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Huskers' D could create prep headache


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Nebraska's defense must prepare for eight (possibly nine) new offenses and personnel groups in the Big Ten this coming season.

 

The Big Ten, meanwhile, must only get ready for one new defensive scheme and personnel group.

 

Basic mathematics suggests the bigger preparation challenge rests with Nebraska's defensive coaches and players. But Huskers defensive coordinator Carl Pelini isn't so sure.

 

http://espn.go.com/blog/bigten/post/_/id/25027/huskers-d-could-create-prep-headache

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Jared Crick said he and Nebraska's other defensive tackles played "head-up on the guard 95 percent of the game" in 2010. Although the Huskers' base scheme led to good results, Crick understands the need to mix things up, especially heading into a new league.

 

"This year, we're calling a lot more blitzes, a lot more movements and definitely trying some different techniques," Crick said. "We're not always in run stances on short down-and-distances. We're in pass stances to give the offense a different look that they haven't seen from us before.

 

This is what a lot of us thought 12 months ago too. So it's hard to say what our defense will look like once we get into the conf games. Pelini isn't one to tip his hand.

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This is one of the things I am most looking forward to - how will Nebraska's defense stand up through the Big 10 season. Will the fact that they spent a lot of time with only 1 true LB in a pass happy league cause any problems in moving to a run heavy smash mouth format for much of the season. I suspect that they will be just fine and end up in the top 3 defensively, but that is certainly one of the things I want to see.

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This is one of the things I am most looking forward to - how will Nebraska's defense stand up through the Big 10 season. Will the fact that they spent a lot of time with only 1 true LB in a pass happy league cause any problems in moving to a run heavy smash mouth format for much of the season. I suspect that they will be just fine and end up in the top 3 defensively, but that is certainly one of the things I want to see.

We haven't had any problems against the few smash mouth running teams we've faced (KSU last season). One of my favorite things about our D is the adjustments made by the Pelini's, so offenses that find something that works schematically won't be able to use it repeatedly. I suspect, like most games, it won't be the schemes that get NU, but rather the play of the opposing offensive players. If Iowa's RB just has himself a great game, then NU will struggle to stop him. And that's hard to predict.

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This is one of the things I am most looking forward to - how will Nebraska's defense stand up through the Big 10 season. Will the fact that they spent a lot of time with only 1 true LB in a pass happy league cause any problems in moving to a run heavy smash mouth format for much of the season. I suspect that they will be just fine and end up in the top 3 defensively, but that is certainly one of the things I want to see.

We haven't had any problems against the few smash mouth running teams we've faced (KSU last season). One of my favorite things about our D is the adjustments made by the Pelini's, so offenses that find something that works schematically won't be able to use it repeatedly. I suspect, like most games, it won't be the schemes that get NU, but rather the play of the opposing offensive players. If Iowa's RB just has himself a great game, then NU will struggle to stop him. And that's hard to predict.

 

It will be interesting to see how the defense it tweaked to play some of these more traditional offenses. There were times that we were suspect against the run last year, but we were lights out against the pass. This concerns me some, but I'm hoping that the proper adjustments are made to straighten this out.

 

If I remember correctly, the teams that played under center in the Big 12 we pretty much took care of. At this time I cannot think of too many teams in the Big 10 that run soley out of the shot gun formation. This bodes very well for our defense!

 

Interesting, something that I did not think of. I hope your memory is correct and that this trend holds up.

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The biggest thing is that if we do ok against Wisky my fears for our defense in the Big 10 will drop. Wisconsin's offense is a type of offense we haven't seen for the past few years but I do have confidence that the Pelini's will pull through. I really think the 50 defense is going to be perfect against Wisconsin, especially if one of the DEs we use ends up being Martin, who could play along the line or even move back to a Linebacker spot seamlessly.

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