Husker coaches had more time to reflect this off-season

When Scott Frost first came to Nebraska things were constantly on the run.

They had to get caught up in recruiting, manage the current roster, install a new offense and defense, develop a weight room culture and adjust to life in Lincoln.

As Frost and his staff enter year three, things obviously aren’t where they want them to be, but this off-season has a different feel.

2020 recruiting was virtually wrapped up in December. Their players now know the schemes and what’s expected in the off-season program. That gave the staff much more time to reflect and talk to other people about possible changes they could make.

“Things happened so quickly the first year and a half, and I think this was the first time where (Frost) could kind of evaluate each phase,” defensive coordinator Erik Chinander said. “I’m not just talking about offense, defense and special teams – I’m talking every phase of the program. That’s recruiting, offense, defense, special teams, strength and conditioning – the whole program.

“This was the first time where he could really evaluate everything and see where he wants to make tweaks and how we want to do it. Just how can we make things better. Even if you are a championship organization, I think you always have to be pushing the margins a little bit. I think this is the first time since he’s been at Nebraska where he’s been able to get that done the way he wants to.”

Run game coordinator and offensive line coach Greg Austin said some of that change in approach has already hit their meeting rooms.

“We did do a deeper self-scout, and part of that was, don’t turn on the film and say that this guy missed a block,” Austin said. “Let’s talk about why he missed the block. Was it the kid’s fault? Was it the coaches’ fault? Was it a combination of both? Were we in the right stuff?

“That’s the kind of self-scout that we needed to do. Not just turn on the film and see what the actual outcome of the play was – every play was broken down with the ‘why?’ Why did it work? Why didn’t it work? What are we trying to get accomplished?”

And as Chinander works towards installing the defense this spring, their approach is going to be much different this spring.

“We made the decision that we are going to lessen install in the spring and get really good at the things we want to get good at,” Chinander said. “We are going to get people good at different positions, and we want to play fast and we want to play physical, and we want to have great knowledge of the system, so we can communicate and we can have proper leverage in tackles and the guys can fly around a little bit more.”

Secondary coach Travis Fisher said every coach gained from this off-season.

In a lot of ways, Fisher said they all needed this.

“The more and more I watched it, the more and more I realized, hey man, I sucked,” Fisher said. “I saw so many things we could get better with, I saw so many things with guys playing that were redshirting, I saw so many things with tackling…

“It was very good. Every day I walked out of that room I felt good, to be honest with you. Every day I felt like I had cleansed the soul, you know? Because you were able to watch mistakes, you were able to see kids that were trying, you’re able to see things that you want to do and want to change up that can make the defense better, and you could talk about it as a group.

“That was really important. You could talk about it as a group of men and come to a conclusion of how we’re going to do it… It cleansed the soul for me.”