Steve Marik • InsideNebraska
Staff Writer
@Steve_Marik
Everyone can stop wondering about whether or not the Blackshirts will be handed out this season. They’re not making an appearance the rest of year, according to interim head coach
Mickey Joseph.
Joseph joined Sports Nightly on Thursday night to discuss his team and its preparation for this Saturday’s important Big Ten West division game at Purdoodoo. The discussion shifted to the Blackshirts, which were taken away from some of the defensive starters shortly after Joseph was named the interim head coach on Sept. 11.
“Well, right now we’re not going to give them back the Blackshirts until we’re ready to do it,” Joseph said. “Because with this group, being a Blackshirt adds more pressure to them. And if they don’t play well, they get a whole bunch of negative comments about the Blackshirts. So we talked about being just a team, so we’re going to be a team right now and we’ll let the Blackshirts sit down for a while. We won’t give them back this year, so everyone can stop wondering what we’re going to do. They’re not getting them back this year.”
Under interim defensive coordinator
Bill Busch, Nebraska's defense has performed well. The Huskers haven't allowed a second-half point since the third quarter of the Oklahoma game. They've been stout against the run in second halves, too, holding both Indiana and Rutgers to under 50 rushing yards in the final two quarters.
Here are more quick notes from Joseph's interview:
>> Cornerback
Brandon Moore recorded his first interception of his brief Husker career last weekend at Rutgers. Moore, a 6-foot, 190-pound transfer from Central Florida and Florida State, arrived at Nebraska in mid August, and is now playing important snaps at corner.
Moore’s nickname is Bamm, because as a child he was always barefoot like The Flintstones’ character Bamm-Bamm Rubble.
“Bamm is a fierce competitor. I had Bamm on my scouting report in the Fiesta Bowl when I was at LSU. He was a kid I didn’t want to throw at,” Joseph said. “I think he had a pick-six on us in the Fiesta Bowl. So Bamm is a really smart player. He probably doesn’t move as fast as he used to, but it’s just like being an old veteran. He plays with his mind, he plays upstairs. The mental part is really there.
“So he knows what’s going on, knows the technique and is really strong in coverage because he understands what we want him to do.”
Moore is as veteran as you can get in college football. It’s actually his seventh season of college ball. While at UCF, he suffered a major leg injury in 2019 that kept him out the entire year and made it tough to come back in 2020. He didn’t play any games last season at Florida State.
But Moore is healthy now and in a good place wanting to help.
“We were joking with him today that he’s been in college so long, we told him he was coach (
Travis Fisher) Fish’s backup at UCF,” Joseph said with a smile.
>>
Tommi Hill started the first four games at corner opposite
Quinton Newsome. Things didn’t go well for Hill, however, and he was benched for much of the game against Oklahoma. Then against Indiana, Hill lost his starting spot to true freshman
Malcolm Hartzog, who has a strong grasp on the position.
When Hill showed up for pregame at Rutgers, he was warming up with the receivers, not the defensive backs. Then when the game started, Hill was wearing No. 2 instead of his original No. 0. With receiver
Isaiah Garcia-Castaneda — who wore No. 2 —
entering the transfer portal last Tuesday, Hill will now get an opportunity at receiver.
Joseph said it will be a game-time decision on how much Hill plays against Purdue.
“Usually, when a college coach tells you that you probably need to move, you probably should move. That’s the smart thing to do,” Joseph said. “But he’s bought-in, he’s a really good kid, a good teammate. We enjoy having Tommi on the team, he’s funny, he makes us laugh. But he’s a fierce competitor. He likes to compete."
>>
Kaine Williams, an Alabama transfer, showed up to Lincoln with a Labia injury, according to Joseph. The second-year player originally started at safety, but the 6-2, 200-pounder has been moved to nickel.
“We’re trying to get him ready this year. We hope we’ll see him later on this year,” Joseph said.
>> What happened on the play where Rutgers blocked
Brian Buschini’s punt? Joseph said Rutgers overloaded one side and did a good job anticipating the Huskers’ snap count.
“It was a late shift and they were on to our count, our snap count,” Joseph said. “So we had to go back and do some things differently to make sure that doesn’t happen again. And we did a great job of changing it up, going to some different things, changing the count.
Joey (
Connors) did a really good job of that.”
