Coach Jovan Dewitt on Sports Nightly
Nebraska outside linebackers/special teams coach Jovan Dewitt appeared on Sports Nightly with Greg Sharpe on the Husker Sports IMG Network on Thursday night. Here’s what was said.
JD: It’s really awesome to be here, really excited to meet everybody and getting our chance to ingratiate ourselves to the Nebraska fans. We are so appreciative of the welcome we have gotten from everybody.
GS: You probably had some Husker flavor in the background with Coach Frost, Coach Austin, Coach Ruud. Did they have to sell you hard to bring you up here?
JD: No, actually some of my roots go back a little bit further in terms of like Coach Pelini. I knew those guys because we were all down there together in South Florida. I kind of had an idea of what it was going to be like. They warned me a little bit of what it was actually going to be like. Not warned me, but gave me the heads-up and it’s surpassed any and all expectations I could have hoped to have seen.
GS: You might have noticed that when the spring game sold out in two days.
JD: Yeah, any time that happens in a couple hours that’s a little bit different because you don’t see that anywhere. The only time I have seen anything close to it was at Family night when I was interning with the Packers and the stadium was sold out at Lambeau field.
GS: You guys had a magical season, it was so much fun to watch you guys finish that thing off. And I know that was a special group of guys.
JD: The first probably last that I’ll never see again in my life in terms of coaching. I spent about 18 years and to be associated with a team that was as tight of unit as that was. I’m talking from the head coach down through administration through the secretaries through all the assistants to the janitors. It was just such a tight knit unit and everyone was moving in the same direction. It was really special. It was one of those years where anything good that could happen for us would happen for us. Even some of the bad things ended up being a blessing in disguise for us in terms of how the outcome of the season would play out. It really was a special magical moment for all the people on the staff. For me, it essentially it was one of the pinnacles of things I would look for.
GS: The staff hasn’t had your boots on the ground for very long because you’ve been recruiting and finishing up that season. Let’s talk about the next 30 days. A chance to get to know your guys right?
JD: Yeah, I’ve had the chance to get off the road and catch our breath from recruiting and traveling back and forth to Florida. My family is actually in town now. They are in school, we’ve got a house and we are living here in Lincoln. It’s really good for me to get my family situated and now I can turn my focus and attention to those guys I am going to be coaching and developing that relationship. For me, whenever you are out coaching, it’s not just about football. It’s about family, it’s about developing young men and teaching them how to be better fathers, husbands and productive members of society. For me, it’s going to be really important for me that I get to know my guys as much as I possibly can. What makes them tick and know what makes them think.
GS: Have they just been dropping by the office to meet with you?
JD: Yeah, it’s been a little bit difficult since we’ve been so in-and-out so much over the course of the last few weeks. But whenever I’m coming into town I would shoot my guys a text saying “Hey, I’m going to be in the office the next few hours. If you guys want to come by” and quite a number of them came by and just introduced themselves. Just said ‘hey’ or caught up on schemes something that we might potentially be talking about or what they could be working on and some skill sets they can try to develop. So it’s been good, they’ve been really great.
GS: The Huskers did make the transition over the last 12 months from the 4-3 to the 3-4, does that help you a little?
JD: I think some of the base structure will certainly help us. At least we are not walking in like ‘Hey who is an outside backer?’ They have a general idea, because sometimes when you transition from a four-down look to an odd look or as multiple as we are, some guys are like ‘I don’t know where I fit in coach.’ Now there is a basic general premise of where people are supposed to go to meetings. That’s a huge advantage for us for us than what we had when we walked into Orlando.
GS: The recruiting class that was completed a week ago, who in that group is going to be in your room? Are you fighting over some of those big bodies?
JD: There’s going to be a couple of guys that we are going to see transition all of place. David Alston from Woodbury, Minnesota, I had a chance to meet with him before the early signing day. Caleb Tannor is going to be with me. There may be one or two other guys that may transition over, we are going to be in a battle with some of the other position coaches to get the guys. As we all know, if you run a 3-4 and your outside backers aren’t very good, it doesn’t matter what you call them. So I’m really excited about some of those guys. Caleb does a really good job in pass rushing and athletic ability. David is a long physical kid and I got to watch him play a basketball game before he signed and I was really impressed with how he moved for being so big.
GS: Caleb looks like he has a college ready body
JD: Yeah, for sure. He’s definitely pretty physically developed right now. He has a natural skill set in terms of pass rush, he’s a fluid pass rusher, I don’t think you can overestimate how important that is to have one of those guys that can really disrupt the game for being able to get to the passer.
GS: You also have a kicker in this class, Barrett (Pickering) was committed to the old staff, but you thought enough of him to keep him on.
JD: Yeah, so I had the opportunity to go investigate with him and do a home visit before the early signing day, which was really important to me to make sure he was going to fit within the culture of our program. Obviously I knew he had the talent to do the things we want him to do. I just wanted to go out there and make sure. Kickers are a little different, they can be a little squirrelly. So you got to make sure that he’s going to be able to handle our coaching style, our approach, our philosophies and I also wanted to see what his character make-up is going to be. Getting the chance to meet his family and his background and find out a little more about him. I knew who he was, but I didn’t know what he was about before I had the opportunity to do the home visit and that was really important that he fit both of those check and check for me.
GS: Good to have you here and looking forward to seeing you work on the field during the spring and go get this.
JD: Thank you very much, excited to go to work. Go Big Red.