Tuesday notebook: Huskers leaning towards Ozigbo as starting RB

After becoming the first Nebraska running back to record three-straight 100-yard rushing games since 2014, it seemed like a no-brainer that Devine Ozigbo would be the No. 1 back for the rest of the season.

But when the Huskers’ offense took the field for the first time against Ohio State, it was Mikale Wilbon who was lined up with the starting unit.

Ozigbo still ended up leading the team with nine carries for a mere 24 yards in the blowout loss to the Buckeyes, but the decision to leave him out of the starting lineup in favor of Wilbon - who missed the previous game with a sprained ankle - left many fans scratching their collective heads.

With some time to evaluate things during the bye week, and with the news that Tre Bryant was done for the year with season-ending knee surgery, NU’s coaching staff looks to have changed their tune on Ozigbo’s place in the running back rotation.

“Devine's been running well, so we're leaning towards him right now,” running back coach Reggie Davis said. “We'll see how it goes, but it will probably be Devine."

Ozigbo got his first and only start of the season against Wisconsin after Wilbon had been ruled out to injury.

All the junior from Sachse, Texas, did with the opportunity was match his career-high with 24 carries for a career-best 112 yards, making him the first player since LSU’s Leonard Fournette last season to rush for 100 yards on the Badgers.

He now leads NU on the season with 351 rushing yards on 76 carries, putting him nearly 100 yards higher than any other Husker on the year.

Despite that production, it’s still unclear what kind of workload Ozigbo can expect this week at Purdue and beyond. Head coach Mike Riley said with Bryant officially out they wanted to get freshman Jaylin Bradley more involved in the offense, and Wilbon’s ankle is back to 100 percent.

“(Ozigbo and Wilbon) have had their moments where they both played together and have done a good job,” Riley said. “I don’t really have any regrets about how that has transpired, but really, all of these guys are pretty capable of being an every-down kind of back.”

What could ultimately determine how the workloads are distributed is how each back not only plays in the games, but also how they perform in practice from here on out.

"We really went back to fundamentals,” Davis said of NU’s bye week. “Pass pro-wise, how we're reading some of our plays, making sure even with our route running that we're where we need to be on the field… So a lot of the little things that we just wanted to make sure we tightened up on."

- Robin Washut

After ranking 117th out of 128 FBS teams in scoring defense a year ago, Purdue has turned around the unit under new defensive coordinator Nick Holt and new head coach Jeff Brohm.

Even in last week’s loss to Rutgers, the Boilermakers held the Scarlet Knights to just 217 total yards and 14 points one week after holding seventh-ranked Wisconsin under 20 on its home turf. Purdue hasn’t allowed an opponent to score over 30 points since its season-opening loss to Louisville.

One area of steady progression has been Purdue’s run defense. While the Boilermakers rank 70th nationally in yards allowed on the ground, they’ve used an attacking defense to limit opponents to just one “explosive run” - 20 yards and longer - over the last seven quarters.

That defense has helped Purdue stay close in times of offensive anemia.

“They’re just good up front,” Davis said. “They move a lot, they’re strong, they’re fast and they play with their hair on fire.”

For a Nebraska rushing attack that mustered just 31 yards against a particularly multiple Ohio State defense, movement and stunting by the front seven has presented problems in both moving the ball and pass protection.

“Blocking-wise, they don’t let you know exactly who you have,” Davis said. “You might think you have one guy, then at the snap of the ball, they’re stunting and pressuring and all kinds of stuff going on, so they don’t make it easy on you.”

While several Husker coaches are familiar Holt’s defensive tendencies from his time in the Pac-12, his current unit has the personnel to give any team problems.

A Nebraska offensive line that was nearly outsized by Ohio State’s d-line will face two more mammoths up front this week, particularly when Purdue runs 3-4.

Defensive tackles Eddy Wilson (6-4, 295) and Lorenzo Neal (6-2, 325) have caused matchup issues all season, and Huskers offensive line coach Mike Cavanaugh knows his unit needs to show up and send a message against a tough front four.

“Big, athletic guys; they all got good players,” Cavanaugh said. “They give you a little 3-4, four-down fronts and a variety of pressure.

"We need to be sharp. We need hats on hats and be able to finish."

- Matt Reynoldson

One of the big storylines coming out of the bye week was redshirt freshman Matt Farniok moving from tackle to guard.

Not only did Farniok’s role change, he already started getting first-team reps at right guard along with junior Tanner Farmer.

Should the Sioux Falls, S.D., native end up unseating Farmer for the starting job, it wouldn’t be the first time a former tackle flourished after a move to the interior offensive line.

With just four games left in the 2015 season, NU decided to move senior Zach Sterup from right tackle to right guard, where he started the rest of the year. The Huskers went 4-1 during from there on, including putting on arguably their best offensive performance of the season in the Foster Farms Bowl vs. UCLA.

Cavanaugh agreed there were some similarities between Farniok and Sterup, and while it remains to be seen who starts on Saturday night, the staff thinks Farniok has found his new home at guard.

“We like what Farniok brings to the table,” Cavanaugh said. “He’s a big athletic guy, who moves pretty good. I think it’s a good spot for him. We think it’s a good spot.”

- Robin Washut

It’s certainly not uncommon for a head football coach to dish out all kinds of praise to an opposing team leading up to a game, and Brohm definitely didn’t hold back in that regard while talking about Nebraska quarterback Tanner Lee.

During his weekly press conference on Monday, Brohm said Lee might be one of the best signal callers his Boilermakers would face all season, with the only exception being the guy who won the 2016 Heisman Trophy.

"As far as quarterbacks, other than (Louisville’s) Lamar Jackson, this is probably the best quarterback we'll play," Brohm said. “He can really throw the football and he can see the field. It'll present more problems for our secondary.”

As glowing as the compliment was, a closer look at Purdue’s schedule shows Brohm’s remarks weren’t entirely exaggerated.

After Jackson racked up 485 yards of total offense in 35-28 win over PU on Sept. 2, five of the next six quarterbacks the Boilermakers have faced currently rank 80th or higher nationally in passing.

The only competition would be be Missouri’s Drew Lock (2,190 yards, 23 touchdowns, eight interceptions), but the Tigers are just 2-5 this season and spend most of their games playing from behind.

Lee has obviously gone through his share of struggles, completing 55 percent of his passes with 13 touchdowns and 10 interceptions.

Over the past last three games, though, he’s connected on 59.6 percent of his throws and is averaging 270 passing yards with six touchdowns and one pick.

So, coach speak or not, it’s clear Brohm thinks very highly of Lee and is intent on making sure his defense knows what it will be going up against on Saturday night.

“It'll be a tough football game against a team that needs to win as bad as we do," Brohm said. "There's going to be a lot riding on this game."

- Robin Washut

***Linebackers Luke Gifford (hip) and Dedrick Young (hand) both practiced in some capacity on Tuesday. Gifford was a limited participant, while Young was able to do a bit more during the early portion of practice with a heavy wrap on his hand.

***Safeties Joshua Kalu (hamstring), Aaron Williams (neck), and Antonio Reed (knee) all practiced for the second day in a row.

***Diaco said it didn't matter that Purdue won't announce its starting quarterback until Saturday night since there wasn't much difference in what the offense does with either QB under center.

***Diaco said one thing they’re preparing for is a lot of trick plays and “window dressing’ from Purdue’s offense. He said PU coach Jeff Brohm is known for an “innovative” scheme, which he called “a lot of offense” with a bunch of personnel groupings and aggressive play calling.

***Diaco said the focus for the defense during the bye week was getting back to fundamentals and giving some of the lower players on the depth chart a lot more reps than normal. Diaco said they also focused more on individual work than they have all season.

***Diaco gave one final recap of the Ohio State loss, and he started by emphasizing that he wasn’t making excuses for what happened. But Diaco said despite how bad things have looked, he’s seeing progress being made by every player and every coach on the defense with every game they play.

Diaco went on to say there was “no doubt” that Nebraska was going to be “a great defense” and “no doubt we’re going to be the best defense in the country.”

***Left tackle Nick Gates said it wasn’t until after the Northern Illinois game that the offensive line finally got comfortable blocking for a pocket quarterback as opposed to a scrambler like Tommy Armstrong. Gates said the offensive line was to blame for all of Tanner Lee’s interceptions, and that he actually felt sorry for Lee early in the year because of how poorly the o-line protected him.

***Gates said the team didn’t need any big rah-rah speeches from the coaching staff to get motivated for the rest of the season, as they were already well aware of what’s at stake over the final five games.

***Safeties coach Scott Booker said Dicaprio Bootle was back at cornerback again after starting at safety vs. Ohio State.

***Booker said NU has been practicing on the grass fields as much as possible to prepare for Purdue’s natural grass surface.

***Left guard Jerald Foster said he was at Purdue two years ago, and while he didn’t play in the 55-45 defeat, he remembered the team going into the game thinking they were going to win and being overconfident. He said that definitely wouldn’t be the case this time.