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LINCOLN - Marvin Sanders had all this energy, all these ideas, all this stuff he wanted to get done.
Spring practice couldn't come soon enough last year for the Nebraska assistant coach. Sanders had taken a season off before Bo Pelini hired him to handle the secondary.
Understandably, Sanders came out of the chute pretty fast with his new players - and his cornerbacks and safeties tried to keep pace.
"You've got a new coach, you want to impress your coach and when I talked to them, it was a bunch of nods," Sanders said. "It was like, 'I got it, Coach, I understand.' You start a new job and you're not going to tell your boss, 'I don't know how to do that.'
"What I did as a coach, and to my detriment, was I threw too much at them early on. Those first couple practices we made a lot of mistakes, and it was more on me."
In another practice, Sanders was throwing something at his players - a defense based on the offense's placement of a back - and getting a blank stare at how he described it.
"I said, 'Anybody know what I'm talking about?'" Sanders said. "I think it was Larry who said, 'No, Coach, we've never heard that before.'"
Was it a process? So much so that Asante and cornerback Anthony West said the learning carried into fall camp, and the secondary wasn't playing its best until the latter half of last season.
Asante says Sanders can go as fast as he wants Wednesday when Nebraska starts spring practice.
"It's never easy going through a coaching change," Asante said. "All the work you invested as a player, you kind of have to throw it out the door and start from scratch again.
"Going into this spring and this season, we know our coach, what he expects, how good he is. He also knows your potential, and if you're not playing up to your potential he's going to let you know about it."
Nebraska started tightening its defense after a three-game skid dropped it to 3-3 last October. Its last three opponents all managed less than 300 total yards, including just 210 for Clemson in the Gator Bowl.
By then, last March and April seemed miles away.
"The whole beginning was a learning process we had to go through," West said. "There were things we'd always have to stop and go back on, and that's something that'll be different this year. Now it's just up to us to go out and fly around."
West said Sanders had different philosophies on press technique, footwork, keying to receivers' hips and use of hands. Sanders admits there were some things fundamentally he wanted his players to know or expected them to know without actually going through and teaching it.
Sanders has equipped them with a glossary of terms that he expects them to know, and they'll refresh next week before going forward. Asante and West are returning starters, Matt O'Hanlon and Rickey Thenarse split time at free safety last year and Eric Hagg, Prince Amukamara and Anthony Blue all have seen time the past two seasons.
"I think they caught up about the fifth or sixth game last year, and it shouldn't have been that way," Sanders said. "I should have brought them along a lot slower.
"I'm more excited this year because now it's kind of like they know me, I know them."
Spring practice couldn't come soon enough last year for the Nebraska assistant coach. Sanders had taken a season off before Bo Pelini hired him to handle the secondary.
Understandably, Sanders came out of the chute pretty fast with his new players - and his cornerbacks and safeties tried to keep pace.
"You've got a new coach, you want to impress your coach and when I talked to them, it was a bunch of nods," Sanders said. "It was like, 'I got it, Coach, I understand.' You start a new job and you're not going to tell your boss, 'I don't know how to do that.'
"What I did as a coach, and to my detriment, was I threw too much at them early on. Those first couple practices we made a lot of mistakes, and it was more on me."
In another practice, Sanders was throwing something at his players - a defense based on the offense's placement of a back - and getting a blank stare at how he described it.
"I said, 'Anybody know what I'm talking about?'" Sanders said. "I think it was Larry who said, 'No, Coach, we've never heard that before.'"
Was it a process? So much so that Asante and cornerback Anthony West said the learning carried into fall camp, and the secondary wasn't playing its best until the latter half of last season.
Asante says Sanders can go as fast as he wants Wednesday when Nebraska starts spring practice.
"It's never easy going through a coaching change," Asante said. "All the work you invested as a player, you kind of have to throw it out the door and start from scratch again.
"Going into this spring and this season, we know our coach, what he expects, how good he is. He also knows your potential, and if you're not playing up to your potential he's going to let you know about it."
Nebraska started tightening its defense after a three-game skid dropped it to 3-3 last October. Its last three opponents all managed less than 300 total yards, including just 210 for Clemson in the Gator Bowl.
By then, last March and April seemed miles away.
"The whole beginning was a learning process we had to go through," West said. "There were things we'd always have to stop and go back on, and that's something that'll be different this year. Now it's just up to us to go out and fly around."
West said Sanders had different philosophies on press technique, footwork, keying to receivers' hips and use of hands. Sanders admits there were some things fundamentally he wanted his players to know or expected them to know without actually going through and teaching it.
Sanders has equipped them with a glossary of terms that he expects them to know, and they'll refresh next week before going forward. Asante and West are returning starters, Matt O'Hanlon and Rickey Thenarse split time at free safety last year and Eric Hagg, Prince Amukamara and Anthony Blue all have seen time the past two seasons.
"I think they caught up about the fifth or sixth game last year, and it shouldn't have been that way," Sanders said. "I should have brought them along a lot slower.
"I'm more excited this year because now it's kind of like they know me, I know them."
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