Acutely aware of Blackshirt tradition, Tony White wants his defenses to be known for playing with unyielding passion, no matter the score

On3 imageby:Steven Sipple01/06/23

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As a high school football player during the 1990s in El Paso, Texas, Tony White paid close attention to Nebraska football.

It was relevant nationally in those days — intensely relevant.

“I think first impressions are really big,” White says. “When I was in middle school and high school, that was kind of like the birth of me understanding what college football was.”

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He graduated from Burges High School in El Paso in 1997 as Nebraska was winning its third national championship in a four-year stretch.  

Friday, the 43-year-old White met with the media at Memorial Stadium, his first such meeting at NU in a group setting. As the school’s new defensive coordinator, he’ll either feel the weight of the program’s history, or he’ll be energized by it. More than likely, it’ll be a combination of both.

This much is certain: Now that White is a grown man, leading a tradition rich Blackshirt unit, Nebraska has made a sizable impression on him during these infant stages of his tenure.

“You see why it’s different,” he said. “You walk in and see the national championship trophies. You see the Heismans. You see why this place has been special and can be special. There’s no doubt there.”

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White liked what he had at Syracuse. “Those young men over there played their butts off for me,” he said of his three seasons as the schools’ defensive coordinator. But the chance to lead Nebraska’s defense, and work with Matt Rhule, made too much sense to pass up.

White was completing his collegiate career as a UCLA linebacker in the early 2000s as Rhule arrived in the Bruin program as defensive line coach. Although White was a productive player, he readily acknowledges he wasn’t good enough to play in the NFL.

Consequently, he stayed around the UCLA program, finished up school and got to know Rhule. They subsequently stayed in touch over the years. 

“When (Rhule) got this job, it was a text message just like that, then it became a phone call, then it became an interview, then it became, ‘Hey, let’s do this thing,’” White said.

White helped spur big improvement at Syracuse

White reportedly turned down “multiple offers” to be a defensive coordinator elsewhere. He recently told Syracuse.com that he’s now looking forward to the opportunity to flip the defense in a historically dominant college program — a factor he said helps with his marketability — in a similar way to what he did at Syracuse.

Syracuse finished its 2019 season ranked No. 115 in the country in total defense. After just two seasons under White, the Orange finished No. 19 in the 2021 season and peaked in the Top 10 earlier this season before finishing No. 29.

White coaches a 3-3-5 system. It’s his specialty. He played in it at UCLA. Rocky Long, a 3-3-5 coaching guru, recruited him to UCLA and later hired him to coach linebackers at New Mexico.  

White emphasizes the 3-3-5 versatility.

“We go 3-3-5, but we line up in a ton of different fronts,” he said. “Really, the 3-3-5 is more personnel-based than anything.”

“The great thing about coach Rhule is he is really, really big on recruiting the big guys up front,” White said. “We’re going to recruit our tail off up there and kind of adjust our defense to the personnel we have.”

In other words, he’s flexible in terms of system. That was one big takeaway from his session. 

“If you get stuck just recruiting (to) the 3-3-5 … you’re just stuck,” he said. “I think the biggest thing, especially with coach Rhule’s background, is you take athletes. You take football players, and good coaches kind of adjust the scheme around them.”

“This 3-3-5 was always at places where maybe you didn’t get as many defensive linemen, so you saw more 3-3 stuff,” he added. “Some years when you had better defensive linemen, you saw more four down (linemen) stuff. It’s always about how does the scheme fit the players versus recruiting specific players to fit the scheme.”

As White’s session with reporters wound down, he was asked an excellent question: What does he want his defense to be known for?

“I would say the passion,” he said. “You want to see a group of guys out there that when they play, they don’t look at the score.”

They simply concentrate on playing their you-know-whats off, he said.

From there, he said, “Everything will take care of itself.”

He quickly acknowledged, “There are a lot of pieces that go into that. But when they take the field, you’re going to know they’re playing for Nebraska and they’re part of a tradition that’s really unlike any other in the country, OK?  

“You don’t have to look up at the score. When that defense runs out there, you’re going to sit up in your seats and you’re going to pay attention because those boys are going to play, period.”

“If you don’t recruit, you ain’t going to be here”

White has a strong recruiting background. “You know coach Rhule — if you don’t recruit, you ain’t going to be here,” White said. “That’s No. 1. That’s the great thing about being with these guys. They understand. If you’ve got the (players) here, you’ve got a chance. 

“So, everything is built around recruiting and those relationships and bringing the pieces here so we can get them and develop them.”

White has a lot of thinking to do about Blackshirts

White takes the Blackshirt tradition seriously. Very seriously. But he has a lot of thinking to do, he said, before he determines how and when he intends to hand out black jerseys to deserving defenders.

“The most important thing I can do with that tradition is find out knowledge,” he said. “I’ve got to talk to people who have instilled it, who have lived it, who have done it the right way. I’ve heard many ways they’ve done it.

“It’s something you don’t mess around with because I think that’s one of the greatest traditions you have in college football, especially defensively.” 

Memories of dominant Nebraska defenses take his mind back to his younger days in El Paso, when he discovered what football was all about.

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