• Video Below: See Tom Osborne and Bo Pelini talk Penn State
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LINCOLN — He's rarely among the first Nebraska coaches to leave the field after practice, and when defensive backs coach Corey Raymond does walk off, it's almost always while giving a last pointer to one of his pupils.
The "itty-bitty things" is how Raymond describes those daily parting words. Behind him, defensive backs still work their technique on the field — as one or several of them have been doing since the season began.
Raymond's unit is ranked higher nationally than you might think — 33rd — in pass efficiency defense. In the past three weeks, the secondary has scored a defensive touchdown and nabbed interceptions that led to two others. And the first-year NU assistant said his bunch tackles pretty well.
But those itty-bitty things, Raymond said — they can kill momentum.
An 81-yard touchdown pass in Nebraska's 28-25 loss to Northwestern, for example, when a safety peeked too long in the backfield. Or a simple crossing route that confused the Huskers a few times because they didn't switch coverages between Wildcat receivers.
"It's hard to stay focused out there the whole time," Raymond said. "It takes a different kind of mentality of kid. You've got to develop that. Some people have it, some people don't and some people develop that."
Senior corner Alfonzo Dennard has the whole package, Raymond said.
"He's athletic," Raymond said. "He competes."
And most important, he has the mentality on every play, Raymond said, that his defensive backs need.
Sophomore Andrew Green — who's started opposite Dennard for the past two weeks — has found a groove, Raymond said. Though NU gave up 26 yards per pass completion in the second half to Northwestern, Green kept his assignments in check.
Said defensive coordinator Carl Pelini: "Andrew's playing very well. He's got to keep coming."
Can he? Outside of Dennard — an All-Big Ten candidate — the Huskers have struggled with consistency at corner. Beyond Dennard and Green, six more players — senior Lance Thorell, junior Justin Blatchford, sophomores Ciante Evans and Stanley Jean-Baptiste, and redshirt freshmen Corey Cooper and Josh Mitchell — have operated at some corner spot.
Green shook off some early deep-ball busts to again take over the starting job. Evans and Thorell have played the most at nickel corner — and were picked on consistently by Northwestern. Raymond and Pelini said Thorell got hurt Saturday and tried to play through the injury.
"There's something about being tough and there's something about being too tough and not communicating with coaches on things that are going on with you during the game," Pelini said. "We love his toughness, but maybe he was a little bit handicapped in that game."
Listed as a safety, Blatchford is almost big enough to function as a linebacker and plays in certain Peso sets.
Cooper and Mitchell's play, meanwhile, were mainly limited to the Wyoming and Washington games, respectively. Raymond said the 5-foot-11, 165-pound Mitchell — who looked solid at times against the Huskies — isn't yet big enough to body up with certain receivers.
"His body can't last a whole game," Raymond said. "It's not his fault. It's his size and playing physical receivers."
Jean-Baptiste switched from wide receiver midway through the season, got a game ball for his interception in the Ohio State game, started one more week against Minnesota, and now sits behind Green on the depth chart.
While Raymond works with the guys in the fold, he's on the recruiting hunt, too, since just one corner — Charles Jackson — signed in the 2011 class, and the NCAA didn't clear him to play this fall.
Nebraska is again recruiting Jackson, one of the nation's top high school corners in 2010, along with junior college prospect Mohammed Seisay and high school targets Brandon Beaver and Marcus Rios.
"It's the most, most, most important thing," Raymond said. "You gotta get guys. You look at the other top schools out there, they all got athletes."
What's Raymond looking for? Speed.
"You look at the multi-sport kid who runs track and does all kinds of different things," he said. "That's what you do. You gotta have guys who can run in the secondary — no matter what."
Raymond said he didn't know whether many of his current Huskers were track athletes. And it doesn't matter, he said, as much as the mentality.
"It's just a different game, man," said the former LSU and NFL corner. "Playing defensive back is a totally different thing. Guys got to keep working, believing."
Contact the writer:
402-202-9766, sam.mckewon@owh.com
twitter.com/swmckewonOWH
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• Video: Tom Osborne on Penn State:
• Video: Bo Pelini on Penn State:
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