Friday practice hot takes: Secondary depth on thin ice

Here are some takes and analysis following Nebraska head coach Scott Frost's interview session following Friday's practice.

Nebraska has had just two practices now that have included shoulder pads, and Friday was the first day the Huskers went in full pads.

With that said, it's helped NU stayed fairly healthy to this point, but head coach Scott Frost dropped some big injury news when he said sophomore cornerback Braxton Clark will miss the 2020 season with a shoulder injury.

This comes on the heels of a summer injury to fellow sophomore cornerback Quinton Newsome. The good news is Newsome has been cleared with the extra time off to play this season. The bad news is NU is down another key secondary body in Clark.

That is going to put more pressure on guys like DiCaprio Bootle and Cam Taylor-Britt to stay healthy and COVID free this year. After that, guys like Newsome, JUCO transfer Nadab Joseph, Tamon Lynum and Ronald Delancy will all enter the conversation.

The fear you have now is any one of those players testing positive for COVID and being knocked out for an extended 21-day period.

Depth and numbers should be good all across college football in 2020 with no players being charged a year of eligibility.

That means instead of having around 65 scholarship players available for a game, teams can utilize their entire 85 and not worry about redshirts.

This is going to really help areas like special teams play having more quality bodies available that can play.

However, after 2020 it's going to create a log jam on rosters across the country. We still don't know what kind of numbers the NCAA is going to allow you to be over beyond the 2021 season. There will also be a lot of schools that won't have the money to carry any more than 85 scholarship players.

This is going to bloat the transfer portal with several players the next four to five years and in the end, probably eliminate opportunities for high school players to get scholarships because transfer players will get more opportunities to fill spots.

The information we know right now on the Big Ten's new rapid testing program doesn't appear like it's going to do very many favors for a team like Nebraska.

The league has only purchased 170 COVID-19 rapid tests per day to cover players and staff on each team. NU has well over 150 players on their roster and easily 50 essential staff members that will need to be tested daily.

As for now, the language doesn't make it sound like teams can test more than 170 starting game week.

I get the impression though NU is going to do their best to fight this and make sure they are not in a position where they have to send 30 guys away once game week preparations begin for Ohio State.

This could end up being a crushing blow to the walk-on program. If they were forced to send guys away, some of them may never come back.

I've heard enough people now talk about the offensive line that you get the sense this is going to be one of the real strengths of this football team.

Offensive line cultures are not built overnight. It takes time to recruit and properly develop players to fit your system.

With young names like Bryce Benhart, Cameron Jurgens, Ethan Piper, Turner Corcoran, Brant Banks and Nouri Nouili all working in the wings, this line has a chance to be as deep and talented as NU has had in a while.

The other thing you like is there are so many guys in that second group that can play multiple positions. That versatility is going to be big in 2020.