Mickey Joseph gives brief update on Nebraska’s injured players

Nebraska cornerback Quinton Newsome and inside linebacker Luke Reimer remain “day to day,” according to interim head coach Mickey Joseph, after they both got banged up in Friday night’s contest.

Newsome left the Rutgers game with what Joseph termed a groin injury and was replaced by Brandon Moore.

Reimer left with an undisclosed injury. Reimer missed parts of the Northwestern game, as well. In that game, Ernest Hausmann was his backup. Against Rutgers, Eteva Mauga-Clements filled in for Reimer.

“I have no choice but to feel comfortable,” Joseph said of Newsome and Reimer’s backups. “I said when I was in Jersey, can’t play with 10, so I have to feel comfortable with those guys. I can’t not feel comfortable with them and then they hear what I say in the press, then they’re going to go out and play, because y’all are going to print it.

“My kids read this stuff. So I’ve to make sure that, they know that I have confidence in them, and they know I do.”

Receiver Omar Manning is “day to day” with an ankle injury.

Husker running back Gabe Ervin, Joseph said, didn’t play at Rutgers because he has a lingering toe injury and didn’t feel he was “ready to go.”

“The trainer don’t tell me that the kid’s ready to go, I don’t say the kid he’s ready to go, the position coach don’t say you’re ready to go, the fans don’t say he’s ready to go, that kid tells me when he’s ready to go” Joseph said of Ervin. “He said he wasn’t ready. And that’s the way it’s going to be as long as I stand in front of this team.”

Tommi Hill, who started the first four games at corner, has moved to receiver — at least for now — and won’t be moving back to corner this week regardless of Newsome’s health.

“We need to get Tommi on the field,” Joseph said. “You see that he struggled at corner. We want to get him on the field.”

Quarterback Casey Thompson said Hill is a natural route runner and took reps with the No. 1 offense on Tuesday.

“A lot of people are going to be surprised by what they see from him,” Thompson said. “But we see it right now on a daily basis.”

Offensive coordinator Mark Whipple is “dealing with some things” injurywise that led to him using a scooter to and from the field, since coaches and players had to walk up a steep ramp to reach its visiting locker room. Whipple has walked slowly off of the Memorial Stadium turf after home games, as well.

“Whipple’s probably the toughest dude on the staff,” Joseph said. “Nobody messes with Whip.”