Things I know, and things I think I know:
When Zavier Betts trots onto the field in any Big Ten football stadium, he’s apt to attract double-takes from onlookers.
He’s a sleek and elite athlete at 6-foot-2 and 200 pounds. A glider. He’s what a wide receiver in a major-college program should look like.
He has ample speed and good hands.
First-year Nebraska wide receivers coach Mickey Joseph’s objective is to help Betts maximize his vast potential.
“Zavier’s grown up a lot, he’s matured a lot,” Joseph said early last week as Nebraska began its spring practice season. “Zavier, you know, was an immature kid when I first got here. But now, he’s grown up. He’s starting to ask questions. He’s starting to understand why he’s here at Nebraska.”
In two seasons at the school, Betts has 32 receptions for 417 yards and a touchdown. Last season, the Bellevue West graduate ranked fourth on the team with 20 receptions for 286 yards, trailing slot receiver Samori Toure (46-898), tight end Austin Allen (38-602) and wide receiver Omar Manning (26-380).
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Toure and Allen have left the program in hopes of playing in the NFL, while Manning joins Betts in Nebraska’s receivers group.
In discussing Betts, Joseph raised a point that doesn’t get mentioned all that much around here.
“Sometimes being from Nebraska and playing here — being an in-state kid — it’s a whole bunch of pressure,” said Joseph, a Louisiana native who played quarterback at Nebraska from 1988-91. “I want to tell him all the time: Hey, you’ve just got to be Zavier, you’ve just got to play ball. Don’t worry about all that other stuff. I’ll take everything else off you.
“But it’s not easy. It’s just like a kid from Louisiana playing in-state football. It’s not easy for a kid from Nebraska because everybody wants to know why you’re not playing more, when you’re going to do this or that, and they’re pulling at you. With an out-of-state kid, they’re not getting all that. Zavier’s getting pulled all over because he’s the in-state kid who was a great football player in high school, and people want him to be a great football here right away.”
It doesn’t always work that way. Players develop at different rates.
Betts is a great player, Joseph said, but the wideout’s best days are ahead of him.
Of course, Betts’ best days are ahead only if he sheds the inconsistency that materialized early in his Nebraska career.
“I just look at the film from last year,” Joseph said. “He shows up one week, the next week he doesn’t show up. So now my goal is to get him to be consistent so that he shows up every week, and he’s going to give you 100 percent every week. He’s got to believe in himself.
“It’s about me shooting him confidence, like, ‘Hey, you can get this done, you can do it.'”
It’s interesting that Joseph uses the word “immature” to describe Betts last season. Immaturity certainly can lead to inconsistency.
But the coach has seen growth in Betts, especially in how he handles off-field pressure.
“He has to put that wall up,” Joseph said. “He’s got to learn how to say, ‘No, I can’t do it, I’ve got to go do this.’ He’s doing that, and I’m helping him with it, and I think he’s doing a really good job.
“I’m happy where he’s at right now.”
* Joseph shed light on how Nebraska head coach Scott Frost’s role is evolving now that he has Mark Whipple running the offense.
Yes, it’s becoming clearer that Whipple essentially runs the show on that side of the ball, which perhaps frees Frost to think about his program more globally.
“He’s doing an excellent job with just being a CEO right now and letting us run things on offense,” said Joseph, who also holds the titles of associate head coach and passing game coordinator. “It’s not that the pressure’s off of him, but now he can get with the whole team. He can get with the defense, he can get with the kickers, he can get with the snappers.
“He can be the CEO that he wants to be.”
Joseph noted that chief executives make final decisions on virtually everything. That’s the job.
“You have to be in tune with everything that’s going on,” Joseph said. “Scott understands that. I think that’s what he’s doing right now, understanding everything that’s going on.”
* Frost’s decision during the fall of 2018 to have Cam Jurgens begin practicing at center is looking increasingly wise.
The former Husker certainly raised eyebrows last week at the NFL Scouting Combine.
The 6-foot-3 Jurgens tipped the scales at 303 pounds, and still ran the 40 in 4.92 seconds, one of the best times among offensive linemen.
It’s easy to forget that Jurgens arrived at Nebraska as a tight end. He played running back at times for Beatrice High School.
In other words, he’s still relatively young at the center position.
The NFL Draft is set for April 28-30 at Allegiant Stadium, home of the Las Vegas Raiders. Some projections have Jurgens going in the third round.
Go back to the fall of 2018 when Frost was emphatic about Jurgens’ position move. The coach was on-target on this call.
* Sometimes you’ve got to be patient with Nebraska baseball during the early stages of the season.
The Huskers (4-7) definitely took some pressure off themselves by winning three of four over the weekend.
Nebraska opens its home schedule this weekend against Long Beach State, which took a 3-6 record into a Sunday game against North Dakota State.
A high of 24 degrees is forecasted for Friday in Lincoln.
* Yes, Long Beach State’s nickname is “Dirtbags” for baseball.
That’s a story for another day.
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