Tuesday notebook: Huskers taking special teams woes 'personally'

Of all the struggles Nebraska has had over the first two games, maybe the biggest surprise has been on special teams.

With several dynamic return players on the roster, along with a veteran starting punter, long snapper, and holder, this was looked at as one of the team's strengths on paper going into the season.

Through two games, you can argue it’s played as big of a factor in the Huskers' 0-2 record as anything. Nebraska's special teams have missed two field goals, allowed a punt return for a touchdown, committed six of the team's 21 total penalties, and the return game has had zero impact on field position.

“I take a lot of pride in it,” special teams coordinator Jovan Dewitt said on Tuesday. “I take it very personally, and I think our players know that, and I think our players are starting to take it personally. It’s as personal to me as anything. It’s personal to anyone that works on special teams, maybe me the most of all, because I’m in charge of it. Anytime we aren’t performing well on special teams, it bothers me. I don’t get to sleep very much.”

Head coach Scott Frost also addressed NU’s special teams struggles through two games during Tuesday’s Big Ten coaches teleconference.

“I can’t think of very many games where a team scored on special teams and lost,” Frost said. “If you look at the percentages, if you score on defense or special teams those are games you have a high percentage chance of winning. We had a game last year that we won on a return, I remember a couple of other games that we had gotten beat and the other team had a return.

“Those are game-changing plays, and we need to be better in those situations. We have to make sure we have the right guys on the field, and I think we do. We have to execute in those situations.”

After Nebraska’s loss to Troy on Saturday, Dewitt said multiple front-line starters approached him about being put on more special teams units. He said that’s the type of attitude they need to have going forward.

“I had multiple guys after the game come up to me and say, ‘I’m not on enough of them,’” Dewitt said. “(Tyrin Ferguson) came up to me, Stanley (Morgan) came up to me, Luke (Gifford) came up to me. They all said, ‘Coach, I need to be out there.’”

Dewitt also noted that on the punt return the Huskers allowed for a touchdown, several things went wrong that could be easily corrected, and it started with “details.”

“There were six missed tackles on that play,” Dewitt said. “So open-field tackling was the biggest stress point in terms of that. There were two or three guys that were loafing towards the end of the play. It’s a mentality that has to get changed.”

- Sean Callahan

Freshman quarterback Adrian Martinez was able to make it through Tuesday’s full-pads session, marking the second straight day he's practiced after being sidelined last week with a knee injury he suffered against Colorado.

Senior running back Devine Ozigbo said he liked what he saw from Martinez on Tuesday.

“Adrian looked really good today,” Ozigbo said. “I saw him pull up on a zone read, so he’s moving a lot better. I think we are good. We just have to see how feels come game day. I don’t know exactly the details, but he’s looking good.”

As for the challenge this week, Ozigbo knows running the ball against Michigan’s talented front seven will not be easy. It will be important they find ways to stay on schedule with their rushing offense.

“It’s going to be huge,” Ozigbo said. “Michigan is a big, physical team. We have the players to combat it. We just have to make sure we do the little things right, so we can have some success early and establish the run game.”

- Sean Callahan

After seven Blackshirts were finally awarded following the Colorado game, an eighth player had the coveted black practice jersey hanging in his locker on Monday morning.

Following two strong performances to start the year, senior safety Aaron Williams was awarded a Blackshirt this week.

“He’s done a good job ever since he’s been back from his injury practice-wise,” defensive coordinator Erik Chinander said. “He’s played pretty well the last few weeks. We thought that he kind of took over that spot and he gives us some leadership, so he’s the one who earned a Blackshirt this week.”

After suffering a shoulder injury on the first play of the Red-White Spring Game, Williams wasn’t cleared to resume full contact at practice again until the final week of fall camp.

Despite the setback of missing so much important practice time, Williams quickly vaulted back up the rotation and is now listed as a No. 1 safety on NU’s depth chart.

He posted eight tackles off the bench vs. Colorado and then followed that up five stops and a pass breakup against Troy. Even though he’s only started one game, Williams’ 13 total tackles lead all Husker defensive backs and rank fourth on the team.

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- Robin Washut

As the evolution of the game of football continues, it seems that defenses are being put at more and more of a disadvantage with each yearly rule change.

Nebraska has found itself on the wrong end of that progression over the first two games of the season. Safety Antonio Reed was flagged for a crucial personal foul at the end of NU’s loss to Colorado that arguably changed the outcome of the game.

Last week, linebacker Mohamed Barry was called for targeting in the second quarter vs. Troy, leading to his ejection and leaving the Huskers without one of their top defensive players the rest of the day.

Chinander and his defensive staff have now found themselves walking a bit of a fine line regarding teaching their players to play with a high level of aggressiveness and intensity while also being cautious enough to avoid costly penalties.

“It’s getting harder and harder to play defense, as we all know, but the rules are the rules,” Chinander said. “I don’t make the rules, I don’t have to like them, but I’ve got to play by them and so does everybody else.

“I don’t think you can lose the aggressiveness, but you’ve got to do a good job of knowing when and where. It used to be everybody wanted to cap off the pile on every big run play. Now it’s just getting harder and harder to do it.”

Chinander said he understood why Barry’s targeting penalty was called, but that doesn’t mean he agreed with it.

“The targeting on Mo, you look at it: did he hit head-to-head? Absolutely. Was it intentional? No way. You look at it from behind on the tight (camera angle), he’s trying to make sure the ball carrier is down.

“So you are walking a fine line, but obviously we’ve got to find a way to be as aggressive as we can be while also cleaning up the penalties.”

- Robin Washut

Inside linebacker Will Honas made his presence felt on the Nebraska defense last week as he ended up leading the team in tackles with eight and he also added a tackle for loss and a quarterback hurry.

The JUCO transfer from Kansas was thrust into the game following Barry's ejection, and inside linebackers coach Barrett Ruud said Honas filled in and played just as expected.

“Like I expected," Ruud said of Honas' performance. " I expect him to play well when he does go into games. The plan was to play him a lot anyway. He probably got obviously more reps than we anticipated with Mo getting the targeting call but, he was going to play a lot no matter what and he played how I expected him to play.

“It was a set rotation and he’s going to play a lot every week. He’s always earned a lot of playing time and he had a lot of plays in the first game too. With the situation that arose, he had to go the distance for us and he did a nice job.”

Even though Barry was forced to watch the game from the locker room, he said he still noticed Honas’ strong play from and was proud of him.

“He filled in and did a great job,” Barry said. “He made a lot of tough tackles in there and just played like Blackshirts. He played hard and at the end of the day that’s what he’s supposed to do."

- Nate Clouse

***Chinander said there were good and bad things to take away from the game film of the Troy loss, but in the end, they didn’t win, so there wasn’t much to feel good about. While the rushing defense was good, Chinander said all 17 points the defense allowed included an “X-play” – one that changes a drive – and those were plays they couldn’t allow.

***Chinander also said there were too many assignment errors that directly led to giving up points.

***Fisher said Michigan might only throw the ball 20 or so times on Saturday, but a lot of those passes go for big plays downfield. He said the key for the secondary would be to play tough against the run while also not losing sight of their receivers for deep shots.

***Dewitt said he counted six missed tackles on Troy’s punt return for a touchdown. He also said NU barely missed blocking a punt by “inches” that could have changed the game.

***Asked if the placekicker duties were up for grabs this week after Barret Pickering’s rough start, Dewitt said jobs are always open for competition and it would be no different this week.

***Defensive line coach Mike Dawson said Damion Daniels earned his increased role vs. Troy because he has consistently improved every day. Dawson said Daniels had a very good week of practice last week and the plan was to play him a lot more going into the game.