After finishing the 2001 campaign last in the Big Ten in total defense, scoring defense and pass defense, NU head coach Randy Walker isn’t kidding himself.
“I don’t know that we really had a strength last year as a defense,” Walker said. “It would be hard for me to say what that was. We were 11th in just about every category – and that’s what the facts say.”
So Walker hired himself a new defensive coordinator in Greg Colby, who came to Evanston after spending four years as the defensive coordinator at Kent State.
Colby’s defense will be more aggressive and more focused on linebackers becoming playmakers. In former defensive coordinator Jerry Brown’s scheme, every defender in the front seven was responsible for a spot on the field. The new system, a two-gap defense, will work to free up a linebacker to make big plays.
“We’re going to use some man-to-man and a man-free, and doing some pressure and blitzing,” Colby said. “We’re trying to keep the linemen off of our linebackers so they can flow and get to the ball a little bit more.”
The Cats will most likely try to give middle linebacker Pat Durr room to roam. Durr, making the switch from outside linebacker, is the leader of an NU defense that lost five starters, including first-round draft pick Napoleon Harris and linebackers Kevin Bentley and Billy Silva.
“We’re really young right now,” Durr said. “You look at the defense and it’s just me and Raheem (Covington) that are seniors out here. It’s going to take a while, but we’ve got some pretty intelligent guys so we’re doing fine.”
After a last-place finish in Big Ten passing defense, NU plans to test the intelligence of opposing teams’ quarterbacks with an assortment of blitzes coming from all over the field.
“I love it,” Covington said of the new defensive strategy. “It gives the quarterbacks hell, something to read for and something to struggle with.”
The Cats are young in the secondary despite the experience that Covington brings to one of the cornerback slots. NU will most likely start a sophomore, Marvin Ward, at the other cornerback, and two true sophomores, Dominique Price and Herschel Henderson, at the safety spots.
Price and Henderson both got significant playing time because of injuries toward the end of the season – Price started four of the last five games at strong safety, tallying 45 tackles.
After giving up 34.4 points per game last season, the NU defense knows it needs to start holding up its end of the bargain.
“We have a lot of young, hungry players,” Durr said. “And we all want to pay back this offense.”
