Yeah, it's brutal. The best coaches in the country have a system and find the right players to fit that system (most recent National Champions and Super Bowl Champions).
At Nebraska we take a look at the collection of different styles on the roster and think "Hmmm.... wonder what system will work with these guys?"
It's crazy really. And sad.
If you look at the makeup of the QBs that are on campus now, none of them play like Dylan Raiola. All are mobile in the pocket, all can run with confidence to pick up a first down. I believe the system is in place, now they have the type of QB that can execute what they want to run. With the mobile QB defenses will have to account for that player. They didn't have to with Raiola. It is like when Ron Kellogg III was playing QB, he would run the mesh with the RB but everyone knew that the only option was to hand the ball off or throw, no one was worried about Kellogg taking off running. With the defense accounting for the QB, that should open up passing lanes that haven't been there for 2 years.
O line guys for the most part will have no experience working with each other. We are not sure who our RB1 is although it looks like Nelson will be. Hope he bulks up so he can handle the wear and tear. QB is up in the air. Defense will be an all new system. It might take awhile for things to gel together on both sides of the ball. I would feel a lot better if EK was still here. ST can cover up a lot of warts. Moving from 112th to 12th nationally helped us a lot last year. 2027 class is ranked #7 from what I read today. Better days ahead, I hope.
College Olines rarely have experience working together anymore. As the portal becomes more prevalent, it will become less and less common. A new coach using hand and leverage techniques that most players have been using for years, rather than the antiquated method Raiola learned from Hiestand will also make a difference in how the line gels.
QB1 is not up in the air, unless Colandrea is injured, he will start, that seems pretty clear in all the comments that have been made since he signed on.
The defensive system appears to be player friendly. I expect the defense to be playing well after the 3 non conference games and be up to speed, yes there will be road bumps but it wouldn't surprise me to see a sort of Peliniesque turn from 2002 when Solich brought him on and the defense only allowed 4 teams to score 14 or more points by simplifying the defense. The 2001 team had nine games where the opponent scored more than 14 points.
I think the special teams is going to be as good as it was last year. Humphries came with Ekeler, and has 3-4 years experience playing and coaching many components of ST. Tennessee's ST didn't drop off much, if any, when Ekeler left there because competent people were left with the system.
People can call it coach speak in Dana's defense as much as they want but Dana he is who he is.