Buckeye WR trio presents major challenge for veteran Husker secondary that is moving pieces around | Football

Clark, meanwhile, gives Nebraska another rangy player on the edge. At 6-foot-4, he’s got even more length than Taylor-Britt and Newsome and is a player Chinander and secondary coach Travis Fisher could continue to work in against the Buckeyes.

“Braxton deserves to play some. He’s done really well in practice,” Chinander said. “Braxton’s really good in coverage and he deserves to get in there a little bit and we can rotate some of those through and obviously you’re getting toward the end of the season where those guys have played a lot of reps and you want to start rolling some guys through, especially if there’s been some long series or guys getting tired or things like that. Braxton deserves to play some football.”

A year ago, then-OSU quarterback Justin Fields and those receivers only truly got over the top on the Huskers once — a 42-yard touchdown to Wilson over cornerback Dicaprio Bootle — but Fields completed 20 of 21 passes overall, many of them to that intermediate level where the receivers are still getting chunk yards and also have the chance to work after the catch.

So far this year, NU is fourth in the Big Ten in allowing 6.2 yards per pass attempt and has surrendered 11 touchdowns vs. eight interceptions. 

“The guys have got to play rules football, they’ve got to do their job and they’ve been really good at that this year,” Chinander said. “Sometimes in coverage, we all know, we’re not crazy, there’s always a hole in the coverage, no matter what coverage you run, unless you’re in man every snap. The kids know that. They know that if they throw a 10-yard out cut against a certain coverage, they’re going to get it, we tackle them, we move on and then I’d better call a different coverage.”