NU willing to shake things up during ‘open competition week’

All of the conversations surrounding Nebraska’s depth chart against Penn State are revolving around the quarterbacks, and understandably so.

But according to the Huskers’ coordinators on Tuesday, that won’t be the only starting job up for grabs this week in practice.

Offensive coordinator Matt Lubick and defensive coordinator Erik Chinander both hinted that some changes could be coming on both sides of the ball as NU searches for sparks after falling to 0-2 to start the season.

“This is an open competition week,” Lubick said.

The first order of business is still at quarterback, where Lubick said the battle continued between junior Adrian Martinez and redshirt freshman Luke McCaffrey during Tuesday morning’s practice.

Lubick said he, head coach Scott Frost, and quarterbacks coach Mario Verduzco would be focusing on which player showed the most consistency and proper decision making throughout the week before deciding on Saturday’s starter.

He added that while a quarterback competition during the season could be a delicate situation in terms of egos and locker room drama, he had no worries about how Martinez and McCaffrey would handle the eventual decision one way or the other.

“Whoever wins the job, the other one is going to be their biggest fan,” Lubick said.

The offensive line, which was completely reshuffled last week with center Cam Jurgens out with an injury, is another unit that could see some lineup changes. As could the wide receivers, as young guys like Marcus Fleming and Zavier Betts showed some flashes at Northwestern.

On defense, Chinander singled out players like safety Myles Farmer, cornerback Quinton Newsome, linebacker Luke Reimer, defensive lineman Jordon Riley, and a few outside linebackers as players who had earned more game snaps in the future.

“I’m not looking to bench people. I’m not looking to scare anybody,” Chinander said. “But there’s a lot of young guys that are earning a lot of opportunities, and they need reps. And how you practice is going to determine how many reps those young guys get and how many reps those older guys get.”