Carl Pelini will be entering his second year as Nebraska's Defensive Coordinator. Of course second year Head Coach Bo Pelini will be heavily involved.
Defensive Line - The D-line will be centered around the play of Ndamukong Suh. Big Suh was named Preseason Big XII Defensive Player of the Year by the media earlier today. Last year he incredibly led the Husker defense with 76 tackles, 19 tackles for loss, and 7.5 sacks. Most likely Suh will be double-teamed every game. This year is when Pierre Allen becomes well-known. Allen has been in the shadow of Suh even though Pierre's numbers stand out compared to other defensive lineman. Last year Allen was tied for third on the team with 52 tackles, was third with 10 tackles for loss, and third in sacks with 5. Barry Turner will be back and hopefully can match his pre-broken leg year of 2007 when he had 32 tackles and 11 tackles for loss. It won't be easy replacing Zack Potter (47 tkls, 16 tfl, 5.5 sks) and Ty Steinkuhler (48 tkls, 8 tfl, 2.5 sks). However, I assume Nebraska's D-line will be just as good as last year, if not better. Phil Steele tends to agree, he rates NU's defensive line as the second best in the conference (1. Oklahoma).
Linebackers - This is the unit that worries me on defense and is easily the biggest question mark to how well the defense performs this season. Phillip Dillard had the most tackles (38) and starts (5) out of the returning linebackers last season, however four defensive lineman had more tackles than him (Suh, Allen, Steinkuhler, and Potter). Blake Lawrence has the second most tackles (21) and starts (2) out of the '08 LB's who return. Expect many young players to play significantly. Sean Fisher, Will Compton, Matt Holt, Chris Williams, Mathew May, and Alonzo Whaley will all have opportunities. Expect the linebackers to be one of Nebraska's strengths in a couple of years, unfortunately not this year.
Defensive Backs - Remember when the opposing quarterback would throw the ball and we would want to cover our eyes in fear of what was going to happen? Well those days appear to be moving farther and farther behind us. Phil Steele ranks the Husker's DB's as tied for third best in the Big XII (1. Texas, 2. Oklahoma, T3. Kansas). Seven players return who combined for 55 starts last year. Strong safety Larry Asante was the second leading tackler last season with 67 and has been Honorable Mention Big XII the last two seasons. Other productive defensive backs return such as Matt O'Hanlon (52 tkls), Eric Hagg (39 tkls, 7 pass deflections), Prince Amukamara (34 tkls), Anthony West (29 tkls, 9 pass deflections), and Rickey Thenarse (24 tkls, 6 tfl, 2 sks). I anticipate this unit will have more interceptions than the 12 in '08.
Kickoffs - Adi Kunalic was #1 in all of the NCAA with 29 touchbacks out of 81 kickoffs.
Punter - Alex Henery Jr. will be replacing Dan Titchener who averaged 39.3 yards per punt last year. This position will be important to pay attention to as very few players punt and kick field goals.
What can be expected this year? An even better defense than the much improved '08 squad. In '08, NU drastically outperformed the '07 defense in points allowed per game (37.9 in '07 to 28.5 in '08), total yards per game (477 in '07 to 350 in '08), rushing yards per game (232 in '07 to 116 in '08), yards per rush (5.2 in '07 to 3.6 in '08), and sacks (13 in '07 to 35 in '08). I don't want to say this year will return to the dominance of the mid-nineties Blackshirts, but the defense is getting closer to that level in this age of explosive spread offenses.
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Ah, I remember those frustrating days in the Billy C era when I cringed every single time an opposing QB lofted a fly ball into our defensive backfield, knowing that a 40+ yard game for the bad guys was inevitable.
ReplyDelete... I definitely DO NOT miss that!