Former Nebraska football great Grant Wistrom was known for going hard after quarterbacks whether it was as a Cornhusker, a St. Louis Ram or Seattle Seahawk.
He tackles his duties with the Grant Wistrom Foundation with equal vigor. While in Lincoln this past weekend, he shared plenty of thoughts about the current regime of head coach Bo Pelini and athletic director Tom Osborne, who was Wistrom’s coach as a Husker. Wistrom also shared plenty of thoughts on the former regime of head coach Bill Callahan and athletic director Steve Pederson. Wistrom chatted with Lincoln Journal Star reporter Brian Christopherson:
About Bo Pelini: "I'm a fan, man. I'm excited. You know what; I don't care if we win the Big 12 championship every year or a national championship. I'm just glad to see the guys playing hard again. I think that's all we can ask for, just guys out there that take pride in wearing the N on their helmets, Blackshirts out there playing every down. It's all a credit to him and this coaching staff. He was playing with the same guys last year that were there the year before pretty much, and the product was just completely different on the field. That's just all a change in attitude and mentality in the program, and that's due to him."
Playing defense is all about attitude, Wistrom said. "You've got to have a good scheme and you got to have good coaches implementing the scheme. But you can have the best defense called, but if you have guys out there that aren't playing hard, it's going to break down. If you got guys out there playing hard, you can have the wrong defense called and you can overcome that."
Wistrom said 2007 was really painful to watch for someone who played on some of the best Husker defenses around. During games that season, his wife would ask him why he was so angry.
His answer: "I and about 140 other guys spent four years of our lives building up the best business in America. At the time we were the best college football program. ... And then some other people come in and take it over and run it into the ground. What would you do? How would you feel? ... That's how I felt.
"We dedicated four years of our lives to building up the best football program in the country. And in just a matter of years, it went downhill. There's not just one reason for it. I'm sure it was one of any number of things, and everything's cyclical in college football. But just the rate of the slide was kind of astounding to me. But I also think the turnaround has been just as impressive."
I tell fellow Nebraska alums and others that Wistrom is in a select company of my favorite all-time Huskers. I absolutely adore the passion with which he played.
Yes, it is easy for us as fans to say we stunk but to hear a former player, especially one of Wistrom’s caliber say it carries a lot of weight. Husker fans have gone round-in-round about how much Frank Solick, Craig Bohl, Bill Callahan and Kevin Cosgrove brought the program down.
Well, they all played a role. Solich had his share of success but was not a whole lot better than Callahan on relating to players. Keep in mind; we had plenty of uninspired efforts in 2002 with Solich as head coach and Bohl as defensive coordinator. However, Solich had the fortitude to get rid of Bohl whereas had Callahan remained, there was no way he would have gotten rid of Cosgrove.
Callahan and Cosgrove recognized the importance of recruiting but had nary a clue on developing the talent they acquired.
Here's hoping Bo stays a long time and the Huskers return to the top soon.
Showing posts with label Craig Bohl. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Craig Bohl. Show all posts
Monday, June 1, 2009
Thursday, March 26, 2009
How much will the Husker defense improve in Pelini's second year?
It is generally assumed that after having had one season to absorb the scheme, Nebraska’s defense will make “a huge jump” during the 2009 season.
Second-year Husker head coach Bo Pelini said as much during his press conference on the eve of the beginning of spring practice Tuesday. After leading the nation in terrible defense in 2007 (ranking 112th overall), the Huskers climbed to 55th overall a year ago.
The No. 55 ranking was exactly the same as where Nebraska finished during a 7-7 season in 2002 with Craig Bohl as the defensive coordinator. In 2007, Kevin Cosgrove made Bohl look like Charlie McBride.
Nebraska ranked No. 2 in the Big 12 in total defense, No. 3 in rushing defense and No. 6 in scoring defense last year after picking up the rear in each category in 2007.
Last year, Nebraska allowed about 10 fewer points and 125 fewer yards per game than the 2007 defense that Pelini was hired to fix. That improvement can be traced to playing with better effort along with the offense averaging over 34 minutes per game in time of possession to help a still building defense.
The 2008 Huskers held four of their last seven opponents below 300 total yards, but also scorched for 62 points and 508 yards at Oklahoma, 52 points and 462 yards by Missouri and nearly nine yards per play at Texas Tech.
We’ve heard all of the arguments why the Husker defense should be better. The real question is how much should we expect the defense to improve? Top 30? Top 20? Top 10?
My realistic expectation would lie somewhere between 20-30. Since the Big 12 has become chalk full of offenses that resemble basketball teams in pads, I’m not sure that a Top Ten defense is realistic but if Nebraska can finish say in the Top 25 in defense, that means we are slowing downing the potent offenses and putting the clamps on the bad ones.
We all long for the days of the Peter Bros., Grant Wistrom, and Jared Tomich causing nightmares. With the exception of defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh, however, Nebraska’s defense does not have anyone that compares to Blackshirt defenses of that era. And even in Suh’s case, he only began to scratch the surface last season with his potential.
The Husker defense will need to be better since the offense is breaking in a new starting quarterback and a new group of receivers. Secondly, they players know what to expect and there should be a lot less thinking about their assignments. Therefore what they do should come as second nature. In turn, that will mean Pelini will be more comfortable implementing more intricate things within the scheme like we saw when his LSU defenses wreaked havoc.
Despite the Huskers having limitations at some positions, especially linebacker, Pelini resisted the temptation to burn redshirts in order to develop those players the right way. Those redshirted players such as Will Compton, Sean Fisher, Alonzo Whaley and Micah Kreikemeier should be ready to contribute. However, let’s not forget that the only way of truly telling how good a player is until he plays in game situations.
The two biggest keys, however, to the Husker defense making a quantum leap are forcing more turnovers and simply executing assignments better. The Huskers forced just 17 turnovers last season.
There’s no doubt that Nebraska’s defense played with better effort in 2008 after a sorry effort in 2007. However, there were also plenty of blown assignments that led to big plays. Just picture Colorado’s Riar Greer blowing by Husker cornerback Lance Thorell.
Therein lies Pelini’s statement of “We were our own worst enemy sometimes.” Playing defense is a combination of playing with a controlled fury and discipline.
With Suh, Pierre Allen and hopefully a healthy Barry Turner coming back, the defensive line should still be pretty stout despite losing Zach Potter and Ty Steinkuhler.
The linebacking corps has plenty of young players ready to make their mark but their youth also means you have to live with mistakes as well as big plays. The secondary brings back a lot of experience and talent and should improve. Therefore, we should not be seeing the amount of assignment busts we saw last season.
Second-year Husker head coach Bo Pelini said as much during his press conference on the eve of the beginning of spring practice Tuesday. After leading the nation in terrible defense in 2007 (ranking 112th overall), the Huskers climbed to 55th overall a year ago.
The No. 55 ranking was exactly the same as where Nebraska finished during a 7-7 season in 2002 with Craig Bohl as the defensive coordinator. In 2007, Kevin Cosgrove made Bohl look like Charlie McBride.
Nebraska ranked No. 2 in the Big 12 in total defense, No. 3 in rushing defense and No. 6 in scoring defense last year after picking up the rear in each category in 2007.
Last year, Nebraska allowed about 10 fewer points and 125 fewer yards per game than the 2007 defense that Pelini was hired to fix. That improvement can be traced to playing with better effort along with the offense averaging over 34 minutes per game in time of possession to help a still building defense.
The 2008 Huskers held four of their last seven opponents below 300 total yards, but also scorched for 62 points and 508 yards at Oklahoma, 52 points and 462 yards by Missouri and nearly nine yards per play at Texas Tech.
We’ve heard all of the arguments why the Husker defense should be better. The real question is how much should we expect the defense to improve? Top 30? Top 20? Top 10?
My realistic expectation would lie somewhere between 20-30. Since the Big 12 has become chalk full of offenses that resemble basketball teams in pads, I’m not sure that a Top Ten defense is realistic but if Nebraska can finish say in the Top 25 in defense, that means we are slowing downing the potent offenses and putting the clamps on the bad ones.
We all long for the days of the Peter Bros., Grant Wistrom, and Jared Tomich causing nightmares. With the exception of defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh, however, Nebraska’s defense does not have anyone that compares to Blackshirt defenses of that era. And even in Suh’s case, he only began to scratch the surface last season with his potential.
The Husker defense will need to be better since the offense is breaking in a new starting quarterback and a new group of receivers. Secondly, they players know what to expect and there should be a lot less thinking about their assignments. Therefore what they do should come as second nature. In turn, that will mean Pelini will be more comfortable implementing more intricate things within the scheme like we saw when his LSU defenses wreaked havoc.
Despite the Huskers having limitations at some positions, especially linebacker, Pelini resisted the temptation to burn redshirts in order to develop those players the right way. Those redshirted players such as Will Compton, Sean Fisher, Alonzo Whaley and Micah Kreikemeier should be ready to contribute. However, let’s not forget that the only way of truly telling how good a player is until he plays in game situations.
The two biggest keys, however, to the Husker defense making a quantum leap are forcing more turnovers and simply executing assignments better. The Huskers forced just 17 turnovers last season.
There’s no doubt that Nebraska’s defense played with better effort in 2008 after a sorry effort in 2007. However, there were also plenty of blown assignments that led to big plays. Just picture Colorado’s Riar Greer blowing by Husker cornerback Lance Thorell.
Therein lies Pelini’s statement of “We were our own worst enemy sometimes.” Playing defense is a combination of playing with a controlled fury and discipline.
With Suh, Pierre Allen and hopefully a healthy Barry Turner coming back, the defensive line should still be pretty stout despite losing Zach Potter and Ty Steinkuhler.
The linebacking corps has plenty of young players ready to make their mark but their youth also means you have to live with mistakes as well as big plays. The secondary brings back a lot of experience and talent and should improve. Therefore, we should not be seeing the amount of assignment busts we saw last season.
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