Tony White Reveals Standouts From Saturday’s First Scrimmage, Other Risers During Huskers Spring Ball

Nebraska football defensive line coach Terrance Knighton got the narrative on the defense kick started two weeks ago. That’s when he revealed an open discussion being had in the Husker facilities: They want to have the “number one defense in the country.”

Knighton’s boss, Tony White, backed up Knighton’s revelation and didn’t shy away from that being an on-paper objective for the 2024 season.

“That’s the goal,” White said April 2. “We wanna be the number one defense in the country. We do. But all of that is words until guys adopt it and they live it every day.”

White gave that declaration after Practice No. 4 during Week 2 of the Huskers’ spring ball slate. On Thursday, White expanded some more on that following Practice No. 11 in the midst of Week 3.

In order to build into that No. 1 defensive unit, there are two things you have to do.

The first one is simple.

“We got to play hard,” White said on Thursday. “We want to have the habits, we want to create great habits of the best defense in the country. That’s what we want to do. The best defense in the country, they have certain habits that they just do (naturally). They run to the ball, they’re physical, they don’t give a crap and they play with ultimate confidence.”

The second thing?

Well, that one is pretty plain and simple, too. You’ve got to have good players.

Nebraska has a group that has established itself as the top tier of defensive leaders and has a rising group rising up the ranks. That’s how White and the defensive coaching staff felt after two weeks of spring practices, but they needed to find out whether or not they were cooking with gas.

That was the main takeaway from the Huskers’ first live scrimmage on Saturday.

“There’s some guys that made some plays,” White said. “It’s one thing when you’re going into all the drills and everything in practice and you’re (doing) thud. … There’s a totally different tempo when Coach cuts it loose and he says ‘live.’ There’s some guys who you just wanted to see if they knew how to operate.”

And who were some of those Blackshirts who revealed themselves as smooth operators?

White revealed a group that caught his eye from Saturday’s scrimmage – the first of three this offseason which precedes the April 27 spring game and the even more critical second scrimmage coming roughly 48 hours from now on Saturday morning.