10 things we learned from NU's Week 2 press conference

When the reality finally hit that Nebraska’s season opener vs. Akron would not be played on Saturday night or Sunday morning, the conversation immediately went to ways NU could still make up the game down the road.

The two most likely scenarios, should the Huskers decide to add a 12th game back on their regular season schedule, would be to schedule a different opponent during their Oct. 27 bye week or add Akron/another team at the end of the year on Dec. 1.

Head coach Scott Frost said on Monday that those discussions were already taking place within Nebraska’s athletic department, and the Huskers wouldn’t hesitate to jump on the opportunity to get back to a 12-game slate.

“At this point, any scenario isn’t ideal,” Frost said. “Playing 12 straight weeks certainly isn’t ideal for any team. Depth is a little bit of an issue for us at certain positions, and it’s certainly not ideal for us.

“I know they’re researching and looking into all options, and given the choice, these guys have worked so hard, they deserve to play a full slate of games. So if they give us an option to fill that game in somewhere we’re going to take it.”

Senior nose tackle Mick Stoltenberg said he and the rest of the Huskers were willing to do whatever it took to play a full 2018 season, even if it meant playing 12 straight weeks without a bye.

“I think guys would step up to that,” Stoltenberg. “I think guys want to play that game, guys want to have a 12-game season. They don’t want it to be cut short. Whatever happens, happens, but I think guys would be excited for it and ready for it no matter what happens.”

Frost said the worst part about Saturday’s cancellation was that the team “got all dressed up for nothing” and were left without a chance to play a game.

Some players were so determined to get the contest in they were shouting about playing it inside the Hawks Championship Center – “Which would have been epic,” Frost joked.

When the game was initially announced as “postponed,” Frost told his players to come back on Sunday and be ready to play. As it turned out, Akron decided the logistics surrounding moving the game to Sunday morning just weren’t going to work out.

While obviously disappointed, Frost said he understood where Akron and head coach Terry Bowden were coming from in their decision.

"If I was in Coach Bowden's shoes, I'm not sure I would have (played on Sunday)," Frost said. "One of the downsides of having so many fans here interested is that there's no hotel in town that could service either team.

“We were scrambling trying to find a place for them to stay. We kind of found a place, but it certainly wouldn't have been ideal for his team to not know where they're eating, not know where they're staying, not know where everybody is.

"I wish they would have agreed to play on Sunday so we could have gotten the game in, but if I were in his shoes, I'm not sure I would have made any different decision."

There’s an old saying that most teams make the greatest improvement between the first and second games of a season.

Considering Nebraska wasn’t able to get that first game in on Saturday, it could be at a bit of a disadvantage against a Colorado team that just rolled up instate rival Colorado State 45-13.

The good news, however, was that as far as the first Monday practices of game week are concerned, the Huskers couldn’t have had a much better effort than they had on Monday morning.

Frost went as far as to say his squad had “one of the best Monday’s I’ve ever seen a team have today,” and the players said the frustration of not being able to play a game yet definitely fueled them when they returned to work.

“I get to be mad on Sunday, and I need to be ready on Monday,” senior offensive lineman Jerald Foster said.

Considering all the attention that surrounded him, there shouldn’t have been a player more nervous going into Saturday’s game than true freshman quarterback Adrian Martinez.

As he ran onto the Memorial Stadium for the first time to take his historic first snap, though, the game officials waved the teams to the locker rooms before they could even get to the line of scrimmage.

A situation that could have messed with a young player’s psyche, Martinez seemed to take it all in stride.

“You can tell when a kid’s ready, and I think he was ready,” Frost said. “I think evidence of that was today he had his best practice I’ve ever seen him have today. He was one of the first ones to speak up and say, ‘We want to play. However it works, we want to play.’”

Martinez said the most disappointing part of all was that his father, step-mother, step-sister, and little brother had all traveled from California to Lincoln to watch him play, and that was probably the only game all year they all could have made it out together.

But as far as he was concerned, the tease of coming so close to making his official Husker debut wasn’t anything that would impact his readiness to do it all over again this week vs. Colorado.

“I felt like I was already prepared and ready to go regardless,” Martinez said. “I felt like I didn’t need any extra help. I felt like I was ready to go. I was excited. I wasn’t nervous. I guess having that extra experience (of going through pregame) now added on, it’ll be even easier this coming Saturday.”

As frustrated as Nebraska may have been not to get a game in this weekend, the team turned the page and didn’t look back when it returned to work on Monday morning.

Stoltenberg said all of the pent-up energy and adrenaline that didn’t get used on Saturday night carried over to their first Colorado practice on Monday, which likely played a role in why it was such a productive session.

Martinez said there would be some challenges to still not having played a game and going up against a CU squad that just rolled to big win. But the only thing the players could control was how they attacked this week of preparation.

“We’d been working for this moment, obviously, but once that ended and we knew the game was cancelled, my mind shifted to Colorado,” Martinez said. “I think that was kind of a focal point today to make sure everyone knew that was behind us now.

“The Akron game got cancelled, it is what it is. We’ve got to move on to Colorado. That’s what I was really trying to push today, trying to have my best day and trying to go hard. I think a lot of guys were the same.”

There were two ways of looking at what Saturday’s cancellation meant for Nebraska in terms of this week’s home game vs Colorado.

The down side is that the Buffalos come to Lincoln with a valuable first game of experience under their belts, and one in which they gained some major confidence with a lopsided rout of their instate rival.

The other end of it is that CU now has a full game of film for the Huskers to study over the next week, while Nebraska remains a mystery as to what it will actually look like under Frost and Co.

During his weekly press conference on Monday, Colorado head coach Mike MacIntyre admitted that both teams were facing some unique circumstances in getting ready for their first respective Power Five opponents of the season.

"They haven't played a game yet, so I think that gives us a little bit of an advantage," MacIntyre said. "The other side is that we've never seen them play at Nebraska. Everything is from Central Florida; that's all we watched is Central Florida film and some of their spring game. I was hoping to get some film on them, and they have film on us. Overall, we'll go out there and play and should be fine going into it."

Another angle that should aid Nebraska in its preparations for Colorado is that there look to be a number of similarities between the programs on both sides of the football.

Like NU, the Buffalos run a fast-paced spread offense that just racked up 45 points and nearly 600 yards of offense against CSU on Saturday.

Also like the Huskers, Frost said Colorado ran an aggressive 3-4 defense that featured many of the same challenges in terms of varying pressures and pre-snap movements.

“Definitely some similarities on both sides of the ball,” Frost said. “They do a lot of the same things defensively that our guys do and a lot of the same things offensively that our guys do.

“So there’s going to be some familiarity there… That’s going to help as we’re trying to get everything installed and have guys understanding blocking schemes and the X’s and O’s of everything.”

While Nebraska’s coaches thoroughly addressed the shakeups at quarterback last week following the sudden transfer of Tristan Gebbia, Martinez had yet to weigh in on the situation since beating out Gebbia for the starting job.

Martinez said it was disappointing to see a friend and fellow quarterback leave the program the way Gebbia did but noted that it was something the players already went through once this offseason when Patrick O’Brien left in the spring.

“We obviously already had a quarterback leave in Patrick O’Brien, and I think we kind of treated it the same way,” Martinez said. “Obviously we were sad to see a quarterback go. You grow tight as a unit, but at the same time, guys have to step up.

“(Andrew) Bunch stepped up, Matt Masker is stepping up, and we’ve got to move on. There’s not much time to kind of think about the past and about guys that are leaving. We’re focused on the guys that are here.”

There was a point during the severe weather delay when legendary former Nebraska defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh walked across the field and "threw the bones” to roaring applause from the crowd.

It was the first time in years that Suh had been back in Lincoln for a game, but Frost said he had no idea the Los Angeles Rams standout was in the house until later that night.

“I didn’t know he was coming, and I didn’t know he was there until somebody told me afterward,” Frost said. “He’s obviously a great player and a great Husker, and we want all those guys back. It was good to see a lot of the people that showed up for the game.”

Stoltenberg didn’t get a chance to talk with Suh, but said it meant a lot to him and his teammates for a former player with Suh’s credentials to come back and show support for the program that way.

“It’s kind of cool seeing him around,” Stoltenberg said. “Obviously he’s a legend around here, and for him to want to come back and be around the program and watch us play, it’s an honor for us.”

There was plenty of buzz about what changes Nebraska would be making to its famous “Tunnel Walk” introduction tradition.

When the Huskers took the field on Saturday night, they were welcomed by a slew of new additions, such as a remodeled pathway from the locker room to the field, choreographed LED lights, smoke machines, and a revamped entrance song.

Frost said he was definitely impressed by all of the changes, even if the crowd noise and his own adrenaline made it tough to fully soak it all in.

“The Tunnel Walk was incredible for me,” Frost said. “Just experiencing that again, it’s been a long time. It was so loud that we couldn’t hear any of the music or anything, but you could just feel the energy. That was the best part of the night."