Quarterbacks give defense a different look in Day 1 of spring practice

For the last four years, things have not changed much for Scott Frost at Nebraska.

Over that time, Frost had the same quarterback and nearly the entire same staff he's had since his time at UCF.

On Monday when his team took the field for the first day of spring practice, not only was it a much different look in terms of coaching staff, there were two new quarterbacks slinging it around in Texas transfer Casey Thompson and Florida State transfer Chubba Purdy.

This was a much different look for Erik Chinander's defense, as they have been used to seeing Adrian Martinez running Frost's offense in practice since 2018. Now you have two new quarterbacks and Mark Whipple running the show on offense.

“They are still fast, or maybe I’m just slow,” outside linebacker Garrett Nelson joked of NU’s new quarterbacks on Monday. “For the first day, they did a really good job with Logan (Smothers) and Casey (Thompson) stepping up and obviously Chubba (Purdy) and all those dudes. Definitely different feels.

"Logan likes to run, Casey might stay in there and Heinrich (Haarberg) can sling it around. Just kind of knowing who you are going against is huge. Each of those guys has different strengths and weaknesses. Everybody does. Obviously, it was a different vibe.”

For inside linebackers like Nick Henrich, Monday was definitely an adjustment.

He really had no film to go off of to get ready for guys like Thompson and Purdy.

“It was great to go against those guys,” Henrich said. “Some real playmakers. It was a lot of fun to go up against a different offense than we have been used to the three years I’ve been here. Every spring has been pretty similar. This first practice was a little different as far as what they were installing.”

When talking about the offense on Monday, something interesting Whipple shared is they kept all the terminology the same, even though they are changing quite a bit within the scheme itself.

That helped make Monday a much faster practice than maybe a typical Day 1.

“We didn’t revolutionize the whole thing,” Whipple said. “I said I’ll learn it and we’ll do it that way with the new coaches. They have done a good job and I think they are playing faster because of that. It was a really good move by Coach Frost.”

Frost added keeping things simple will be a focus of this spring.

“We want to be a little simple this spring," Frost said. "We didn’t have trouble last year creating big plays or moving the ball at times. It was being consistent at the little things when we needed it. I think if we get good at blocking technique and running with it and throwing it and catching it we can change a route or a run concept.

"If we block with good technique, it’s going to work. We’ve got plenty of time to get creative with a lot of smart people. Spring is really going to be about fundamentals and doing the small things well.”

NU will take the field for the second of 15 spring practices on Wednesday.