tony white

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Previously: Nebraska Offense, Seth's Neck Sharpies on the Nebraska's 3-3-5 defensive system.

On Wednesday we profiled the Nebraska offense, a unit of intrigue and QB controversy getting back to the roots of Nebraska football. Today we move to the defense, which has been a pleasant surprise in rush defense but is now set to face by far the toughest rushing attack it has seen all season. 

The Film: This one was a pretty easy choice for me, because Nebraska has played exactly one offense that is not described as "actively rancid". That team would be Colorado, which is a bit of a clunky fit because the Buffs' air raid offense is not remotely similar to Michigan's but from a quality standpoint, it was the only option. To make up for the stylistic gap in opposing offenses, I also reviewed highlight packages of their other three games against Minnesota, NIU, and Louisiana Tech. 

Personnel: Click for big. 

Nebraska's DC Tony White made the move from Syracuse to join Matt Rhule's staff and is installing a blitzy 3-3-5 stack, something he learned right from the OG himself, Rocky Long. White was a player for Long's defense at UCLA and then an assistant coach on Long's staff at New Mexico. The first 3-3-5 that White is running in Lincoln sees a heavy amount of rotation among that front six, while the secondary is relatively constant. 

The defensive line's most consistent and best piece is Nash Hutmacher, a hulking nose tackle who we cyan'd last season who has made a massive jump in the offseason. Hutmacher is a former 4x wrestling champ of South Dakota who went 166-0 in HS(!!!!) and then spent years buried on the Frost depth chart. As of last year, that seemed justifiable, but Hutmacher has emerged to be a perfect nose for White's defense, eating doubles to keep those LBs free. The "defensive ends" next to Hutmacher rotate in and out quite a bit but the starters are Blaise Gunnerson and Ty Robinson, the latter of whom is set to make his third start against Michigan and just narrowly avoided a third-straight cyan. Reserves include true freshmen Riley Van Poppel (NT) and Princewill Umanmielen (DE), Cameron Lenhardt (DE, has been banged up), and Elijah Jeudy (DE, Texas A&M transfer). 

It looks like Nebraska will get their starting MLB back in Luke Reimer, a fixture of Husker football for a few years now. He's a player I liked back in 2021 before a rough 2022 gave way to injury, which was the reason Ernest Hausmann was forced to play as a true freshman. Reimer started the 2023 season healthy, suffered an injury, but plans to return against Michigan. WLB John Bullock is a pretty consistent starter but does rotate out, with 2021-22 starter Nick Henrich among the most likely to jump in the mix. The SAM spot is a bit more JACK/EDGE shaped and starts Mikai Gbayor, but MJ Sherman and Chief Borders join the fold there too. 

In the secondary, Quinton Newsome is a returning starter and one of the few players I praised on last year's Husker defense. He's continued his solid play and gets to be the Dangerman for the purposes of this piece. The other outside corner spot goes to undersized (5'9) true sophomore Malcolm Hartzog, who had a surprisingly strong rookie season campaign for being a Who Dat 3*, but Hartzog struggled in my viewings and narrowly missed the cyan designation. "Rover" Isaac Gifford is more safety than corner (he basically played free safety against Colorado, hence the diagram) but it's probably best to just label him a nickel. These three players are pretty much every-down players but if one has to leave the field, ASU transfer Tommi Hill comes on.  

Safety has stomached some losses, the injury to 2022 starter Marques Buford Jr. and the suspension/eventual transfer of Myles Farmer. That promoted the reserves, Omar Brown and DeShon Singleton, to fill the holes. So far they have been okay. Some wobbles in tackling, but they were better than I was expecting and PFF are mostly singing the praises at this time. 

[AFTER THE JUMP: hello again, 3-3-5]