Here are the main things that stood out to the HOL staff from Saturday's full-pads practice:
Dan's Observations
***Daniel Davie was wearing a walking boot on his right foot but was getting around pretty well and wasn't using crutches. Charles Jackson didn't practice but also didn't have a brace on his leg.
***Also not practicing were De'Mornay Pierson-El, Jordan Westerkamp, Lane Hovey, Zach Sterup, David Santos and Jamal Turner.
***Tommy Armstrong did not have a strong day. He was inaccurate with his passes and threw a trio of interceptions to Trai Mosley, who struggled for parts of practice but finished very strong. Mosley and Jonathan Rose were the No. 1 corners with Davie and Jackson out.
***Vincent Valentine had a great day. His ability to abuse guards and center inside with his pass rush is impressive. His strength is tough to match.
***Luke McNitt continues to intrigue me as a tight end. He made the best catch of the day, a diving snag on a crossing route about 15 yards downfield.
***One of my favorite drills to watch is when the offensive and defensive linemen go one on one. A few observations from that session:
***Maliek Collins CANNOT be blocked one on one. He routinely abused whoever he was up against.
***Jerald Foster struggled a bit against speed rushers, but he has great strength and footwork. He had one great rep that earned him dap from Collins.
***Sedrick King absolutely smoked Matt Finnin on back-to-back reps with his speed rush.
***Mick Stoltenberg may need some time and seasoning at defensive tackle, but he looked great today. His quickness wil really serve him well there.
***Nick Gates has a big future in front of him. It might not be for another year or two, but his guy is going to make an impact.
***Among those fielding punts during drills: Josh Kalu, Mikale Wilbon, Terrell Newby, Glenn Irons, Avery Anderson, Eric Lee and Chris Jones.
***Expect to see a lot of wide receiver screens and runs in this offense. Mike Riley is going to take advantage of the speed and quickness of these receivers.
Nate's observations
***I thought today's practice had good energy and one of the first things I noticed was the amount of communication that was taking place. There was a lot of chatter on both sides of the ball, guys making play calls and making adjustments to what they were seeing on across the ball. You can tell that the team is picking things up and feeling much more comfortable with their assignments.
***It was great to see so many in-state kids at today's practice for Nebraska's junior day. There were also a number of high school head coaches in attendance which was good to see as well.
***I spoke with a couple of the high school head coaches and they mentioned to me that they had a chance to speak with the new In-State recruiting coordinator Chris Brasfield and they were very impressed with him.
***I thought the quarterbacks struggled for the most part today. There was some good and some bad with nearly everyone in the group. There was one play from Armstrong that stood out to me. He progressed through his reads and ended up finding tight end Cethan Carter wide open underneath the linebackers for a nice check down completion.
***Cornerback Trai Mosley probably had his best practice as a Husker today. He had three interceptions of off Tommy Armsstrong and had a couple more breakups. On the first play during the team period Greg McMullen deflected a swing pass from Armstrong and Mosley scooped it up and scored. I'm pretty sure that it was a forward pass, but it was still a nice play by everyone and kind of set the tone for the defense. Mosley has really stepped up in absence of Daniel Davie. He's one of the smallest corners on the team, but he's still very physical in addition to having great speed.
***The defensive line as a whole looked pretty good today. All of the starters made big plays and there were times where Collins and Valentine looked unstoppable in the middle.
***True freshmen defensive backs Aaron Williams and Eric Lee got quite a few reps with the upper units today and performed well.
***WR Glenn Irons is a guy that got a ton of reps today and should figure into the mix going forward.
Sean's Observations
***Saturday was once again another perfect weather day for practice. You seriously couldn't have drawn it up any better. Lot of people at practice. Former Huskers Tommie Frazier, Clester Johnson and Kris Brown were there. Also several high school coaches and prospects for the Junior Day.
***I noticed Kris Brown and Brian Stewart really talking at the beginning. Stewart was one of Brown's coaches with the Houston Texans.
***Saturday was the Trai Mosley practice. He picked off Tommy Armstrong three times in about a 20 minute period. He also scooped up a batted down pass by Greg McMulllen that was probably incomplete, but they played it live. It was good to see a new young name emerge.
***With the injuries at wide receiver to Westerkamp and Pierson-El, guys like Glenn Irons are getting a ton more work. Today I would once again say Brandon Reilly looked the best of the wide-outs, but several others are getting plenty of work.
***I've said this about every time we've watched practice, but tight end Luke McNitt once again flashed.
***I felt like in general the defense had the upper hand for most of the day. There just weren't a lot of good deep balls thrown by the quarterbacks either.
***There were a couple of moments today where Vincent Valentine looked like a unblockable force in the middle.
***I noticed they were running a lot of power looks today from the pistol. The quarterback would have a fullback lined up next to him with a running back behind him. It was definitely a new wrinkle. They were even using Imani Cross at fullback.
***You could tell they wanted to go a little easy today as this was their fifth practice since last Saturday. There was no live tackling in any of the scrimmage situations.
Robin's Observations[/B]
***True freshman Avery Anderson just has a bounce in his step on the field that makes him seem like potential star at the college level. Whether it's returning punts or covering receivers, Anderson is a guy that just looks like he belongs out there.
***One thing I noticed today that explains one of the early issues Nebraska's quarterbacks and wide receivers are having at times in the passing game is a change in philosophy with how NU's new staff wants its receivers to run comeback routes along the sideline. They want the receivers to come back inside and seal off the defensive back with their bodies and come back to the ball. The problem is in the old system wide outs were encouraged to drift out towards the sideline so the QB could throw away from the defender. We've seen quite a few instances where receivers are going in and QBs are throwing it out just because that's what they've always been taught.
***Trai Mosley will get a lot of hype for his big day on Saturday, but it was really a very strong finish after a somewhat shaky start. Either way, Mosley certainly made the most of his reps with the top defense with Davie and Jackson out.
***If you were to create a running back on a college football video game, chances are you would build him to look like Adam Taylor. While guys like Imani Cross and Terrell Newby all bring different skillsets to the table, Taylor looks to be the one guy in that backfield that can really do it all. I was also told today that Taylor might have been one of the most impressive players on the team during NU's winter conditioning, and that the strength coaches couldn't believe how strong he was for his size.
***It's been good to see Corey Whitaker out there in pads this week. That guy has been through a lot with injury setbacks, and hopefully he can stay healthy enough to make a push for some playing time on the offensive line.
***I really have enjoyed the "chirping" that's been going on between the offense and defense during 7-on-7 and full-team work. It's clear both sides of the ball have a lot of pride in how they perform in practice, and they both won't hesitate to let the other side know about it when they get the best of them on a rep.
This post was edited on 3/14 3:42 PM by Robin Washut
Dan's Observations
***Daniel Davie was wearing a walking boot on his right foot but was getting around pretty well and wasn't using crutches. Charles Jackson didn't practice but also didn't have a brace on his leg.
***Also not practicing were De'Mornay Pierson-El, Jordan Westerkamp, Lane Hovey, Zach Sterup, David Santos and Jamal Turner.
***Tommy Armstrong did not have a strong day. He was inaccurate with his passes and threw a trio of interceptions to Trai Mosley, who struggled for parts of practice but finished very strong. Mosley and Jonathan Rose were the No. 1 corners with Davie and Jackson out.
***Vincent Valentine had a great day. His ability to abuse guards and center inside with his pass rush is impressive. His strength is tough to match.
***Luke McNitt continues to intrigue me as a tight end. He made the best catch of the day, a diving snag on a crossing route about 15 yards downfield.
***One of my favorite drills to watch is when the offensive and defensive linemen go one on one. A few observations from that session:
***Maliek Collins CANNOT be blocked one on one. He routinely abused whoever he was up against.
***Jerald Foster struggled a bit against speed rushers, but he has great strength and footwork. He had one great rep that earned him dap from Collins.
***Sedrick King absolutely smoked Matt Finnin on back-to-back reps with his speed rush.
***Mick Stoltenberg may need some time and seasoning at defensive tackle, but he looked great today. His quickness wil really serve him well there.
***Nick Gates has a big future in front of him. It might not be for another year or two, but his guy is going to make an impact.
***Among those fielding punts during drills: Josh Kalu, Mikale Wilbon, Terrell Newby, Glenn Irons, Avery Anderson, Eric Lee and Chris Jones.
***Expect to see a lot of wide receiver screens and runs in this offense. Mike Riley is going to take advantage of the speed and quickness of these receivers.
Nate's observations
***I thought today's practice had good energy and one of the first things I noticed was the amount of communication that was taking place. There was a lot of chatter on both sides of the ball, guys making play calls and making adjustments to what they were seeing on across the ball. You can tell that the team is picking things up and feeling much more comfortable with their assignments.
***It was great to see so many in-state kids at today's practice for Nebraska's junior day. There were also a number of high school head coaches in attendance which was good to see as well.
***I spoke with a couple of the high school head coaches and they mentioned to me that they had a chance to speak with the new In-State recruiting coordinator Chris Brasfield and they were very impressed with him.
***I thought the quarterbacks struggled for the most part today. There was some good and some bad with nearly everyone in the group. There was one play from Armstrong that stood out to me. He progressed through his reads and ended up finding tight end Cethan Carter wide open underneath the linebackers for a nice check down completion.
***Cornerback Trai Mosley probably had his best practice as a Husker today. He had three interceptions of off Tommy Armsstrong and had a couple more breakups. On the first play during the team period Greg McMullen deflected a swing pass from Armstrong and Mosley scooped it up and scored. I'm pretty sure that it was a forward pass, but it was still a nice play by everyone and kind of set the tone for the defense. Mosley has really stepped up in absence of Daniel Davie. He's one of the smallest corners on the team, but he's still very physical in addition to having great speed.
***The defensive line as a whole looked pretty good today. All of the starters made big plays and there were times where Collins and Valentine looked unstoppable in the middle.
***True freshmen defensive backs Aaron Williams and Eric Lee got quite a few reps with the upper units today and performed well.
***WR Glenn Irons is a guy that got a ton of reps today and should figure into the mix going forward.
Sean's Observations
***Saturday was once again another perfect weather day for practice. You seriously couldn't have drawn it up any better. Lot of people at practice. Former Huskers Tommie Frazier, Clester Johnson and Kris Brown were there. Also several high school coaches and prospects for the Junior Day.
***I noticed Kris Brown and Brian Stewart really talking at the beginning. Stewart was one of Brown's coaches with the Houston Texans.
***Saturday was the Trai Mosley practice. He picked off Tommy Armstrong three times in about a 20 minute period. He also scooped up a batted down pass by Greg McMulllen that was probably incomplete, but they played it live. It was good to see a new young name emerge.
***With the injuries at wide receiver to Westerkamp and Pierson-El, guys like Glenn Irons are getting a ton more work. Today I would once again say Brandon Reilly looked the best of the wide-outs, but several others are getting plenty of work.
***I've said this about every time we've watched practice, but tight end Luke McNitt once again flashed.
***I felt like in general the defense had the upper hand for most of the day. There just weren't a lot of good deep balls thrown by the quarterbacks either.
***There were a couple of moments today where Vincent Valentine looked like a unblockable force in the middle.
***I noticed they were running a lot of power looks today from the pistol. The quarterback would have a fullback lined up next to him with a running back behind him. It was definitely a new wrinkle. They were even using Imani Cross at fullback.
***You could tell they wanted to go a little easy today as this was their fifth practice since last Saturday. There was no live tackling in any of the scrimmage situations.
Robin's Observations[/B]
***True freshman Avery Anderson just has a bounce in his step on the field that makes him seem like potential star at the college level. Whether it's returning punts or covering receivers, Anderson is a guy that just looks like he belongs out there.
***One thing I noticed today that explains one of the early issues Nebraska's quarterbacks and wide receivers are having at times in the passing game is a change in philosophy with how NU's new staff wants its receivers to run comeback routes along the sideline. They want the receivers to come back inside and seal off the defensive back with their bodies and come back to the ball. The problem is in the old system wide outs were encouraged to drift out towards the sideline so the QB could throw away from the defender. We've seen quite a few instances where receivers are going in and QBs are throwing it out just because that's what they've always been taught.
***Trai Mosley will get a lot of hype for his big day on Saturday, but it was really a very strong finish after a somewhat shaky start. Either way, Mosley certainly made the most of his reps with the top defense with Davie and Jackson out.
***If you were to create a running back on a college football video game, chances are you would build him to look like Adam Taylor. While guys like Imani Cross and Terrell Newby all bring different skillsets to the table, Taylor looks to be the one guy in that backfield that can really do it all. I was also told today that Taylor might have been one of the most impressive players on the team during NU's winter conditioning, and that the strength coaches couldn't believe how strong he was for his size.
***It's been good to see Corey Whitaker out there in pads this week. That guy has been through a lot with injury setbacks, and hopefully he can stay healthy enough to make a push for some playing time on the offensive line.
***I really have enjoyed the "chirping" that's been going on between the offense and defense during 7-on-7 and full-team work. It's clear both sides of the ball have a lot of pride in how they perform in practice, and they both won't hesitate to let the other side know about it when they get the best of them on a rep.
This post was edited on 3/14 3:42 PM by Robin Washut
