I was re-reading through my signed copy of Faith in the Game by TO and it got me wondering. What's the difference between the defense now and what the die hard bleed red till we're dead cornhusker fans had grown so accustomed to in the 90's with year after year of smash-mouth defenses?
Tom outlined a qoute in the beginning of his chapter on Teamwork from Rudyard Kipling that "Now is the law of the jungle-As old and as true as the sky; And the wolf that keep it may prosper, But the wolf that shall break it must die. As the creeper that girdles the tree trunk, The law runneth forward and back- and the strength of the pack is the wolf, and the strength of the wolf is the pack."
Something I noticed last year and the B1G year one was not the scheme failure and having our guys in the wrong position to make plays, but a submissive "lets just get through this week and move on to whats next" kind of me-first mentality.
It may have taken 20+ years to accomplish it, but Tom's squads regularily came out to play any given weekend of the season with a "I'll give up mind, body, and blood for the man next to me" and a "never back down from anyone" attitude which propelled us to the success we had as a defense and team. Is it that attitude or just me that we've been missing to take that next step?
Here is an example of what I mean when Ralph Brown came soaring in to blow up jamal lewis in the 1997 Orange Bowl Game in Tom's last game.
Thoughts?
I was re-reading through my signed copy of Faith in the Game by TO and it got me wondering. What's the difference between the defense now and what the die hard bleed red till we're dead cornhusker fans had grown so accustomed to in the 90's with year after year of smash-mouth defenses? Tom outlined a qoute in the beginning of his chapter on Teamwork from Rudyard Kipling that "Now is the law of the jungle-As old and as true as the sky; And the wolf that keep it may prosper, But the wolf that shall break it must die. As the creeper that girdles the tree trunk, The law runneth forward and back- and the strength of the pack is the wolf, and the strength of the wolf is the pack." Something I noticed last year and the B1G year one was not the scheme failure and having our guys in the wrong position to make plays, but a submissive "lets just get through this week and move on to whats next" kind of me-first mentality. It may have taken 20+ years to accomplish it, but Tom's squads regularily came out to play any given weekend of the season with a "I'll give up mind, body, and blood for the man next to me" and a "never back down from anyone" attitude which propelled us to the success we had as a defense and team. Is it that attitude or just me that we've been missing to take that next step? Here is an example of what I mean when Ralph Brown came soaring in to blow up jamal lewis in the 1997 Orange Bowl Game in Tom's last game. Thoughts?