LINCOLN - Before last football season, Nebraska defensive coordinator Mark Banker set statistical goals for his unit. He wrote them on a board inside North Stadium. The top goal, of course, was to win each game - however NU could. The other goals, he said, were derived by taking an average of the No. 1 Big Ten defense in each of the last five seasons.
Lofty aims, Banker agreed in an interview last week.
"Is there anything other than No. 1?" he asked rhetorically.
Yes, there is. And Nebraska's defense - lacking experience, depth and consistency - spent a lot of time exploring those middling rankings in the Big Ten.
Tenth in the league in yards allowed per game. Eighth in yards per carry allowed. Tenth in points per game allowed. The one that stings Banker the most - the one that points to mediocrity in so many other categories - was the 37 plays Nebraska allowed of 30 yards or more. That ranked 13th in the Big Ten. In the last five years of the league, only two teams - Rutgers in 2015 and Indiana in 2012 - have given up more such plays in a season.
Before the season even unfolded, Banker, longtime adviser and defensive coordinator for coach Mike Riley, sensed it might happen like that.
"It's sad to say it didn't shock me," Banker said. "In spring, it was happening time and time again. Whatever you practice is what you'll get in the game. I was just hoping and working at the fact that we could eliminate those things."
But even in late-season wins over Michigan State and UCLA, games Nebraska's defense generally feels good about, the Spartans and Bruins got their share of chunk plays. Those teams scored 38 and 29 points, respectively. In both games, NU's offense, buoyed by a power running game and quarterback Tommy Armstrong's playmaking as a passer, pulled the Huskers through, gaining 499 and 500 yards.
The seasonlong defensive performance hinted at changes, especially in regard to a low-wattage pass rush and a pass defense that struggled throughout. In the offseason, Riley tended to keep his comments brief and brutal in his assessment.
"We did not play good pass defense," Riley said on signing day.
"We were painfully bad in pass defense," Riley said in a Feb. 14 interview with The World-Herald.
By the time of Riley's second comment, he'd already fired the defensive line coach, Hank Hughes, after one year. Hughes was a former college teammate and a coaching recommendation of Banker. When NU was hiring position coaches after Riley took the Nebraska job, Banker forwarded three names to his boss. Hughes was one of them. So was current defensive line coach John Parrella.
Banker said Hughes did a good job of coaching the line.
"I just felt like there was 35 years of football experience and a D-line that, game in and game out, performed as well as a unit could," Banker said. "They were probably as consistent out of all the three units as any of them. There's more to football than just coaching, but, from an on-the-field standpoint, I was pleased with what was going on."
Nevertheless, Hughes was fired. Parrella is in, and already changing the stances and techniques of his linemen.
And there's another change this spring. Banker is back to coaching a position. He's taken over the safeties. Secondary coach Brian Stewart now handles only the cornerbacks.
While Banker still stands quite a ways behind the defense during team periods, he barks and coaches after each play, usually at junior Kieron Williams or redshirt freshman Avery Anderson. Banker's bark is loud enough for the entire defense to hear, and he's occasionally funny with his pointers.
Last season, he was more hands off when it came to position players.
"After a couple, three weeks in spring, I kind of backed out altogether and just let things kind of flow," Banker said. "Only a comment here and there - and I was very careful how I said it."
It was one of the few times in his coordinating career Banker hadn't coached a position.
"It just kind of drove me crazy," he said. "Because you know the defense. And I really enjoy coaching safeties. We manipulate the safeties and 'backers a lot to disguise, and set coverage."
Senior safety Nate Gerry, a captain, said he's enjoyed the switch to Banker. At times last season, Gerry said, the terminology he'd get from Banker and Stewart during games didn't match, and it could lead to some confusion.
"Some of the terminology you might use for safeties and cornerbacks can be different," Gerry said.
Said Banker: "As thoughtful as Nate is about the game - he reminds me of NFL players. You've got to be exact. You've got to coach them in black and white, and there can't be any gray. Some guys aren't as thoughtful, they don't see the game in black and white, and when you coach them, they're just happy you're talking to them. But Nate, he's picking up the specifics."
That level of expertise - at all levels of the defense - is what Banker hopes sharpens the unit in 2016. There were so many things, he said, the defense struggled to master in 2015.
For example, the secondary was "negligent" in understanding when an underneath zone pass defense became a man defense down the field. Outside linebackers weren't colliding with slot receivers, which made it harder on safeties to cover. Players didn't understand the strengths and weaknesses of coverages, and confidence became an issue after a rough nonconference slate.
"You let Southern Miss get a bunch of yards when they're trying to catch up in a game, it's hard to offset it," said Stewart, who added, "We kept getting better and better. But we had so much bad luck and bad play early that it was hard to have great play when you start playing better teams."
Run defense was more successful from play to play, but still had its flaws.
"Anytime we wanted to have movement, or bring a fifth guy, a sixth guy, there'd be one person who'd bust, and then the run plays, all of the sudden, turned from a 4-yard loss into a 25-yard gain," Banker said. "In a couple cases, they were touchdowns."
As a result, Nebraska has spent a good share of early spring practices working on fundamentals and assignments in base situations. Banker directs his safeties often in where they should be, and how to read situations, so they can handle "new experiences."
He hopes to build more depth that way. When Banker had his best defenses at Oregon State, he said, he was flush with talent and know-how. This NU defense has 15 scholarship upperclassmen and 27 scholarship underclassmen. At least three of the sophomores - defensive end Freedom Akinmoladun, linebacker Dedrick Young and safety Aaron Williams - are likely starters.
Banker refers to the best defenses he had at Oregon State - 2012, 2009, 2008, 2007 and 2006. "Those groups, we were rotating eight guys on the defensive line and there wasn't a drop-off. We had five linebackers, four corners and three safeties. We were rolling."
Nebraska never had that luxury last season, Banker said. Not even from the opening kickoff.
"Shoot, right away, we're playing BYU - and I didn't even realize it - I'm looking out there and thinking, 'Why is he out there?' " Banker said. "It's a freshman nickel, and he had to play because of the situation in the back end - of who we didn't have."
That nickel - then-freshman Aaron Williams - was the same Husker who didn't adequately jam BYU wideout Mitch Mathews before the latter crossed the width of the football field, stationed himself at NU's goal line, posted up and caught a Hail Mary to beat Nebraska 33-28.
The play represented a gut punch in Riley's first game, but also one of those 37 long plays given up by the Huskers' defense.
In his last four seasons at Oregon State, the most a Banker defense gave up in a season was 29 plays of 30 yards or longer. The most one of Bo Pelini's defenses gave up in that same time frame was 29 plays, in 2012. Still, big plays were Bo's bugaboo once he joined the Big Ten, as the Huskers never ranked higher than ninth in the league in that category. NU's defense got worse in 2015.
"If we get rid of those (big plays), all those other numbers will come down," Banker said.
It should make some of those lofty goals a bit more reachable, although Banker and his staff may revisit how they write up their goal board.
"We want to make it attainable," Banker said. "What we'll probably do is take the average of the top three defenses. We'll talk about it as a staff."
By next spring, perhaps it's a more enjoyable conversation.
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