{"id":18477,"date":"2023-10-03T17:32:11","date_gmt":"2023-10-03T22:32:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/?p=18477"},"modified":"2023-10-03T17:32:11","modified_gmt":"2023-10-03T22:32:11","slug":"the-coordinator-report-tony-white-takes-responsibility-for-a-defense-that-failed-to-play-with-its-hair-on-fire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/the-coordinator-report-tony-white-takes-responsibility-for-a-defense-that-failed-to-play-with-its-hair-on-fire\/","title":{"rendered":"The coordinator report: Tony White takes responsibility for a defense that failed to play \u201cwith its hair on fire\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nebraska defensive coordinator Tony White<\/a><\/strong> had never seen it before, he said. <\/p>\n

The Huskers, fresh off a 45-7 loss to the second-ranked Michigan Wolverines on Saturday, dressed in full pads Sunday and went hard into full contact. <\/p>\n

\u201cCoach (Matt Rhule<\/a><\/strong>) just sprung that on the players on Sunday, and they went out there and had one of their best practices ever in pads,\u201d White told reporters Tuesday. <\/p>\n

\u201cThey have responded well to this point. But it\u2019s still a process, right? The tell tale will be when the clock reads zero on Friday night.\u201d <\/p>\n

Nebraska (2-3, 0-2 Big Ten) plays Illinois (2-3, 0-2 Big Ten) at 7 p.m. Friday in Champaign, Illinois.<\/p>\n

Regarding Sunday\u2019s practice, White said, \u201cIt was just a lot of competition and a lot of physicality. Coach (Rhule) laid it out in clear terms how this place is supposed to play \u2014 you know, how we\u2019re supposed to play on the grass, under the lights. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe went out there and made sure they knew how to do that.\u201d <\/p>\n

Tony White echoes Matt Rhule\u2019s criticisms <\/h2>\n

Nebraska entered the Michigan game leading the nation in rushing defense, having allowed only 1.82 yards per carry, but the Wolverines averaged 6 yards per try in rolling to a 28-0 halftime lead.<\/p>\n

As was the case with Rhule, White described Nebraska\u2019s performance Saturday as \u201cridiculous.\u201d White said his unit\u2019s issues were largely twofold: It neither played with its \u201chair on fire\u201d nor executed well. <\/p>\n

As was the case with Rhule, White took responsibility for the shortcomings. <\/p>\n

He said he saw problems from the get-go. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou saw guys not being in the right spots and then guys playing not to lose versus going to win games,\u201d White said. \u201cI thought coach (Rhule) said that the best: Go play to win. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe can\u2019t be hesitant. That\u2019s me included as a play-caller. I can\u2019t be perfect all the time and think I\u2019m going to win the game. It\u2019s trusting those young men to go play and lay it out on the line. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt all starts with me in terms of letting the guys go play and being aggressive as hell and turning them loose, so they can go do those things.\u201d <\/p>\n

Perhaps the Sunday practice, a departure, will help matters. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s something we needed to do,\u201d said junior \u201cJack\u201d linebacker MJ Sherman<\/a><\/strong>, a transfer from Georgia. \u201cWe didn\u2019t play our best football on Saturday, man. We decided we needed to make up for that lost day. Our motto is every day is 1% better. We don\u2019t care about wins, we don\u2019t care about losses \u2014 all we care about is the tape. The tape didn\u2019t look the part, so we had to make up for it.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cIf we can do it on Sunday after the game, then why the hell can\u2019t we do it on Saturday?\u201d Sherman added. \u201cThat goes for me, too.\u201d <\/p>\n

Satterfield says Jeff Sims \u201cgetting better each day\u201d <\/h2>\n

Nebraska quarterback Jeff Sims<\/a><\/strong>, who suffered a high-ankle sprain Sept. 9 at Colorado and has played only a few snaps since, is showing signs of progress, Husker offensive coordinator Marcus Satterfield<\/a><\/strong> said. <\/p>\n

\u201cI wouldn\u2019t say he\u2019s 100%, but he was out there and had a good practice (Tuesday),\u201d Satterfield said. <\/p>\n

Heinrich Haarberg<\/a><\/strong>, who\u2019s started the past three games, is now listed No. 1 on the depth chart ahead of Sims and No. 3 Chubba Purdy<\/a><\/strong>. <\/p>\n

\u201cBoth those guys (Haarberg and Sims) are doing a nice job,\u201d the coach said. \u201cThey\u2019re competing with each other each day, and I think Jeff will be out there at some point sooner rather than later.\u201d <\/p>\n

Haarberg retains the No. 1 job in part because he\u2019s done a better job of taking care of the ball. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe just keeps getting more comfortable playing the position and being out there,\u201d the coach said.<\/p>\n

Satterfield praises OL in one area in particular <\/h2>\n

The question to Satterfield was simple: What do you think the best thing the offensive line is doing right now? <\/p>\n

\u201cI think they\u2019re doing a real nice job in the run game,\u201d he said, alluding to Nebraska\u2019s average of 209.0 rushing yards per game, which ranks 14th nationally<\/a>. \u201cPeople know we\u2019re going to run the football. So, they\u2019re stacking boxes and blitzing and doing some different things.\u201d <\/p>\n

That means the offensive linemen might need time \u2014 even a couple quarters \u2014 before they fully figure out what the defense is doing. <\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re doing a really nice job of ID\u2019ing it and getting it under control,\u201d Satterfield said.<\/p>\n

Nebraska ranks just 125th nationally in passing offense, averaging 139.4 yards per game.<\/p>\n

Never miss breaking news or another HuskerOnline article again. Click HERE to sign up for HuskerOnline\u2019s Daily and Breaking News Newsletters.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

The post The coordinator report: Tony White takes responsibility for a defense that failed to play \u201cwith its hair on fire\u201d<\/a> appeared first on On3<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nebraska defensive coordinator Tony White had never seen it before, he said. The Huskers, fresh…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18477","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18477","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18477"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18477\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18477"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18477"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18477"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}