Nebraska’s Timmy Bleekrode talks Bill Busch and training under former Huskers | Football

Nebraska kicker Timmy Bleekrode was accustomed to special teams coordinators leaving specialists alone during practice. Then he met Bill Busch.

Bleekrode said Thursday that Busch, NU’s special teams coordinator, has “detailed” Bleekrode’s practice every day this fall.

The Furman transfer didn’t know what to think of Busch’s methodology at first, “but it’s been really well done,” Bleekrode said. “It’s been good for us.”

Busch also enlisted former Huskers Sam Koch, Brett Maher and Alex Henery to work with NU’s specialists this summer. Bleekrode found it useful to watch Maher perform his practice routine and “get the inside scoop” on Maher’s approach to kicking.

“He’s just very consistent at what he does,” Bleekrode said. “He’s confident in his craft and it shows when we’re out there kicking. He’s hitting every ball the same every time.”

Bleekrode has kicked in a Power Five stadium before, by the way. He kicked an extra point during Furman’s 45-7 loss at NC State last season. Bleekrode​ estimated that 50,000 fans attended the game, not that he noticed them.

He says he gets “tunnel vision” when preparing to kick. He blocks out the crowd noise, whether the stadium holds 5,000 or 50. And while Nebraska hasn’t simulated much crowd noise during fall camp, Bleekrode is confident that Big Ten road crowds won’t knock him off his game.

“We just work on every rep being a game rep,” Bleekrode said. “So we’ve got to lock in. I’d say just having that mentality and focus with each rep helps us prepare for game days even though we don’t have the fans out there (in practice).”

Bleekrode, who punted and kicked at Furman last year, said he had trouble “turning over” his punts at the beginning of the season.

How did he snap out of his slump?

“Just go back to the basics,” Bleekrode said. “Focus on what I’ve done, trust what I’ve done and just work on it at practice. I try not to reflect too much on that because then I don’t want to get in my head about the future and go ‘Oh, if I punt this bad, then it’s gonna affect me in the future.

I try to just know what I did wrong, apply it to the future kicks and then go from there.”