Warren, Cotton Share Their Thoughts

Randy York’s N-Sider

At Nebraska, football is 24/7 from one August to the next. Barney Cotton has known the simple truth of that statement since he played for the Huskers more than three decades ago.  Charlton Warren heard stories about that sweeping statement, but didn’t get the chance to experience the reality until he became Nebraska’s secondary coach last February. 

Those two Husker assistants were keynote contributors in the countdown to Saturday night’s Nebraska-Michigan State showdown.  Warren was Wednesday night’s special guest on the Husker Sports Network football hour and Cotton addressed Friday’s Big Red Breakfast in Omaha.  Both seemed calm, collected, and confident as they connected with Big Red fans and communicated their thoughts through the media.  Here are five quick-hitting quotes from each after listening to Cotton, Nebraska’s associate head coach and run game coordinator, who also coaches tight ends and helps John Garrison with the offensive line, and from Warren, who has proven to be a smart, savvy recruiter as well as a fundamentally sound secondary coach after coming to Nebraska from the Air Force Academy, where he studied, played and coached his way up to defensive coordinator.

Charlton Warren

Five Quick Quotes from Charlton Warren

1) “Michigan State has big-bodied guys. They want to box you out like in basketball. They want to be in a jump ball situation. And they have an accomplished quarterback who puts the ball in good locations for guys to make plays. Their passing game is different than Miami’s. They’ve known each other for a while. It’s  a big challenge for our defensive backs.” 

2) Daniel Davie “has been working hard to become a better mental student of the game. He gets more confident each game. He's long, athletic, has good feet, good ball skills. He’s trying to increase his awareness, so he can anticipate like he did against Illinois. Those (two interceptions) were the result of film study and anticipating the route.”

3) Nate Geary’s move from linebacker to safety “has made his football IQ go up tremendously. Having played in the box last year and the dime as well as linebacker in passing situations, he was able to get a grasp from that perspective. It allows him to play a lot faster because he understands blitz patterns and can play even faster.”

4) Byerson Cockrell “has done a great job for us. He's played corner, nickel, and safety. He has a high IQ and is a very mature young man.  He has coverage skills, ball skills, instinctual skills and we can put him in a number of locations. He's been a luxury since losing Charles (Jackson). He’s stepped into that role and filled it for us.”

5) “The impressive thing about Josh Mitchell is representing what Coach Pelini has instilled here at Nebraska. Josh went from immature to a true team leader. He’s a young man who has become accountable. At one time he was dismissed. Now he’s a captain. It speaks volumes about a program that brought him up to the guy he is now.  That’s what Bo means when he talks about a process.”

Barney Cotton

Five Quick Quotes from Barney Cotton

1) “Play action will always be a factor in a game.  Michigan State will try to outnumber us by two in the running game.  Michigan State’s defensive ends are big and they’re physical.   Their mike linebacker looks like he’s a defensive end.  You normally don’t play against 250-pound middle linebackers who play downfield.” 

2) “Michigan State has a significant blitz package.  Their safeties are basically manned up on the inside guys and their corners play inside-man.  Once they read their run keys, they’re linebackers.  These will probably be the fastest committing guys we play all year.  They’re quality players, good tacklers, very physical and very comfortable in what they do.” 

3) The best thing about having son/captain Jake Cotton in the offensive line is “having guys who played defensive line or were basketball players.  I truly think that helps make them good offensive players.  Jake came here to be a d-lineman and some of that defensive mentality in the o-line room is good.”

4) The camaraderie and chemistry in the offensive line “started three years ago, and the room just keeps getting closer and closer.  These guys go out to dinner together every Thursday night.  They hang out together; they lift together; and they watch film together at all different times of the day.  Their bond is built away from our building as well as it is inside our building.”

5) “Offensively, we’re very close.  Ameer (Abdullah) is very close to our line and they’re very close to Ameer and Imani (Cross) and Terrell (Newby) and all the running backs.  They also have a good relationship with Tommy (Armstrong) and all the quarterbacks.  They have a good relationship with our receivers, who help them out during the game. In fact, they (the receivers) tell our guys not to worry about throwing the ball because we’re getting after it and we’re running it.  What we have is a bunch of guys pulling together for a common goal, not only in that room, but permeating the whole offense.”

Send a comment to ryork@huskers.com (Include city, state)

Follow Randy on Twitter at www.twitter.com/RandyYorkNsider

Randy’s N-Sider Blog Archive

Randy’s N-Sider Column Archive