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Diaco on the Blackshirts

inWV

inWV

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Let's just say he has a deeper (weirder?) appreciation for the meaning of those Blackshirts than most. To the players he says, if the goal was just to get one, you are missing the point. If a coach's passion for playing defensive football means anything and can be transferred to players, I think this will be a better unit. He is somehow both a doppelganger for Bo and Bizzaro Bo. Both are driven Italians. One is fueled by us vs them, the other a power of positive thinking vibe, always get just a little better with each rep you take. There is a strangeness about Diaco which is oddly compelling to me.

http://www.omaha.com/huskers/blogs/...cle_b3e64b42-8d11-11e7-aaeb-eb369029b994.html
 
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inWV

inWV

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Just watched his press avail. Dudes default setting is intense. He may be the first defensive coach since the architects (up to and including Charlie) that really believes in the mission of the Blackshirts. To Pelini it was a chore, a box to be grudgingly checked.
 
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NikkiSixx_rivals269993

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Bo b Diaco, borders on the edge to me. I don't think this is an act. He's really wired this way. Some of what he says is just over the top at times, and it can border on clownish, but he takes it all very seriously. For a defensive coach, this kind of mindset is important and it's going to pay dividends for not only the defense as a whole, but also for some players individually.
 
inWV

inWV

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And the older guys, while building the tradition, maybe didn't have an appreciation for what the blackshirts would become, which is understandable. Diaco believes in the ethos, wants to reconnect with the ethos.
 
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Toms Wife

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Crazy can be good in a coordinator but not the head coach. I like the Diaco hire and he gets the prime message of the blackshirts. The only problem is 16. Give out 11 and leave it at that.
 
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Toms Wife

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jawatkins said:
Someone doesn't understand modern defensive football, not surprising though coming from said poster.
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Wrong. We don't have 16 starters. I know they are millennials and all but let's not give to participants. Let's reserve it for starters.
 
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jflores

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Seems like we've been giving out in the ball park of 14 the last several years owing to the different packages we've played.

Diaco even considers the punter part of the defense apparently in some interviews he did. Did Lightbourn get one?
 
inWV

inWV

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jawatkins said:
Someone doesn't understand modern defensive football, not surprising though coming from said poster.
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Newby/Gifford are co-1 at their spot, Bootle will play on nickel downs. Khalil and Mo are top backups. As you've alluded, the guys with the black shirts will get the lions share of the game reps.
 
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jawatkins

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JPR95 said:
Wow..Stupid huh. Well that may be if I'm the only one that can see the weird similarities in their personality's.
And for the record, I'm a fan of both coaches.
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They're so different that it's damn near impossible to see how you think they're similar.
 
inWV

inWV

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jawatkins said:
They're so different that it's damn near impossible to see how you think they're similar.
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I think he's talking about a combo or mix of their personalities. Intensity and positivity. You don't get all of both.
 
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TwinsRRUs_rivals79748

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Per LJS:

Mohamed Barry is listed second on the depth chart at inside linebacker behind Dedrick Young II, but Nebraska coach Mike Riley made it clear Tuesday that the sophomore is a reserve in name only.

“We feel like we’re 3-for-2 at inside linebacker,” Riley said on the Big Ten’s weekly coaches teleconference. “With Dedrick Young and Chris Weber, Mo is going to play in the games and rotate in with them. We gave Mo a Blackshirt because of his earning that 3-for-2 format.”

Barry wasn’t the only nonstarter to earn a Blackshirt, but Riley indicated players such as cornerback Dicaprio Bootle — the odds-on favorite for NU’s nickel position — made the cut because of their roles in certain packages. He singled out Barry as essentially an extra starter.
 
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inWV

inWV

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16 blackshirts could be looked at two ways. Glass half full, we have 3 kids good enough to start for 2 positions, quality depth is there and experience will be built through game reps. Glass half empty, we don't have 2 decent kids that have separated from a near equally mediocre third, we will struggle at the position.
It would seem that we have 5 LBs considered starter level for 3 of the four LB positions. Davis may end up to be a great players, but he's pretty green and is probably the weak link in the front 7 at present. So I wonder if we see both Gifford and Newby at OLB when we go 4-3, with Khalil playing DT with Mick. It may also be possible that we see both of them outside when we are in 3-4. It may not be super quality, but there does seem to be depth at LB and we essentially have four DL starters. So Diaco has options in the types of fronts he wants to use. 3-4, 4-3, 4-2-5 and so on.
 
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Toms Wife

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headcard said:
If you have two guys splitting reps, or three guys splitting reps for two positions, who cares which player takes the first snap?
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People have split reps for years. Pick one who will be starter. I don't see Fox/ABC/CBS/ESPN saying, "Oh, lets list all the contributors when we show the starting lineups during the first series." I guess it's just symptomatic of the culture. For example people want to say Bootle should get one because he plays in the nickel. If he progresses as a player in coming years he will become the starter. Being the starter is better than being the CB who comes in during Nickel situations.

While 16 is stupid, I do think Diaco has shown he understands the tradition better than anyone going back to Frank. He should definitely get props for that.
 
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jflores

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Probably the most positive sign here is that the self appointed guardian of the Blackshirt tradition in Jason Peter has said nary a negative word about this on radio or social media.

I think it'll be ok. :)
 
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TwinsRRUs_rivals79748

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I think I remember a game during the 2008-2014 regime that we played a team like Missouri that had a spread offense and we played nickel, dime, and peso the whole game.

In that instance, the nickel player started and played the whole game basically because we ran that defense so much, but other games the nickel didn't play hardly at all when we didn't use the nickel package.

Who am I to say the nockel should or should not get a blackshirt based on the teams we play and defensive formations we use that season?

I am curious if 11 and only 11 blackshirts were given out in the 90's though with no exceptions for giving a 12th or 13th.
 
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inWV

inWV

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I don't know if only 11 were handed out, but I do know that Charlie would use the possession of the shirt as a motivational tool. As in, if a player was f-ing up in practice, in addition to the verbal humiliation he received, he might be told to remove the black net pullover.
 
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DudznSudz

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inWV said:
Let's just say he has a deeper (weirder?) appreciation for the meaning of those Blackshirts than most. To the players he says, if the goal was just to get one, you are missing the point. If a coach's passion for playing defensive football means anything and can be transferred to players, I think this will be a better unit. He is somehow both a doppelganger for Bo and Bizzaro Bo. Both are driven Italians. One is fueled by us vs them, the other a power of positive thinking vibe, always get just a little better with each rep you take. There is a strangeness about Diaco which is oddly compelling to me.

http://www.omaha.com/huskers/blogs/...cle_b3e64b42-8d11-11e7-aaeb-eb369029b994.html
Click to expand...

That is a really good take on Diaco. I really like the guy; the...creativity he displays in his interviews is a sign of intelligence, and fairly uncommon in the "Duhhhhh"-dominated sports world. I like the intensity, too. And everyone who posted about this is spot on: a guy like Diaco makes a great coordinator, but until he gets older and naturally dials it down a bit, a guy like that would be a terrible head coach. Kind of like Sonny versus Michael in The Godfather, speaking of all things Italian. :-D
 
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dinglefritz

Heisman
Jan 14, 2011
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oldjar07 said:
A lot of people liked the hire. You, on the other hand, have a lot of time on your hands.
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Some people have a lot of down time between things for work. If you travel, there's time in airports or motel rooms at night with not much else to do.
 
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