Coming Attractions: Jared Crick, Huskers' shadow man no moreBy Matt Hinton
Sizing up the fall's most intriguing players, in no particular order. Junior Nebraska defensive tackle Jared Crick.
• Typecasting. Crick spent his sophomore year comfortably, productively nestled in the shadow of one-man wrecking Ndamukong Suh, who did no favors for Crick's his counterpart's anonymity when he dubbed Crick "the next Suh" after the Huskers' 33-0 beatdown of Arizona in the Holiday Bowl. Living up to that label would only require him to lead the team in tackles from the interior line, completely dominate the Big 12 Championship Game, emerge as one of the most unlikely Heisman finalists of all time as the face of the conference's best defense and go on to become a top-five draft pick. Sounds good to coach Bo Pelini, who didn't hesitate to back up Suh's visions of grandeur: "[suh] is a good player, but I'll tell you what: The guy next to him isn't far off. He's a hell of a player too." Wow, thanks, guys. Jared will send you both cards right after this next double team.
In fact, Crick really wasn't that far off from the great Suh's production on paper: As a first-year starter, he was second on the team in sacks (9.5) and tackles for loss (12.5), racked up 73 total tackles to Suh's 85, was credited with 14 quarterback hurries, blocked a field goal and joined Suh as a first-team All-Big 12 pick by conference coaches. That's a nice debut, but Nebraska can only meet increasing expectations this fall with an encore – minus the 300-pound wrecking ball by Crick's side.
• Best-case. It's hard to overstate how good Nebraska's defense was across the board in '09 – the 'Huskers led the nation in scoring and pass efficiency D, finished second in sacks, and came in among the top ten nationally in rushing and total yards allowed. Texas, Oklahoma and Missouri managed only a touchdown apiece; Virginia Tech had to throw up a fluky prayer in the final minute to score two; and Texas Tech was held to its lowest output (259 total yards) since September 2006. Arizona didn't come close to the end zone until well into the fourth quarter of the Holiday Bowl rout, and didn't get in even then.
Crick was a major part of that success as both a run-stuffer and pass rusher up the middle, helping free up linebackers and safeties in coverage who might otherwise be asked to blitz more often or spend most of their time in run support. (The starting front four, Suh, Crick, Barry Turner and Pierre Allen, accounted for 32 of the 'Huskers' 44 sacks; the starting linebackers accounted for three, all by senior Phillip Dillard.) What immediately stands out is Crick's ability to get to the quarterback as a 6'6", 290-pound tackle – he set a school record with a five-sack afternoon at Baylor – largely a byproduct of his proverbial "high motor":
Big Red fans are hoping against hope that Crick can team with hyped redshirt sophomore Baker Steinkuhler – son of former 'Husker great Dean Steinkuhler and the first five-star recruit ever out Nebraska, according to Rivals – to recreate the dominant 1-2 punch Crick formed alongside Suh last year. If they're even in the same ballpark, the Blackshirts should be able to stake a claim again as the best defense in the country, and fulfill the early top-ten projections with any semblance of an offense.
• Worst-case. Playing alongside Ndamukong Suh was like playing next to a live bomb, on top of which opposing offenses had to throw as many bodies as possible. The extreme attention paid to his dominant teammate dramatically expanded Crick's opportunities against one-on-one blocking (or, in the case of the Baylor game, sometimes no blocking at all). At this point, Suh's absence is incalculable: At the least, Crick will face the burden of that extra attention, shifting much of the play-making onus to Steinkuhler; at worst, both will turn out to be very average without Suh wreaking havoc a few feet away, the Huskers' crucial advantage along the line of scrimmage will evaporate and the defense as a whole will barely resemble the unit that relied so heavily on the consistent supremacy of the front four last year.
• (Moderately) Fun Fact. Nebraska is moving to a new base defense this fall, a quasi-nickel look it calls "Peso," designed to keep last year's nickelback, Eric Hagg, on the field full-time. That will not necessarily affect Crick's role in any way whatsoever, but it will lighten the front seven with only two "true" linebackers against the run.
• What to Expect in '10. Pelini's track record with defenses is as good as anyone's: Beginning with his first year as a coordinator in 2003, his units led the Big 12 in scoring defense two years in a row at Nebraska and Oklahoma, then came in third nationally in total D all three years he oversaw the LSU defense from 2005-07. Every one of those teams won at least 10 games; two played in the BCS title game. Before he took over the smoldering remnants of the Nebraska defense as a head coach in 2008, he had never presided over a defense that allowed 20 points or 300 yards per game, and he had the Huskers back among the top defenses in the country within two years of the worst collapse in school history. Between Dan Cody (Oklahoma), Claude Wroten, Kyle Williams and Glenn Dorsey (LSU) and Suh, his units have produced disruptive, All-American defensive linemen at every stop.
Crick projects as the next in that line, but not at last year's production, individually or for the defense as a whole: You can't lose a player of Suh's caliber, from a defense that dominated on the scale the Huskers did in '09, and not suffer some regression. Even if it doesn't show up on the stat sheet, though, Crick can be enough of a disruptive presence to keep Nebraska at the top of the Big 12 and ensure a return trip to Dallas for the conference championship game. But it will take an actual touchdown from the offense to win it this time, or even to come within a point.
