Make no bones about it: The Nebraska defense's performance against Indiana was far from its finest hour.
The Hoosiers rolled to 455 yards and 38 points, converted 7 of 14 third downs and a pair of fourth downs to fuel touchdown drives, and threw the ball all over Tom Osborne Field against the Blackshirts on Saturday.
Head coach Scott Frost on Monday was asked what he thought about the job his coaching staff has done so far this year, and he stood strongly behind them.
“Anytime you lose a game or two like we have, people start to question everything,†Frost said. “I don’t question my coaches. They know what they’re doing. If there’s issues, we're going to address them. … We are going to get it fixed. These are the right guys to do it.
“I need to be better, they need to be better and the team needs to be better. We’re all in this together.â€
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Frost also called second-year defensive coordinator Erik Chinander “one of the smartest coaches I’ve been around.â€
“Every kid in our program adores Coach Chinander. They all play hard for him,†Frost continued. “I don’t think there’s any doubt our players are playing harder than they did last year or however far you want to look back. I see more hats to ball, I see us tackling well, I see more effort. Guys are playing for him.â€
Senior captain Mohamed Barry says he most appreciates Chinander's willingness to take responsibility when the unit struggles and reiterated the need for players to hold up their end of the bargain.
“He blames himself first. It’s easy to blame everybody else as a coordinator, but he always, to us, he blames himself first, but then he tells us the real. Not the outside noise,†Barry said.
Last week, for instance, there was a clear pattern in practice.
“We practiced real good first and second down throughout the week, Monday and Tuesday were real good practices, and we did real well on first and second down during the game,†Barry said. “Wednesday practice, which is third-down day, wasn’t good, and we didn’t do well on third down during the game. So it’s up to the players. You can put all the ownership on the coordinator. We have to go out there and we have to execute. I’m not going to put it all on Coach Chinander. No matter what coordinator you bring here, if the players aren’t executing, it’s on us. I’m not going to put it all on my guys, neither, because stuff has to be communicated right from top to bottom.
“It’s a team effort. We’ve all got to be detailed and perfect in what we do.â€