Preseason camp ‘really fun’ for Chinander, whose defense is past the basics and onto complex equations | Football

This is what Chinander and company have been building toward essentially since he arrived in December 2017. Nebraska by the end of the 2020 season felt like a veteran defense and the Huskers did have six or seven seniors on the field, but also several guys in the front seven playing full time for the first time.

Now, the only player who is definitely slotted into a starting role or significant rotational job is inside linebacker Chris Kolarevic, who played multiple seasons for a coaching staff at Northern Iowa that Chinander knows very well.

“It’s actually been really fun for me,” the coordinator said. “There are still some freshmen that have to get taught the basics, but a lot of the meetings, a lot of the installs, we’re talking about real football. We’re talking about situations. We’re talking about technique, we’re talking about detail. Instead of, ‘Ok, we’re putting in the defense, here’s your job, here’s what you do, let’s go play football.’ We’ve gotten to really detail things and we’ve gotten to talk about overall, global football knowledge, football formations, football plays and I think that’s really helped the older guys, especially, move their game to the next level.”

Outside linebackers coach Mike Dawson had an example at the ready. Junior Caleb Tannor arrived on campus as a highly regarded recruit and has played a lot over the past three seasons, but hasn’t had a consistent, game-changing type of impact. He had Jovan Dewitt as his position coach in 2018 and 2019, then Dawson last year, which Dawson likened to “learning a new language.”