Bob Diaco poked back at himself a bit. And then it got even more interesting.

He said he had not consumed all that been written or said about him after some winding Saturday night comments that weren't completely understood by many and quickly bounced around cyberspace and into the places where Husker fans reside. But, yes, he was aware his visit with reporters in the hallway after a 31-24 overtime loss to Northwestern had stirred conversation.

"Part of my problem is I talk, and my answers are too long," the first-year Husker defensive coordinator said in a light moment after Tuesday's practice. "And I can't even complain about you guys cropping an answer because they're too long, and I'm sorry. So I pre-apologize. I already know that. I'm not good at it."

Diaco talked a while on Tuesday after the practice, too, saying some things that will stir more conversation, mostly centered around how alarmed he was during Nebraska's first tackling drill in pads when spring practices began. More on that in a moment.

But first, Diaco explained why he explains things the way he does.

He's not going to ever disparage players, he said. "I love the players. So I'm just not going to do it, I've never going to do it." That's the first thing.

"And I'm not a talk-about-family-business guy." That's the second thing.

"And I want to be honest." That's the third thing.

So when it's not going well, he said, "doing all three of those things can be very hard, and the answer can become a little nonsensical as you try to make sure you protect your beautiful players, and you protect the integrity of the family business because airing out your family laundry doesn't help anybody do anything."

Diaco did bring up one specific topic, though. Tackling. He was surprised by the tackling methods players used when he arrived.

He said he was told the defensive staff was mandated from the administration a specific way to tackle before he got here. He did not name the specific way, but the Huskers tried rugby tackling in 2016, which is something some other teams have used -- with the Seattle Seahawks often used as a chief example of a team that has specialized in it.

The decision to go to rugby tackling wasn't administration-based, however, according to former Husker defensive coordinator Mark Banker. "It was a staff decision led by Coach Riley," Banker communicated to Nebraska247 on Tuesday night.

Diaco obviously is of the opinion it didn't help. "So the tackling degenerated," Diaco said.

"So when you think about it, you think about a player showing up here who's a really great tackler, then becomes a worse tackler? That doesn't make any sense. So I had no idea until we went to our tackling drill on our first fully-padded practice of spring football, and found that the players were spectacularly frustrated doing the drill.

"Because they're willing. They're talented enough to tackle. They're tough enough to tackle. They're willing to tackle. They want to do well. But they don't fundamentally know anymore how to tackle. At all. So we've been working hard on just that one thing. It's been present in every single day in practice."

He said if the Huskers had continued to tackle the way they had been, it just wasn't going to work. So, "we taught tackling, we taught tackling. You gotta tackle. Safely. We have a beautiful, safe, wonderful" way of teaching tackling.

Banker would tell you tackling was a serious point of emphasis last year, too. The talk of Nebraska changing to rugby tackling was hot conversation last offseason, with the change viewed with hope and oft accompanied with the note that it was both safer for players and effectively used by some successful teams.

According to the Associated Press, Nebraska paid $100,000 last year to a company called Atavus to help teach coaches and players drills to work on the rugby form of tackling.

Last December, Banker told reporters, "We've worked on tackling more this season than any other I've coached, and we've worked on angles of pursuit. ... Now the other part of it is attitude when you're going to the ball. There's no doubt about that, too. That will take care of all angles. You watch enough football over the years that you go, 'How did that guy do that?' He just did. You're not going to tell me it was some drill that was set up that that's what he did. No, he just did it because that's part of his DNA."

To the current: Diaco believes tackling the way he teaches it is coming on, even if the numbers for his defense after nine games aren't flattering at all. The Huskers rank 71st against the pass and 81st against the rush. They are 73rd in total defense and 92nd in total defense.

The coach hasn't flat said it, but the offense hasn't helped matters either as Diaco's defense tries to figure it out. Diaco noted that Nebraska was up seven on Saturday, about to go up two scores until ... nope. A third turnover. Nebraska then gave up an 84-yard touchdown drive on 13 plays, surrendering their only third-down conversion of the day on a third-and-9.

"There's no doubt what we're going to become. It's proven. We've done it before," Diaco said. "What everyone's expectations are about what it should look like, I respect, and I understand the sensitivity of the moment. I understand the 'now' piece. It's just not real."

Diaco's explanation on having to go back to the basics on tackling provided further insight into the challenge he perceived in front of him since trying to build this defense in his vision since February. He doesn't know what specifically was being taught a year ago, but doubled back during Tuesday's interview to recall that first tackling drill of the spring.

"To say alarming would be an understatement," he said. "I could feel it on the players. My heart went out to them, like they were so incredibly frustrated in that moment in the spring. And since then, they've come light years in becoming functional tacklers."

He reiterated he expects this defense to be among the best in time, but added that playing good-to-great defense is not something that you just work on during the week and then show in the game.

"It's a year-long, it's really years-long. It's collecting personnel that intangibly suit the university and the team -- perfect alignment that way. That physically suit the traits and the jobs that you're going to ask them to do. And then there's this developmental process.

"There's this process of physical development. There's this process of their mental development. There's this process of their spirit development. There's this process of their skill development. And we are in a skill development phase right now. ... But it's very hard to do it all right now during the season. ... And defending, it's not fun to say, (but) it doesn't make it any less real: It is a process. It is a year-long process. And as I say, it is a years-long process to get a defense built back to being great."

Diaco noted the Huskers were 12 points total from being 7-2 instead of 4-5. "Not that 7-2 is acceptable," he quickly added.

It's actually 18 points that separates Nebraska from those three wins, but his larger point stands about how small things here and there can change everything.

But the record is the record, and the objective remains same as it always has. As Diaco put it, "You're looking for those points."