The jokes haven't abated. Teammates still call him "doughnut" and "fat man." And he gets text messages from former Nebraska teammate Steve Octavien referring to him as "jelly roll."
Phillip Dillard isn't offended, however. He thinks it's funny.
"I just laugh about it, like, ’Whatever, I'm in better shape than ya'all,' " he said.
You probably remember the story about Dillard's dramatic weight loss following last season. The junior middle linebacker dropped 34 pounds during winter conditioning.
He did interview after interview in the spring discussing how he trimmed down. And he hasn't regained the weight. He intends to stay where he is, 238 pounds, give or take.
It hasn't been easy for someone who likes glazed doughnuts and has a "weakness" for Rocky Road ice cream. "I've gotta kind of fight that (urge)," said Dillard.
But "your body's your investment, they say. It's a big sacrifice, but it'll pay off."
The dividends include speed and quickness, critical qualities in the swarming defense with a premium on takeaways that coach Bo Pelini and his staff have installed.
In addition to having to get to the ball quickly, the middle linebacker is in the command center of Pelini's defense. "You need to know what you're supposed to do and what everyone else is doing around you so you know who to cover, who to ’jump,' who to not ’jump,' " Dillard said.
"If you don't know what the safety's doing, it's just like not knowing what you're doing. Everyone's held accountable for what they're doing. You can just see a difference."
The previous scheme didn't emphasize those things, according to Dillard.
"It's more true in this defense," he said.
Players were enthusiastic about the new defensive scheme in the spring. But they didn't understand it to the degree they do now. During spring practice, a coach would ask a question about the scheme and players could respond. "You get it. You can answer it like that," said Dillard.
"But out there on the field it wasn't playing as ’slow' as it is now."
In this case, "slow" is a figurative term related to a player's understanding of what's happening around him. When the game starts to "slow down," he's becoming comfortable.
That's what has occurred during the past three weeks of practice. "It's starting to slow down for us because we're getting a full understanding of what we're supposed to do," Dillard said.
"And that's making the whole defense work collective; everyone does their job. That's totally different. In the spring we're like, heads twirling. There were a lot of defenses thrown in. It was brand new. For three years you went with one (system). Now you're with this one. We're flying around now."
The defense isn't where it needs to be yet, he said, but "I'd say we're a lot closer than we were at the beginning (of fall camp). You just feel the rhythm of practice and hear when I'm making checks and stuff, like you can feel it coming together. Everyone's starting to do their jobs."
The opening game against Western Michigan is barely a week away.
"We're busting our butts. We're going hard. And we can't wait to see it pay off," he said.
If a player doesn't go hard, "you'll hear about it, so you'd better," said Dillard. "That's the way it should be. You should be flying around. That's how defense is supposed to be played."
Dillard talked to a handful of reporters following the first of two practices on Wednesday. As senior linebacker Cody Glenn passed by on the way to the locker room, he purposely bumped Dillard.
"He's still fat," Glenn said, in feigned seriousness.
Dillard ignored the bump, and the comment.
