Quick Hits Tuesday Press Conference

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Husker Tuesday Quick Hits: Coordinator chatter, and who might be available?​

ByBRIAN CHRISTOPHERSON 52 minutes ago

These are not the games you hide from, these are the games you seek out if you're a competitor.

Markese Stepp, who had one of his best games as a USC running back against Notre Dame in one of those classic 'helmet games' in college football, said of Nebraska's test on Saturday with Oklahoma, “If you’re not living for games like this, shoot, you might as well not even be playing football.”

The people said, Amen.

Quick Hits:

Offensive coordinator Matt Lubick said if a guy is nicked up, and the Huskers have their share of skilled guys nicked up lately, "We really try to make that guy take mental reps, which is different ... He's playing the play with his mind and our guys have really been in tune and locked into that stuff."


Searching for clues about who might be available, it was asked if Oliver Martin was a guy who has been doing that well. "He's a great example. He's a guy that hasn't played the last couple games, but hopefully plays this week. But when he wasn't in there the last few weeks – we were hoping he would play last week – he was really locked in. We felt like mentally he could play. Now there's still no substitute for the game reps, but he wants to be out there, taking advantage and learning from other people's reps."

Lubick thought his wide receivers had depth in the preseason, "and we've needed that depth, with the circumstances being what they are."

Travis Vokolek? Lubick didn't give away if the tight end was available but said, "Point of attack guy, very cerebral, so you can do a ton of things with him. He's another guy, even though he hasn't played, he's been locked in, taking every rep mentally." The coach thinks Vokolek can do the same stuff Austin Allen can being split out as a receiver, looking for mismatches. "He just gives you a lot of flexibility with different things you can do. He just brings a physicality... that's contagious." Don't underestimate how the Huskers have missed him in the run game.

"We're hopeful he's going to play," Lubick said.

Lubick said OU's defense keeps things relatively simple, and meant it in a good way, because it helps the Sooners play fast.

"They do enough things too to cause some problems. They move around a lot so you have to know where they are. They're physical. They get off on the ball. They have the ability to bring pressure and they cover well ... When you cover well in the back end, that helps your pass rush, so we have our work cut out for us."

He's also impressed with how many guys the Sooners rotate in on defense, saying they go two or three deep in the secondary, and keep the front seven fresh. "It's a credit to their coaching, because the 2s and 3s know what they're doing and are playing fast, and it's also a tribute to the way they've recruited the talent that they have that they can do that and there's no drop off."

Gabe Ervin is getting more comfortable, but there were also better holes for him last week, Lubick said.

"I thought he took advantage of the holes. He might have taken some unfair criticism, especially in the first game where there wasn't a lot of room. ... It showed that he's pretty good when he gets the ball in space, and he did a good job getting the ball and running downhill. And he's done a really good job of pass protection, which I think really goes unnoticed by fans. Some of the throws Adrian gets off is because (Ervin) stepped up and blocked somebody."

Ervin's maturity is really showing to coaches.

"We expect him to play like a senior, because he's in there. He's handled that well. Like everyone he's made some mistakes, but a big thing of his mental toughness and maturity is he has battled back from those mistakes. And he hasn't let a mistake get him down."

Lubick said Adrian Martinez had only four or five runs called where he was the primary guy last week.

"But kind of the nature of our offense, whether it's a pass play where no one's open, or the coverage dictates you to run. Or it's a run play and the read tells you to run, sometimes that happens. He's a good play that can make people miss in space and do a lot of good things with the football. But to answer your question there wasn't a lot of designed runs for him to actually be the guy."

Lubick said a lot of the big plays in the last game came when Martinez was on his second or third progression. "Like the big play to Samori was that way. The one penalty (that called a TD back), that was the same thing. He's done a really good job of understanding his progression and getting through them fast."

While guys are excited about being in an old rivalry game, Lubick said it's "all business" from his standpoint.

"It's an awesome opportunity for them to play on a big stage. I think everyone gets that. But at the end of the day as a coach, all you can really do is control what you can control, which is your best possible effort as a coach or player at the moment and take every game the same. ... You can't get caught up in all the other staff ... So as a coach, it really is another game. It really is. ... We've been preparing for this for a long time, but we've been preparing for other games for a long time as well."

Defensive coordinator Erik Chinander said OU quarterback Spencer Rattler is one of those rare guys who can make every throw, and also keep alive a play for a few seconds longer to make a throw.

"And he's a threat running the football. Not only that, but most of those guys (at quarterback) ... once they get flushed in the pocket, they want to take it down and run it. He's going to extend some plays and he's going to make throws down field. And those receivers know how to work and get open when the play breaks down."


Chinander said it's always the head coach's call on whether to play defense or offense first if winning the coin toss.

"But as far as what I like, I love it," he said of sending his crew out on the field first. "Let's put out there first. Let's set the tone of this football game. Our guys know that the biggest series of the game is either the first series of the first quarter, or the first series of the third quarter whenever they put us out there. But I really like it when I know the plan ahead of time and I can let the guys know, 'If we win the toss, Shirts are going out first.' It gets those guys excited and I know they like playing first."