Post-spring progress for Nebraska football’s DBs

Evan Cooper has three steps to success for his Nebraska defensive backs, and his top returnee, Isaac Gifford, enters his final season at NU as an advanced student.

“That first year, you learn the process, then you live the process, and then you defend it,” Gifford said in April. “I think I’m in that defending stage, and I want to keep on doing that.”

The Husker secondary has a blend of veteran leadership — like Gifford, the Lincoln Southeast graduate playing rover — a few injury situations to watch and three veterans to replace.

The unit is somewhere in between the seasoned, older-than-old defensive line and the unproven linebacker room. Its coach, charismatic Evan Cooper, also has the most options. The NIL era of college football has been kind to Cooper’s depth. NU has more than a dozen redshirt and true freshman defensive backs — all Cooper’s recruits — who represent the next wave of corners and safeties. They’re the future.

“The young guys, inexperienced guys — you really only get better at football playing football,” Cooper said. “It’s been good so far. They’ve been working. You can’t hide.”

In the present, Nebraska is relying on Gifford, safety Marques Buford, corner Tommi Hill and versatile Malcolm Hartzog. NU is watching the injury progress of two injured Huskers. And despite all the depth, Nebraska is hosting a Michigan State transfer with the hopes he shores up the defensive back rotation.

Who’s here: Among the upperclassmen, just six scholarship guys, one of whom, DeShon Singleton, didn’t practice in spring while recovering from an injury. Others are Isaac Gifford, Tommi Hill, Malcolm Hartzog, Marques Buford and Koby Bretz. Sophomore Blye Hill arrived in the offseason from FCS school St. Francis. Redshirt freshmen include Ethan Nation, Dwight Bootle, Jeremiah Charles, Rahmir Stewart, Brice Turner, D’Andre Barnes and Syncere Safeeullah. True freshmen on hand are Larry Tarver, Rex Guthrie (injured) and Mario Buford. Walk-ons of note include Cooper Wilson, Mason Jones and Derek Branch.

Who left: No one of note since the start of spring camp.

Who’s the coach: Evan Cooper, Matt Rhule’s trusted lieutenant in talent evaluation. Cooper has his own method for determining whether a player is above or below the line for a scholarship or NIL-scholarship-in-kind offer, and it’s led to NU extending full-ride opportunities to low-star or no-star prospects like Guthrie, Barnes, Charles and Hill, whom the Huskers found at a small school in the Allegheny Mountains.

As a position coach, Cooper is a technician who continues Nebraska’s trend of having high-paid, in-demand secondary coaches. Is he as good as or better than Marvin Sanders, Terry Joseph, Brian Stewart, Donte Williams and Travis Fisher before him? It’ll bear out in how many NFL draft picks he produces. He might be a defensive coordinator candidate, too, if Tony White ever moves on to a head coaching role.

Snapshot: Long one of the strengths of Nebraska’s defense — perhaps the best unit 2019-2022 — the Husker secondary has the advantage of numbers and, among its safeties, experience. Gifford had a team-high 86 tackles and eight pass breakups; he’s tough and durable, and also aggressive on those quick throws to the sideline. He’s been on the wrong side of a few busts, too.

Cooper calls Gifford a “high level emotional intelligence guy” and a “coach’s dream” who doesn’t have a weakness now that he’s worked on his coverage skills.

“Isaac Gifford is one of the best players in the country,” Cooper said.

Buford returned for the final four games of the season and figures to be in a rotation with, if he gets healthy, Singleton, a rangy playmaker who got hurt in the Michigan game. Hartzog could plug into the safety spot or rotate down to cornerback, where he’s tough on short route and, at 5-foot-9, vulnerable on deep routes.

Cooper likes him at nickel because of his versatility.

“He can play in the post, he can play in man (coverage), he can play in half (field coverage), he can blitz,” Cooper said. “He can do all those things.”

Tommi Hill developed into one of NU’s better recent corners after Cooper, White and Co. reinfused him with confidence. Hill had four interceptions in 2023 and fits Rhule’s style of defensive player: Competitive, emotional, edgy, athletic.

“He’s taken ginormous strides from where he was at,” Gifford said. “He’s really becoming a great football player and even better leader in the room.”

Blye Hill fits those components, too — and he’s 6-3 — but he hurt his knee in the spring game. While he may get back for the season, Nebraska could reserve him for four games and retain his redshirt.

So which of the young guys makes the leap into playing time? Nation, Bootle, Charles, Barnes and Mario Buford — Marques’ younger brother — are five to watch. Nation, Bootle and Buford are slightly shorter, more classic corners — good technique, smart, physical, good vertical jumps. Charles and Barnes are taller, longer and more raw. Charles, in particular, excites the coaches with his athleticism.

“He’s very competitive, he’s really smart, and he’s also really tough,” Cooper said of Charles, who played just a bit in high school. “It’s just a natural fit for him at DB.”

Can Cooper take his raw recruits and polish their technique? He gets a premium salary — $670,000, far more than defensive line coach Terrance Knighton — to turn speed and size into seasoned skill. He effectively has two more seasons of Fisher and Erik Chinander’s recruits before his guys have to get it done.

Arriving this summer: Nebraska is trying to add Michigan State safety Jaden Mangham — and battling Ohio State and Michigan to do it — which should speak NU’s tenuous depth despite having 22 scholarship-caliber players. Other over-the-summer additions include Caleb Benning, Kahmir Prescott, Roger Gradney, and Amare Sanders.

Post-spring depth chart: CBs: 1s Tommi Hill, Blye Hill (if healthy) and Malcolm Hartzog 2s Ethan Nation, Mario Buford and Jeremiah Charles; Safeties: 1s Isaac Gifford, Marques Buford and DeShon Singleton (if healthy), 2s Malcolm Hartzog and Koby Bretz