs in his I-formation, and plucking elite athletes from Florida (Tommie Frazier) or California (Lawrence Phillips). 

Well, that’s more or less the name of the game at Iowa under Kirk Ferentz or Wisconsin under former Husker LB and Nebraska HS coach Barry Alvarez. 

These schools field well-drilled offensive lines making way for top athletes, while their defenses have stifled Nebraska with fundamentals and top LB play.  Nebraska’s nondescript or pro-style offenses haven’t been strong against stout fronts like Iowa’s, ball-control teams like Northwestern, or Wisconsin’s revolving door of dominant outside linebackers. 

Here’s a standard example of the Huskers looking to find room against the Hawekeye D:

It’s a run/pass option, combining a zone run with a tight end (Y-stick) route combination.  The goal is to ensure MLB Josey Jewell is wrong; if he steps up to stop the run, Tanner Lee throws the quick hitter to the TE.  When Jewell drops back to erase that route, Nebraska hands off, only to find Iowa’s DL winning the point of attack and Jewell making the tackle anyway. 

In 2017, the Huskers’ annual ride on the struggle bus against Wisconsin included multiple instances of their OL struggling to clear paths or hold up against zone blitzes. 

The classic picture of Nebraska is grinding down opponents with an unstoppable run game with “Blackshirts” leading the way on defense.  However, there’s no reason to believe Nebraska is going to find a marginal advantage against the rest of the Big Ten today by attempting to be burly. 

You can’t out-Wisconsin Wisconsin.  But you might not have to. 

Frost was a Husker QB during the brilliant final stretch of the Osborne era, and the lesson he seems to have taken is not to try and be the largest team in the trenches, but to be the most skilled. 

Nebraska’s I-formation offenses overwhelmed with variety.  In dozens of ways, they could confuse opponents and create angles for scrappy blockers to open running lanes.  Similarly, Frost’s take on the spread offense is to determine the rules for opposing defenses and then force them to break them. 

One way he loves to do that is with “bash” or “back-away” runs that create major headaches for coordinators trying to teach their DEs and LBs to defend the option with traditional rules. 

This was the second time in the AAC title game that UCF ran this bash run, an outside zone-read play in which the QB serves as the zone runner and the RB is the outside “keep” constraint option.  You can see the defenders realize the danger; both inside-backers and the safety are on it in a hurry.  The problem is that it’s way too late.  When it’s the QB who’s on the outside path, he has to read the DE and work to the edge from a standstill, which LBs can be taught to recognize and outpace.  But when it’s 5’ 11, 164-pound scat back Otis Anderson, who’s already moving when he gets the ball?  Fuggetaboutit, the normal rules for playing the zone read ain’t gonna work. 

Frost has a clear preference for using hybrids on offense.  The 2017 national championship-claiming Knights often played with two tight ends and two “Percy Harvin types” in Anderson and Adrian Killins Jr., who could flex out as slot receivers or take hand offs from the backfield. 

Then there was QB McKenzie Milton, a classic option QB who could handle all of the quick reads, runs, and throws necessary to make this offense hum.  In addition to their motions, which could create all kinds of matchup issues for him to take advantage of ...

... former triple-option trigger man Frost is clearly EXCELLENT at teaching the option.  One of the big storylines at UCF was when Frost put some pads on and ran scout team QB for his defense in preparation for playing Navy.  That was fun and useful, but it hinted at his ability to find and teach modern option QBs. 

Traditional option played a role in UCF’s fantastic offense, and Milton knew how to manipulate defenders and work the pitch like a seasoned pro:

Milton’s ability to throw without lots of time, space, or sure footing opened up a world of modern option tactics, to the bewilderment of opponents. 

That’s everyone’s favorite shovel option play, with an additional option for Milton to throw to the WR when the force defender comes up to stop the outside run.  This is insanely hard for defenders to handle with discipline, but it’s also difficult for the QB to execute as well. 

Frost isn’t coming to Nebraska to recruit a bigger team than the Huskers’ rivals in the West, and it isn’t likely that he would be able to anyway. 

Instead he’s going to attack what makes teams like Iowa and Wisconsin so strong — the discipline and fundamentals of their players — by constantly changing the rules of the game and punishing mistakes by getting the ball to speed in space. 

That’s what made Nebraska, after all.