Nebraska Football: Yet again, special teams is point of emphasis

Cohesiveness. It’s what helps a team succeed, and a lack of it can also make a team fall apart. For the Nebraska football program, a lack of cohesiveness led to struggles last year. Now, it’s all about working together.

I talked about how putting Mike Dawson in charge of special teams was a great move. In listening to what he had to say on Thursday, it just reaffirmed my initial opinion. He seems extremely focused on the details, and with the coaching staff wanting to be on the same page even more than last year, that is a good thing.

How do we know that the coaching staff wants to be on the same page? Take the quote from tight ends coach Sean Beckton. Thursday, he basically came out and said that the coaching staff was not on the same page at times last year. It was a rather revealing quote quite honestly, and it didn’t take a genius to figure that out. Too many times last season, Nebraska looked unorganized.

It sounds like Beckton wants to do a better job of helping perfect special teams. Let’s hope the cohesiveness follows suit.

"“The assistant coaches really help the special teams coach,” Beckton said. “Last year, I don’t think as a collective staff we did a great job of assisting and doing our job. We’re putting that on us. We’re not going to blame Coach Frost on everything.”"

In any event, Dawson talked about what could be expected of him as a special teams coach. I like what I hear, and it matches up to what I know he brings to the table. I followed him closely at Boston College, and it seems like he wants to bring that same type of style to the Nebraska football program. Honestly, listening to what he had to say on Thursday gave me hope for the future.

"“We need to get better at everything,” Dawson said. “Our goal is to improve. We’re not going to stay the same. There’s no other choice — there’s no going backwards. We need to improve in all areas.”“If your techniques and fundamentals aren’t great, then you’re not going to have a chance at success,” Dawson said."

It all goes back to the fundamentals, and that’s exactly what Nebraska football is trying to do here. Working together to try to figure out special teams is going to be important. That has been an Achilles’ heel of Nebraska’s for quite some time now.

With that in mind, I feel confident that the program is in better hands in terms of special teams this year. It will be interesting to see how the unit progresses over the next couple of weeks as Dawson and the rest of the coaching staff get to work.