The pressing questions facing Chinander, Husker defense as NU begins spring ball | Football

First, a look at the biggest questions facing the Blackshirts. That will be followed Friday by a stab at the defensive depth chart. Then Saturday, we’ll turn our attention to the biggest questions on offense and roll out a projected offensive depth chart Sunday.

Nebraska is going to have several new starters in 2022 and perhaps many new contributors, but a bunch of them won’t be players that are new to the program itself. Defensive lineman Mosai Newsom? This is his fourth season. Noa Pola-Gates, too. Javin Wright, Blaise Gunnerson and Jimari Butler are headed into their third years. On the list goes.

Sure, there are newcomers, too, and several in the secondary will push for roles. Overall, though, the familiarity should help what will be a period of transition for Chinander and company.

One of the hallmarks for NU’s fifth-year defensive coordinator is that he’s willing to adjust his defensive packages to the personnel he’s got each year. In 2021, the system and various personnel groupings were largely built around JoJo Domann’s unique skill set.

This year, that will be different. But as Chinander pointed out in December, the trick is understanding where your strengths are and playing to them.

“The way that offenses play anymore, you’ve got to be pretty flexible,” he said. “That position that JoJo played last year, who’s the next JoJo? I don’t know. I don’t know if there is another one, but whoever is going to play in that role, we’ve got to find out what do they do best? Whoever is in those safety roles, what do they do best? 

“Not only that, but I think you would be a little bit remiss if, let’s say you had five DBs you felt great about and, if somebody goes down, to not be able to get that fifth guy on the field and (instead) have to play maybe your eighth-best guy (at a different position), I think that’s a little crazy.” 

So, that is a big part of the spring for the Huskers. On paper, it may not look like Gunnerson is competing with, say, Isaac Gifford for reps, but he will be in some way. The same may be true for Pheldarius Payne and Ru’Quan Buckley or Wright and cornerback Braxton Clark.

NU could definitely use more depth up front — more on that below — but in general, the bet here is that Chinander and his staff feel like they’ve got enough parts to build the engine. They’ve just got to figure out the optimal way to construct it and then get the tuning dialed in. The next five weeks will be a critical stretch in that regard.

The answers to this question ahead of spring ball, in no particular order, include a true game-changing pass-rusher, defensive line depth and certainty at safety.

Perhaps one player in the transfer portal can satisfy the first two, but anybody in that mold will be heavily sought-after by other schools, too. NU cracked the top five for TCU edge Ochaun Mathis, recently, and will certainly look at others. Maybe there’s an internal candidate that takes a step forward — the aforementioned Gunnerson/Butler pair or Caleb Tannor as pass-rushers or any of several inexperienced defensive linemen at the interior positions.

At safety, it’s possible Pola-Gates, Myles Farmer and junior college transfer DeShon Singleton play well enough that the position becomes less of a need. But that’s no sure thing, either.

Part of spring ball for the defense will be turning some inexperienced players loose in bigger roles to see how they swim or sink. Then reassessing what the true need list looks like going into the summer.

The question for the Blackshirts isn’t quite as simple as “who replaces JoJo Domann?” for the reasons listed above. He’s a unique player and had a role tailored to his game.

It is fair to ask, though, who will replace Domann’s production along with the other departing veteran players.

NU didn’t force enough turnovers in 2021 and hasn’t yet under Chinander. In fact, creating takeaways is one of the few areas in which the Blackshirts have regressed the past two seasons.

In 20 games total between 2020 and 2021, the Huskers forced just 20 takeaways (13 in 2021, seven in 2020). They had a better defense in those two seasons than Chinander’s first two, but NU forced 21 in 2019 and 20 in 2018.

Of Nebraska’s 10 interceptions last fall, Deontai Williams led with four and Domann had two, while Marquel Dismuke and Cam Taylor-Britt logged one apiece, as well. The only returning players with picks are Luke Reimer and Myles Farmer with one each.

The Huskers have more production returning in terms of sacks (14 of 20) and tackles for loss (41.5 out of 60), but in order to take another step forward this fall, they’ll have to not only replace the production from the outgoing set of players but also generate more big plays than they have so far under Chinander.