Bill Busch on coaching from the field, Blackshirts, play-calling duties

Bill Busch is leading the Huskers into battle for the first time as Nebraska's defensive coordinator.

Busch made a Thursday night appearance on "Sports Nightly" to talk about the upcoming game against Indiana and more.

When Scott Frost was still running the ship, there were plenty of questions heading into, and during, the season about whether or not Frost or Mark Whipple would call the plays on offense.

There will be no such mystery on defense as Busch takes over.

“In the end, ultimately, it falls on me. I’ll be the one making the calls," Busch said.

Though Busch will be the one calling the final shots, he said that it will be a unified effort between him and the rest of the defensive staffs on what defensive calls to make. He said that when he has been a position coach in the past that he would be "heavily involved" during certain situations. He used being involved on third-down calls as one example and said, as another example, if the opposing offense was on second down, he would say "If we get to third-and-six, here's a call that I like."

"We'll have constant communication with Coach (Mike Dawson), Coach (Travis) Fisher, Coach (Barrett) Ruud, all those guys on those areas for us to try to stay one play ahead of the game," Busch said. "And these guys (Indiana) play very fast. So having that veteran defensive staff really, really helps me in that spot."

Another offseason and in-season discussion point regarding Whipple: whether or not he would be coaching from the booth or down on the field. And yet again no questions about that regarding Busch.

"I'm gonna be down (on the field)," Busch said.

He said that he typically would rather be coaching up in the box, but he said that there is value in being able to be on the field and get the opportunity to speak with his players face-to-face as it's his first game as defensive coordinator. That should give him a better way of communicating clearly with his players.

One listener called into the show and brought up the fact that the Huskers last year had the veteran presence of JoJo Domann and Cam Taylor Britt, and he asked if Busch had anyone in mind as "the next JoJo" who could be relied upon to clean up or cover up mistakes made during games.

"We're always looking to add people (into the mix)," Busch said. "I do feel good that we've worked very hard this week to get Javin Wright back in the mix, very hard to get Omar Brown back in the mix for us at that nickel spot. And so those guys are gonna get opportunities for us right there along with, obviously, Isaac Gifford.

"Competition is on. ... We're competing at a very high rate at practice, and everything is is being basically graded and monitored – how people are playing, what they're doing to get the most energy out of them. But we're always looking for youth to be able to inject them into the lineup at all times.

One of Mickey Joseph's first moves soon after he was named interim head coach was to remove the Blackshirts from anyone who had earned one. It was a clean slate and a reset, Joseph said.

It didn't mean that the Blackshirts tradition no longer mattered, as Joseph had talked about previously, and Busch doubled down on the importance of the Blackshirts.

"Oh, it absolutely matters," Busch said. "I've been lucky to be part of it. Obviously, I got giant pictures back in my parents' house of me with a Blackshirt at Orange Bowls. And it still means the world, in my mind, to this state and everyone that's involved in Nebraska football.

"It's a level of excellence. And it's not so much a level of excellence on just talent. It's a level of excellence on how you do everything every day. ... There's also a giant toughness factor. It's just impossible to earn a Blackshirt without being an extremely physically and mentally tough player. Also someone that practices the same way. There's a lot of layers to it: how you practice, how you perform, how you handle your every day. How tough are you in all these situations you can be able to get done? And we'll just keep striving and striving to build to get people at that stage for us."

"Get lined up," Busch said quickly and bluntly. "Number one, get lined up, get our cleats in the turf. We've stressed it, we've drilled it, when we say that if you practice it, if you drill it, if we film it, we watch it. And then we watch it, we correct it. So that's all been heavily worked this week, it won't be perfect magic out there. They go really fast, they do some certain things to be able to get lined up. But we do have a good method to it.

"But the number one thing we can do is get lined up with our feet firm like that, so they're able to play because you can't play fast until you do that. And then build a habit so we can get the calls into them clean enough to be able to execute fast and have the call fast."

Indiana's offense is led by Missouri transfer Connor Bazelak, a talented quarterback who has thrown for more than 300 yards twice and attempted more than 50 passes in three of the Hoosiers' four games this season.

Busch has been thoroughly impressed with what he has seen from Bazelak on film.

"He can really spin it. He's definitely a passer over a runner," Busch said. "He is a clutch runner, as I call it, which means he will pull the ball at clutch times, short-yardage times. So he does have enough carries that you have you can't be like, oh, we'll just chase everything and just not worry about him. He will keep the ball, but the best thing (about him is) he's got a ridiculously strong arm. I mean, he can throw opposite hash deep comebacks, and those are NFL throws."