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2023 Fall Camp Thread (5 Viewers)
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The Nebraska football program held its 14th practice of fall camp on Tuesday, and a brief portion of the session — around 20 minutes — was open to the media.
Here are a few observations from the morning:
>> As the media flooded into the Hawks Championship Center, defensive line coach Terrance Knighton was jokingly yelling to everyone, "You guys are late! We start at 8 a.m.! You guys are late!"
>> Here's a quick update on which players were seen in yellow jerseys, meaning they weren't practicing and were off to the side doing light conditioning: receiver Marcus Washington, offensive lineman Teddy Prochazka, tight end John Goodwin, Jack linebacker Jimari Butler and defensive backs Tommi Hill and Marques Buford Jr.
>> Buford, whose season ended with a knee injury in last year's game against Wisconsin, was seen running 50-yard sprints at a good pace. The staff is obviously trying to be smart with Buford as he rehabs.
>> Offensive lineman Nouredin Nouili, who was seen in a green "limited" jersey during the last open practice last week, was back in white and working full-go. The big German didn't look like anything was slowing him. He looked good in blocking drills.
>> Sticking with the offensive line, position coach Donovan Raiola was breathing the same fire he did during the last practice the media got to view. We don't need to rehash what Raiola is like — if he sees a good rep, he yells "good" and moves on to the next. If he sees something he doesn't like, he's correcting it — loudly and aggressively — on the spot and making the linemen do the drill again until it gets right.
>> There were two NFL scouts at practice today — from the Bears and Vikings — and both were watching the Huskers' O-line work out. Their eyes didn't really leave Raiola's unit.
>> When the tight ends came over to do blocking drills with the O-line, Thomas Fidone II had a great rep, and controlled his drill partner from the start and was driving him back easily. The next rep from Fidone, though, wasn't as good. As it ended, assistant O-line coach Aaron Coeling went up to Fidone and told the tight end to make sure his thumbs were up on his initial strike.
>> As the tight ends were entering the O-line's territory in Hawks, position coach Josh Martin was heard giving some last-second instructions before the blocking drills started: "Pad level, pad level, pad level, let's go!"
>> The primary players seen returning punts were Billy Kemp IV, Isaiah Garcia-Castaneda, Alex Bullock and Ethan Nation. Nation, the true freshman from Georgia, can scoot and is continuing to show he's going to be one of the freshmen who carve out a role in his first season in Lincoln.
>> Graduate assistant Jack Potenza, who came to Nebraska after working under Tony White at Syracuse, was seen coaching the Jack linebackers. With Butler not practicing Tuesday, Garrett Snodgrass was with the Jacks. Snodgrass usually works with the inside linebackers.
>> Over at the receivers, position coach Garret McGuire was getting some work in with his guys. During one specific drill, the receivers were practicing their five-yard stop routes, where they explode off the line of scrimmage and after 5 yards, stop and show the quarterbacks their hands. McGuire was heard yelling, "Punch and pivot at the top! Bring your hands and eyes!"
>> Over with the defensive backs, the players were working on hauling in over-the-shoulder catches. Isaac Gifford was seen making an great one-handed grab. When the large group of DBs split up into smaller groups, grad assistant Shelvin Smith was coaching one of them. Smith is a former Baylor corner and played in Waco from 2019-21. It's Smith's first season with the Nebraska program.
>> Matt Rhule and Evan Cooper were side-by-side talking on the far side of the outdoor practice field, discussing things back and forth for the entirety of punt return and kickoff drills.
>> Dr. Susan Elza joined them for a short time, too, as she has been present throughout all of camp when we have had media availability and open practice windows. Elza has shown up at nearly every press conference, usually “in the shadows,” so to speak, observing as coaches and players take the podiums. She almost always goes unnoticed as purely an observer of interviews – with the exception of Monday, when a funny presser moment occurred when receivers coach Garret McGuire was answering questions and stopped to acknowledge Elza being back behind the cameras.
>> As Steve noted: the punt return order was Kemp, Garcia-Castaneda, Bullock and Nation. A true freshman cornerback out of Georgia, Nation was taking more reps at punt return than we have seen during the first two open periods. I actually can’t recall seeing him field any punt returns during those two sessions. Nation looked shifty and has quick feet, making lateral cuts and jump cuts where his feet basically glide across the grass when he moves.
>> Nation was singled out by Rhule on Saturday as a standout punt returner from the scrimmage who is “gonna be dynamic someday. Maybe it’s now, I don’t know.” He was again singled out by Jeff Sims on Monday as the quarterback was asked if there were any individual standouts on defense from the scrimmage: “The defense came out there on fire, they were getting after the ball, they were all over the place. One player that stood out to me was a freshman corner – Ethan Nation – big, big energy guy. He made a lot of plays that day.”
>> Some more on Nation, as Rhule was asked about him at Tuesday’s post-practice presser and said he is an “aggressive” young cornerback: “I don’t know what his role is gonna be yet (this season). … He’s explosive and dynamic on punt return. He hasn’t done a lot of live returns yet. So I don’t have a great feel yet for (what his role could be this year).” Rhule said it comes down to maturity for a lot of young players because “everyone has the talent to play, but who has the right mindset? He has that confidence and swagger.”
>> A couple coaching moments that stood out:
>> McGuire jogging over to give a brief teaching point to Quinton Newsome as the veteran corner was repping as a backside gunner on a punt return rep.
>> Malachi Coleman sprinted down as a blocker on punt return with Nation fielding the ball. Omar Hales, the Huskers’ director of player personnel, shouted to Coleman from the sideline: “Beat him to the spot! Beat him to the spot!” Coleman did, in fact, beat the gunner to the spot, being able to position himself right in front of the gunner, cutting him off and allowing Nation to catch a clean kick and cut upfield: “Great rep Malachiiiiii! Good (stuff) my guy!” Hales hollered before dapping up Coleman when he returned to the sideline.
>> Not a groundbreaking observation here: Both Hales and head strength coach Corey Campbell spent some time as waterboys this morning.
>> The quarterbacks were practicing indoors during punt return action. Sims, Heinrich Haarberg, Chubba Purdy and Jack Woche – in that order – were working on taking shotgun snaps, looking off defenders in the middle of the field by turning their head and eyes toward receiving targets up the left sideline, and then they quickly rotated their vision back toward the middle of the field where they were banging the ball into their pass catchers’ hands on deep post routes and short-to-intermediate inward-breaking routes.
>> Something subtle that I found notable: All four quarterbacks have essentially the same type of throwing motion on those passes in the middle of the field. Sims and Haarberg were probably the most identical with their motions. It’s a very short, compact and quick throwing motion and ball release. Watching Marcus Satterfield talk with the quarterbacks, it appears to be something that the staff has harped on – all the guys being in sync with the same motion/release on those quicker throws across the middle.
>> The quarterbacks and running backs then got together outside to work on the run game. Quarterback-Running Back pairings: Sims and Gabe Ervin Jr., Haarberg and Anthony Grant, Purdy and Rahmir Johnson, Woche and Kwinten Ives, Haarberg and Emmett Johnson. Not much was standing out during those QB-RB rush game drills until: Sims took a shotgun snap with Ervin on his left side. The two instantly sprinted around the left tackle together before Sims encountered an assistant coach who was serving as a defensive end. Sims pitched the ball to Ervin, who sprinted upfield. It was a speed option play, which was followed by the rest of those same QB-RB pairs. Looks like the speed option is going to be installed in this offense in some capacity, and it was exciting to see.
>> Some thoughts on Ives: He’s tall. Really tall, especially for a running back. And he has a lot of length. He reminded me a bit of Latavius Murray with his height/length and the way he looked in his pre-snap stance in the backfield – both when he was a single back in the backfield and when he was standing next to Woche for shotgun snaps and the speed-option drill. The true freshman Ives is 6-foot-2 and only 185 pounds right now, and he’s very, very skinny. In other words: He has a ways to go before getting a true comparison to Murray, who is 6-3 and right now is listed at 230 pounds late in his career. Ives will certainly need to pack on muscle and strength, but the core foundation is there. He looks like he has the physical profile to add the necessary weight/muscle without any issues. I think running back will work out for him. If there’s a world, however, where adding that size does not come as seamlessly, I wonder if a position switch over to receiver would be possible. To be clear: That is purely speculation on my part and just a thought that jumped in my mind while watching him practice.
>> Ives is an impressive athlete with his physical traits, and he also impressed with his footwork. He showcased some quick feet on those option plays and on the next QB-RB drill – one where the QBs took shotgun snaps, simulated a chip block on edge defenders, then released into the flat on either a delayed route as the main target, or simply as the checkdown option to get the back in space on the perimeter. It looked like Ives was still getting comfortable with the process of that specific play/drill. But when he did get the ball, I thought he looked sharp with his agility and his cuts.
>> The quarterbacks, running backs, receivers and tight ends then joined up. On one half of the field were the X receivers running routes toward the end zone, and on the other half were the Ys and Zs (both receivers and tight ends) running toward the other end zone. The quarterbacks rotated between both groups.
>> In order, the X receivers, who ran routes simultaneously up each sideline: Kemp and Coleman, Elliott Brown and Alex Bullock, Jeremiah Charles and Ty Hahn, Brice Turner running a route solo. There was another receiver in the X group whose number I could not make out. It may have been Jaidyn Doss.
>> The Y receivers and Z receivers/tight ends group: On the left side were, in order, Garcia-Castaneda, Josh Fleeks, Jaylen Lloyd, Cooper Hausmann and Taveon Thompson. On the right side were, in order, Thomas Fidone, Nate Boerkircher, Arik Gilbert, Jake Appleget, Luke Lindenmeyer and Janiran Bonner.
>> I have a very high opinion of John Bullock, so I feel the need to at least give him a cursory mention in these observations. Throughout the spring and fall camp, multiple times he has just come off as that classic old-school linebacker. The latest example came both when watching Episode 2 of “A Look N” and again during Tuesday’s practice: He doesn’t wear gloves when he plays, contrary to every other non-quarterback on both sides of the ball. No gloves, just taped up wrists. Have to respect it.
>> Tony White has worked extensively with Cooper and the defensive backs during a good portion of the last two open practice sessions. It makes sense. He has a strong background with 11 total seasons as a cornerbacks coach at both San Diego State and Arizona State. It’s certainly a positive thing to have that type of experience coaching the defensive backs. White’s 11 seasons combine with Cooper having five seasons of experience as a cornerbacks coach at Baylor (two) and in the NFL with the Carolina Panthers (three).
nebraska.rivals.com
Here are a few observations from the morning:
>> As the media flooded into the Hawks Championship Center, defensive line coach Terrance Knighton was jokingly yelling to everyone, "You guys are late! We start at 8 a.m.! You guys are late!"
>> Here's a quick update on which players were seen in yellow jerseys, meaning they weren't practicing and were off to the side doing light conditioning: receiver Marcus Washington, offensive lineman Teddy Prochazka, tight end John Goodwin, Jack linebacker Jimari Butler and defensive backs Tommi Hill and Marques Buford Jr.
>> Buford, whose season ended with a knee injury in last year's game against Wisconsin, was seen running 50-yard sprints at a good pace. The staff is obviously trying to be smart with Buford as he rehabs.
>> Offensive lineman Nouredin Nouili, who was seen in a green "limited" jersey during the last open practice last week, was back in white and working full-go. The big German didn't look like anything was slowing him. He looked good in blocking drills.
>> Sticking with the offensive line, position coach Donovan Raiola was breathing the same fire he did during the last practice the media got to view. We don't need to rehash what Raiola is like — if he sees a good rep, he yells "good" and moves on to the next. If he sees something he doesn't like, he's correcting it — loudly and aggressively — on the spot and making the linemen do the drill again until it gets right.
>> There were two NFL scouts at practice today — from the Bears and Vikings — and both were watching the Huskers' O-line work out. Their eyes didn't really leave Raiola's unit.
>> When the tight ends came over to do blocking drills with the O-line, Thomas Fidone II had a great rep, and controlled his drill partner from the start and was driving him back easily. The next rep from Fidone, though, wasn't as good. As it ended, assistant O-line coach Aaron Coeling went up to Fidone and told the tight end to make sure his thumbs were up on his initial strike.
>> As the tight ends were entering the O-line's territory in Hawks, position coach Josh Martin was heard giving some last-second instructions before the blocking drills started: "Pad level, pad level, pad level, let's go!"
>> The primary players seen returning punts were Billy Kemp IV, Isaiah Garcia-Castaneda, Alex Bullock and Ethan Nation. Nation, the true freshman from Georgia, can scoot and is continuing to show he's going to be one of the freshmen who carve out a role in his first season in Lincoln.
>> Graduate assistant Jack Potenza, who came to Nebraska after working under Tony White at Syracuse, was seen coaching the Jack linebackers. With Butler not practicing Tuesday, Garrett Snodgrass was with the Jacks. Snodgrass usually works with the inside linebackers.
>> Over at the receivers, position coach Garret McGuire was getting some work in with his guys. During one specific drill, the receivers were practicing their five-yard stop routes, where they explode off the line of scrimmage and after 5 yards, stop and show the quarterbacks their hands. McGuire was heard yelling, "Punch and pivot at the top! Bring your hands and eyes!"
>> Over with the defensive backs, the players were working on hauling in over-the-shoulder catches. Isaac Gifford was seen making an great one-handed grab. When the large group of DBs split up into smaller groups, grad assistant Shelvin Smith was coaching one of them. Smith is a former Baylor corner and played in Waco from 2019-21. It's Smith's first season with the Nebraska program.
Zack Carpenter's Observations:
>> In addition to the six guys held out of practice in yellow jerseys, walk-on linebacker Michael Booker III was in a green limited jersey. Other than the quarterbacks and Booker, I didn’t see any other players wearing a green no-contact jersey. Prochazka and Washington were two of the notables in yellow, as Steve mentioned, and they were working with the training staff on stabilization and balance by holding a large medicine ball and doing slow bends side-to-side on the adjacent practice field outside.>> Matt Rhule and Evan Cooper were side-by-side talking on the far side of the outdoor practice field, discussing things back and forth for the entirety of punt return and kickoff drills.
>> Dr. Susan Elza joined them for a short time, too, as she has been present throughout all of camp when we have had media availability and open practice windows. Elza has shown up at nearly every press conference, usually “in the shadows,” so to speak, observing as coaches and players take the podiums. She almost always goes unnoticed as purely an observer of interviews – with the exception of Monday, when a funny presser moment occurred when receivers coach Garret McGuire was answering questions and stopped to acknowledge Elza being back behind the cameras.
>> As Steve noted: the punt return order was Kemp, Garcia-Castaneda, Bullock and Nation. A true freshman cornerback out of Georgia, Nation was taking more reps at punt return than we have seen during the first two open periods. I actually can’t recall seeing him field any punt returns during those two sessions. Nation looked shifty and has quick feet, making lateral cuts and jump cuts where his feet basically glide across the grass when he moves.
>> Nation was singled out by Rhule on Saturday as a standout punt returner from the scrimmage who is “gonna be dynamic someday. Maybe it’s now, I don’t know.” He was again singled out by Jeff Sims on Monday as the quarterback was asked if there were any individual standouts on defense from the scrimmage: “The defense came out there on fire, they were getting after the ball, they were all over the place. One player that stood out to me was a freshman corner – Ethan Nation – big, big energy guy. He made a lot of plays that day.”
>> Some more on Nation, as Rhule was asked about him at Tuesday’s post-practice presser and said he is an “aggressive” young cornerback: “I don’t know what his role is gonna be yet (this season). … He’s explosive and dynamic on punt return. He hasn’t done a lot of live returns yet. So I don’t have a great feel yet for (what his role could be this year).” Rhule said it comes down to maturity for a lot of young players because “everyone has the talent to play, but who has the right mindset? He has that confidence and swagger.”
>> A couple coaching moments that stood out:
>> McGuire jogging over to give a brief teaching point to Quinton Newsome as the veteran corner was repping as a backside gunner on a punt return rep.
>> Malachi Coleman sprinted down as a blocker on punt return with Nation fielding the ball. Omar Hales, the Huskers’ director of player personnel, shouted to Coleman from the sideline: “Beat him to the spot! Beat him to the spot!” Coleman did, in fact, beat the gunner to the spot, being able to position himself right in front of the gunner, cutting him off and allowing Nation to catch a clean kick and cut upfield: “Great rep Malachiiiiii! Good (stuff) my guy!” Hales hollered before dapping up Coleman when he returned to the sideline.
>> Not a groundbreaking observation here: Both Hales and head strength coach Corey Campbell spent some time as waterboys this morning.
>> The quarterbacks were practicing indoors during punt return action. Sims, Heinrich Haarberg, Chubba Purdy and Jack Woche – in that order – were working on taking shotgun snaps, looking off defenders in the middle of the field by turning their head and eyes toward receiving targets up the left sideline, and then they quickly rotated their vision back toward the middle of the field where they were banging the ball into their pass catchers’ hands on deep post routes and short-to-intermediate inward-breaking routes.
>> Something subtle that I found notable: All four quarterbacks have essentially the same type of throwing motion on those passes in the middle of the field. Sims and Haarberg were probably the most identical with their motions. It’s a very short, compact and quick throwing motion and ball release. Watching Marcus Satterfield talk with the quarterbacks, it appears to be something that the staff has harped on – all the guys being in sync with the same motion/release on those quicker throws across the middle.
>> The quarterbacks and running backs then got together outside to work on the run game. Quarterback-Running Back pairings: Sims and Gabe Ervin Jr., Haarberg and Anthony Grant, Purdy and Rahmir Johnson, Woche and Kwinten Ives, Haarberg and Emmett Johnson. Not much was standing out during those QB-RB rush game drills until: Sims took a shotgun snap with Ervin on his left side. The two instantly sprinted around the left tackle together before Sims encountered an assistant coach who was serving as a defensive end. Sims pitched the ball to Ervin, who sprinted upfield. It was a speed option play, which was followed by the rest of those same QB-RB pairs. Looks like the speed option is going to be installed in this offense in some capacity, and it was exciting to see.
>> Some thoughts on Ives: He’s tall. Really tall, especially for a running back. And he has a lot of length. He reminded me a bit of Latavius Murray with his height/length and the way he looked in his pre-snap stance in the backfield – both when he was a single back in the backfield and when he was standing next to Woche for shotgun snaps and the speed-option drill. The true freshman Ives is 6-foot-2 and only 185 pounds right now, and he’s very, very skinny. In other words: He has a ways to go before getting a true comparison to Murray, who is 6-3 and right now is listed at 230 pounds late in his career. Ives will certainly need to pack on muscle and strength, but the core foundation is there. He looks like he has the physical profile to add the necessary weight/muscle without any issues. I think running back will work out for him. If there’s a world, however, where adding that size does not come as seamlessly, I wonder if a position switch over to receiver would be possible. To be clear: That is purely speculation on my part and just a thought that jumped in my mind while watching him practice.
>> Ives is an impressive athlete with his physical traits, and he also impressed with his footwork. He showcased some quick feet on those option plays and on the next QB-RB drill – one where the QBs took shotgun snaps, simulated a chip block on edge defenders, then released into the flat on either a delayed route as the main target, or simply as the checkdown option to get the back in space on the perimeter. It looked like Ives was still getting comfortable with the process of that specific play/drill. But when he did get the ball, I thought he looked sharp with his agility and his cuts.
>> The quarterbacks, running backs, receivers and tight ends then joined up. On one half of the field were the X receivers running routes toward the end zone, and on the other half were the Ys and Zs (both receivers and tight ends) running toward the other end zone. The quarterbacks rotated between both groups.
>> In order, the X receivers, who ran routes simultaneously up each sideline: Kemp and Coleman, Elliott Brown and Alex Bullock, Jeremiah Charles and Ty Hahn, Brice Turner running a route solo. There was another receiver in the X group whose number I could not make out. It may have been Jaidyn Doss.
>> The Y receivers and Z receivers/tight ends group: On the left side were, in order, Garcia-Castaneda, Josh Fleeks, Jaylen Lloyd, Cooper Hausmann and Taveon Thompson. On the right side were, in order, Thomas Fidone, Nate Boerkircher, Arik Gilbert, Jake Appleget, Luke Lindenmeyer and Janiran Bonner.
>> I have a very high opinion of John Bullock, so I feel the need to at least give him a cursory mention in these observations. Throughout the spring and fall camp, multiple times he has just come off as that classic old-school linebacker. The latest example came both when watching Episode 2 of “A Look N” and again during Tuesday’s practice: He doesn’t wear gloves when he plays, contrary to every other non-quarterback on both sides of the ball. No gloves, just taped up wrists. Have to respect it.
>> Tony White has worked extensively with Cooper and the defensive backs during a good portion of the last two open practice sessions. It makes sense. He has a strong background with 11 total seasons as a cornerbacks coach at both San Diego State and Arizona State. It’s certainly a positive thing to have that type of experience coaching the defensive backs. White’s 11 seasons combine with Cooper having five seasons of experience as a cornerbacks coach at Baylor (two) and in the NFL with the Carolina Panthers (three).
InsideNebraska - Practice Observations: Quick notes from Huskers' 14th fall camp practice
The Huskers held their 14th practice of fall camp on Tuesday. Here are observations from a portion open to the media.
nebraska.rivals.com
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I understand I'm probably being too negative here, but Rhule put his brother on scholly. And he's not even beating out Heinrich, so my thought is how good can he be?
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@slattimer isn't this a change from what we've understood Donny's teaching on hand placement to be?
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That opening music and the Rhule voiceover is just giving me all sorts of Friday Night Lights vibes and I'm absolutely here for it.
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This one was a tough one to get through if you know what I'm saying -
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