Butler Addresses First Game Strategy

Nebraska football defensive coordinator, John Butler met with the media following Monday’s practice. He discussed the defense's ability to control Cincinnati's quarterback, Brendan Sorsby.  

“He's very athletic, very strong as a runner, very competitive,” he said. “I think we see him slide twice maybe. So when he runs, whether that's a designed run, a scramble, he's trying to get and fight for every yard. You can tell he is tough and competitive which I think we’ve done a good job of making sure that our players see that and know that. You always got to know the type of animal you are hunting, so to speak. He is big, strong, runs hard, he’s tough, he delivers the blow more so than he takes hits so that's a challenge physically that we’ve got to answer early to make sure that doesn’t get out of hand.” 

Butler also talked about the team’s ability to tackle Brendan Sorsby and Evan Pryor. 

“I think the test is going to be great,” he said. “You look at these games from this week and the week zero games. We watched a significant amount of them in our staff room, just some of the things that happened. Other than ball security, the number one thing that stood out was the poor tackling, so we’ve been emphasizing it. I'm sure you guys are going to ask me about it every week depending on whether we tackle well or we don’t, but tracking the near hip, taking the extra step, getting body on body, having population there, being physical. I think it’s going to be a challenge every week, every team we are playing. Specifically this week in Cincinnati, with all of their skill we think they have and then the skill they brought in that we’ve got to see and kind of test out early. I think it's a challenge, but that’s football. If you're going to wonder if we’re playing good on defense or not, it's going to come down to ‘can we tackle their players?’”

He spoke on the challenges of playing in Arrowhead. 

“Unfortunately when I’ve been there, their team was not cheering for our defense, they were cheering for the other team, so I think it will be a little different in that regard, but we feel like the crowd is going to be in our favor so we did talk to them about it,” he said. “You're playing game number one, you're playing in a pro stadium, don’t make it bigger than it is. It’s a football game, a lot of you guys have played in an elite venue here at Memorial Stadium, so similar, but just do what we’ve practiced to do, don’t lose your minds. Play with energy and enthusiasm, but don’t make it bigger than it is. Obviously any time you have any situation where the crowd can be loud for your defense, that obviously always affects the opponent's offense. Their ability to operate, their communication at the line of scrimmage, their ability to check. So hopefully everybody shows up and they're cheering their ass off for us.”  

Fans can purchase single-game or 3-game mini plan tickets at huskers.com/tickets. The 3-game mini plan includes the USC game, a choice between the Michigan State, Northwestern and Iowa matchups and a choice between the games against Akron and Houston Christian.

NU will open its season against the Cincinnati Bearcats on Thursday, August 28 at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, Mo. The game, which starts at 8 p.m. (CT), will be televised on ESPN and can be heard across the Huskers Radio Network. The Huskers’ first home game is set for Saturday, Sept. 6 against the Akron Zips. That contest will kick off at 6:30 p.m. (CT) and can be seen on the Big Ten Network and heard across the Huskers Radio Network.