Four takeaways from Nebraska’s media availability Tuesday
Nebraska finds itself squarely in the dog days of preseason camp. But media availability continued full force, with Tuesday’s session highlighted by defensive coordinator Tony White and a handful of players.
Four takeaways:
White not pleased with tackling in scrimmage
White understands the common expectation for this time of camp is for the defense to be ahead of the offense. Offense requires more timing elements to come together than the defense does, or so goes the popular line of thinking.
All that aside, good tackling can be a constant, and White didn’t see enough good tackling from his unit Saturday during Nebraska’s first major scrimmage.
“It was the first time, I get it,” White said. “But just like coach (Matt Rhule) said, you want to see the things you practice and preach every day — you want to see it show up on the grass live.
“It didn’t show up like we need it to, not with the group that we have. So, that’s been something that’s been bugging all of us, making sure we stress the tackling.
“We want to be a great tackling team.”
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.@ThePolarBear605 @BednarikAward watch list #GBR x #WhatsNExt! pic.twitter.com/z6bQQTyAZw— Nebraska Football (@HuskerFootball) August 12, 2024
Shavers, Thompson making progress
White made it clear that seniors John Bullock and Javin Wright hold down the top inside linebacker spots.
The next group, White said, is led by true freshman Vincent Shavers and junior Stefon Thompson, a transfer from Syracuse.
A lot of Husker fans seem to wonder about the progress of Shavers and Thompson.
We’re here to help.
“You’ve got Vincent Shavers who’s running around and doing a great job,” White said of the 6-foot-1, 225-pounder from Miami, Florida. “He’s young, he’s raw, but the guy’s explosive and he’s aggressive as all heck. We have to tone him down a lot of times in practice.”
Ask any coach, and he’ll tell you he’d rather have to tell a player “Whoa!” than “Go!”
As for Thompson, the 6-1, 240-pounder “is running around and starting to find his groove,” White said.
Nebraska linebackers coach Rob Dvoracek said Thompson’s biggest challenge “has been adjusting to the way we do things here.”
White added that junior Mikai Gbayor can play multiple positions and “is like a starter.”
Singleton gets singled out by White
It can be very telling when a coach singles out a player without being asked about the player.
That happened Tuesday when White was asked about his unit’s overall progress this month.
“You can see some guys starting to get comfortable with their groove and their feel for playing,” the coach said. “I think DeShon Singleton, he’s a guy we lost last year early (to a knee injury in game five against Michigan). It was about making sure his knee was OK. Now, all of a sudden, you see him getting back in the groove and making plays and flying around.
“He’s playing at a high level right now.”
White says the same goes for safety Marques Buford, who’s also overcome injury to be a critical component in White’s system.
Those two guys always impress me with their physicality.
Gentle reminder: UTEP is opening foe
Yes, we talk a lot around here about Nebraska’s game September 7 against Colorado in Lincoln. It’ll be a monster of a night on Stadium Drive.
But, hey, UTEP is the team that Nebraska plays first, on August 31, and Nebraska hasn’t exactly shown in recent years that it can overlook many teams, if any.
Along those lines, White said Nebraska hasn’t begun preparations for UTEP, saying it’s a little too early on the calendar for that. He said it’s common practice to gear preparation toward the first opponent about 10 days from the game.
So, Nebraska is still about a week away from that.
For now, it’s the dog days.
“This is the lull of camp,” NU defensive lineman James Williams said. “You just power through.”
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