Erik Chinander

There is always so much extra attention and focus on the offense but defense and special teams make up the other two thirds of the team!   Teams who tend to win with basketball like scores don't tend to win championships.  Over the past 15 years, I would estimate that as many as one third of the games NU lost could be attributed to poor and below par special teams play.  Another third could be fairly blamed on poor defense and the other third to poor offense.  Each phase had its share of coaching issues and player performance deficiencies.  

As Callahan found out, offense sells game tickets but defense and special teams win games and help coaches keep their jobs.

I am quite sure Frost knows this as well but in the case of  both Oregon and UCF, those were 'young' programs and the emphasis was placed on making a great offense first and foremost and defense and special teams were secondary considerations.   NU fans are not new to the game and will expect excellence from all three areas.   Sandlot football makes for fun TV games with lots of big plays and scoring but Husker fans want to win games the old fasioned way - by playing fundamentally sound, hard nosed football.  Blocking and tackling and kicking and so on.  Hopefully Frost will place as importance on defense and special teams as he does with the 'run N gun' or whatever little nickname his "O" gets termed.  Wins are wins and beggors can't be choosers but if the offense scores 42 and the oppoent scores 45, the loss is still a loss and the disappointment will turn to growling soon enough.   

 
84HuskerLaw said:
There is always so much extra attention and focus on the offense but defense and special teams make up the other two thirds of the team!   Teams who tend to win with basketball like scores don't tend to win championships.  Over the past 15 years, I would estimate that as many as one third of the games NU lost could be attributed to poor and below par special teams play.  Another third could be fairly blamed on poor defense and the other third to poor offense.  Each phase had its share of coaching issues and player performance deficiencies.  

As Callahan found out, offense sells game tickets but defense and special teams win games and help coaches keep their jobs.

I am quite sure Frost knows this as well but in the case of  both Oregon and UCF, those were 'young' programs and the emphasis was placed on making a great offense first and foremost and defense and special teams were secondary considerations.   NU fans are not new to the game and will expect excellence from all three areas.   Sandlot football makes for fun TV games with lots of big plays and scoring but Husker fans want to win games the old fasioned way - by playing fundamentally sound, hard nosed football.  Blocking and tackling and kicking and so on.  Hopefully Frost will place as importance on defense and special teams as he does with the 'run N gun' or whatever little nickname his "O" gets termed.  Wins are wins and beggors can't be choosers but if the offense scores 42 and the oppoent scores 45, the loss is still a loss and the disappointment will turn to growling soon enough.   
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Do you seriously believe Scott Frost doesn't fully understand the importance of each of the three phases of the game of football?

 
lo country said:
Not bad for a guy Frost moved to LB from Safety.....Who was buried on the depth chart until Frost and Co.....Great little side note here:

"There's not a player I've coached who practices harder than he does," says Frost. Last year, leading up to UCF's Oct. 29, 2016, game against Houston, Shaquem had fallen and broken his right hand. He arrived in Houston wearing a cast on the hand. Fearing he wouldn't play, he cut off the cast. His coaches told him he could play, but he'd have to wear a soft cast that constricted the movement of his fingers. In a 31–24 loss, Shaquem made 14 tackles. He sacked Greg Ward Jr. twice by himself and assisted on another sack. He recovered a fumble and picked off a pass that had caromed off a defensive lineman. "I've played football one-handed," he says. "I've played football with no hands."
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 Drumstick is a frickin legend, my money says he will be N soon in a GA position. 

 
84HuskerLaw said:
There is always so much extra attention and focus on the offense but defense and special teams make up the other two thirds of the team! 
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I'm fairly confident Frost is well in-tune with the importance of developing a complete football team.

That said, I am anxious to see what the defense ultimately becomes. Oregon struggled against the elite of college football (2010 Rose Bowl, 2011 MNC game and 2014 CFP Championship Game) largely due to the offense being ineffective in comparison to its regular season success. And, in the case of the 2014 game, they couldn't stop anything tOSU was doing.

(Note: Not blaming Frost for that since he was the OC in 2014).

 
ColoradoHusk said:
In 2017, giving up 20 points per game would be ranked 20th, and 24 points per game would be ranked 43rd.  I think those rankings are plenty solid enough if the offense was in the top 10-20.  I would be happy with both of those rankings.
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Total Defense Rankings for the past 10 NCAAF National Champs (total offense ranking in parentheses):

*2017 - TBD - Clemson [#6, (#30)], Alabama [#2, (#19)], Georgia [#4, (#35)], Oklahoma[#57, (#1)] - side note, odds are  probably not good for OU -> Heisman winner curse AND a total d ranking of 57 yikes!!  still hope our old enemy wins it though

2016 - Clemson - #8 (#12)

2015 - Alabama - #3 (#45)

2014 - Ohio State - #19 (#9)

2013 - Florida State - #3 (#6)

2012 - Alabama - #1 (#31)

2011 - Alabama - #1 (#31)

2010 - Auburn - #60 (#7)

2009 - Alabama - #2 (#42)

2008 - Florida - #9 (#15)

2007 - LSU - #3 (#26)

For fun:

1997 - Nebraska - #5 (#1)  *Michigan was #1 in Total D that year (#44 in total offense!!!)

1995 - Nebraska - #13 (#2)

1994 - Nebraska - #4 (#5)

Average Total Defense ranking of the national champions for the last 10 years is: 10.9.  If you throw out 2010 Auburn (unless you have Cam Newton you can consider this an outlier) the average is 5.4.  The magic number for NC's  is in or around the top 10 in total defense.  I doubt we want to rest our laurels on a top 20-25 complacency and rely on anything less.  As the ole saying goes "offense sells tickets defense wins games"...the numbers don't lie.  Average Total Offense was 22.4.  So you can have a non-top 10 offense and still win a championship with a top ten defense, not the other way around (again, unless you have Cam Newton and you are Auburn 2010).  Let's make sure we have our priorities in order.  SF has the tools to make the offense a beast in any conference, that I am sure of.  Let's focus on defense and not sell ourselves short with a 20-25 ranked D...unless of course you are 94,95 & 97 Nebraska and are top ten-ish in both O and D and then you got no worries becaus you curb stomp just about everyone.  ;)

 
Enhance said:
I'm fairly confident Frost is well in-tune with the importance of developing a complete football team.

That said, I am anxious to see what the defense ultimately becomes. Oregon struggled against the elite of college football (2010 Rose Bowl, 2011 MNC game and 2014 CFP Championship Game) largely due to the offense being ineffective in comparison to its regular season success. And, in the case of the 2014 game, they couldn't stop anything tOSU was doing.

(Note: Not blaming Frost for that since he was the OC in 2014).
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It will be interesting for sure. High octane offense is fun to watch, but it is less reliable than an exceptional defense.

You always have a chance with a great D. If you rely on scoring 40 you eventually run into trouble.

That said, those are first world problems that I would love to have. 

 
runningblind said:
It will be interesting for sure. High octane offense is fun to watch, but it is less reliable than an exceptional defense.

You always have a chance with a great D. If you rely on scoring 40 you eventually run into trouble.

That said, those are first world problems that I would love to have. 
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Completely agree. And, even though recent success is no guarantee of future success, Chinander's defense would be a significant improvement over what we saw last year.

 
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for now...getting a high power offense and even a average defense would be 1 hell of an improvement. and getting all 3 at any 1 time is a very, very rare thing     it would be foolish to expect great offense. defense, and special teams right out of the gate.   .

 
Can't remember if I posted it already, but

Chinander was in year 2 of installing his defense this year. On the other hand, the players he had were capable of top 20 defenses (2013 and 2014).

 
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HuskermanMike said:
A few days late, but here is the interview with Chinander on Sports Nightly.
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Thanks for posting that.  Here are some quotes I liked from the interview:

Q: You're a midwest guy, right? (He's from Allison, IA)

A: Yes, I'm a midwest guy.  Aside from getting to be in a job I believe is the best job in the country, it's also an opportunity to get my wife and my children back close to grandma and grandpa. (which is probably long overdue)... We get to be back in the midwest.... We know how awesome the people are in the midwest, and how supportive they are of the team, and also of us as people.  So we couldn't be more excited to get back there.

Q: [at Northern Iowa] you were working with the offense, right?  And he (Frost) was on the defensive side?

A: Yeah.  I had coached just about everything there, D-line, O-Line, Tight Ends, Running backs.... almost everything but the quarterback.  In 1-AA Football you get new coaches a lot.  Sometimes you just have to adapt and adjust..... I think that's pretty standard for a lot of young coaches.  Getting to work on both sides of the ball makes you that much better wherever you end up.... It helps you get an understanding when you're breaking film down, watching other teams.  I think its important for young guys to be on both sides of the ball......

Q: Your defenses at UCF have been known for taking the football away.... describe the (defensive) personality you've had with the Knights, and  what you hope to bring to Nebraska.

A: Being with an offensive head coach, you have to mirror his personality.  Our (UCF's) personality on offense is a very aggressive, fast-paced offense that wants to score a lot of points....

...This year they've been scoring a million points a game and going like wildfire.... Trust me, I want to keep yards down as much as the next guy, but sometimes when you play more plays, you play 3 or 4 extra games than everybody else in the country.  Sometimes the yards aren't as manageable as you'd like them to be.  But, for us, ...we need to minimize explosive plays, take the football away, and keep the points down.

We've emphasized taking the football away, and we've done a great job of that... I think the kids buy into that.  They want to play an aggressive style of defense just like Coach Frost wants to be aggressive on offense.

(I'll add more in another post)

 
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Q: ...It looks like you've been pursuing a lot of guys for the secondary.  What have you seen ....your needs are in this recruiting period?

A: ....Just looking at the roster, especially on the defense (backs), that's where you'd like to be somewhere in the 14-16 range, and we're hanging around the 9 range in the secondary, so obviously we've gotta get a few players there to make us whole.  

Right now we're trying to identify the best players possible, and the best fit for Nebraska.  The way that Coach Frost wants the culture to be, the way the fans want the culture to be.  People that will represent us both on and off the field.  Players that everyone can be proud of. 

So I think the first need is: get the best guys possible.  The second need is: Let's get each position whole with regard to scholarship numbers.

Q: What has the reception been like (with recruits)?  What does the N on the polo bring to you?

A: Walking in with that shirt on brings immediate smiles to kids' faces.  I think it excites people.  Just about everybody we've talked to is very interested.  The ones that we're probably not going to be in the game with are guys that have been recruited by another staff for two-plus years, and have developed a strong relationship with them.

Those are the kind of kids that we want, that want relationships, and don't want to switch late.  But a lot of these guys we've talked to in the past.  Maybe we didn't think we could get them before, but now we think we can.  We have relationships with some of these guys.  Moving on, I think this will be an opportunity to recruit the best players in the country, regardless of where they're at in the country.

 
I'm not being that serious. Just something I noticed on that long Auburn drive. When he finally did bring a blitz, it worked beautifully.

 
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