Five things we learned from NU’s weekly press conference

Here are five of our biggest takeaways from Nebraska’s weekly press conference on Monday as the Huskers get ready to take on Buffalo this week…

After two costly mistakes on punt returners in the first two games of the season, it appeared as if Nebraska would have to make a change with Cam Taylor-Britt at that role.

But head coach Scott Frost said the Huskers would continue to roll with the junior captain at punt returner, at least for another week.

“We’ve got to make good decisions back there,” Frost said. “I’m not the type of coach that’s going to fire someone from a role if they make a mistake, but the mistakes have to quit.

“The one on Saturday was a little tough. If that’s a bounce in the open field, we want to field it. That was probably not the right time to try to do that. But Cam gives us our best opportunity to make a big play back there, too. So we’ll make that decision as we go forward, but I trust Cam.”

While those two botched punt returns put a damper on the start of Taylor-Britt’s season, Frost said the cornerback had otherwise played very well over the first two games.

“I don’t think he’s had a rough first couple weeks,” Frost said. “He’s played really well on defense. He’s had two bad plays. If you looked at any player on our team, they’ve had two bad plays in two games. So I wouldn’t characterize it as a rough start. We’ve just got to make better decisions on punt returns.”

Due to unspecified injuries, Nebraska was already without tight end Travis Vokolek and defensive lineman Casey Rogers for the second straight game.

Two more notable names were added to that injury list on Saturday when wide receiver Oliver Martin and offensive lineman Broc Bando sat out against Fordham.

After the win, Frost said Martin had “a little injury” that was “not anything that’s going to keep him out for a long time.” As for Bando, Frost said the junior was dealing with an illness, but it “shouldn’t be long” before he was back in action.

There still weren’t any updates on Vokolek or Rogers other than Frost saying, “they’re all getting close.”

One of the highlights of Saturday’s blowout of Fordham was the performance of running back Markese Stepp.

The sophomore USC transfer carried the ball 18 times for 101 yards in the win and looked like the potential workhorse back the Huskers have been searching for all offseason.

Stepp said Monday that he hadn’t had 18 rushing attempts in a game since his senior year of high school in 2017.

Even so, and even though he said his injured foot still wasn’t fully healed, Stepp said he was willing to take on whatever workload his team needed from him.

Part of that confidence comes from him dropping roughly 15 pounds since arriving in Lincoln this winter. Stepp said he was currently down to around 215 pounds after starting the offseason at 230.

Back-up quarterback Logan Smothers played in a game for the first time in two years on Saturday.

He led three of Nebraska’s drives against Fordham, two of those ended in touchdowns.

On his second drive at the helm, Smothers fumbled the ball while trying to spin around a defender, and the ball popped out on impact.

“It was stupid,” he said. “Just got to take care of the ball end of the day, can’t let that happen.”

Smothers said starting offensive linemen Matt Sitcherman and Bryce Benhart said “way to be loud” when they jogged off the field after Smothers’ first drive as a Husker.

The last time he saw Memorial Stadium full was on his official visit for the Ohio State game in 2019. Smothers said it’s an entirely different feeling beginning on the field with a helmet on and having the fans cheer for him.

“Extremely, extremely blessed to get to experience that on the field,” Smothers said.

Daniel Cerni followed up his poor performance against Illinois with a 39-yard punt and a 41-yarder against Fordham.

He had five punts for an average of 34.4 yards, including a 13-yarder and a 26-yard punt, last week against the Fighting Illini.

“I wasn’t uncomfortable. I wasn’t nervous,” Cerni said. “At the end of the day, I just got into my own head and thought about placing the ball a little bit too much than actually kicking through it.

“That’s something I’ve had to get through, and it has happened. I’ve got a chip on my shoulder from it, but at the same time, I’m not hurt by what happened. I’m not holding on to that. I’m letting go and moving forward.”

Before coming to Nebraska from Australia, Cerni knew the basics of American football and has learned a lot about each position, including punter, since his arrival. When he first came to the U.S., he watched documentaries and read books to learn more about the sport.

He played Australian Rules Football back home and said he kicks the same way here as in Australia. American football punters typically have more spiral on their punts, but Cerni said his kicks have less.

According to Cerni, the biggest difference between American and Australian football is that the U.S. game is much faster.