Yes you are so right it's coaching. This staff has not figured out a way to coach them better when for what, seven years under Bo, the defense rarely had 3 linebackers on the field at one time. Now they do. Major change, especially when one is a true freshman, one played DE last year, and the middle spot has been Bando, Webber, back to Bando. Rose-Ivey, out long term. Gifford, in and out. How many other guys have got snaps at LB????
Now the secondary. Your inability to understand how much of a transition that from Bo's system, to this system, make you unqualified to comment further. This D is out there to stop the run and FORCE the pass, and with one less secondary player than was on the field at most times under the last regime. That is going to cause problems. I've tried to tell some of you since BYU that you had better expect struggles on pass defense, because in essence, all the players are practically true freshman to this scheme. Kalu, started two games last year, WHEN Nebraska started in the dime defense (for you stat watchers, that means 6 defensive backs on the field). Rose, I'm pretty sure never stated a game before this year. The safeties, way more man coverage responsibility this year. Cockrell, mostly played nickel last year (for the stat watchers, that means he was the 5th DB on the field last year). Gerry, has had obvious growing pains this year. Chris Jones, SEVEN tackles last year. 5 on special teams, and 2 vs Fresno (for the stat watchers, that means he didn't play a lot of snaps).
IF, IF this was Banker's 7th year here, I'd be pissed as hell at the results, but we are through 6 games in year ONE! Teams are passing on us, but they are NOT running at will on us like they have from what 2011-2014??? You can win if you give up yards through the air. You can't win (hell you can't even be competitive) if the other team controls the line of scrimmage and slowly (or in the case of Wisky) jams the freaking ball down your throat.
Now the defensive line, IMO, they get have the easiest transition of the 3 defensive levels, from the prior scheme to this one. Ask Minny's OL, who expected to come in Saturday and dominate our DL because they had done it before the two prior meetings. They are not out there thinking as much, they get to cause havoc. How Collins and Valentine could be made to look so inept and incompetent last year was just unreal, but that was scheme, not them IMO.
So until you explain your defensive football expertise and can come up with a way for the coaches to speed up the learning curve without violating NCAA rules on how many hours they can spend on their sports, and can explain exactly how Banker and staff are screwing up X's and O's, stop with the easy freaking argument about where the defense ranks with the statistics. Some of us were smart enough to realize there would be unavoidable growing pains, and frankly, I'm tired of hearing the same old BS from those who were not smart enough.
No good reason other than coaching? Depth, inexperience, injuries, scheme change, and most importantly, 6 freaking games worth to work on it. The back 7 has struggled this year early, and that will happen when you are not 100% confident in what you are doing. It appeared as if the light went on with some of the players the last couple of weeks, and I expect continued improvement, but the stats will suffer all season long. Good for you, because you will still have something to ***** about.