10 things we learned from NU's Monday press conference

Nebraska opened some eyes around college football by nearly knocking off No. 10 Ohio State on Saturday. Even Buckeye head coach Urban Meyer called the Huskers “a two-win team that people don’t want to play right now.”

But for head coach Scott Frost and his players, they’ve reached the point where they’re done looking for silver linings in defeat.

“I suppose that’s good to hear,” Frost said of Meyer’s comments. “It’s not much of a consolation. We’ve had some great moral victories, and those don’t count for anything.”

Senior running back Devine Ozigbo said the Huskers are still very encouraged by the progress they’ve made across the board from the first spring practice to now. But now the team feels it’s reached the point where the only way to continue that improvement was to translate it into victories.

“You can only get so much better without getting the result you want,” Ozigbo said. “So we’re just going to keep working and keep getting better. Definitely wins are the next step for this team. If it’s not now, it’s definitely going to be in the future. This team is just going to continue to get better.”

While their message going into the year was that 2018 was going to be more than just a transition year under a new coaching staff, Nebraska’s seniors were well aware of the situation the program in this season.

Things haven’t gone nearly how NU’s 19 seniors had hoped, but despite the ugly 2-7 record, the group can also see just how far their team has come the past few months as it builds for what should be a bright future.

“I think we all understand this was going to be a year where we needed to build a foundation,” senior guard Jerald Foster said. “It didn’t matter if we were going to have 10 wins or two wins; we were going to have to build a foundation so that the next years coming, the guys will know what the standard is.

“And I feel like we’ve done a pretty good job, we still have a couple more weeks to set everything and finalize everything we’re going to stand for as a team. Coach Frost, he wants to win just as bad as we do and he can see on our faces when we don’t get the win that it hurts. Sending us off in the right way, I love that he would say something like that and we’re going to work just as hard if not harder so that he’ll feel like he sent us off in the right way.”

For the second time in three weeks, quarterback Adrian Martinez was named the Big Ten Co-Freshman of the Week for his performance on Saturday.

The true freshman completed 22-of-33 passes for 266 yards and rushed for 72 more yards with three total touchdowns against the Buckeyes, marking his fifth 300-yard outing of the season.

Yet when Martinez looked back on the film on Sunday, he said he was only focused on all the other plays he didn’t make in the five-point loss.

“As well as our team played, I feel like I could have played a lot better,” Martinez said. “Knowing I left some points out there on the field, there is so much room for improvement. We could be better than we are right now. I don’t believe in moral victories. Just learning from that experience. Our team fought. I think it’s just learning we can really play with any team in the country.”

A familiar face will be back at Memorial Stadium on Saturday, as former Husker A.J. Bush will be Illinois’ starting quarterback.

After not seeing the field in his first two seasons in Lincoln, Bush transferred to Iowa Western C.C. prior to the 2016 season. He then went to Virginia Tech and served as a backup for a year before transferring again to Illinois.

In seven games played Bush has completed 56.8 percent of his passes for 924 yards, five touchdowns, and five interceptions. He’s also been one of the Fighting Illini’s more effective rushers, ranking second on the team with 85 carries for 472 yards and five touchdowns.

Several Husker seniors still consider Bush a good friend from his days in Lincoln, and junior linebacker and fellow Georgia native Mohamed Barry said Bush – who was his player host on his NU official visit - was one of the main reasons he committed to Nebraska.

“When I came into this program, he was a big part of why I came here,” Barry said. “To know someone from Fulton County (Georgia)… I knew his career in high school, from when he was in Milton to transfer to Norcross, and how he played well and was a good player. He was a big factor in recruiting too, so he brought me here basically. We were good buddies; we hung out a lot while we were here. I’m a good friend of AJ.”

Three Nebraska players are on the brink of reaching some fairly significant individual milestones, as Ozigbo and receivers Stanley Morgan Jr. and J.D. Spielman are closing in on 1,000 yards rushing and receiving, respectively.

Currently at 796 rushing yards through nine games, Ozigbo needs just 204 more (68.0 per game) to become NU’s first 1,000-yard rusher since Ameer Abdullah in 2014.

Spielman is just 253 yards (84.3 ypg) shy from becoming the Huskers’ first-ever 1,000-yard receiver, and Morgan is right behind him needing 275 more yards (91.6 ypg).

Frost said he wasn’t going to go out of his way feed those players the football over the final three games just to pad their stats, but considering their important roles within the natural scheme of the offense, he thinks all three are well on their way to reaching those goals.

“Our first goal is obviously to win games, and we’ll do whatever we have to on offense to win games, but I’d love to see Devine get to 1,000; I’d love to see Stanley and JD get to 1,000,” Frost said. “I was just kind of made aware of their numbers today because I don’t really look at that.

“I think it’s possible for all of them to do if we play well on defense and if those guys hit those benchmarks it probably means we put ourselves in the position to win some games.”

Few players have made the immediate impact on Nebraska’s defense that safety JoJo Domann has over the past few weeks.

The sophomore finished with a career-high seven tackles, including coming up with a sack-fumble that sparked the Huskers’ second-quarter rally.

The play marked Domann’s third forced fumble in the past five games in which he’s been healthy enough to play dating back to the 2016 Music City Bowl.

That ability to come up with one game-changing play after another has all but solidified Domann’s place as a fixture in NU’s secondary for years to come.

“I told JoJo today the best thing that he did on Saturday, he just made plays,” Frost said. “JoJo can play safety, he can play outside ‘backer, but when he got his chance, he went out there and made some plays. And not just a tackle here and there, he made some game-changing plays.

“Man, we’ve been waiting for more guys to step up and do that. Awesome to get him back. I hope he keeps having the success that he’s having and him knowing enough spots to move around, that’ll give us flexibility and hopefully make it a little harder on the other team.”

There were some concerns regarding the health status of running back Maurice Washington, who suffered a minor injury in the Ohio State game.

Washington only carried the ball seven times for 16 yards with one reception for 20 yards in the loss, and he only touched the ball four times in the second half.

But Frost said the standout freshman practiced on Monday and would be good to go this week against Illinois.

“Maurice is going to be fine…” Frost said. “He just got a little nicked up on Saturday; we couldn’t use him as much. But both guys (Washington and Ozigbo) are good to go and were practicing today.”

After transferring from Ole Miss and participating in spring practices, Breon Dixon’s disappearance from Nebraska’s outside linebacker mix had been one of the big mysteries this season.

Dixon was part of NU’s 74-man travel roster for the first time at Ohio State and saw the field on at least one special teams play, his first game action as a Husker.

Frost said the sophomore hadn’t seen any action yet this year because the plan going in was to redshirt him, but he would continue to dress and be available for depth now that they were in the four-game redshirt window of the schedule.

“Well we wanted to redshirt him, and we’re within our last four games, so we’re going to get him on the field,” Frost said. “Hopefully he can help, he’s still got a long way to go in some areas but we need more depth and more guys on teams and on offense and defense, so hopefully he adds something.”

It might be hard for some Huskers to come up with a very big chip to put on their shoulders for Illinois week, but senior center Tanner Farmer has all the motivation he needs.

A native of Highland, Ill., Farmer grew up a big fan of Illinois athletics, and there was a point where playing football for the Fighting Illini was one of his biggest dreams.

But before he broke onto the scene as a four-star recruit in 2014, Farmer said Illinois’ head coach at the time, Tim Beckman, “kind of snuffed me” in the recruiting process and asked him if he wanted to walk on.

Farmer declined, and later that summer he posted two straight impressive showings at the Rivals and Nike camps, which earned him roughly 20 offers and bumped him up to a four-star prospect.

Beckman and staff quickly came back to him with a scholarship offer, but that door had already been slammed shut.

“I always wanted to go to Illinois growing up,” Farmer said. “It was where my grandfather went; I’ve had a bunch of cousins go there. I always did well at their camps… (Beckman) brought me in and he goes, ‘Farmer, we want you to walk on.’ So my dad had a choice word or two for him. After I said this is where I want to go, I want to commit here and all that good stuff, they said, ‘You want to walk on?’

“So a couple weeks later I went to the Rivals camp in O'Fallon (Ill.) and I won O-Line MVP and I went to a Nike camp. Within a month I had about 20 offers. Once I started looking at other places, then Illinois came around and said they wanted to offer me, and it was pretty much too late by then. If I wasn’t good enough for you then, I’m not good enough for you now."

Nebraska will be debuting new uniforms on Saturday with their Adidas Primeknit A1 ‘Memorial Tribute’ alternates, which honor the 100th anniversary of the end of the WWI and NU’s Memorial Stadium.

The general concept of the uniforms is fairly understated, with a throwback red jersey, white pants, and black cleats based off of the Huskers’ 1923 uniforms. The wildcard is the helmets, which are designed to look like the old leather-strap headgear of the 1920s.

When asked their opinions on the new alternates, the Huskers’ reviews were mild, to put it nicely.

“The uniforms are different, but you know, they’re alright,” Foster said. “Stick to the old ones.”

Added Barry:

“I like the black cleats, the pants…” Barry said. “I don’t know what else to say about it. It’s a uniform. I’m happy to wear it, and I’m happy to play for Nebraska with that uniform.”