Nebraska’s cornerbacks face tough matchups in 2006

By Paul Hilgers  |   Thursday, August 24, 2006  |  Comments( 18 )

Nebraska Cornhuskers
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When the Nebraska Cornhuskers play the Louisiana Tech Bulldogs on Sept. 2, George Darlington will take the field at Nebraska's Memorial Stadium for the first time since 2002.

Darlington, the longtime secondary coach of the Cornhuskers under former NU head coaches Tom Osborne and Frank Solich, returns to Lincoln as the first-year defensive coordinator of the Bulldogs. With the tall, athletic wide receivers Nebraska's depleted group of cornerbacks will face in 2006, Darlington may be relieved his job description requires that he prepare a strategy to defend Nebraska's receivers rather than receivers facing Nebraska.

Two of the top receivers Nebraska will face this year are USC's Dwayne Jarrett and Texas' Limus Sweed. Jarrett, the preseason All-American junior wide receiver for the Trojans, has put up gaudy numbers during his two years at USC.

Jarrett has 29 career touchdown catches (fifth all-time in the Pac-10 Conference), nine career 100-yard receiving games and 146 career receptions (eighth all-time at USC).

Sweed finished 2005 as the second-leading receiver for Texas with 36 receptions for 545 yards and five touchdowns. Sweed also had three receptions for 46 yards and caught the game-winning touchdown at Ohio State early in the season.

Defending receivers like Jarrett and Sweed, who both measure 6-foot-5, is a difficult assignment for any secondary. However, the lack of depth, experience and size of Nebraska's cornerbacks this season increases the degree of difficulty for the Cornhuskers.

Nebraska was thin at the cornerback position entering fall practice. Only returning starters Zackary Bowman and Cortney Grixby had significant game experience. It was generally thought that the 6-2 Bowman would play a significant role in Nebraska's defensive alignments by primarily matching up against taller receivers such a Jarrett and Sweed. However, Bowman will miss the 2006 season after tearing his ACL in fall camp. Unless 6-3 wideout-turned-corner Tyrell Spain develops quickly, Nebraska will be unable to duplicate Bowman's height at the CB position.

Nebraska will now rely heavily on the 5-9 Grixby, who is battling a hand injury, and the 6-foot Andre Jones, who has a hamstring problem, in its pass coverage schemes. If either Grixby or Jones misses any game time this year, Nebraska may have a crisis on its hands as the remaining cornerbacks on NU's roster are all unproven. The fact that Nebraska is breaking in new starters at the two safety positions does not help its tenuous cornerback situation.

To have a successful season amid heightened expectations, Nebraska's cornerbacks will have to overcome size mismatches to effectively defend opposing pass offenses. Perhaps Nebraska will use Barron Miles, the 5-9, All-Big Eight cornerback from 1994's national championship team, as a motivational example of the success undersized cornerbacks have experienced at Nebraska. Darlington, who coached Miles, would likely offer this advice to Nebraska...on Sept. 3.

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CommentsComments: 18  |  Sign Up  View all comments
No.1
Shawn S. Friesen		07:42 AM
08/24/2006
Darlington should have been the successor to Osborne. After Solich fired Darlington, he served as a recruiting coordinator for...
No.2
Mike		10:10 AM
08/24/2006
I know we are hurting in the secondary, but I hope they prove everyone wrong this year. I hope that all this negative media gets...
No.3
Ron Graf		10:13 AM
08/24/2006
Are you kidding? Who is LA Tech? Marshall? If he was such a quality coach, why isn't he working for a top program? Ditto for...
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