With Ohio coming to Memorial Stadium on Saturday, Nebraska’s defense is trying to keep the focus where Rob Aurich wants it: on the small stuff, while also bringing the kind of edge that shows up immediately in a season opener.
That combination - detail and urgency - came through Tuesday as Aurich and two defenders met with reporters four days before kickoff. The new defensive coordinator, who arrived from San Diego State, has brought a 4-2-5 look that could help Nebraska address one of last season’s biggest problems: giving up too much on the ground.
The matchup will test that right away. Ohio finished ninth nationally in rushing yards per game last season at 227.4, while Nebraska’s defense ranked 100th against the run at 175.4 yards per game. An extra lineman should help, but Aurich made clear that alignment alone won’t solve anything.
“We want to see that urgency to perform,” Aurich said. “When I look at our group, our guys have had six months, seven months, or eight months, whatever it has been with me.
I think they are excited to show their level of readiness to play.” You want to be composed with what you're going through with your mind," he said, "but there's an eagerness for violence that we're looking to see."
In the secondary, the attention has been on the same kind of fine-tuning. Nebraska’s defense picked off six passes last season, spread across five players, and defensive back Andrew Marshall said the group has been drilled on the little things that can swing a game early.
“Just locking in on the little details,” Marshall said. “For us, we've been focusing on our angles on the football and making sure we tackle well. Because little things like that can turn into big things for the first game, so just making sure we don't make it bigger than what it is.”
Marshall also said the defensive backfield has made real progress over the offseason.
“There's been a lot of growth definitely,” Marshall said. “Just getting more comfortable in the play style that we have to play in our playbook and within the schemes that we run.
There's also a lot more confidence in our technique. Being able to trust that we can run with the receivers, we can sit in our technique and break on certain routes.
We're smarter in the film room, being able to recognize formations and routes. Just a lot of development.”
Marshall started all 13 games for Nebraska last season and finished with 45 total tackles and one interception.
The changes haven’t stopped with the secondary. Nebraska’s defensive line, which was part of a unit that produced 22 sacks last season, has spent the offseason adjusting to the new system too. Cameron Lenhardt, entering his fourth season as a defensive end/edge, said the group’s confidence has grown as the installation has gone on.
“We've really grown confidence-wise,” Lenhardt said. “We've had a lot of time to really learn in it and grow in it. So we are ultimately confident in our execution.”
Matt Rhule has praised the depth up front, especially on the edge, and Lenhardt said that kind of rotation matters because the line is always changing personnel.
“Playing defensive line, it is always a constant rotation,” Lenhardt said. “No matter who's in there, we all just trust each other. We don't care who's in and who's out, we all just go as one.”
All of it sets up Saturday’s opener as the first real look at how Nebraska’s defense handles the new scheme, the new expectations and an Ohio team that can run the ball.
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