Tuesday notebook: Barry's love of football shining amid 0-3 start

Trailing by a school-record 39-0 halftime deficit, Scott Frost challenged his team in the locker room for the ensuing two quarters against Michigan.

Though the game's outcome was already all but decided, Frost said the second half would serve as a gauge to find out which players truly loved football and which ones didn’t.

One player who solidified his love for the game in the loss was senior inside linebacker Mohamed Barry.

It wasn’t just Barry’s game-high 11 tackles, career-high three tackles for loss, and one sack that stood his coach and teammates, but also the passion and fight he showed even with the game well in hand.

“One of the guys on defense I know stands out is Mohamed Barry,” senior safety Tre Neal said. “You can tell by his play; it literally kills him if he even takes the wrong step. It bothers him that much. Sometimes you've got to relax it a little bit. It’s football. Don’t get too crazy.

“But you know, that’s the kind of thing you want to see. You want to see somebody be too crazy about it; too passionate about it. Not somebody that’s just, ‘Ah, I can take this false step. It’s not going to matter that much,’ because it does matter. That’s one of the guys that stands out to me that loves it.”

Junior safety Deontai Williams echoed Neal’s praise, saying the Grayson, Ga., was one of a handful of players who fit the bill of the type of passion the staff wanted.

“We got a lot of leaders on the defense, but Mo is the most vocal,” Williams said. “When he talks, you’re going to hear him, and you’re going to feel him. He has that power. He gives 110% every play. He’s not giving up, and all he wants to do is be great. You can’t beat that.

“You want that person that’s going to literally break their leg for you to make a play. That’s what you want from a defensive player next to you, and I trust him. I trust him to make that tackle. I trust him to not miss an assignment. I trust him to have my back when I need him.”

Barry now leads the team with 26 total tackles, eight more than the next highest player (Dedrick Young, 18). That’s even with missing an entire half of the Troy game after being ejected for targeting in the second quarter.

Prior to Tuesday’s practice, Barry got in front of the team and issued an ultimatum that it was now or never to get their season turned around, and it started by having their best week of practice yet.

As far as Barry was concerned, the Huskers responded by having their best Tuesday session of the year.

“I got in front and said, ‘Hey, they are saying we can’t practice hard on Tuesday, so bring it today harder than you ever have,’” Barry said. “It’s as easy as that. It’s just like an ultimatum. At the end of the day, you just have to do it.”

- Robin Washut

The leg injury Mick Stoltenberg suffered at Michigan forced Nebraska to use Carlos Davis more at nose tackle as opposed to defensive end.

This week expect to see defensive line coach Mike Dawson use a lot of different combinations at nose with Davis, Damion Daniels, and Peyton Newell.

“We are going to continue to grow some of the other guys at nose also, but Carlos has been getting a decent amount of reps there, and he’ll get a lot more now obviously with Mick being gone,” Dawson said.

“We are going to keep rotating the guys around. You’ll see Khalil (Davis) on top of the center sometimes like you have in the first couple of games, and we’ll keep going with some of the other guys too.”

Davis played 29 snaps on defense when Stoltenberg went down, and that number should only continue to grow this week along with his brother Khalil’s. Dawson doesn’t expect to move another player up in the rotation.

“Carlos brings a lot of explosiveness, combined with a lot of athleticism,” Dawson said. “He’s really fast for his size, and also extremely powerful. I think it’s going to be a good fit for him. Also, he’s got a certain amount of toughness that’s going to allow him to excel I think at that position.

"I’m excited for him to get out there and continue to get more reps and hone in on that a little bit more and keep growing a lot more at that spot.”

- Sean Callahan

In giving up 56 points and nearly 500 yards of offense to Michigan, Saturday’s loss was a cold slap of reality for Nebraska’s defense in several ways.

But after going back and looking at the film, defensive coordinator Chinander said he came away from the game feeling almost as optimistic as he was disappointed.

On one hand, many of the Wolverines big plays offensively came as a result of one or two small mistakes by NU’s defense, which means a lot of their problems in the game should be relatively easily corrected.

On the other, the fact that those little mistakes continue to happen so regularly now a month into the season has been equally frustrating.

“I think it’s both,” Chinander said. “Obviously it’s encouraging because you watch the film and you’re close. Whether we can or won’t do it, same to me. (But) it’s disappointing that it’s not getting done yet. So I think it’s a little bit of both right now, but it’s things we’ve got to fix.”

The defeat also served as a bit of a measuring stick as to how far Nebraska was from being physically ready to take on a power pro-style offense like Michigan’s.

“Physically, do we have a ways to go? Yeah,” Chinander said. “We’re in Year .5 or .75 of the strength and conditioning program, so to catch up to those teams do we have a ways to go? Yeah, but I don’t think it was David and Goliath or anything like that.

“I thought the guys played hard, and when they were in the right fits and they were executing, we could hold our own. But we definitely have a ways to go as far as the strength and conditioning and as far as the development of our players.”

- Robin Washut

Nebraska’s special teams performance through three games has left a lot to be desired.

With issues in all areas of special teams continuing to take place, special teams coordinator Jovan Dewitt said they’ve ramped up the emphasis of that phase of the game and finding the right types of players to execute.

“The reality of the situation is, no matter what you’re doing in football, special teams, offense or defense, you have to compete every single day with the desire to excel,” Dewitt said. “Not just go out there and get your job done, but get your job done the best that you can. So whether the ball was being placed in the right spot or not should not have a bearing on how well we go down and cover on a kick.

"That’s what we are trying to instill in these guys over and over and over again. Until we get that going we’re replacing guys, getting new guys in, putting other people out there, showing the desire to excel not just being out there doing a job.”

Dewitt said players have responded well for the more part, but there will definitely be some personnel changes coming.

“There’s absolutely some personnel changes,” Dewitt said. “We auditioned a couple more guys at different spots in terms of all our special teams units, making sure people know that their job is always on the line. Every day their job is on the line.

“I’ll tell you this much, it’s been a ball-buster in terms of special teams, I’m just going to tell you right now. It’s been a high-intensity week for special teams and it’s going to continue to be so. Obviously, there’s been a huge emphasis from everybody and there has been throughout the course of camp and throughout the course of the regular season, but right now it’s just – we’re getting after it. That’s all I can tell you.”

- Nate Clouse

When secondary coach Travis Fisher looks at the challenge his guys face this week, he said Purdue will test the Huskers downfield more than any team they’ve seen this season.

Led by veteran quarterback David Blough, he said the Boilermakers are much different than the three offenses NU has faced thus far.

“This team is very good at what they do,” Fisher said. “They have a very good quarterback, and that’s probably the best quarterback we’ve seen as far as being accurate with the football and throwing deep balls. We have to do a good job of containing those guys and playing with our feet and eyes.”

Going back to last week’s Michigan game, one of the lone bright spots was the play of cornerback DiCaprio Bootle against the pass.

Bootle had five pass break-ups against the Wolverines, which was tied for the third-most in school history. The last time an NU defensive back had that many PBU’s in a game was in 2012 (Stanley Jean-Baptiste vs. Northwestern).

Bootle’s seven pass break-ups on the season are already more than any Husker had all of 2017.

“I think we are doing a lot better on defending deep balls and making plays on the ball,” Fisher said. “We just have to come down them. I like where the PBU numbers are, but I’d like to come down and get some interceptions on those.”

- Sean Callahan

***There were some questions about the status of running back Maurice Washington on Monday, but he did practice on Tuesday.

***Safety JoJo Domann remains out with an undisclosed injury.

***Chinander was very complimentary of Purdue’s offense, said Jeff Brohm’s scheme was one of the best spread attacks in the country and quarterback David Blough was an “exceptional” passer who could throw as well as any QB in the conference.

***Chinander said Purdue’s standout freshman receiver Rondale Moore was an extremely versatile weapon who the Boilermakers used in a multitude of ways. Chinander said it was more about containing Moore than it was outright stopping him.

***Chinander said Barry made his share of mistakes against Michigan, but he was able to make up for a lot of them with his effort and overall passion for the game. Chinander said other players “feed off of” Barry and wishes he had 105 players who loved the game as much as the junior did.

***Chinander said he wanted to continue to add length and speed to his defense in future recruiting classes, but they will also be gauging prospects’ character and love of football. Chinander said they don’t want a guy who is talented but doesn’t pay attention to football outside of his own practices and games.

***Punter Caleb Lightbourn said he’s taken the punting struggles very personally this week and has really worked to improve his directional punting.

***Dewitt said Chase Urbach was the No. 1 long snapper at Michigan because Jordan Ober was out with a minor knee injury. Dewitt said Urbach did very well in the game and even made a few tackles on punt coverage.

***Defensive backs coach Travis Fisher said cornerback Cam Taylor played with such good effort at the end of the Michigan game that Fisher was worried the freshman might get a targeting penalty at one point.

***Fisher said when he first got to Nebraska he thought that only about 25 percent of his secondary truly loved football. Now he feels like everyone in his room loves the game.