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Thursday notebook: Huskers determined for cleaner play

Nebraska's penalty problem is one of the biggest hurdles standing in its way this season.
Nebraska's penalty problem is one of the biggest hurdles standing in its way this season. (USA Today)

Nebraska has been its own worst enemy every stop along the way towards its 0-5 start to this season, and one of the most glaring culprits have been the baffling amount of penalties committed each game.

The Huskers currently rank dead last in the Big Ten Conference and rank 125thout of 129 FCS teams in penalty yardage (487), averaging just over 10 flags for 97.4 yards per game.

Head coach Scott Frost is well aware that the first step in getting his program back on track is figuring out how to stay out of its own way by cutting down on the penalties.

“I’m frustrated that we rank so low in penalties,” Frost said. “Going back, running this offense, we’ve always been a little more penalized, probably because we run at such a fast pace. We run so many more plays, there’s so much space.

“We’ve been good enough to overcome the ones we’ve got but getting too many and we’re nowhere near good enough to overcome it at the same rate.”

As if that wasn’t a big enough priority to correct, the penalty issues take on even more importance this week heading to Saturday’s road game at Northwestern.

The Wildcats, on the other hand, come in as one of the cleanest teams in all of college football when it comes to penalties, leading the nation with just 16 infractions for 171 yards through five contests.

“They are not going to beat themselves,” offensive coordinator Troy Walters said. “They are the least penalized team in the country… They are not going to beat themselves. We can’t turn the ball over, can’t have the penalties and get behind the chains. If we do that, we are not going to be successful.”

Even though Nebraska was still flagged 10 times for 100 yards last time out at Wisconsin, Frost said he was at least somewhat encouraged by how few of those penalties were a result of just bad mental mistakes from his players.

The majority, he said, were due to small technique errors that should be easily correctable. If the Huskers can find a way to clean up their play, both with cutting back the penalties and fixing the little fundamental mistakes, the remainder of the season could look much different than the first half.

“We’ve been really close a bunch of times,” Frost said. “We left a lot of stuff on the field offensively. Particularly early on because of little mistakes or penalties. Even defensively, there were some plays out there to be made, we just didn’t make them. It doesn’t take too many of those to turn it around.

“There’s no question, we got better this week. I think the attitude got better, the practice got better, and the performance was better. I was thrilled we didn’t get any of those dumb things, those dumb penalties, selfish plays that contributed to it. It’s just a matter of finding guys and getting guys that can make the one or two more plays that’ll put us in position.”

- Robin Washut

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Defense adjusting to thin inside linebacker depth 

Inside linebacker looked to be a position of strength of Nebraska’s defense going into the season, but transfers and injuries have left the position dangerously thin at the midway point of the schedule.

The Huskers will essentially be rolling with just four players at the two inside spots this weekend vs. Northwestern, as starters Dedrick Young and Mohamed Barry will be backed up by Collin Miller and Jacob Weinmaster.

Inside linebackers coach Barrett Ruud said during fall camp that he’d ideally like to use as many as six players in those roles on game day, but following the transfer of Avery Roberts and the season-ending injury to Will Honas, the rotation has dwindled considerably.

Defensive coordinator Erik Chinander said one way NU has tried to combat the lack of numbers at the position has been by cross-training the players at both the Will and Mike positions. That way they theoretically can have as many as three options at each inside spot.

“The bad news is we’re not getting guys back (from injury),” Chinander said. “The good news is the guys that are going to take their place have gotten a lot of reps this week, where last week they probably didn’t get as many. I think we’ve done a better job of getting all four guys ready to play both spots.”

For someone like Weinmaster, who was a walk-on special teams player before being placed on scholarship this fall, he’s embracing the opportunity with open arms and is ready to handle whatever workload necessary.

“I’m so thankful for those opportunities, you know coming to work every day preparing like you’re the starter,” Weinmaster said. “Everyone’s got to do it. We got great coaches, great leaders. Great leaders in the linebacker core, Dedrick and Mo, so just looking up to those guys, asking those guys questions. When I get my opportunity to go in, then take it.”

- Robin Washut

Receiver Mike Williams hasn't had much of an impact in NU's passing game, but he says he'll be ready when his chance comes.
Receiver Mike Williams hasn't had much of an impact in NU's passing game, but he says he'll be ready when his chance comes. (Nate Clouse)

Williams still waiting for opportunity at receiver

As a key piece of a junior college national championship team last year at East Mississippi C.C., Mike Williams came to Nebraska will fairly high expectations for himself.

His recruiting profile, paired with a lack of proven depth behind top wideouts Stanley Morgan Jr. and J.D. Spielman, also raised the hopes of the fan base as to what his impact could be this season.

But through five games, Williams has been somewhat of an afterthought in the Huskers’ offense.

The junior from Lake City, Fla., has just four receptions for 51 yards on the year, and he had three catches for 40 of those yards in the opener vs. Colorado.

Since that first game, Williams has made just one start with one catch for 11 yards, and he’s since lost his starting job to walk-on Kade Warner.

It certainly hasn’t been the start he had wanted, but Williams said he’s staying patient and waiting for his opportunity to come.

“It’s great to look to those guys (Morgan and Spielman) to make a play, but we got other guys that can make plays also,” Williams said. “When the opportunity presents itself, I think we’ll be ready.

“I know I can do it, but the opportunity hasn’t presented itself for me to make it happen.”

Williams was asked why he thought that opportunity hadn’t come for him yet.

“Those two guys have the hot hand,” Williams said. “If I was a coach, I’d stay with them too.”

- Robin Washut

'Humble' Newell focused on team amid depth chart rise

After three active seasons at Nebraska, Peyton Newell had seen action in just seven games and made two career tackles.

But the senior from Hiawatha, Kan., stayed the course and worked his way up into the No. 2 nose guard spot on the Huskers’ depth chart. Now following the injury to senior starter Mick Stoltenberg, Newell’s role has reached its highest point yet.

The 6-foot-3, 300-pounder has played in all five games this season and already has a career-high three tackles on the season, including two stops at Michigan.

Newell’s team-first attitude certainly hasn’t been lost on his new coaches, as defensive line coach Mike Dawson said that determination was exactly what he tries to preach to all of his players.

“Peyton is a very humble person,” Dawson said. “He really has a deep love for Nebraska and Nebraska football. As soon as I got here I could sense that, and it means a lot to him. He wears a lot of pride about it and he’s one of the hardest working guys. When you see him out there, he doesn’t have as many snaps as say the (Davis) twins, but when he goes you watch him run a play down.

“I go back to that Purdue game where him and Ben Stille are tackling the kid 45 yards down the field. Those are the type of things that if we can keep building on those, where we have guys run to the ball like that I think that we’ll get around the corner faster than what we think. I really appreciate his effort.”

Given his devotion to his team, Newell sees his rise up the rotation as kind of bittersweet in that it came at the expense of Stoltenberg missing an indefinite chunk of his final season as a Husker to a knee injury.

“Personally, on the inside it hurts all of us,” Newell said. “He’s such a great guy, amazing player, amazing guy to be around with every single day. He’s the true definition of Husker football player. He grew up here, and he bleeds it and that’s won off all of us.

“I’m going to be one of the happiest guys on the team when he’s back. He’s doing good right now, and we’re excited to get him back when he’s ready.”

- Robin Washut

Quick hits

***Frost said that this was the teams "best week of practice, ever, again." Frost recognizes that they aren't a deep team and that the staff made certain improvements to let the guys recover a little more, including taking the pads off this past Monday. Overall, the team improved on the little things this week and getting a better understanding of what needs to be done to give themselves a chance to win in games.

***Isaac Armstrong is officially going to be the starting punter for the game against Northwestern. Frost wants a shake-up in the special teams and points to the fact that the team is last in starting field position on offense and close to last in defense in the same category and believes that Armstrong gives them the best chance at improving that statistical category.

***Special teams overall is nowhere near where Frost wants it. He addressed the issue of spotting the opponents the ball at the 50-yard line which goes along with the change in the starting punter this week. Frost also believes that the offense is good enough that, if they get a shorter field, he's confident in turning that into points.

***Frost again talked about the 3rd and longs that the team finds itself in due to the penalties and bad decisions that are made at times. He, again, says that he's confident in his offense but they aren't good enough yet to overcome those mistakes.

***There are a number of true freshman on the team right now that could fit into the "playing time" category for Nebraska towards the end of the year. Frost says that the problem is, some of the guys who fit that group aren't healthy. Some names Frost mentioned were Casey Rogers, Tate Wildeman, Cam Jones, and Cam Jurgens.

***Frost confirmed today that freshman Cam Jurgens broke a metatarsal bone in his foot at practice on Monday. The injury to Jurgens wasn't to the same foot that has given him problems in the past and says that he's projected to be out for about a month.

***Freshman Jaron Woodyard was described by Frost as having "all the talent that you need to play the position." Frost said that he is "close" but he needs him to be better on the vast majority of plays that he gets out there but he's getting better every week. He wishes that Woodyard could have been with the team starting back in December to further that development a little more.

***Frost said that the team isn't planning on going to a silent snap count this week at Northwestern and hopes the fans show up to Ryan Field to help that out a bit.

***Frost backs up what he said from a few weeks ago about the quarter system being an advantage for some teams and an unintended consequence for others.

***There is "no doubt" in Frost's eyes that the kids that transferred to Oregon State this year were in contact with someone that they formerly knew. The biggest thing to Frost are those former teams contacting those players trying to get them to transfer to their new school. He doesn't want to be too overcritical of that because just last night Frost facetimed Central Florida quarterback McKenzie Milton for his birthday, but he doesn't believe in trying to get those kids to follow them elsewhere.

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