LINCOLN — At this point, Nebraska’s linebackers coach is wasting his time if he’s considering crafting a depth chart, even if his intentions are just to use the lineup as a temporary placeholder.
In Mike Ekeler’s world, things change too quickly.
But that’s to be expected when a half-dozen talented linebackers — all with similar experience and a ballooning, urgent impulse to improve — are vying for two available spots.
They’re like a pack of wild gazelles, sprinting for freedom on the open plains. No one’s able to separate because they all know that falling behind the group spells certain doom.
And they’re planning to keep this up for the next four months.
“Their mind-set is they don’t want to come off the field,” Ekeler said. “And in order to do that, they’ve got to earn it every single day. Guys are competing.”
The players’ urgency heightened as soon as Nebraska’s season concluded and do-it-all linebacker Phillip Dillard ended his college career.
And it didn’t take a detailed, offseason-long film evaluation for the returning linebackers to realize that the Huskers’ defensive coaches had unofficially eliminated the strongside position from their scheme during the Big 12 season last year.
The spring unveiling of the peso defense four linemen, two linebackers and five defensive backs — as the team’s new base formation was a formality, really. Nebraska called nearly 90 percent of its defensive plays from nickel and dime formations last year. And Dillard was on the field for nearly all of it after sitting the first two games.
Dillard’s gone, though. And all of the NU linebackers know that they can’t waste opportunities to impress, now through August.
“It just makes it that much harder,” sophomore Eric Martin said. “It just builds up competition for us.”
Martin’s athleticism made him an instant impact player as a true freshman last year, but he struggled to grasp all of the varying aspects of Nebraska’s complicated defensive scheme.
He was comfortable as a special teams stud and lazy linebacker, he said.
Not any more.
“That was just my fun year, I guess,” Martin said. “This is the time to really buckle down now and really focus on what the process is.”
Same goes for the rest of the young linebackers. Martin is one of six sophomores battling for those two open spots.
Will Compton and Sean Fisher have made a combined 14 starts. Alonzo Whaley’s practiced well this spring. Graham Stoddard and Matt Holt are in the mix.
Junior Mathew May will certainly be a contender when he returns healthy next fall. And junior-college transfer Lavonte David, who joins the team this summer, is expected to make an impact, too.
“There are a lot (of linebackers), but we have a lot of talent,” Compton said. “I don’t know how it’s all going to play out this year. I just know everybody’s competing.”
LINK