• Coach Bo Pelini after Thursday's practcie:



LINCOLN — Carl Pelini, the chief defensive orchestrator at Nebraska along with his younger brother who doubles as head coach, stopped in the middle of a brisk walk off the practice field and stood quietly at the suggestion that these Blackshirts might rank alongside some of the best units in recent NU history.

“That's something I've never thought about,” the elder Pelini said this week, “until you just asked that question.”

It's worth pondering.

The 2009 Blackshirts, ranked No. 2 nationally in scoring defense, carry Nebraska into its final stretch of Big 12 North Division play Saturday at Kansas.

Are these Huskers as talented as the top NU groups of the past 15 years? Not across the board in comparison to 1995, 1999 and 2003, among other units. Their depth compares unfavorably. Nebraska has yet to face an elite offense — and it will not before a potential Big 12 championship game meeting with Texas.

But the '09 defense, working in step with an extraordinarily unproductive offense, has so far met the high NU standard for three-quarters of a regular season.

“I wasn't sure until the last game, but they're playing like Blackshirts now,” said Steve Warren, an All-Big 12 defensive tackle as a senior in 1999. “They have somebody at every position who's making plays.”

NU took a step toward historical relevance with its 10-3 win last week over Oklahoma. The Sooners' 325 yards of offense snapped Nebraska's seven-game streak of keeping opponents below 280, but the Huskers kept OU out of the end zone for the first time since 1998.

Warren points to Nebraska's strength at tackle as evidence of defensive legitimacy.

Sophomore Jared Crick and senior Ndamukong Suh rank 1-2 in tackles among Big 12 linemen.

The 2003 Huskers had Ryon Bingham and Le Kevin Smith up front. It was Warren and Loran Kaiser in 1999; Christian Peter and Jason Peter in 1995. Chris Spachman and Danny Noonan anchored the front of the most statistically dominant NU unit ever in 1984.

All but Kaiser played in the NFL, though his backup, Jeremy Slechta, did.

“There's no such thing as being a great defense without a great defensive tackle,” Warren said. “It's almost not possible, because they control so much of the game. They control the run. They control.

“Crick and Suh are amazing, the things that they're doing to offensive lines. Since watching football, I can't remember a team with two guys like that.”

Crick and Suh want a spot in the discussion of great Nebraska defenses.

“We want to be the best,” Crick said. “Not just in a certain category, we want to be the best in every category. To speak of us with the defenses that won championships, what an honor. But we've got to earn it.”

He said the Huskers take “amazing pride” in their play, in large part because of the Blackshirts who set the standard.

“We may not have an NFL pick at every position, but we've got the heart,” Crick said. “We have that little extra.

“I think they had heart back then, too, but I don't know if they had the heart that we have.”

Crick means no disrespect. He was 6 when the 1995 Huskers launched 15 defenders to careers in the NFL that spanned 88 years of service.

Leave it to 22-year-old Suh, a sure-fire first-round NFL draft pick next spring, to offer a bit more perspective.

“It's interesting,” Suh said of the historical comparison, “but the only way to get there is to win games. You've got to take care of those wins first, and then we can come back and look at all the fancy statistics.”

Fancy or not, these Huskers remain on pace to hold foes to a lower scoring average than any NU defense since that 1984 group.

Nebraska assistant Ron Brown watched the defenses of the '90s up close. He helped recruit Ralph Brown and Mike Brown, cornerstones with Warren of the 1999 Blackshirts.

Ron Brown said he's not into measuring these Huskers against groups from past decades. The game has changed too much to base conclusions on yardage or point totals.

But the 2009 defense, he said, shows many traits of a great one, including the ability to swarm to the football, to carry Nebraska through a game and to thrive in tight situations.

Notably, Brown said, the improvement over two years ago is “incredible.” Defensively, NU has reduced its total yardage allowed by 43 percent over 2007, rushing yardage by 59 percent and points allowed by 78 percent.

None of it is lost on Carl Pelini.

“I do know this,” the second-year defensive coordinator said, “one thing that's important to us is to uphold the tradition of great defenses. I guess where we fit, in terms of our ranking, isn't as important to us.

“There's just a certain level of play and type of intensity expected of the Blackshirts. And that's what we want.”

Contact the writer:

402-444-1031, mitch.sherman@owh.com

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