Lubick Making Early Impact on Husker Offense

Matt Lubick enjoyed many aspects of his season-long sabbatical from coaching college football. During his employment in the private business sector, Lubick could relax and watch football, maybe go to a tailgate, drink an occasional root beer. Have fun.
 
"I've been doing this for 25 years, and in this business, slow doesn't really happen too often. So that was great," Lubick said. "I was able to kind of sit back for the first time ever and watch college football as a fan."
 
He also discovered a different appreciation when seeing football from the other side of the television. Lubick, who'd served as an assistant coach at eight different FBS schools over the previous 22 years (16 years at Power Five schools), became empathetic to coaches.
 
"I get it, fans want to win and they'll get mad at a coach if a play doesn't work and this and that, but when you're a coach, you feel bad for a guy," Lubick said. "I've been in that guy's shoes.
 
"You just look at things a little bit differently when you've been in a game and called plays. You see guys going through that same stress, and you're kind of thankful that you're not in that same stress on that day."
 
Lubick, the son of former longtime Colorado State coach Sonny Lubick, also gave thanks for the considerably more free time he had, much of it he used to nurture relationships within his family and reconnect with friends. Lubick's job had him going at a much slower pace than he'd ever experienced in coaching. Great for the blood pressure, he thought.
 
Still, Lubick at times felt a void, like he should be doing something. So he'd pop in at the local high school and help the football team. That allowed him to be around other coaches and young athletes, something he'd been missing.
 
He also served as a consultant for Nebraska football coach Scott Frost last season, although Lubick said the position was very informal, just a friend and former colleague helping another with tips, ideas and answers to questions.
 
"He would just call and ask me my opinion," Lubick said, "and then what I would try to do, too, is look at other football games and things that work, something maybe we did in the past, and we would basically share ideas."
 
At some point during his time of relaxing, reconnecting, consulting and root beers, Lubick felt the truth of the old saying: Sometimes you don't know what you've got until it's gone.
 
"Any time you take something away … you learn to appreciate it more," Lubick said. "You take things for granted until it's actually not there. The thing I really missed about coaching was the relationships, the camaraderie, the day-to-day interaction."
 
He's getting all of that now as an assistant to Frost at Nebraska, "and it feels awesome."
 
Then again, Lubick wasn't going to jump back into the coaching circle unless he found the right fit. Reuniting with Frost, a close friend with whom he'd coached for three years at Oregon, certainly met that criteria.
 
"I would say it's as close to a slam dunk as a slam dunk could possibly be," Lubick said, noting he had other opportunities before accepting the job as Nebraska's offensive coordinator wide receivers coach.
 
"To work for a great program, but even more so for me personally, to work with a great person and be around great people and still be halfway close to home kind of pushed it over the top."
 
Lubick spent the 2017 and 2018 seasons as co-offensive coordinator at Washington. Before that, he served as passing game coordinator and wide receivers coach for three years at Oregon while Frost was offensive coordinator, and he succeeded Frost as offensive coordinator in 2016, when Frost became head coach at UCF.
 
"We believe in a lot of common things, and I think about the style of our offense, where it starts, so I think that's why he felt comfortable bringing me in here," Lubick said. "But I also think part of being a good coach is you're always evolving and you're always trying to get better, and find out where's something out there that can fit in our offense and make us better. But at the same time, sticking to your principles and not getting too big to where your kids can't understand what you're doing.
 
"It's exciting. Any time you can go back and kind of find out what you can improve on and what new things you can add to maybe make you a little more effective and actually practice it, that's why you coach. It's exciting."
 
Lubick spoke to reporters Monday, the first day of Nebraska's spring football practices, and the first opportunity for Lubick to interact with players on the field.
 
"Day One should be great effort. Today's effort was great," Lubick said. "Just their intentness, their willingness to learn, their willingness to accept new ideas … anytime you get a new coach, there's going to be new stuff, and guys embraced it.
 
"As far as attitudes go, I can't ask for better attitudes. Guys in the fall, when we do get those guys, we'll have a plan for those guys to speed up their learning curve, and that's something that will happen before the fall, that we've been talking about. We'll have a plan in place to get those guys ready to compete, give them an opportunity to help us."
 
Individually, Lubick has been impressed with the leadership of junior quarterback Adrian Martinez, a trait Lubick noticed from afar last season in watching Martinez answer questions from the media and take responsibility.
 
Martinez, who had off-season surgery on his non-throwing shoulder, will be limited this spring, while redshirted freshman Luke McCaffrey will work exclusively at quarterback through all of spring, Frost said, after discussing options with McCaffrey.
 
"I think there may be a time to talk about something else for him for down the road, but right now he is competing to be the quarterback," Frost said, "That's where he is in our eyes, so we want to give him every chance in the spring to do that. Come fall, if he is not the guy, then I'm sure there are some ways we can use him."
 
Senior Dedrick Mills and redshirted freshman Rahmir Johnson will headline the running backs this spring, and because of injury and attrition, Nebraska will be shorthanded at wide receiver until more players arrive this fall. To help numbers, redshirted freshman Chris Hickman, a tight end last season, will be a receiver this spring.
 
Of course, Nebraska also returns standout sophomore Wan'Dale Robinson, whose versatility has impressed Lubick.
 
"For a person to come in as a true freshman and play both receiver and running back is very rare," Lubick said, "and then to start and have that type of success."
 
After only one practice, an offensive line that returns five starters has jumped out to Lubick, who noted the depth at the position. But throughout the offense, the one thing that stood out above all, as Lubick watched last year's tape, is the need to be more detailed.
 
"That's every single position," Lubick said. "That's the receiver getting his depth. That's the offensive lineman making a fast call and putting his hands in the right position and taking the right steps. That's the quarterback having his eyes right once the ball is snapped on his progression. That's the running back holding onto the ball and understanding the route tree.
 
"Every position had its own specific things to get better. That's what spring ball is, about addressing those things."
 
Frost, noting that Lubick is not only a good friend, but also a really good coach, said the level of organization on offense has already improved substantially.
 
"He's already making an impact," Frost said. "The way we are charting what we are doing. How many reps of each thing we are getting. Making sure things are scripted the right way against the right looks. That we are running plays against every look we need to see again so the guys can adjust. Those types of things.
 
"We haven't been as dialed in as I would have liked to have been, and he definitely improved us in that area already."
 
Reach Brian at brosenthal@huskers.com or follow him on Twitter@GBRosenthal.