Spring Practice is entering the grind.
Video
http://www.huskermax.com/games/2016/vid/00/2016_03_15_fifth_practice.html
Video
http://www.huskermax.com/games/2016/vid/00/2016_03_15_fifth_practice.html
Spring Practice Thread: Day 5
- Thread starter jeans15
- Start date
Notes and Quotes :
- McKewon, " As if shot from a cannon, Nebraska freshman defensive tackle Khalil Davis bolts into the backfield and tackles a Husker runner for a 5-yard loss. On the next play, he forces another poor run by dominating his man. He gets a fist bump from defensive line coach John Parrella. "
- Sophomore defensive tackle Peyton Newell is practicing only at defensive tackle and has put on 40 pounds of weight since last season.
— Westerkamp and Morgan are still not practicing. (groin)
— Akinmoladun on Alex Davis, noted that the redshirt freshman is quick and that fans are going to be impressed with what Davis can do on the field
- Parrella says O-line is "giving us fits" at times. He sees a positive in the challenge. "You need great players to hammer on you every day."
- McKewon, " As if shot from a cannon, Nebraska freshman defensive tackle Khalil Davis bolts into the backfield and tackles a Husker runner for a 5-yard loss. On the next play, he forces another poor run by dominating his man. He gets a fist bump from defensive line coach John Parrella. "
- Sophomore defensive tackle Peyton Newell is practicing only at defensive tackle and has put on 40 pounds of weight since last season.
— Westerkamp and Morgan are still not practicing. (groin)
— Akinmoladun on Alex Davis, noted that the redshirt freshman is quick and that fans are going to be impressed with what Davis can do on the field
- Parrella says O-line is "giving us fits" at times. He sees a positive in the challenge. "You need great players to hammer on you every day."
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Worth noting - Lavan Alston has been the last player on the practice field the last few days. Good to hear, putting N work.
Weight gains:
Peyton Newell " has put on 40 pounds of weight since last season." (Since the beginning of the season I would hope)
Redshirt freshman defensive end Alex Davis has gained 40 pounds since arriving on campus last year.
Peyton Newell " has put on 40 pounds of weight since last season." (Since the beginning of the season I would hope)
Redshirt freshman defensive end Alex Davis has gained 40 pounds since arriving on campus last year.
Quick hits
***Banker said defensive end Freedom Akinmoladun “regressed” a bit last season after his injury and never quite returned the level he was during his hot start to the year. Banker said this spring has been about Akinmoladun focusing on being more “fluid” and confident on the field and utilizing his undeniable athleticism as a pass rusher.
***Banker said some of the biggest early surprises about his defense this spring have been how much more fluid and aggressive linebackers Josh Banderas, Dedrick Young and Marcus Newby have been in attacking the football. Also, he said cornerbacks Chris Jones and Joshua Kalu have been as consistent as ever, andGerry has really refined is overall game.
***Speaking of consistency, Banker said Kieron Williams has been much improved in that regard. In fact, he said Williams finally made his first real coverage mistake of the spring in today’s practice.
***Jones had good things to say about Nebraska’s first-string receivers, saying Alonzo Moore was the “smoothest” route runner on the team, and that Stanley Morgan was the most physical wide receiver on the squad. Jones also said they call Brandon Reilly “The Snatcher” because of how good his hands are.
***Some notable strength and conditioning gains to pass along on the defensive line: Peyton Newell said he’s up from 255 a year ago to 295 now, and his body composition was actually down two percent since last year. Also, Alex Davis said he’s up from 215 to 255, and that he’s ready to make an immediate impact this fall.
***Parrella said the Carlos and Khalil Davis are both working exclusively inside at tackle this spring, as he wants them to master the interior positions first before working on the outside.
When approached with the idea of moving from cornerback to safety this offseason, Avery Anderson was very receptive to the idea. It was his high school position and, though he didn't mind playing cornerback, there was a certain comfort in returning to his original spot.
And with Antonio Reed and Aaron Williams missing spring practices with injuries, the opportunity to compete for reps with the top team was there.
Anderson's switch hasn't been seamless, however. Defensive coordinator Mark Banker expected Anderson to make a quicker adjustment.
“It’s coming slower than I would personally like it," Banker said. "They can either hurt you or help you, your feet and your eyes, at just about every level of the defense. He needs to consistently work on his eye discipline and that will help him out a ton. Each practice there are fewer and fewer of those eye mistakes that he’s making.
'He’s great in meetings as far as learning and understanding. Now it’s just for him to get out on the field and put it into use.”
Anderson, who enrolled early last year and redshirted the 2015 campaign, said he had been discussing a potential switch with Brian Stewart basically since he arrived on campus. He agreed with Banker that his eyes need to improve and admitted he sometimes gets "antsy", but he thinks that's coming.
“It’s kind of second nature. It’s way more natural," Anderson said of returning to safety. "Once I started getting the skills back and getting in the film room, it’s been pretty smooth.”
Anderson is currently working with the No. 2 defense alongside Reid Karel while Nathan Gerry and Kieron Williams hold down the top unit. While he's glad to be back at his old position, he concedes that his year at cornerback was certainly beneficial.
“At corner, when you’re in close quarters you learn how to move on the fly, especially when guys are close on you," Anderson said. "It helps you at safety because you have more space. You have more time and you can react faster. But playing DB is kind of all the same thing. You just have to read, react and make plays.”
- Dan Hoppen
Parrella bringing new wrinkles to defensive line
With more than two decades of playing and coaching experience at both the collegiate and NFL levels, its no surprise that new defensive line coach John Parrella has brought a few new ideas to the table this spring.
While he hasn’t reinvented the wheel in how to play on the defensive front, Parrella has already incorporated some wrinkles focusing more on the small details of the position that hopefully will end up paying off with big results this season.
Banker broke down some of the changes Parrella has incorporated to the front four, specifically with the Huskers’ alignment before the snap and their stance when they get to the line of scrimmage.
“When I say ‘alignment’, it sounds kind of rudimentary,” Banker said. “But based on backfield sets, the position of the quarterback under the center, off the ball - they might cancel the same gap but they might cancel it from outside the gap instead of inside the gap. It might be tighter on the edge if you’re an end or more width, depending on the position of the back.
“Our stance, we’ve changed up with Coach Parrella a little bit as far as what hand and what foot goes down in certain alignments… There’s different trains of thought. When you get down in a stance and you’re over half a man, some people like the covered hand down and the off foot back, that way that’s their power step when somebody comes and drive blocks.
"Other people, if you’re on the left side you want your right hand down. If you’re on the right side they want your left hand down. Then the third train of thought is people like to put their gap hand down - whatever gap their in, whatever shade their in, they want to step with their gap foot. So there’s different schools of thought.
“I’ve been a part of both situations - maybe not the gap foot - but that’s what he’s been working on, he’s been working on the covered foot back and the covered hand down.”
- Robin Washut
Alex Davis was a steal...When they recruited him they did it with a ski mask and a switchblade. That kid will be one to remember
So let's hit on just a few notable body (and weight) changes that have already come out during the media's access to the first five practices.
* Alex Davis: Arrived to Lincoln last summer weighing 215 pounds. A raw football player who had spent as much of his time on the hardwood as between the hash marks during high school. Now the redshirt freshman is looking the part of a college D-end, weighing 255. "I just ate when everybody told me to," Davis said. It's one of those rare times adding 40 pounds is a good thing.
* Zack Darlington: His eye-popping winter S & C numbers certainly got the attention of wide receivers coach Keith Williams. He's 6-2, 195 pounds, has exhibited quick bursts and a 35-inch vertical. "I look nothing like I did coming out of high school," Nebraska's newest wide receiver said last week. "When I dropped body fat and put on muscle, my legs got so much stronger." Williams describes Darlington as a great athlete. " The coach said "he's just got to get used to the muscle movement" as a wide receiver.
* Khalil and Carlos Davis: We're not going to group these guys together in every story, we promise. But in this case, the twins physically grew at much the same pace this offseason. Carlos was around 265 pounds when he got to Lincoln. He's about 300 now. Khalil was around 260. He's about 290 now. It was good added weight for the D-tackles. Remember, Khalil won the Husker Power Athlete of the Year Award, and squatted 485 pounds ten times to help pick up that honor.
* Derrion Grim: OK, we don't know exactly what Grim looked like when he showed up for winter conditioning at the start of January, but he's an impressive looking prospect for a true freshman who should technically be in high school thinking about what tux to rent for the prom. He's listed at 6 foot, 195 pounds. The biggest compliment you can say is he looks like he belongs out there.
Prior to Grim's senior season, his new coach Williams told him he wanted to see that elusiveness and physicality show up more on tape.
"On highlight films, you see wideouts just getting tackled, tackled, tackled, tackled, tackled. You turn them off at that point," Williams said. "Because if your highlight in high school is getting tackled more than scoring, it's going to be tougher at the college level. And so make them tackle you, don't get tackled.
"I told him that as a senior, 'Stop getting tackled. You get tackled too much on your tape.' And he took it to heart and ended up breaking the (California high school touchdowns) record."
* Marcus Newby: The 6-foot-1, 235-pound junior linebacker tested higher than anybody in Nebraska's performance index testing this past winter. You saw his athleticism on display last season when he had five tackles for loss and four pass breakups, showing his coverage skills as a backer.
THANK YOU so much for doing this. And in reality it is happening across the program for those who will work with our outstanding Athletic department; research and implementation people and of course S+C. We are coaching up.
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