Nebraska Football: Speed, simplification the themes for Indiana week

When the Nebraska football team takes the field against Indiana on Saturday, head coach Mickey Joseph knows that the Hoosiers are going to try and move fast. That’s one of the reasons that new defensive coordinator Bill Busch is going to try and simplify things for the defense this week.

During Tuesday’s press conference, Joseph touched on a number of different topics surrounding the upcoming game, including the big different between how former DC Erik Chinander did things and how Busch is approaching them. The bottom line and the main goal, appears to be to find a way to allow the Huskers to move faster and think less.

Joseph wasn’t the only one who talked about the defense getting a simplified scheme. During his time on the mic, Colton Feist made similar comments, saying that the new defensive coordinator is “trying to make assignments, more simple.”

Marques Buford echoed those comments, saying that Busch is making it so the defenders can “get their feet set in the ground” and ready to make a play.  Buford added that there won’t be as many checks and calls on the field and he thinks that fans will get to see a defense that is ready to match the tempo of Indiana’s offense.

Obviously, that will be something to watch. At this point, while we aren’t in Missouri, we’re definitely in the “show me” state of mind.

The idea that things were a bit too complicated for the Blackshirts has been a running theme for most of the season. There was talk early on that Chinander was simply too confident that everyone on the defensive side of the ball understood all the verbiage and their assignments.

When they didn’t, that led to the kind of gaps in coverage and missed assignments that Nebraska football fans have been shaking their heads at all season. Why Chinander didn’t try to make things simpler himself is one of those questions that isn’t going to get an answer at this point. Perhaps he did. If he did, that message didn’t make it to the public either through the media or the players.

While the talk about an adjustment in the way the team has been preparing for the Hoosiers is refreshing, everything should be taken with a grain of salt until the Nebraska football squares off with a live opponent on Saturday night.