Quick hits from Mickey Joseph's Indiana week press conference

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The first of two bye weeks for Nebraska's football program this season has come and gone. Now the Huskers (1-3) get back to the grind of the season and begin the Big Ten Conference slate. They will host Indiana (3-1) at 6:30 p.m. on Saturday.

Huskers interim head coach Mickey Joseph, as well as a few players, met with the media on Tuesday morning, one day after the team released a two-deep depth chart with a few minor tweaks.

Here are some quick notes from what Joseph and the players said at the podium:

>> Joseph said the team is looking at this week as a fresh start. He understands Indiana's offense wants to play fast.

The Hoosiers had 104 snaps in their loss to Cincinnati last Saturday, Joseph said. He added that he'll work with the scout team this week, working with them to line up as quickly as they can to help prepare the defense.

>> Offensive lineman Kevin Williams Jr. has a high-ankle sprain and will be out for this weekend's game. Joseph said that Williams will be out for "2-3 weeks."

>> Ethan Piper, an in-state product from Norfolk Catholic, will get the start at left guard, a position he started seven games at in the 2020 season.

>> Joseph said interim defensive coordinator Bill Busch eliminated some things that were done earlier this season by Erik Chinander. The hope is the defense won't have as much on its plate, which can help it play faster and line up quicker.

>> Coming back from New Orleans helped slow things down for Joseph, who was in Louisiana recruiting. Life has been hectic for Joseph since becoming the interim head coach.

>> With Ajay Allen out for the season with a collarbone injury, Joseph said he's not worried about the running back room behind starter Anthony Grant. Joseph liked that Gabe Ervin Jr. stayed locked-in while he wasn't getting carries. Ervin has impressed Joseph.

>> Joseph said it will be important to re-recruit the current members of the team due to the transfer portal being such a big part of today's college football.

>> Joseph has told the team to block out the outside noise and worry about Indiana. He knows his audition for the head coaching job has already started. He has eight games left to impress, and he knows it.

>> Joseph said he likes Omar Brown and wants him close to the ball, which is why he was moved from safety to nickel. Brown, a former FCS All-American at Northern Iowa, came to Nebraska as a corner before moving to safety.

>> Joseph likes what he's seen from true freshman corner Malcolm Hartzog. "He doesn't blink," the coach said. Hartzog was listed as one of the backups behind starter Tommi Hill, who struggled against Oklahoma.

>> What's the difference with interim DC Bill Busch now in charge? Safety Marques Buford Jr. said Busch is trying to "make it so we can get our feet set in the ground and just be ready to play."

Busch is trying to simplify things now that he's in charge. That should help with the issue of the players not being ready for the snap.

>> Buford on two true freshmen who were on the two-deep this week, safety Jaeden Gould and Hartzog:

"Those two guys have grown up pretty fast," Buford said.

>> Buford says the last week of practice has featured a lot of competition.

"Everyone knows, even myself, that nobody's spot is secured," the safety said.

>> According to Brody Belt, Bill Busch is "a good kind of hard ass" where he will get on players if he needs to, but will do it in a caring way, trying to help.

>> Feist and Buford are in agreement that there are noticeable changes now that Busch is in charge of running the defense: "When he stepped into that role, he obviously had some different words for us, different style of defense. We're gonna change some things up, and then we did a few different things in practice."

>> Feist said that during Tuesday's practice, for example, the Huskers "got some live reps with these new words and stuff. So I think that was big over the bye week is to put those in, and we had some time to kind of learn them. So I think that was one of our major emphases over the bye week."

>> One of the differences under Joseph as head coach is a change in the practice schedule, Feist says, and that is another difference under the Huskers' new leadership.

>> Per punter Brian Buschini, his sprained ankle is still a little sore from having to make a tackle against Oklahoma. He said he'll be good for Saturday.

>> Buschini said he got to watch the Iowa vs. Rutgers football game from last weekend. That matchup featured a good punting battle between the Hawkeyes' Tory Taylor and the Scarlet Knights' Adam Korsak.

"It was really entertaining," Buschini said of the game, which Iowa won.

>> Buschini said he's a blackbelt in Taekwondo. That has helped him on football fields, too, he said, teaching him to not be afraid of contact.