Back to basics: Striking, punching and wrapping

By Brian Rosenthal / Huskers.com

Nebraska’s off-season focus on rugby-style tackling helped the Huskers shore up some of their issues with missed tackles from last season.

To wit: Defensive coordinator Mark Banker boasted after a 35-32 victory over Oregon how the Blackshirts limited yards after initial contact to a miniscule amount.

That wasn’t the case, though, in Nebraska’s last game against Illinois, when the Illini slipped through or shook off too many tackles for Banker’s liking.

Hence, the coaches used last week’s bye as a back-to-the-drawing-board period for the defense as No. 10 Nebraska (5-0, 2-0 Big Ten) prepares for Saturday’s 2:30 p.m. game (ABC/ESPN2) at Indiana (3-2, 1-1).

“We kind of increased our individual time where we got to do more of the basic drills we worked on when we first started implementing the (rugby) tackling system,” senior linebacker Josh Banderas said after Tuesday’s practice. “Just doing more of that and getting more repetitions while we’re not necessarily beating our bodies up with so many reps in practice.”

Banker cited maybe only four days in fall camp where coaches didn’t work on aspects of tackling, and said it’s a part of a normal practice routine in-season, too.

Coaches focus on three drills – one with tracking, one with working feet to get in proper position to coincide with the striking shoulder, and finally, the actual technique of the shoulder-strike, the punch and the wrap.

“That hasn’t changed,” Banker said. “We were just disappointed in the Illinois game in the way we showed up. A lot of it had to do with we were a little bit out of position, and not a positive position. We were more in a negative position to make tackles. We didn’t bring our feet, we didn’t strike with the proper shoulder and things of that nature.”

Banderas credited Illinois for executing on offense but said the Illini did nothing out of the ordinary that caused any schematic issues that could result in missed tackles.

 “The bad part about it is that it was all us,” Banderas said. “Schematically, we were, for the most part, in there. It was just some missed tackles here and there. That hurts you.”

Balanced Hoosiers

A common misperception about Indiana’s spread offense under head coach Kevin Wilson, the former Oklahoma offensive coordinator, is that the Hoosiers pass, pass, pass.

That’s not really accurate.

Since Wilson arrived in 2011, the Hoosiers have rushed for 200 yards in a game 30 times and passed for 300 yards 23 times.

“They’ve done a good job controlling the tempo of the game,” Banker said. “They’ve got a potent run game – zone, stretch, a little bit of counter sweep in there, rotation of three backs, and it opens up the passing game.”

Sneaky Hoosiers

Banker was pretty blunt in saying Indiana tries to decipher its opponent’s defensive signals to gain an offensive advantage.

As Banker said, that’s not exactly earth-shattering news as it pertains to sports in general. He cited a couple of examples while coaching in the Pac-12, including a Washington assistant who’d follow Banker’s every move and take pictures of him delivering signals.

Banker said Indiana coaches “work at it real hard” either during the game or during the snap, and then call a play at the line of scrimmage.

“That’s not anything different or new. That’s just something they really hone in on,” Banker said. “They try to get in on the perfect run or perfect pass.”

How can Nebraska counter?

“Number one, play better than they do,” Banker said. “We do a lot of different things from a standpoint of giving dummy signals, even though it appears we only have one signaler. We use wristbands for the call. It’s just a matter of playing football.”

Reach Brian at brosenthal@huskers.com or follow him on Twitter @GBRosenthal.