I did this for the offense:
The schedule is out, which means we can talk football instead of hypotheticals. I still believe we are going to start camp on Friday, get a few games in this season, then have it cancelled. Until we understand that positive tests are going to happen, it's just not going to work. The 14 day...
forum.huskermax.com
But let's take a look at our defense and where I think we stand:
Defensive Line:
This spot is my biggest worry for 2020. Most of what I read on social media or the message boards is that we underachieved here, and now that we have guys that "fit" the 3-4 it should be an improvement. In my opinion the reality of things are that it doesn't get much better than Darrion Daniels at NG, a guy with that skillset and motor at 330 pounds is a rarity. And we lost 2 DEs to the draft. My other favorite narrative was that the Davis twins weren't "fits for a 3-4 DE", but to be honest that was always just us trying to figure out why we couldn't win 50% of our games the past few seasons. Khalil Davis was a top 20 DL for sacks in 2019, and that "guy who is a better fit for the 4-3" just made a 53 man NFL roster in a 3-4 defense. I think we are going to struggle a bit here this year, but I think while we struck out on high school talent for the 2020 recruiting class at this spot, the JUCO guys could be a nice buffer for us to get some help in the 2021 class.
Nose Guard: This position is the anchor of the defense. As I stated earlier, it doesn't get much better than Darrion Daniels, and replacing him will be difficult. His brother Damion Daniels probably is the best NG one play at a time on our team, but can he get to consecutive 2, 3, 4 snap drives for us? My guy tells me no. Luckily we have some options that I think will be good in 2021 and 2022, just not right away. Ty Robinson is the first that comes to mind. While he's taking second team reps right now, I think he owns the majority of the snaps for 2020. If you remember, he went to the Army All-American game in not great shape and showed up to Lincoln looking like NG would work with the added weight. He and Tate Wildeman were very different body types in my opinion (more on that later). I think Ty Robinson will be a good fit for NG, can he be as good as Darrion Daniels? I'm not sure, but he will be very solid in year 3 and 4 in this system. Jordon Riley is a JUCO i'm intrigued with. HIs offers don't wow you (East Carolina) but I think he could be a guy that could get a dozen snaps for us while a guy like Hutmacher gets up to speed. The Polar Bear is going to need a year or two to adjust to life not being bigger and stronger than everyone. That's a tough transition. But like Ty Robinson, he will be great in the future. Jahkeem Green is another guy that I think they will tinker with sliding down to NG, but in my opinion I think they will only do that if we are struggling to find guys beyond Daniels and Robinson. I'm curious what we do with Tate Wildeman, his body doesn't carry the weight like Robinson does, and I thought he would be a perfect "3-4 DE fit" for us. But seeing some pics of the weight gain, I worry he will get lost in the shuffle, especially with Robinson and Hutmacher being here for a few more years. Hopefully we can reshape things and get him to a DE, we will need him there.
Defensive End: So this one is tricky. Ben Stille and Deontre Thomas have me ok with our starters. While there will be a dropoff in quality from the Davis twins, their experience will be able to overcome most of that. I actually think Thomas has some really good tools, and Stille is a stud if he can get his hands on the OL. After those 2, you probably have Jahkeem Green. But let's talk about that. He was a guy that everyone slated as possibly starting, "no way he redshirts". He ended up playing 22 snaps last year. Hopefully that was just a case of us having the Davis twins and Stille/Thomas behind them. He came in a little out of shape, and now has a full year with Duval and our training table. We will need him this year. It gets interesting after this.... Casey Rogers showed flashes and should be healthy after his injury, Mosai Newsom has had some good praise in practice, does Tate Wildeman play DE and is he healed from his knee injury, can Phyldarius Payne make a name for himself somewhere? I'm actually ok with our top 2 DEs, but 8 games in 8 weeks has me worried about the position overall.
Inside Linebacker:
Probably the deepest position on defense right now. And it has a position coach that I believe in quite a bit. It will be fun to see what transpires through the season... does experience win out? Or will we start to go with the young guns? My gut tells me experience will start early in the season and then some guys will start to overtake. If we were USC we are starting the freshmen, we do it a little different in Nebraska.
Inside Linebacker: If the game were tomorrow, Miller and Honas are your guys. They know the defense better than the rest of the guys here, Miller started every game last year and was Linebacker of the Year for our team. Honas should finally be healed from his knee injury he suffered in 2018 and is a guy we actually stole from Wisconsin on the recruiting trail. But the 2nd string guys are who is intriguing. Nick Henrich has "the best high school film i've ever watched" according to his position coach, and should finally be healed from the season ending shoulder injury he suffered in the spring last year. Luke Reimer was committed to FCS powerhouse SDSU and chose to walk-on here instead of take the full-ride, he will start out 2nd string IMO. Reimer actually is the most athletic of our ILBs right now (interesting he's a walk-on, no?) You then have Zach Schlager, the Colorado State transfer vying for a spot, and Eva Mauga who was a four star JUCO prospect to help with depth. My opinion on Mauga is that in JUCO he was really good at blitzing and getting to the QB, but diagnosing what he saw in front of him and then deciding how to play it isn't going as well here. But the staff can get creative, they could use him in a role like Pelini did with Randy Gregory in their "Spinner" spot. For those of you that don't remember that role, it was when Gregory basically let the whole line tell him where to blitz on passing situations:
You also have Snodgrass and Hannah at the ILB spot, Snodgrass i'd be curious if he couldn't move into a Domann role as I think we are pretty stacked at the inside spot. Hannah has some work to do, but was a guy I was really excited about out of high school.
Outside Linebacker:
This is the other spot on the defense we have to figure out. I'll just dive into it...
Outside Linebacker: The coveted four star recruit Tannor is now a junior (how crazy). I truly thought this kid would step in and make an impact right away, he just hasn't yet. This is his year, he will start at one of the OLB spots and it's sink or swim time. If he can't get it done this year, time for a youth movement. The other spot will feature our best defensive player JoJo Domann, he is a playmaker that we need to get on the field as much as possible. For when we we play teams like Wisconsin and Iowa, Garrett Nelson gets the call. Nelson is a good example of what is a separator from us and teams like Bama/Ohio State. Nelson played with his hand on the ground 99% of the time in high school, but we are transitioning him into a stand up OLB role and he struggles a bit in the coverage situation. That said, can we use him against the teams I mentioned before while he starts to get better in space? I think so. Niko Cooper is an intriguing JUCO prospect that I think could help us, but again, his scholarship offers were a bit underwhelming (Maryland, South Alabama, Kent State, Akron, Western Kentuck, UMass). But eventually one of these JUCO guys will have to play for us. I'm also intrigued with Javin Wright and Jamin Graham. Our best OLB at Nebraska was Luke Gifford, a converted safety and Javin Wright may be in that same mold once he recovers from his season ending shoulder injury. I just watched the South Alabama vs UAB game last night, and couldn't help but see about 4 difference makers for them playing that stand up rush spot like Graham (coincidentally from Alabama). Can he be the guy that develops into an every down OLB? Blaise Gunnerson comes in with limited offers, but that's due to his lack of playing and injuries in high school. Could he be someone we stole because he needed both hips taken care of? Or is he going to be like a Tre Bryant that everyone shyed away from and couldn't end up playing? We have some options, but are they difference makers? Really the only one I see like that in this group is Domann, but hopefully this Covid year gets guys like Tannor, Nelson, and others ready to get going.
Defensive Back:
This position took a major hit losing every two four stars from the 2020 recruiting class before fall camp even started, But where Covid hurt in some instances, it helped in others. Quinton Newsome who suffered an injury this summer gets more time to recover and be in the mix to help a position group that Travis Fisher has done a great job coaching up and getting depth at (DB was one of two position groups the staff identified when they were here that needed immediate help in the recruiting class due to lack of depth and talent).
Safety: I'm excited to see what happens here. Deontai Williams is back from his season ending shoulder injury and will start at one spot, while Marquel Dismuke mans the other starting safety spot. Dismuke a four star and Williams severely underrated give me a ton of confidence here, much like our two guys on the DL (Stille and Thomas). But like DL, what do we do after that? Myles Farmer is a guy i'm really excited about and is primed to step in and start after Dismuke and WIlliams leave. Noa Pola-Gates needs to recover from his season ending injury and put on some weight, so where do we turn from there with Gray and Francois leaving? Cam Taylor-Britt is a good option here. He reminds me a bit of Eric Hagg in the PESO spot in Pelini's defense. Athletic enough to cover slot WRs, but physical enough to fill the alley against the run. The reads are the same for safety and nickel, so that's why many times teams will just have a safety play nickel. But we are a bit thin here in my opinion.
Corner: We return our only all-conference DB in Dicaprio Bootle who will man one of the spots. Lamar Jackson is gone (who I think Fisher did a heck of a job with). You then have a battle between Braxton Clark, CTB, Quinton Newsome, and Nadab Joseph for the spot opposite Bootle. Also I have been hearing some really good things about Tamon Lynum. What will be interesting is I think they need to sort out who your backup corners are that will replace Bootle when he's gone and start alongside him, and move one of these guys to safety. Not sure what you do, but corner is definitely in a better spot than safety. We have some wiggle room.
Summary:
2019 was supposed to be the year where our defense kept us in games and our offense exploded onto the national scene. 2 NFL draft pick DL, a grad transfer NG, Mo Barry the QB of the defense, Caleb Tannor making the second year leap, Lamar Jackson showing what he did at the end of 2018, and our safeties were sure to keep us where we needed to be. What ended up happening is that in many categories our defense actually led our team. And look no further than the Iowa game where our defense forced 3 or 4 three and outs in the second half, only to see our offense not capitalize. This year in my opinion our offense will have to carry us and help our defense keep their head above water. Our offense already puts the defense at a disadvantage, but it's time with a 3rd year QB it gets our defense in positions where we have a better idea what's coming. Defense becomes much easier when teams are down 14 and have to start passing. We can then start doing some of the packages that I was talking about previously for guys that may not be every down players yet. I'm encouraged for our future, but I do think game 2 vs Wisconsin where they see new faces along the DL that we may see a heavy dose or running that our younger guys just aren't ready for yet.
