Carriker is Huskers' leader of the sacks
BY STEVEN M. SIPPLE / Lincoln Journal Star
Nebraska defensive end Adam Carriker, pleasant by nature, tends to have an intimidating presence in most every setting. He knows this because he sees how people react to him.
When he meets people for the first time, he said, they’re often slow to extend their hand, perhaps for fear of a bone-crushing grip from the 6-foot-6, 285-pound junior with only 10 percent body fat.
“Once you get to know me, I’m not a mean guy at all,” he said, adding, “That is, unless you initiate something.”
The poor pizza delivery man. He was late dispatching an order to Carriker and his girlfriend. Carriker wasn’t amused. He was hungry. He called the pizza joint’s manager. The pizza guy finally arrived and evidently noticed frustration on the customer’s face.
“I came to the door, he looked at me, and I think he was scared to death,” Carriker said.
Carriker has been making deliveries of his own lately, usually in an opponent’s backfield and right on time for Nebraska’s defense. To be sure, he has brought forth teeth-rattling hits on a slew of ballcarriers through three games, coming through mightily for a surging defense that’s had to carry a substantial load while the offense finds a rhythm.
Playing the “base” end position, Carriker comes off his most productive game as a Husker, a seven-tackle, two-sack effort in last week’s 7-6 win against Pitt. He dominated at times, displaying the prowess many NU fans waited through two seasons to enjoy. At last, Carriker is healthy. No more ankle soreness. Not coincidentally, he’s arguably the most significant reason the defensive line is vastly improved.
“He’s the man,” said Nebraska tight end Clayton Sievers, who as a scout team player last year learned firsthand of Carriker’s raw strength and athleticism. “He’s a physical beast. He runs a 4.7 (in the 40-yard dash). He’s amazing. He’s the prototypical defensive end. Everyone wants that. When he’s healthy, he’s going to dominate.”
Carriker leads the team with five sacks after recording four in the last two seasons combined. He also leads the squad with seven tackles for loss, one fewer than his career total entering the season. He generally looks like a different player than the one who endured early-season ankle injuries each of the last two years.
“I watched myself come off the ball last year, and I was appalled at how slow I was,” he said. “It’s not like I wasn’t playing hard. But you would’ve thought I weighed 450 pounds, how slow I was.”
This season, however, “I can come off the ball, I can plant, I can cut, I can actually make a move besides bull-rushing the tackle. It’s a huge difference, I think.”
Carriker leads the way for a defense that already has produced 20 sacks after recording 25 all of last season, a tumultuous campaign that ended with a 5-6 record. Entering this weekend’s games — NU was idle — the Huskers’ sack total led the nation and set a pace to break the school record of 53 in 1999, when lineman Steve Warren made seven sacks for a 12-1 squad that captured the Big 12 championship.
“A lot of it is we’re focusing on the pass rush a lot more,” Carriker said.
For instance, he said, Nebraska linemen analyze tape of pass-rush situations they had in practice on a particular day and note what they could’ve done better in trying to attack the quarterback.
“We’re focusing on our techniques a lot more, because it’s something we had to improve this year,” Carriker said. “Our secondary can’t cover forever. We can’t blitz all of the time, either.”
Blitzing, of course, increases the chances of surrendering big plays.
“So the front four has got to get to the QB,” Carriker said.
So far, so good. Senior end Wali Muhammad, who plays opposite of Carriker, has four sacks after producing three all of last season. Interior lineman Le Kevin Smith, a senior, has two sacks, one fewer than his career total entering the season.
“When it’s a pass-rush situation, we have a good understanding of what’s going on and a good understanding of down and distance,” Husker defensive coordinator Kevin Cosgrove said. “Our ‘get-off’ off the line of scrimmage has been very good because of that.”
Could Cosgrove have predicted 20 sacks at this point?
“I knew we had some pretty good pass-rushers,” he said. “I saw it in the spring, then with the addition of (true freshman end) Barry Turner and the development of guys we already had, I saw it coming. I expected a much better pass rush, absolutely.”
Carriker said many the linemen’s sacks have occurred in one-on-one pass-rush situations — nonblitz occasions.
Or, in Carriker’s case, one-on-two situations.
Nebraska’s alignment is designed for Carriker to attract double-teams. It’s the essence of being the “base” end. In fact, he attracts double-teams nearly every other play, he said.
“To be honest with you, after the first three series of the Maine game, I was so ticked off on the sideline,” Carriker said, referring to a 25-7 season-opening win. “I felt like a pingpong ball.”
An offensive tackle would block him first, then a tight end, then a running back.
“I didn’t quite expect all of that right off the bat,” Carriker said.
Here’s the rub: The more blockers Carriker takes on, the more room for Nebraska linebackers to roam and make tackles.
“When the coaches first explained it to me during the spring, I’m like, ‘Man, this is really not going to be fun for me,’” Carriker said.
In the second game, a 31-3 Nebraska triumph, Wake Forest often double-teamed him with the right tackle and tight end. But they single-blocked him much more than Maine did, Carriker said.
As for Pitt, “They ran a lot of zones at me. They’d try to get outside of me, and they doubled me with the tight end a little bit.”
Nothing worked particularly well, according to Nebraska middle linebacker Corey McKeon.
“I was in the huddle, and I heard (weakside linebacker) Bo Ruud say, ‘Man, Carriker’s just tearing them up,’” McKeon said. “You can’t run at Adam. If you line up behind him, nobody touches you.”
Said Carriker, “I’ll do whatever it takes to win, man.”
Taking on multiple blockers is physically taxing for obvious reasons. Consequently, Carriker has to be in top condition. Think about it this way: He’s trying to throw around 500 to 600 pounds of humanity on almost every play.
This is where Carriker’s physical prowess comes in handy. His physique can be explained in part by discipline learned at an early age.
Growing up, he wasn’t allowed to drink pop or eat candy. He had maybe 10 sodas a year as a kid, he said, noting his father was a strict nutritionist.
In addition to being one of the team’s most imposing players, Carriker also is one of its better all-around athletes. As a redshirt freshman, he wowed teammates by repeatedly throwing a football 85 yards in a perfect spiral while wearing a protective boot on his injured ankle. It’s as if the ball was being shot from a cannon.
“I was like, ‘Which quarterback of ours is that?’” McKeon said of the first time he saw Carriker’s strong arm. “I seriously thought he was a quarterback, then I saw his size.
“I was like, ‘Good thing he’s on our side of the ball.’”
Reach Steven M. Sipple at 473-7440 or ssipple@journalstar.com.
