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Nebraska Football Tuesday practice quick hits
ByMICHAEL BRUNTZ 3 hours ago19
Quick hits, news and notes from Nebraska’s Tuesday practice:
— Outside linebackers coach Mike Dawson said Caleb Tannor was flagged for roughing the passer because of the way he finished the play. Dawson said the video didn’t show Tannor taunting Illinois or its players after the play.
— Dawson said kicker Connor Culp was 7-for-7 on kicks on Friday ahead of the matchup with Illinois. He said Culp had been hitting the ball well in practice before missing a pair of extra points against Illinois. Dawson said Culp will be back out as the starting kicker for Nebraska against Fordham.
— Dawson called Cam Taylor-Britt catching the ball inside the 2-yard line a “poor decision.” Sean Beckton, who coaches punt and kick returners, said Taylor-Britt was first up with the punt returners in practice on Tuesday.
“He knows that, I think a guy that was probably excited to start off this year, I think we all had great expectations in the anticipation, but you know that's something that he knows that we've drilled and he's done that we work all the different situations with returns,” Dawson said.
– Beckton said the Huskers have an 8-yard-line rule that you aren't supposed to field punts beyond. More on that in a coming story. "My big thing is don't let one mistake become two mistakes by trying to do too much," Dawson said of that flub. "Just be you and do what you're supposed to do. Caleb, on his, you don't need to finish the guy like that. We need to be able to run the ball. There was a great shot with Pheldarius on the ball that we actually recovered, that was a catch and a fumble, of him missing it, but it was able to bounce to one of our guys."
Dawson notes Payne was out there rushing the QB on that play and still made it back to where the ball was fumbled in the secondary with hustle.
— Dawson speculated that freshman punter Daniel Cerni may have felt the pressure of his first college game.
“I think he got into the heat of the battle and may have tried to be perfect instead of swinging your leg like you’re supposed to and relying on your drop,” Dawson said. “He’s got to be able to trust his technique and be able to do that.
– He thought Brendan Franke "executed well" as the kickoff guy, both with the wind and against it.
— Defensive tackle Ben Stille said the heat wasn’t as big of an issue as it was made out to be. Nebraska primarily rotated four defensive linemen, but Stille said the workload wasn’t too tough because Nebraska spent a good amount of the game in nickel, which only requires two defensive linemen.
— Stille said Nebraska needs to be better in the third quarter coming out of the locker room.
“It’s going to take us giving some more attention to it,” Stille said. “Knowing that mentally it’s different than the beginning of the game and warmup and all that. It’s just different so we have to be aware of that.”
– Beckton said Zavier Betts is definitely his No. 1 kick returner even though Rahmir Johnson got some looks late. Beckton believes Betts is a natural at it, and hopes he gets to show what he can do with some better blocking.
– Travis Vokolek has been following the game script just like he's playing. I wouldn't expect that to mean he is playing, but he's staying engaged and Beckton agreed he's close to a return.
– Austin Allen had a couple of key missed blocks and Chris Hickman didn't set himself right on a couple of routes for Adrian Martinez, according to Beckton. They played well 95 percent of the time, but he stressed the misses in their meeting to start the week.
– Even with the loss, Allen is expecting an atmosphere similar to the Akron game a few years back because he thinks fans are eager to get in the stadium and watch football again.
– Defensive coordinator Erik Chinander said the Huskers had a good game defensively, but missed opportunities on it being a great game. "I think when you're talking going from a good game to a great game, you have to be finer with your details. You can't have any almosts, or my bads. There was a 45-yard run, a couple false steps to the right then fall back, and miss the hole. Stuff like that.
"The penalties on the one play was a big factor. If we had not had that, we had a penalty-free game on that side of the ball, and that's a pretty big deal in this day and age. It's hard to get that... So that was an opportunity to be elite in that regard. And then also, getting a second turnover. If you're getting 2 1/2 to three turnovers a game, you're playing pretty good get-after it defense. So subtract that off the board. That was a big error as well."
– The challenge going forward: Take that energy and speed on defense the first quarter and a half, and build on that, stepping on teams when you have the chance to earn that opportunity to fly around and rush the QB as was happening early.
– Allen said he wants to see the Huskers not stoop to the competition. He said he didn't want to belittle Fordham, but the point was understood: Take care of an FCS program like you're supposed to at Nebraska. Marquel Dismuke also said the Huskers need to take the field with everything to prove, since they haven't show anything yet. He said teams like Fordham, at this point, think they can come and compete. So you need to prove that's wrong.
– Matt Lubick somewhat downplayed the Illinois front-changeup conversation. "We did think they were going to be in odd, but we had a lot of meetings on, 'Hey, what if they come out in this?'" Lubick said. The coach added that there was another cheat sheet for calls if the Illini came out in even. Some of those plays were used. "And we didn't have the results we'd like to have."
Lubick said you try to call plays that have answers versus multiple fronts. "And we have to continue to do that. Because at the end of the day, a defense can do a whole bunch of different things and you've got to be prepared for it."
