Nebraska will officially begin preparations for Illinois today, as we are less than two weeks from kickoff. We start your Monday off with the Weekly Rundown column.
Sure bets
You have to feel pretty good about these things right now:
A physical running game: One thing I feel pretty good about after over two weeks of Fall Camp is you are going to see a much more physical running game from Nebraska in 2021.
The Huskers have made an emphasis to be physical this August, and they now have the running backs to do it as well.
Cameron Jurgens: 2021 will be the breakout season from center Cameron Jurgens we have been waiting for. The fourth-year sophomore has had an excellent camp. I’m told he has not had one bad snap the entire month.
Ty Robinson: There’s been so much said about guys like Ben Stille and Damion Daniels on Nebraska’s defensive line, but the best long-term NFL prospect may be third-year freshman Ty Robinson. He’s also become one of the better leaders on this football team and has really bought into the culture. Robinson is not afraid to get on guys either if things aren’t being done the right way.
Garth Brooks: Nearly 90,000 watched Garth Brooks in Memorial Stadium on Saturday night. I’m not sure there are very many other people on the planet that could fill Memorial Stadium for an event like Brooks on Saturday night.
Seeing Memorial Stadium full also brought back memories of how special this place is. I think we almost have forgotten what a full Memorial Stadium looks like, as we haven’t seen it since November of 2019.
Surprises
These were my surprises of the week:
WR Kamonte Grimes: One surprise player that has come out of the freshman class thus far is freshman wide receiver Kamonte Grimes. The Naples, Fla. product has put himself squarely in the battle to return kickoffs.
RB Sevion Morrison’s camp: Another surprise emergence came from running back Sevion Morrison. After last year’s up-and-down season, it was hard to know what to expect from Morrison. The Oklahoma native came to play this August.
Starting game prep on Monday: Typically Nebraska has waited until later in the week to begin game preparations in Fall Camp. They will start that process a good three or four days earlier today, as Illinois prep officially begins this morning.
It tells you a lot about where this football team is at right now, that Scott Frost is comfortable enough to turn the page from camp to game prep this early.
Live special teams work: A big portion of Friday’s scrimmage was spent doing live special teams work. That tells you right there how big of an emphasis special teams will be in 2021. Also expect to see several front-line defenders such as JoJo Domann, Cam Taylor-Britt, Marquel Dismuke and Deontai Williams in key roles on special teams.
The jury is still out
Questions still surround these things:
Sloppy play from Friday’s scrimmage: I think a lot of people cringed when Frost said they had some sloppy play and penalties in Friday’s scrimmage that featured Big Ten referees.
The only silver lining is it sounds like most of the sloppy play came from the second and third units. Still, we are heading into year four of the Frost era, and the Huskers need to be beyond these types of mistakes as a program.
TE depth: How long is Travis Volkolek truly out? It sounds like it could be at least a month, if not more. What will this tight end position look like over the first month of 2021 if Volkolek is indeed out?
Alcohol sales at Husker events: We saw alcohol sales in Memorial Stadium for the first time ever this past Saturday night during the Garth Brooks concert.
It definitely added a different element to the venue, as the beer vendors were put through the Bar Rescue “stress test” nearly the entire night. Very few people are equipped to handle that type of demand, especially at a stadium that’s never sold or distributed anything more than Pepsi bottles, Runzas and Valentinos Pizza.
The job of the NU event staffers also took on a different element on Saturday. Typically these are older retired people who work at the stadium and almost serve the role as a church usher. On Saturday, they had to take on more of a bar bouncer role as you just have more things going on at an event like this.
Overall, I thought the evening was outstanding. Were there some hiccups? Sure, but how could there not be? I’ll be curious what Nebraska learns off this event and what it does in the big picture discussion for alcohol sales at Husker games going forward.
I still think Haymarket Park and Pinnacle Bank Arena are the logical places to start with alcohol sales, as both venues already do it for every event they host other than NU Athletics.
This has my attention
Moving forward, this has my attention:
Captain voting: What will we learn about captain voting this week? When will it take place? How many captains will Frost name?
When I look at the team, this could easily be a year where more than four players get named captain. Adrian Martinez, Austin Allen and Cameron Jurgens all make sense on offense, while Ben Stille, JoJo Domann, Cam Taylor-Britt, Marquel Dismuke and Deontai Williams all have captain potential on the defense.
Narrowing that down to four will not be easy. Six makes more sense with the three offensive guys I listed, along with Stille, Domann and then one of the defensive backs.
Transfers: I don’t expect to see any, but this would typically be the time of year a guy would go to the portal that doesn’t like their spot on the 2021 team. If something like that happens, expect it to go down after classes begin on Aug. 23, so a player can stay on scholarship for the semester.
The final depth chart: Will a final depth chart be put out after this week? If a depth chart does get released, expect to see it by next Monday before the Scott Frost press conference leading into the Illinois game.
You must be logged in to post a comment Login