Nebraska’s Coordinators Talk About What Needs Fixing

Whipple: ‘We've got to finish’; Chinander: Blackshirts didn’t ‘put out the fire’

Author:
Joe Hudson
Updated:
Aug 31, 2022 6:09 PM EDT
Original:
Aug 31, 2022

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Nebraska Cornhuskers

Nebraska defensive coordinator Erik Chinander said the Blackshirts’ performance Saturday was “not up to our standard at all,” while offensive coordinator Mark Whipple said his unit needs to figure out how to finish after the 31-28 loss to Northwestern.

The two spoke to the media after Wednesday morning's Husker football practice.

“We take great pride in this unit in putting the fire out,” Chinander said. “When we get put in an unfavorable situation, we fix it. That's life. That happens in football. ... We need to put out the fire and we did not do that this week, and that's got to improve.”

Citing missed tackles and mental mistakes, Chinander said, “That’s on me to get those fixed, and I will get those fixed.”

Chinander said no new Blackshirts were handed out this week.

Whipple said he was “more encouraged than discouraged” overall, especially with the lack of offensive penalties. But he wasn’t happy that the offense was shut out in the final 24 minutes of play.

“We gotta finish. Finish," Whipple said. “We're not playing high school football anymore where it’s 12-minute quarters.

"I told the guys, ‘We gotta coach better. I gotta call better plays. I gotta coach better. You guys gotta play and we've got to stay together and we've got to finish.’ And that’s really the message."

The 0-1 Huskers play their first home game at 2:30 p.m. CDT Saturday against North Dakota. It is the season opener for the Fighting Hawks of the Football Championship Subdivision.

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