Developing leadership on the offensive line a priority this spring

Tanner Farmer, Cole Conrad and Jerald Foster left Nebraska this past season with a combined 104 games of playing experience.

When Greg Austin looks at his offensive line this spring, replacing the vocal leadership particularly guys like Farmer and Foster provided last season may be his No. 1 priority.

Austin will mainly look to guys like junior Boe Wilson, Matt Farniok and Brenden Jaimes to fill that void.

“Matt Farniok has done a great job of stepping up,” Austin said. “Matt Farniok and Boe Wilson have been done a pretty good job of stepping up, both of those two guys. I'm nudging Brenden Jaimes, and he's doing a really good job of understanding his role. We're working with him from a leadership standpoint.”

Becoming more of a vocal leader something is not something Jaimes is necessarily comfortable with, but he know it has to be done.

Jaimes said he's working to be more like that every day.

“I’ve never been a vocal kind of guy, I’ve always been the type of guy to just put it on the field and let my play show for my leadership,” Jaimes said. “It’s certainly something I’ll be working on this year.

“Stepping up when things are going wrong, encouraging guys, instead of getting after guys and getting really pissed off at them, just encouraging them to do better, do more and just doing their job.”

According to Austin, it sounds like Farniok has been the guy who's trying to take more of that on.

“Honestly, he was chomping at the bit last year and he had to wait his turn if you will,” Austin said of Farniok. “Now that he has his turn, he hasn't turned back. I said earlier, everything that he says, the guys listen to and he backs it up with his mindset in the way he attacks everything. Matt, just to give you a story, he'll go in the weight room, and it might be just a regular day, but he's going to be maybe throwing up in the trashcan because he's busted his ass so hard and he'll get back in there and finish his set.

“He's going to push himself, and he's going to demand other guys to push themselves as well. I'm excited about what he brings to this room and who he is, the leader that he's becoming. Because certainly, we're working alongside one another along with other guys, it's not just him, to make our operation better.”