HUSKER FOOTBALL: White Discusses Defense on Day Two of Fall Camp
LINCOLN–(NU Athletics Aug. 1)–Nebraska associate head coach and defensive coordinator Tony White met with members of the media following day two of fall camp on Tuesday, Aug. 1.
White spoke on the split team practices during the first week of fall camp and the importance they hold to individual and team growth.
“It’s exactly about the reps. You can even tell by the way I look I need to get my butt in shape,” White said. “Coach has us running after the guys and making sure we know how to run to the ball, but it’s great you know. The only way you can develop is getting meaningful reps and whether it’s teaching individuals, whether it’s half line stuff, whether it’s full team or 7-on-7, a lot of guys are getting a lot of reps in a lot of places, so it’s really good.”
White also talked about the daily competitions during fall camp and the mindset he wants to promote in his players.
“Daily competition, daily rotation,” White said. “We’ve got some guys moving from red to black and black to red with the ‘A’ team and with the ‘B’ team. We’re constantly moving guys around. We want to reward guys who do it the right way and do it well, and we want to make sure that we send a message to guys that if you’re not going to do it the way it’s supposed to be done, you’re not going to play.”
White also talked about the level of skill and agility he has seen from his defense thus far in camp.
“The older guys see the game,” White said. “They know they are supposed to be over here, but they saw the ball, so they took a hole over here and they took their chance over there. It’s cool to see them still have that confidence and let it loose. Again, it comes back to the moment when you see the young guys do that. The young guys would be like, ‘oh, I can do this’ and we’re harping on the guys for going fast. We had an incident where a guy was trying to be correct versus playing fast, so I yelled at him because I’m not worried about that right now. Just catch it, let loose, go and play with it.”
Nebraska continues fall camp with practice on Wednesday. The Huskers open the season on Thursday, Aug. 31 at Minnesota.
