10 things we learned from NU's Monday press conference

On the heels of a 0-2 start for the first time in more than six decades, the term of the day for Nebraska on Monday was “buy-in.”

It wasn’t a new talking point by any means, as head coach Scott Frost had said since he arrived that he wanted to change the Huskers' culture and only wanted players who were fully committed to his vision.

But after dropping their first two games of the season, Frost and his players made it clear that a lack of “buy-in” was maybe the biggest issue of all standing in NU’s way.

“Coming in to Nebraska and hearing about how things went down last year, I just wanted to make sure that nobody decides to go off on their own,” Frost said. “We’re all in this together. There’s a lot that had to be fixed. We fixed a lot of it, but there’s still a lot more to be fixed.

“Typically it’s older guys, if you’re going to have some frustrating things happen to you at the beginning of the season, that they’re bought in but not completely. That’s what I don’t want to see. I want to see the old guys doing things the right way, training the young guys. Everybody just fighting harder. It’s going to take more discipline and attention to detail than these guys have done and we’ve held them accountable to yet.”

Senior guard Tanner Farmer was adamant that veteran leaders like himself needed to step up and help the coaching staff get the team on the same page. When asked what he thought it meant for a team to buy in fully, Farmer said a big part of it was knowing and accepting how to work.

“When I first got here, I thought that I worked hard in high school,” Farmer said. “You know, being a wrestler, a football player, I was pretty good at both, and I thought I was working hard. Then I got to college, and I worked just as hard as I did in high school, and I didn’t do crap. It’s just a whole new level.

“If you succeed in high school, you know you’ve got to be ready to amp it up, go even harder. It’s truly just committing to everything. I don’t have free time. I’m up from dusk till dawn, dedicating myself to football and school, making sure I’m passing my classes, and I want to do everything I can. Doing extra stuff - if you want to go to yoga, watch more film, that’s what it takes.

“You don’t really get a social life during football season. You either leave it or take it. That’s all I got to say.”

After missing last week’s game vs. Troy with a right knee injury he suffered in Nebraska’s loss to Colorado, quarterback Adrian Martinez remains questionable looking ahead to this week’s Big Ten opener at Michigan.

The good news for the Huskers is that the true freshman appears to be improving by the day, as Frost said Martinez was able to practice on Monday morning.

However, Frost added that they were in no rush to decide on Martinez’s availability, and there was a chance he could once again be a game-time decision on Saturday.

“We’re going to make a decision on what’s best for the team and what’s best for him,” Frost said. “It was close (to him playing) last week, but he wasn’t ready, and we didn’t want to put him in that situation.

“We need him for the rest of this year and for the rest of his career, so the key is going to be if there’s any added danger for further injury.”

Farmer said he was encouraged with what he saw from Martinez during Monday’s practice, even if he hasn’t been given the green light just yet.

“He looked good,” Farmer said. “He wasn’t running around too much. His passes looked great, his reads looked great.”

What pains Frost as much as anything about his team’s 0-2 start is how many self-inflicted mistakes Nebraska has made the first two weeks.

With a combined 21 penalties, six turnovers, and a myriad of special teams miscues, the Huskers have been their own worst enemies to start the season.

As the competition starts to ramp up this week with the beginning of the conference schedule, Frost knows full well his squad won’t stand a chance unless it fixes itself in a hurry.

“That was our message to the team last week, and that will continue to be our message,” Frost said. “It’s not just on the field. It’s deciding whether or not to make it to class, or deciding whether or not to be dressed the right way at meetings, or deciding whether or not to go home and go to bed and get sleep instead of doing something else.

“Champions make good decisions in every single decision that they have. Average people, average teams don't make those decisions. Little things lead to big things, and we're going to get it right. I don’t care how long it takes and what we have to do, we’re going to make those little decisions matter. Because little decisions and little mistakes are what cost us a couple games.”

With a forgettable non-conference slate now in the books, Nebraska is looking at this week’s start to the Big Ten season as a clean slate and a second chance.

Yes, the Huskers were dealt one of the most difficult conference schedules of any team in the league. But they’re still looking at it as an opportunity to start 0-0 and regroup for a turnaround.

“With everything that has happened in the last two weeks, conference play is here now and everything we want to do is still out there in front of us,” senior outside linebacker Luke Gifford said.

“We got an opportunity to go get a big win this week and I think guys are excited about that. Like you said, it is kind of a fresh start. We have to take a lot of things from the last two weeks, some good things and bad things, and move on and get into conference play.”

Nebraska had its share of issues on both sides of the ball vs. Colorado and Troy, and it will now take on some much different and more physical challenges against Michigan this week.

Boasting a traditional Big Ten offensive line and a pro-style running game and then one of the best defensive lines in all of college football, the Wolverines will present a massive test in the trenches.

"This team is considerably better, in my opinion, than the two teams we just played and didn't beat," Frost said. "This is a huge task, and we're going to have to play a perfect game and get a lot better in a week to come out on top in this one."

Junior inside linebacker Mohamed Barry may have described it best by calling Saturday’s contest “a front-seven game.”

Nebraska might be the only team in FBS ranked in the top-25 nationally in both rushing offense and defense, but the Huskers know the level of difficulty was about to kick up a few notches this week.

“You’ve got to bring it,” Barry said. “We brought it vs. Colorado, and we’ve got to bring it now. We’ve got to bring it. It’s a front-seven game, and we’ve just got to hit them in the mouth and play Blackshirt football.”

One of the few highlights for Nebraska in its loss to Troy was the breakout performance from running back Maurice Washington.

The true freshman ended up with 14 rushes for a game-high 92 yards and added three catches for 14 yards.

It wasn’t just the overall production that impressed, but also Washington’s ability to create positive runs out of unlikely situations.

Whether it was breaking tackles in the backfield or even recovering a Bunch fumble and picking up two yards out it, Washington provided a much-needed boost to an often-stagnant Husker offense.

“Mo’s a big play waiting to happen; he’s just young,” Frost said. “I think fans are starting to see some of the things that he’s able to do. Again, the unfortunate thing for Mo is we didn’t get him in and admitted to school until late, and he didn’t have the advantage of a summer conditioning program and being around the guys to learn the scheme.

“So he’s done a great job coming in and doing what he can. He’s a really talented kid. I can’t wait until the day when he has a year in the weight room with Zach (Duval), but he’s certainly a kid who can provide a spark for us.”

Nebraska’s special teams woes have been well documented over the first two games of the season.

The Huskers have been downright bad in every facet of the game’s third element, and one could argue their poor play has been just as much to blame for the 0-2 start as anything else.

The return games have been non-existent, as Tyjon Lindsey has three punt returns for minus-two yards and J.D. Spielman is averaging a pedestrian 19.2 yards per kickoff return.

Kicker Barret Pickering has missed two of his first four field goal attempts of the year, and the punt team is giving up a whopping 15.0 yards per return, including Saturday's 58-yard runback for a touchdown.

On top of all that, Nebraska's special teams have been flagged for six penalties already. Needless to say, that simply cannot continue if the Huskers are going to have any chance to turn this season around.

“Not very good right now,” Frost said when asked to evaluate Nebraska’s special teams.

“We need to make sure to get those things right. Our starting field position hasn’t been very good, and that’s due to penalties and mistakes on special teams.”

Regardless of what happens at quarterback this week, Nebraska must get better play from its offensive line than it did vs. Troy.

Nebraska ended up rushing for 187 yards on 48 attempts and a modest 3.8 yards per carry. The o-line also gave up three sacks and 10 tackles for loss against a Trojan defense that loaded up the box and essentially dared Bunch to throw.

Frost said the answers to the problems weren’t in changing anything with the starting five, but more so establishing more trusted depth to help keep the top unit fresh during games.

Frost pointed to backups like guard Boe Wilson, tackle Trent Hixson, and center Hunter Miller as guys who needed to step up and help provide more in the rotation.

“We got tired on the o-line, particularly at the end of some of the long drives where we were going fast, and we didn’t quite have the edge that we had at the beginning of the drive,” Frost said. “The more guys that are able to play will help us. We’ve just got to keep bringing them along as coaches.”

Saturday was an OK day for Nebraska’s wide receivers, as the unit accounted for 12 catches for 115 yards and two touchdowns in the loss.

The problem was that 11 of those receptions, 109 of those yards, and both of the touchdowns came from senior Stanley Morgan Jr. and sophomore J.D. Spielman.

Lindsey was the only other Husker wideout to catch a pass in the game with one for six yards.

The need for the rest of NU’s receiving corps, which is perceived by many as the deepest and most talented position group on the team, to step up becomes more important than ever this week vs. Michigan.

The Wolverines boast two of the best cornerbacks in the country in Lavert Hill and David Long, and they make life very hard on opposing receivers with an aggressive press-man coverage scheme.

“This week is going to be a challenge,” Frost said. “These guys play a lot of man coverage, and they’re going to be up in our face. You have to be able to win (at the line). Right now we trust Stanley and J.D. to win, but we need more guys to step up.

“I think it hurt us at the end of these last two games because we had to play Stanley and J.D. a lot. Anybody would get tired as much as we’re playing those guys, so we need more depth there, more guys to be consistent, so we can get them off the field and keep them fresh.”

Morgan, who leads NU with 10 catches for 139 yards and a score, has been at the center of opposing defensive game plans this year. While he expects that to continue this week, he said the excitement amps up preparing for a secondary of Michigan’s caliber.

“I think about my sophomore year going up against guys like (Marshon) Lattimore at Ohio State,” Morgan said. “This is a big challenge, and I love games like that.”

The task of getting roughly 140 players all 100-percent committed to the same goal isn’t a task a coaching staff can generally accomplish all on its own.

Player leadership on the field and in the locker room is just as critical of an element in building a program’s culture, and the Huskers’ veterans know their team needs it now more than ever.

“We have a good group of guys that are leading the way, setting the standards, but you always have a few guys that just aren’t quite buying in,” Farmer said. “That can be the difference between winning and losing games by a few points. It can be the difference between winning by thirty points or losing by twelve points.

“You’d be surprised how the difference in a few guys not buying in can take on a team. (Frost) is pretty much saying that any guy who’s not buying in, either buy in or move out for the guy that’s going to be buying in. As leaders, we need to step in and make sure—we to hold these guys responsible.

"Sometimes it’s just they don’t know any better. They don’t exactly how to buy in. They think they’re buying in, but they don’t really understand what truly buying in is. We need to set a good example and hold them accountable.”