Ruud seeing benefits of a deeper ILB linebacker room. But first, time to rest and recharge | Football

No offense to the players in the inside linebackers room, but Barrett Ruud would prefer to not see them much during this time of year.

Yes, it’s good to stay in football shape, and Ruud expects players to be looking for ways to get stronger and faster in June and July. But a little rest and some recharging can do wonders.

“Football is a bunch of habits, and you’re always forming those right habits,” Ruud, the Huskers’ inside linebackers coach, said recently on the Big Red Blitz tour. “I think football is a very routine-oriented sport, and part of this time of year is they need to get away from us a little bit.

“They need to spend more time away from us than with us.”

After a very busy recruiting stretch — Nebraska hosted around 40 recruits for individual workouts alone — Ruud himself is ready to catch his breath a bit. He’s also looking ahead to fall camp and to a position group that is in a much better position depthwise than it was when coach Scott Frost arrived in Lincoln before the 2018 season.

The Huskers like what they have in sophomore Luke Reimer (6-foot-1, 220 pounds), redshirt freshman Nick Henrich (6-4, 225) and Northern Iowa graduate transfer Chris Kolarevic (6-1, 230). York graduate Garrett Snodgrass (6-3, 225), fellow redshirt freshman Jackson Hannah (6-3, 220) and junior Eteva Mauga-Clements are in the mix, and true freshmen Randolph Kpai (6-3, 185) and Seth Malcom (6-3, 205) got a head start by enrolling early. Wynden Ho’ohuli (6-3, 220) and Mikai Gbayor (6-2, 220) arrived this summer.