Whipple/Busch Presser

[vailhusker]

 

[vailhusker]

Mark Whipple Wednesday quick hits​

ByMICHAEL BRUNTZ 36 minutes ago

Nebraska offensive coordinator Mark Whipple met Wednesday with media for the first time since former head coach Scott Frost was dismissed following the Georgia Southern game. Here’s a quick rundown of what Whipple had to say Wednesday:

— Whipple said he couldn't recall being in a situation in his coaching career where a coach was fired mid-stream. He said the bye came at the right time for the team, getting to press reset a bit after Frost’s firing and off-the-field changes.

“With time off, they came back and we did a little something with them and they had energy and they’ve been great,” Whipple said.

— You don’t look back, just go to the next day. We didn’t play well against Oklahoma. Credit to them, but we cleaned up things in the days after that game. Talking with all the coaches on offense, they’ve said everybody is good…they’ve been solid all the way through.

— Indiana will come in looking to press the issue on offense and play quickly. Whipple said the appropriate tempo for what Nebraska needs this week is “whatever we need to do to win.”


— Whipple said there were communication issues on third downs against Oklahoma that caused issues. He said communication between the line, quarterbacks and running backs needs to be better to help keep pressure off Nebraska’s quarterbacks.

“That was more protection than the other stuff. That was the issue against Oklahoma…it wasn’t like a guy got beat physically, it was communication and where we’re sliding the line.”

— On the loss of Ajay Allen on offense: “Gabe went in and did a good job,” Whipple said. “Jaquez (Yant) did a couple things. Gabe stepped up and he’d been banged up a little in practice. That’s one of those things that’s going to happen in football Ajay was coming on and having a good game, so you just go to the next guy up.”

— Whipple said the offense has a bad taste in its mouth from the way things played out against Oklahoma. Whipple said the offensive staff went back and self-scouted during the bye and took some things out that had worked at Pittsburgh and not at Nebraska and how the quarterbacks felt about certain plays.

“The ones that score touchdowns are pretty good,” he joked when asked which plays were working best.

— Whipple said injured tight end Thomas Fidone has been doing some work on air in practices, but isn’t practicing in helmets and pads.

“He’s running around on air and doing things in drill work,” Whipple said. “All the other guys are healthy now. The week off helped those guys.”

— Whipple joked that he told Mickey Joseph that the interim head coach needs to move his stuff out of the coaches locker room so the other assistants can make fun of him when he’s not there. Whipple said he’s tried to help Joseph with a few of his own experiences as a head coach.

“I told him don’t try to be your brother or coach (Tom) Osborne,” Whipple said. “The guys will react and they have on both sides of the ball.”

— Whipple said he likes Nebraska’s players and said he sees the team dialed in. “We’ve got really good kids. I’ve seen this thing can turn and might turn this week and maybe the next week, but I haven’t seen a lack of effort,” Whipple said. “I’ve seen the guys stay together. Discipline-wise, on the 67 guys, they’re doing things the right way. They want to win as much as anybody and we got to play a little bit better and execute and I got to coach better.”

Mark Whipple Wednesday quick hits

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[vailhusker]

Busch on Husker D-coordinator role: 'I don't have to. I get to. It's a great opportunity'​

ByBRIAN CHRISTOPHERSON 3 minutes ago

There's a "Blues Brothers" vibe in some sense to the process going on for Bill Busch and Husker defensive staffers.

"I kind of feel like it's a Jake and Elwood (thing) and I'm putting the band back together," Busch said. "So we're kind of trying to get everyone organized and get everyone ready to go, but boy, have they responded, and the players responded so well for us."

One thing you won't hear Busch singing is the blues about his new job of trying to help fix Nebraska's defense as the interim defensive coordinator.

"I don't have to, I get to. It's a great opportunity. So it's not a tough spot. Everybody's, 'Ah, it's a tough spot, tough spot.' My ass. It's not a tough spot. Just go out and coach. That's what you signed up to do. So it's not a big deal," Busch said. "But the positive about it is I was around these guys."

That is, he's coached O-line and D-line on the field goal teams, and various guys at all the positions while serving as Nebraska's special teams coordinator.

So most everyone around the program has a good understanding already of how Busch operates.

"Has it been a little bit of a challenge? It has. The first thing I did is make sure I learned their terminology for what matched up with what we were doing," Busch said. "So it was my job to learn all their stuff. We're not changing all their terminology. That's my job to figure that out and make sure we mirror that with the assistant coaches."

Busch praised each of the various defensive staff members by name and he has linked up with defensive backs coach Travis Fisher to work with all the bodies at safety, corner and nickel.

"I get once chance to be the D-coordinator here, so I'm very happy I get the chance to do that," Busch said. "I don't like the situation and why I'm in it. ... It's a tough, tough, tough business and it's true reality TV in how things play out. But again, we signed up for it, so it's not that big of a deal."

Busch has been a defensive coordinator before, including at Utah State, where he was the DC and special teams coordinator at the same time.

Concerning the current, this week has featured what Busch labeled "Competition Tuesday" and "Turnover Wednesday." According to Busch, "These last two days it was on as far as how hard you have to practice."

There was a lot of good on good, Busch said. Even when scout looks were being given, "we carted up and the No. 2s were on the scouts." Ideally, this will help with better looks heading into Saturday night's game against Indiana.

Busch said the first thing that was worked on was how to get lined up fast and how to play as simple as they can.

That said, Busch noted all the different situations you must account for as a defense, so it's not just as simple as playing one defense and rolling with it.

"I use rooms in a house. I learned this from Coach Gruden. It's like, 'Hey, first and second down, you're in the kitchen. Everything goes on in the kitchen.' Third and fourth downs, that's a little bit different type of deal on that. The attic. You don't use it as much. That's goal line. There's all these different situations that come up, so we try to address things in different phases with them right there.

"But we are trying to do everything we can to make it as simple as we can that, 'Hey, we get lined up and get our feet set and ready to go.' We felt that there were some things that always could improve on communication as we scream at them all the time. And I say scream, we teach, at them. ... Communication breeds confidence. So if we have the right communication, we've know made the right call, our communication will breed confidence and we'll build ourselves up from there,."

Busch also stressed getting the best 11 on the field – and that doesn't mean just playing young guys for the sake of it.

"We'll see how that all unfolds. There's been zero conversation of, 'Hey, let's play them now, and then get through three (games) and talk about it right there.' Right now we'll get our best 11 on the field. Guys that can help us win and we'll play that out down the road as sit goes."

But Busch does expect "spirited competition" from some younger players.

"The most important thing is, 'Wow, these players,'" Busch said to open his time with the media. "It's just incredible how they work, how they come to practice every day, their character. Guys, they've been through a lot," Busch said. "There's been some lack of success. There's been changes of coaches at the head coach level, the defensive coordinator level, there's been tough losses. There's been some rough halftimes – sometimes on one side of the ball, sometimes on the other side of the ball.

"Wow, have these players responded. And there never was a time earlier when they didn't do that. So I can't tell you how proud I am to be a coach at Nebraska, to coach these players."

When it comes to fixing the defensive woes, Busch brought up "gap integrity" and "tackling" as the two areas the Huskers have to be good at as they start the full march through the Big Ten, beginning with an Indiana team that plays as fast as any team in the country.

The Hoosiers are also physical, though, Busch made clear. The running backs get downhill. There are no plays Indiana runs, he said, where you wonder why the heck they did that.

"That's a full day job against those guys," he said.

But, as Busch made clear, it's not a job he is hesitant in taking on. Joseph and Busch got to know each other well from spirited practices from their LSU days, and they plan to carry that mentality with the roles they have now in Lincoln.

"Coach Joseph has done a good job of making it fourth and 1 here," Busch said. "And we lived fourth and 1 at LSU every day. So that helps us. So everything is very seamless and natural. I know how he wants things done. I know the tempo he wants. And if it's not like, then it's not going to be a cool breeze. It's 'get it fixed.'"

Busch on Husker D-coordinator role: 'I don't have to. I get to. It's a great opportunity'

There's a "Blues Brothers" vibe in some sense to the process going on for Bill Busch and Husker defensive staffers. "I kind of feel like...

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[vailhusker]

 

[vailhusker]

 

[Jim14510]

"So it was my job to learn all their stuff. We're not changing all their terminology. That's my job to figure that out and make sure we mirror that with the assistant coaches."

So simple but smart.

 

[mcgradynu]

This already feels like a better staff lol. Leadership.

 

[MtnHusker]

So simple but smart.

It's amazing how to be a successful leader you don't need to act like the "Smartest Person in the Room" all the time. I made managers read the book The 5 Minute Manager, great book on leadership. Not for everyone but if people are doing a good job at their job let them continue to do what they are doing. Impressed with both Whipple & Busch in front of the camera as they have spoken highly of the players which is what these young men need right now because there is so much unknown with the program. I liked hearing Mickey saying he was going to re-recruit the current players. Since Frost has been released it seems like there is just a different nose to the grindstone common sense mentality to the coaching staff. Mickey definitely good in front of the microphone. Seems like he understands how to balance accountability and building relationships.

 

[SoCal_Corn]

Let's WIN this week.