10 things we learned from NU's fall camp press conference

Head coach Scott Frost and the Nebraska football team held their annual fall camp press conference on Thursday at Memorial Stadium. Here are 10 of the biggest takeaways we learned the session...

Frost wasn’t shy about calling out one of his team’s biggest problems last season. The Huskers just weren’t tough enough.

It wasn’t only a matter of needing to improve their overall strength and conditioning, but also that players needed to be mentally stronger to overcome adversity.

Compared to where things were in that regard a year ago to where they are today, Frost said toughness might be one of the most dramatically improved areas of all.

“I want this team to prove that it can be tough…” Frost said. “Our talent level, our speed, our strength, all those things are going to be considerably better this year, but it doesn’t matter if you don’t go hit somebody in the face on the field. We need to block and tackle with that kind of mentality.”

Frost’s personality is one that believes he can compete with and beat anyone in just about anything. It took longer than he wanted to instill that confidence in his team, but it’s finally starting to get there.

Whether it was at Big Ten Media Days in Chicago or during Thursday's fall camp press conference, every player who’s spoken about the expectations going into Year 2 has delivered a message almost identical to their head coach.

The Huskers don’t just hope to win again after back-to-back 4-8 seasons, they expect it.

"Some of our expectations, I mean, double digit wins and a Big Ten Championship,” junior tight end Jack Stoll said. “I didn’t come to Nebraska to go 4-8, that’s absolutely unacceptable."

Just as he said at Big Ten Media Days, Frost didn’t have much new to report regarding the status of sophomore running back Maurice Washington.

Washington and Nebraska continue to await resolution on a legal situation in California, and with the next court hearing not set until three days after the season opener vs. South Alabama on Aug. 31, plenty of questions surround his Week 1 availability.

Frost again said no decision would be made on Washington’s status until just before the first game, but he also left the door open for the running back to play in the opener.

"Right now I'm worried about him doing the right thing day by day, just to be consistent," Frost said. "We're not going to make any decisions on anything until we have more clarity.

"All I expect him to do is come to camp, be a good teammate, show and up be where he's supposed to be and continue working as if he's going to play. We'll see where the chips fall."

Another major question facing the team going into the start of fall camp next week is the injury status of redshirt freshman center Cam Jurgens.

Jurgens continues to deal with lingering injuries that have plagued him over the past few years, and right now it’s unknown whether he will be healthy enough to play by Aug. 31.

The good news was that Frost said Jurgens would be on the team’s 110-man fall camp roster, adding that there was still a chance the Beatrice native could be ready to go in time to play in Week 1.

If he’s not, Frost said redshirt freshman Will Farniok would be the No. 1 center, with guys like sophomores Hunter Miller and Trent Hixson, and true freshman Ethan Piper also in the mix.

One of the hallmarks of the great Nebraska teams of old was the level of player-driven leadership both on and off the field. When a guy screwed up, his teammates made sure he paid for it.

From the sound of things on Tuesday, that’s slowly starting to come back to the Huskers.

Frost said he’d already established a group of players who have served in the same vein as the Unity Council the program used in the past, which he said was close to officially returning.

That accountability has continued to grow through the offseason, to the point where it’s slowly starting to look the way it did when Frost was suiting up in Lincoln.

"I've been really pleased with the turnaround and attitude of the team – the togetherness of the team,” Frost said. “We have very, very few guys that aren't completely 100-percent in, holding each other accountable and living up to a standard that we expect. We have it on this team to a degree that I have not seen very often."

Some fans were left grumbling when Nebraska was left just outside of the preseason Coaches Poll on Tuesday, coming in at No. 26 as the highest team on the “others receiving votes” list.

It might have helped had Frost voted for his team.

Instead, Frost opted not to put the Huskers on his top-25 ballot, saying he wanted his squad to earn its respect on the field.

"We're just kind of nearing that mile marker right now of having expectations,” Frost said. “We haven't done anything yet, so I kind of feel like some of the expectations are premature. But I'm also happy for our guys that they've done what it takes to get them to that point.

“We're going to shut out the outside noise when we get started tomorrow and not worry about who's picking us in what game, or what people think we're going to accomplish this year. We're just going to go to work."

Frost has always made it a point not to disrupt tradition if he didn’t have to at Nebraska. When it comes to selecting team captains, he wants to keep the process the way it used to be when he played, but with potentially one alteration.

Frost said he would let Nebraska’s four 2019 team captains be decided by player vote at the end of fall camp, just like it was done for decades. But back then the players selected were almost exclusively seniors.

Nothing official has been decided yet, but because of a smaller senior class and some budding young leaders stepping up, Frost said discussions would be had about allowing underclassmen to get votes.

With Washington’s status still to be determined, Nebraska could be leaning heavily on a cast of new running backs who just arrived on campus this summer.

Because of NCAA rules, Frost still hadn’t seen newcomers like Dedrick Mills, Rahmir Johnson, and Ronald Thompkins play since they officially became Huskers. But based on reports from the strength coaches, Frost is feeling good about what the group has to work with.

"It's not always accurate, but I think you can tell a lot about who's going to play in how they show up on Day 1," Frost said.

One player who won’t be available during camp is Thompkins, who will be left off of the 110-man roster as he continues to recover from a knee injury he suffered last year.

Frost also said there could be some receivers who could get some work at running back this fall, presumably guys like Wan’Dale Robinson and Miles Jones.

Nebraska knows what it has in JD Spielman, and it has a pretty good feel for what Robinson will bring to the table.

After that, the position is full of unknowns.

Frost said there would be about “a dozen” players competing for playing time at receiver during fall camp, and the lack of an established depth chart at this point wasn't exactly a bad thing.

Frost thinks the overall depth at the position will allow the Huskers to rotate more and keep guys fresh in games and over the course of the season.

Maybe the best news to come out of the day was Frost’s report that outside linebackers coach/special teams coordinator Jovan Dewitt was getting back into his old routine after a scary battle with throat cancer this offseason.

Frost said Dewitt was doing “great” in his recovery and was actually back in the office on Tuesday morning running a special teams meeting with the staff.

Even as he fought through grueling chemotherapy treatments, Dewitt always kept a presence around the team during the winter and spring. Senior linebacker Alex Davis said even though Dewitt couldn’t be at practice, he always watched film and would call and text his players with advice and critiques during spring ball.

That, Davis said, meant a lot.

“He was always there,” Davis said. “Even though he wasn’t there physically, I was still getting messages from him, still talking to him. He was still watching practices from home… Some days when he could build up the energy he’d come out to practice. That’s big to see somebody going through something like that and still giving 100 percent.

“That’s nothing but a confidence booster. If you’re tired, you can’t say nothing with him barely being able to be out there. That’s big.”