Nebraska Football: Tony White’s approach feels more Bill Busch than Erik Chinander

With spring practices underway in earnest, the Nebraska football team’s defensive players have talked quite a bit about how things have felt different this spring. Those that played under Erik Chinander have gone out of their way to say they feel as though Tony White’s defense is quite a bit more attacking, even though both men technically run a 3-3-5 approach. However, while the players are talking about attacking more, White is talking about his players being more “intentional.”

“I’m not necessarily judging the guys so much on the X’s and O’s.” White told the media on Thursday according to 247Sports. “It’s the process, right? It’s the way we are going to do things. …there’s a way that we want our mindsets to be and you are going to be that way. I know you guys heard ‘dominant contact,’ you heard ‘intentional.’ That is the most important thing for everyone – us included as coaches.”

White went on to say that the big focus for Nebraska football, especially in spring practice is for his players to know what they’re doing and why.

This might sound a bit familiar to last year when Bill Busch took over the defense from Chinander. Busch talked about wanting the players to react more than think. One way to do that is for the players always to know why they’re supposed to be doing something or in a spot on the field on any given play.

That’s why White has keyed on in making sure that even when Nebraska football players are going through drills, they know what the drills are for. He wants his players to be present and deliberate when doing those drills.

It’s still early, obviously, but the approach at least sounds right. That might be one reason why the Nebraska football players sound an awful lot like they’ve already bought into what White is trying to get them to understand.