I was a Rob Aurich fan the moment I heard him say in an early interview, “Our defensive motto is, Simple, Fast, and Violent.” When I heard him say that, I thought, those have to be three of the sweetest words a defensive player could hear.
When listening to linebacker Owen Chambliss on Tuesday and hearing him asked to describe Rob Aurich’s defense, and he replied, “You know, we live by simple, fast, and violent. I think that is the way it should be. Simple pre snap and multiple post snap. Simple, fast, and violent, is what we live by.”
All I could do was smile because it’s perfect.
As Chambliss went on it was easy to see why new defensive coordinator Rob Aurich was eager to bring him from San Deigo State. Chambliss was impressive to listen to, and you can see right away he is a student of the game. Knowing his job isn’t enough, he wants to know what all eleven guys on his side of the ball are supposed to be doing. I got the impression that if he isn’t already living in Aurich’s head, he’d like to be. Will he wear the “Green Dot” on defense? I’d be shocked if he didn’t. He’s already a coach on the field.
More from Chambliss.
Interviewer: “What is the most asked question (by the defense)?
Chambliss: “How much more are we going to install.”
Interviewer: “Because it’s over whelming or they want more?”
Chambliss: “They want more. It’s not overwhelming at all.”
Interviewer: “Where is this defense right now in terms of installing Rob Aurich’s identity?”
Chambliss: “We’ve been working stuff at half speed, full speed, just not in pads. Getting us accustomed to looks. I would say we are on our way. But not even close. Got a lot of work to do. Especially in pads.”
Interviewer: “When talking about the identity of the defense, what is it going to be, physical play, relentless, chaotic?”
Chambliss: “Simple, fast, and violent. I think that is the biggest thing. You want to be fast. You want to be violent. And you want to make it look, you know, everything looks the same. But make the quarterback play quarterback.”
Interviewer: “What does that mean?”
Chambliss: “You want to make him to have to read the defense pre-snap. You want to be simple enough post-snap but make sure we can still give him a whole bunch of looks to where he not just reading us pre-snap. You know making him go through his progressions, have to read, have to check, things like that.”
Interviewer: “Of all the players on the team, do you feel you know Rob Aurich better than anybody else?”
Chambliss: “Know him personally?”
Interviewer: “Yeah, or just what he demands of his players.”
Chambliss: “I feel like I do know him pretty well.”
Interviewer: “What’s he like?”
Chambliss: “Mad scientist. He’s very passionate. Cares about his players a lot. Loves his players a lot, but he’s going to demand everything out of you. He’s got swagger to him that I don’t think a lot of coaches have. But I think he is very confident in what he does and wants to be the best he can.”
There’s the other word we’ve been hearing – swagger. That one has been going around and was used by multiple players on Tuesday. And Chambliss wasn’t the only defensive player to call Aurich a mad scientist.
“For me, he’s a mad scientist. He’s a genius,” said Cam Lenhardt. “For me, it’s the way he teaches it to you and breaks it down for us.”
Genuis is one of those crazy words that either works or backfires. But the way I take it is that these Blackshirt players have finally been exposed to real coaching. That’s something that was missing last season. When coaches can give you the answers, it makes them look like geniuses.
One of the things we saw from the defense last season was an inability to adjust to what was being done to them. It was almost like defensive coaches had no answers for their players. How demoralizing would that be. To have an offensive lineman handing you your butt and when you ask your coach what you need to do or what you were doing wrong, he couldn’t give you an answer. And then after the game, imply there was a lack of talent or that players needed to play harder. I thought Riley Van Popple’s comments brought that to light when talking about Aurich.
“He has a lot of confidence in his players, and I think that’s the best thing. Is when you have a coach behind you who really has confidence in his players, it allows the eleven guys on the field to go out there and have the ultimate confidence in themselves,” Van Popple said. “And I know, personally for me, that’s something I’ve been missing. So, I think it’s been great to experience that this past spring and really see my game evolve and having coaches and guys behind me who have that confidence and allow me to take that on the field.”
I’ve been saying it since Rhule hired this staff. Finally, real coaches who can teach and develop. The talent’s been there, it just hasn’t been developed and players given belief in themselves. Van Popple is right, there was several things missing.
Adopting the Motto
Much like Adam Carriker ends all his segments with, “And remember, throw the bones.” I used to end all my articles with, “GO BIG RED!!”
After hearing Aurich when he was first hired, I decided to not only end my articles with GO BIG RED!!, but to end them with, “GO BIG RED!! SIMPLE, FAST, VIOLENT!!” As near as I can tell, the first article I did this with was titled “Huskers Continue to Build a Roster”, posted on January 13th of this year. I have posted 100 articles since, and they’ve all ended with GO BIG RED!! SIMPLE, FAST, VIOLENT!!
And yes, there is Tee-shirt in the works.
Why a Rattle Snake? Well, I did the original artwork when I found out the Huskers were at one time called the ‘Rattle Snake Boys’. Then I heard SIMPLE, FAST, and VIOLENT and was like, did God make anything much simpler than a Rattle Snake? Is there anything much faster? Rattle Snakes fall under the category of violent. So, it all fits, SIMPLE, FAST, VIOLENT!! Let’s make it ours Husker fans.
GO BIG RED!! SIMPLE, FAST, VIOLENT!!
Artwork created by Lyle Harmon
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