Here are some quick news and notes from Nebraska’s half-pads bye week practice on Wednesday morning…
***Head coach Scott Frost said there was never a thought of pulling Adrian Martinez out of the Purdue loss. He said Martinez was obviously off and on with his play in the game, but that was the case for the whole offense.
***Asked if the gap between Martinez and the rest of the quarterbacks had closed at all since the start of the season, Frost said “I don’t want to talk about depth chart stuff” but admitted that Martinez needed to play better just like everyone else. That said, Frost feels good about the QB depth right now.
***Frost said part of the issue was that “we need to get more weapons around” Martinez on offense. He said “everyone always looks at the quarterback” but there were plenty other spots where Nebraska needed to get better.
***Frost said the staff wanted to “use as many guys as we can” when it came to playing true freshmen the rest of the season. But that wouldn’t come at the expense of burning guys’ redshirts and wasting a year for a handful of snaps.
***Frost said Nebraska’s goals for this season hadn’t changed in that their only focus was trying to get better every time they took the field. He said the team had practiced with good “spirit” this week and were only concerned about getting ready for Wisconsin.
***Frost did say that after the season he and his staff would “take a long look” at any and all problem areas, but he wanted to save all of the “big picture” conversations for the offseason.
***Frost said there were some “serious breakdowns” on defense at Purdue that had to get corrected over the bye week. He said the good news was that a lot of the issues were “simple things” that could be fixed.
***On whether this team was better built for the November grind of the Big Ten compared to last season, Frost said this team was stronger than a year ago, but depth was still a concern at some spots.
***Frost said the Huskers had “whole unit meetings” with the entire offense and defense this week to go over some of the stuff that had gone wrong this season.
***With 23 fumbles on the season, Frost was asked what NU was trying to do to fix its ball security issues: “We work on it every day.”
***Frost said he’d been encouraged by the development of the true freshmen on the roster. Even those some of those guys won’t play much this year, he said several players in that class would be ready to contribute as soon as next season.
***Frost said that with two home games remaining and only two recruiting weekends available in December, the staff had to be smart with how it capitalized on those four opportunities to get recruits on campus.
***Frost was adamant that Nebraska’s struggles this season weren’t having a negative impact on recruiting.
“No. No. People see where this is going, and we’re not going to lose sight of that,” Frost said. “This group (of coaches) has done an unbelievable job of getting a program turned. It’s certainly not happening as fast as I wanted, but we’re going to get it done. That’s why I’m here. We knew this thing wasn’t in great shape when we took over and we knew we had a lot of things to fix. We’re in the process of doing that.
"The exciting thing is we’ve got a lot of really good young players on this team. I think there’s a tremendous opportunity for recruits to come in and try to make an impact early. That vision and opportunity are going to help us on the recruiting trail a lot.”
***Head coach Scott Frost said there was never a thought of pulling Adrian Martinez out of the Purdue loss. He said Martinez was obviously off and on with his play in the game, but that was the case for the whole offense.
***Asked if the gap between Martinez and the rest of the quarterbacks had closed at all since the start of the season, Frost said “I don’t want to talk about depth chart stuff” but admitted that Martinez needed to play better just like everyone else. That said, Frost feels good about the QB depth right now.
***Frost said part of the issue was that “we need to get more weapons around” Martinez on offense. He said “everyone always looks at the quarterback” but there were plenty other spots where Nebraska needed to get better.
***Frost said the staff wanted to “use as many guys as we can” when it came to playing true freshmen the rest of the season. But that wouldn’t come at the expense of burning guys’ redshirts and wasting a year for a handful of snaps.
***Frost said Nebraska’s goals for this season hadn’t changed in that their only focus was trying to get better every time they took the field. He said the team had practiced with good “spirit” this week and were only concerned about getting ready for Wisconsin.
***Frost did say that after the season he and his staff would “take a long look” at any and all problem areas, but he wanted to save all of the “big picture” conversations for the offseason.
***Frost said there were some “serious breakdowns” on defense at Purdue that had to get corrected over the bye week. He said the good news was that a lot of the issues were “simple things” that could be fixed.
***On whether this team was better built for the November grind of the Big Ten compared to last season, Frost said this team was stronger than a year ago, but depth was still a concern at some spots.
***Frost said the Huskers had “whole unit meetings” with the entire offense and defense this week to go over some of the stuff that had gone wrong this season.
***With 23 fumbles on the season, Frost was asked what NU was trying to do to fix its ball security issues: “We work on it every day.”
***Frost said he’d been encouraged by the development of the true freshmen on the roster. Even those some of those guys won’t play much this year, he said several players in that class would be ready to contribute as soon as next season.
***Frost said that with two home games remaining and only two recruiting weekends available in December, the staff had to be smart with how it capitalized on those four opportunities to get recruits on campus.
***Frost was adamant that Nebraska’s struggles this season weren’t having a negative impact on recruiting.
“No. No. People see where this is going, and we’re not going to lose sight of that,” Frost said. “This group (of coaches) has done an unbelievable job of getting a program turned. It’s certainly not happening as fast as I wanted, but we’re going to get it done. That’s why I’m here. We knew this thing wasn’t in great shape when we took over and we knew we had a lot of things to fix. We’re in the process of doing that.
"The exciting thing is we’ve got a lot of really good young players on this team. I think there’s a tremendous opportunity for recruits to come in and try to make an impact early. That vision and opportunity are going to help us on the recruiting trail a lot.”
