Here are some quick takes and reactions following Tuesday’s Nebraska football post-practice media session.
Lubick addressed how playcalling works on game day
Nebraska’s game day play-calling duties have been a topic of discussion by a lot of people this season.
In the past, Scott Frost has made the calls from the sidelines, but since the hiring of Matt Lubick, you no longer see Frost burying his face in a playsheet on game day.
Lubick said it’s been a collaborative effort this season, and really the play-calling gets decided on Monday to Friday in practice, so everything they call should be ready to go. There really should be no surprises.
Lubick wouldn’t come out and say he’s making the calls himself this season, but you get the sense he has a lot more freedom on game day to influence the call, and that’s taken some of the plate of Frost.
Chinander not trying to water down the Blackshirt number
Following Nebraska’s win over Penn State, NU handed out 12 Blackshirts in practice, as three defensive linemen, five linebackers and four defensive backs all were awarded Blackshirts.
On Tuesday, defensive coordinator Erik Chinander was specifically asked if defensive lineman Casey Rogers was awarded a Blackshirt for his play as of late.
Chinander said Rogers is not currently wearing a Blackshirt, and he’s done his best to stay true to the tradition and not watering down the overall number.
Has Rogers played like a Blackshirt the last few weeks? Absolutely. But after talking to several former players about the tradition, Chinander said he really wants to stay true to a core number and not keep adding to it, unless it’s truly warranted.
I think a lot of Husker fans probably respect this approach more, vs. handing them out each week to new players.
Frost’s first walk-on class is starting to prove it’s worth
When Frost envisioned what he wanted the walk-on program to be, I’m guessing days l like this past Saturday are were what he had in mind.
You had walk-on wide receiver Levi Falck block a punt and it was recovered by walk-on linebacker Simon Otte at the 1-yard line.
Later in the game, you had walk-on wide receiver Wyatt Liewer catch a bubble screen and take it in for a 10-yard touchdown on a perfectly executed play.
We also saw walk-ons like Brody Belt, Colton Fiest and Cooper Jewett get on the field. No one is saying walk-ons should be playing over your top players, but I think what we are seeing is they have added to the depth and culture to this program.
A lot of these guys just put their heads down and go to work. They get in there and execute the play. In the case of Falck, Otte and Liewer, it led to two touchdowns being scored.
Fisher addresses Florida departures
We talked to Nebraska secondary coach Travis Fisher on Tuesday for the first time since freshmen Ronald Delancy and Marcus Fleming left the program.
They are two of five Florida freshman recruits that have left NU since the summer.
Fisher said this has not just been a Nebraska problem, it’s more a 2020 issue across the country with so many players putting their names in the transfer portal.
“It’s sad to see a lot of young men leave something so great because they don’t know,” Fisher said.
The question is how do you convince them to stay? How do you convince them to be the type of players you want to have in your program long-term and not pack up the first time things don’t go their way?
As Fisher said, this is not just a Nebraska thing. This is an issue everywhere and it’s been magnified even more in 2020.
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