Nebraska’s Coordinators Talk About What Needs Fixing

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

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.

Scroll down for more coverage of Wednesday’s session. Refresh this page to see the latest additions. Asterisk indicates item may require a subscription. Go here for the HuskerMax discussion.

Coverage

Non-paywall

• Husker247 | Nebraska defense quick hits from Wednesday's practice
• Husker247 | Chinander breaks down opener, how Huskers are moving forward
• Husker247 | The word from Whipple: 'We've got to stay together and we've got to finish'
• Nebraska Athletics | Whipple Discusses Offensive Preparation
• Hail Varsity | Sorensen/Keeler recap (video)
• Lincoln Journal Star | Just/Mullin recap (video)
• Omaha World-Herald | McKewon/Watkins recap (video)
• Hail Varsity | Sorensen/Keeler recap (video)

More sources

• Hail Varsity* | Erik Chinander: Defense In Opener 'Wasn't Up To Our Standard'
• Hail Varsity* | Nebraska Running Back Rotation Remains Open After Season Opener
• Lincoln Journal Star* | Chinander pledges to fix defensive issues after sub-standard Week 0 performance
• Omaha World-Herald* | Practice report: Nebraska coordinators have different reviews after season-opening loss
• Omaha World-Herald* | Data shows Nebraska's defense missed departed Huskers like JoJo Domann
• Omaha World-Herald* | Shatel: Nebraska's best chance? Its offense — if Frost and Whipple are on the same page
• Omaha World-Herald* | Tom Shatel: Nebraska's best chance? Its offense — if Frost and Whipple are on the same page
• On3* | Wednesday nuggets: Whipple, Chinander talk what went wrong in Ireland, fixes on the way
• On3* | Practice cliffs: Whipple "more encouraged than discouraged" with offense; Chinander says defense failed to live up to Blackshirt standards; and Thompson turns up leadership a notch

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Video

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More info

• Pregame notes: ND | NU
• Depth charts: ND | NU
• HuskerMax game page
• Practice schedule
• KLIN/HuskerMax reports
• Roster
• Game schedule

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