You know they’re angry when they call him Cosgrove.

It’s like when your mother called you by your first and middle names.

When it’s good, it’s Coz.

When it’s bad, it’s Cosgrove.

Right now, they call him Cosgrove.

Kevin Cosgrove has thick skin. That’s what his nose tackle Ndamukong Suh says.

Coz is a fighter. That’s what almost anyone who knows him says.

Coz is not listening to the criticism. That’s what he says.

“You know what? I can’t look at that,” he said after Tuesday’s practice. “I just got to try to do the best job I can possibly do. If I read what was out there — and believe me guys, I haven’t — or got on the chat lines or anything like that, it would drive me crazy. I have to stay focused at the task at hand.”

Cosgrove has been coaching football for 27 years. You don’t coach 27 years without hearing someone say you stink once or twice.

They’ve said that more than once or twice about him this week.

It sounds like a pretty fun gig being Nebraska’s defensive coordinator. Then you run into a Saturday like the past one.

Southern Cal made Nebraska’s defense look silly in a 49-31 loss. One thing Nebraskans can’t stand is having their football team look silly.

It wasn’t so much that the No. 1 team beat Nebraska. That was kind of expected. It was the way the Trojans ran over, through and around the Huskers for 313 yards with a national TV audience watching.

The Trojans averaged 8.2 yards per carry. No Husker defense before had allowed such a statistic.

Before you could say Pete Carroll, there was a firecosgrove.com Web site on the Internet.

There were Fire Cosgrove e-mails, blogs, dinner table rants.

Shawn from St. Louis titled his e-mail to the Journal Star “Blackh(o)le Defense!!!!”

Went the e-mail: “The Blackshirt designation should be stripped and reserved for only bygone days of dominating headcrushing bloodthirsty speed demons who pounded 1st quarter hopelessness into their victims. Blackshirt D???? Are you kidding me??? More like Blackhole D, you run into the middle of it and shoot out the other side at the speed of light! Damn Cosgrove and his milk toast tactics!!!!”

Fans still compare Cosgrove to Bo Pelini, who, in his one year here in 2003, had Nebraska ranked No. 11 nationally in total defense.

Cosgrove’s defenses since taking over in 2004 have ranked 56th, 26th and 56th in that category. His current unit ranks 45th in total defense.

His defenses in his last five years as defensive coordinator at Wisconsin, from 1999 to 2003, ranked 15th, 79th, 58th, 63rd and 43rd.

Spout all the numbers you want. Cortney Grixby doesn’t care. He’ll tell you Coz can coach. The blame is going to the wrong place, the senior cornerback said.

“Somebody has to put the blame on somebody. I guess this week it was Coach Coz,” Grixby said. “(But) for anybody to be putting it on the coaches, it’s dead wrong. Because they don’t coach us that, and that’s not the kind of coaches we have.”

Support from players is nice. Support from Husker head coach Bill Callahan is better.

Callahan coached with Cosgrove at Wisconsin and hand-picked him to be his defensive coordinator when he took the Nebraska job.

They’re more than just fellow coaches. They’re friends.

What’s a friend say after a bad day?

“He’s hurt. He’s down,” Callahan said. “I tell him to keep his head up. He’s got my full support. He’ll do a great job this week as he hits the practice field … It just hurts. When you have a performance you didn’t expect — that you never even think could happen — it hurts.”

How do you try to make football hurt go away?

You go full pads on Tuesday for the first time since fall camp.

You pit the No. 1s against the No. 1s and have them knock each other around.

You let everyone know that the possibility of personnel changes exists.

You put the entire team together in the film room — something you rarely do — and don’t turn the horror flick off until you’ve honestly assessed every play.

The film session started at 2 p.m. Sunday.

Usually the Huskers segregate into position units to watch game film. Not this time.

As Husker junior receiver Todd Peterson said: “Usually when we watch it together, it’s not a good sign.”

Peterson remembered the last time the Huskers watched game film as a team. It was two years ago, after that 40-15 loss at Kansas.

“We watch every play,” Peterson said. “Coach will be like, ‘Coz, what was the call? What was this guy’s responsibility?’ Or ‘Wats (offensive coordinator Shawn Watson), What was the play call?’ Just go through and point out the mistakes.”

Peterson said it did not end until 5:30 or 6. Probably the toughest film he’s had to watch since he’s been at Nebraska.

Cosgrove said he’s watched the film three times. He doesn’t even want to give you a number on how many tackles were missed. “There were enough of them” is a good enough answer.

The coaches and players simply explained the performance as lacking execution, fundamentals.

“There was concern going into film study,” Callahan said. “But after the film study, I came away encouraged that it’s correctable. There were a lot of areas where we’re a player off or a technique off.

“I’m not trying to deflect any criticism or blame to the players. I want to be very clear about that. I accept full responsibility in that regard. It still falls on my shoulders. I do accept that. We have some things to clean up.”

Husker sophomore safety Larry Asante said the intensity was soaring at Tuesday’s practice. “Had to be a 10,” he rated the effort.

Three days removed, Asante was still emotional as he spoke about Saturday’s game.

“I felt sick to my gut, sick to my gut after that game,” he said. “Sitting there Sunday after the game, there was really nothing you could do about it. We had a sick feeling in our stomach Saturday night, Sunday, Monday …”

To finally practice Tuesday was a relief.

The criticism of Cosgrove, he said, will only serve as more inspiration for this defense to get better.

“Me and Coach are real close,” he said. “Whatever Coach says, I’m going to do it.”

It didn’t seem to be lip service.

Minutes after practice, Asante saw Cosgrove walking by and motioned for him to come over.

He whispered some words, then gave a hug.

“Coach Coz is like my pops. He’s like my dad,” Asante said. “I’m closer to him than any other coach on the coaching staff. If I have any problems, that’s the man I go to.”

Reach Brian Christopherson at 473-7439 or bchristopherson@journalstar.com.