If you really want to see a defensive tackle with reason to be disgruntled, check out the 285-pound man on the sideline with the bad toe and bum ankle.
Now that’s a double-team far worse than anything you could see between the hash marks.
Don’t get it wrong. Terrence Moore enjoyed the Husker defensive success of 2009. Of course.
But individually, last fall was a mixture of 10 cups of pain and five gallons of annoyance for the Husker junior.
“It was real frustrating not being able to get out there and do what you know you can do because something’s holding you back,” Moore said. “But I just sat back and tried to get myself healthy and have the right attitude about it.”
As for when he started feeling 100 percent again, well. …
“Still don’t,” Moore said. “It’s just something that takes time to heal. But just staying off of it a little bit over the offseason helped me get to where I can tolerate it. I’m where I need to be right now.”
Any football player who has battled with turf toe can speak of how irksome the injury can be.
It’s one of those injuries that can linger through an entire season and hurt a player’s season before he even exits fall camp.
In Moore’s case, the native of New Orleans ended up being so limited in 2009 that he played in just four games and accumulated two tackles.
It’s too bad, says one of Moore’s biggest supporters, fellow defensive tackle Jared Crick.
“A bad wheel was the only thing keeping him from a breakout season,” Crick said.
But that was last year. Moore is only staring ahead now. And what he sees is the opportunity for him to be a major impact player on this defense.
So does defensive coordinator Carl Pelini.
Pelini said Moore looks healthy again — and not just that. “Faster, looks quicker, looks more sudden.”
There may be some anxiousness in the fan base to see how the Huskers perform without Ndamukong Suh.
But coaches and players are full of confidence. Pelini includes Moore on a list of interior defensive linemen that provide the Huskers with as much depth as they’ve had there in a long time.
Pelini believes there are already four or five players who look ready to be significant contributors come this fall. Crick, Moore, Baker Steinkuhler and Thaddeus Randle come first to mind.
That depth should allow Nebraska to rotate its defensive tackles more often, which Pelini thinks could help this team immensely early in the season.
The coach noted that Suh and Crick didn’t really start piling up major stats until after a few games last year, perhaps after their bodies became more conditioned to playing so many snaps.
“Early on they hadn’t played themselves into that kind of shape to play 70 snaps a game,” Pelini said. “But I think our guys hopefully can excel earlier in the year because they’re going to be more rested, because they’re not going to be on the field as much.”
There may be plenty of rotating at defensive tackle, but the battle for starting spots and more snaps remains. Crick figures to be a heavy favorite for one starting role, but who lines up next to him?
Steinkuhler’s name is always a popular one in this discussion. The sophomore from Lincoln Southwest produced 17 tackles last year and has gotten stronger in the offseason, according to Pelini.
Moore said he doesn’t worry about all the outside attention cast on Steinkuhler, a name that Husker fans are already fond of going back to Baker’s father, Dean.
“I control what I can control,” Moore said. “I can’t control what people think, I can’t control what the coaches think. All I can do is come out every day, give it my all, work hard, show the coaches that I can play and that I can do what they need me to do.”
Impressing on the field is one thing. Moore just as much wants to stand out in the locker room.
It’s his fourth year in the program now, and Suh and Barry Turner are no longer around.
“They’re out of here now so it’s time for me to step up and take their place and provide some of that leadership,” Moore said.
The toe may not be completely healed, but spirits are high.
Even without Suh, Moore is sure this D-line can be just as special.
“I know people might have us taking a little bit of a drop-off since he’s gone, because he was a great player,” he said. “But we need to get out there and show people that, yeah, we got some guys that can step up and fill that spot pretty good.”
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