"The Pipeline" used to mean something to Nebraskans, and it was a source of pride for Nebraskans that each and every year Nebraska would have an offensive line capable of dominating every defensive line they faced. When I first started truly following the Huskers in the early 1990s, I really had no idea that I would see the last of the great Nebraska offensive lines just a few years later.
Milt Tenopir and Dan Young built a system at Nebraska that took in young men with a good physical foundation and sculpted them into elite linemen. They didn't always have the best recruits, but they were great coaches who produced an incredible resume of Outland Trophy winners: Dave Rimington, Dean Steinkuhler, Will Shields, Zach Wiegert, and Aaron Taylor won the award during Milt Tenopir's coaching term. Nebraska was known as the school that produced great linemen, and you knew when you watched a Nebraska game that the offensive line would wear down their opponent and, by the fourth quarter, that Nebraska backs would be running for big gains. Nothing exemplified this more than the 1995 Orange Bowl, when the Nebraska line wore down Ray Lewis, Warren Sapp, and the rest of the Miami defense so that Cory Schlesinger could run for two touchdowns in the fourth quarter to secure a victory and a national championship for the Huskers. That 1994 Cornhusker offensive line unit had six players that players that would be eventually be drafted in the first four rounds of the NFL draft. Since Barney Cotton took over the line in 2008, though, the Huskers have had exactly zero linemen drafted in the first five rounds of the NFL draft.
There was a long period of time when Nebraska was the first team most football fans thought of when asked, "What college team has the best offensive line?" Now, though, the Huskers' offensive line doesn't even rank in the top half of their own conference, let alone make a statement on the national stage. The responsibility for that lies squarely on the shoulders of one man: Barney Cotton. Under his leadership, the Huskers have produced a string of mediocre lines that constantly fail to deliver. They are slow, get manhandled, fail to dominate the line of scrimmage, even against a weak opponent like Tennessee-Chattanooga, lack cohesion, and are frequently penalized. Their lack of discipline has helped Nebraska become one of the most penalized teams in the country (115 of 120), and their inability to dominate the line means that every game is a crapshoot as far as predicting a win.
When the Nebraska line was great, you could plug in Matt Turman and still expect a win. That line made average players look good, good players look great, and great players look like legends. Without the phenomenal offensive line of 1995, does Tommie Frazier look like the greatest college quarterback ever? He would certainly look good, but would his numbers be nearly as good? I say "no." Don't get me wrong - I think Frazier was an incredible player, and likely the best player I might ever see play the game. That doesn't mean, though, that he didn't benefit from having an offensive line that was not flagged for a single holding penalty during the 1995 season. Today's Nebraska offensive line wouldn't make Frazier look average, but it sure wouldn't help him look great. When a team like Tennessee-Chattanooga is penetrating the backfield 3-4 yards deep with 2-3 players on most option plays, there isn't much one can do as a back to look good.
For the last four years, Barney Cotton has been in charge of building "The Pipeline" at Nebraska. "The Pipeline" of today, however, is best described as "The 3/4" PVC female-female 90 degree ell." The problem is not with recruiting - every season we hear about great recruits coming in to the program. The problem is that Barney Cotton doesn't develop these recruits into outstanding football players. His leadership has produced exactly zero Outland Trophy finalists, zero Rimington Trophy finalists, and zero NFL draft choices in the first five rounds of the draft. When Iowa, Purdue, and Northwestern are ranked above you in the conference, you have failed as a coach. No excuses - he's had four years to create a good offensive line, and he has failed to deliver. I don't want to hear about injuries or youth or anything like that. He isn't the first coach to have to deal with injuries. He isn't the first coach to have to deal with young players. He is, however, the first line coach at Nebraska that I've heard use those excuses for four straight years.
Cotton's lines are undisciplined, and they consistently fail to work together to make combination blocks (when two linemen, double-team a defensive lineman, then one sloughs off to pick up the linebacker). A combination block is something that is taught in junior high to linemen, but it seems like the Nebraska line has never even heard about how to execute them. Nebraskans have a tendency to focus on Taylor Martinez and blame him for the collapse of the offense at the end of the 2010 season, but I think it makes a lot more sense to blame the atrocious play of the offensive line. As a back, it's a lot easier to make smart decisions and hold on to the ball when you aren't being hit in the backfield on almost every play. It's a lot easier to look like a good player when you don't have to worry about the line being able to handle more than the men directly in front of the them. There's a reason that Nebraska fans fondly remember Matt Turman rather than remember him as the guy who led the Huskers to their only (hypothetical) loss in 1994 against Kansas State, and it isn't because of his abilities behind center. The 1994 line helped Turman look good, and he wasn't even an average player. Behind the 2011 Nebraska line, Matt Turman would look like one of the worst players in the history of the game.
In short, Barney Cotton must go. I don't care about his kids staying and playing at Nebraska; I don't care if they transfer. I just want an offensive line coach that will produce a great offensive line, not a below-average line. It is unacceptable that Nebraska has a sub-par line, and Nebraskans should be calling for Barney Cotton's head, not Taylor Martinez's. Remember: one is 20 and learning a brand new offense, while the other is turning 55 on September 30 and has been coaching linemen since 1989. Nebraska fans need to hold Barney Cotton to the same standard they hold Martinez, and demand results now. I'm not even asking for a different standard for the two men - holding Cotton to the same standard as Martinez would have had Cotton out of Nebraska two years ago, and that would have been a good thing.
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