Tuesday takes: Snaps to young players will continue to increase
Here are some quick reactions and takes following Tuesday's Nebraska football post-practice media session.
The young players are going to keep seeing more snaps
We saw freshmen wide receiver Marcus Fleming and Zavier Betts take a more prominent role in the offense this past Saturday at Northwestern, along with running back Marvin Scott.
On defense, Myles Farmer, Quinton Newsome, Luke Reimer, Nick Henrich and Pheladrius Payne all continue to see more time.
Both defensive coordinator Erik Chinander and offensive coordinator Matt Lubick said on Tuesday they are going to keep working young players like this in the rotation.
It's scary to think the kind of impact guys like Fleming made last week, after having such limited time in the offense. That's only going to get better each week.
On defense, I'd say Payne has been one of the more pleasant surprises and the staff has reworked their scheme to feature guys like him on the edge.
He's played just 40 snaps (ranks 17th on the defense in snaps played), but has produced four STOP tackles, which ranks fourth on the team according to PFF. Reimer by the way leads NU with six, along with Ben Stille and Collin Miller.
And speaking of Stille, he's grading out by far the best we've seen over his career according to PFF. He's a 79.8 over two games. His grade a year ago over the entire season was 70.3, and he was in the 60s in 2017 and 2018.
Mum's the word on the situation QB still
Not a big surprise, but nobody tipped their hand on Tuesday what direction Nebraska's quarterback position is heading this week vs. Penn State.
The competition remains open and the reps fairly even according to Lubick
Everyone is being very careful about what they say about the quarterback position and who might have the upper hand this week vs. Penn State.
Most fans and outsiders expect it to be redshirt freshman Luke McCaffrey. We get one more chance to talk to head coach Scott Frost on Thursday. Don't count on him showing his hand what direction he's heading.
You will see more designed played to Wan'Dale Robinson
Lubick said it on Tuesday and Frost said it on Monday.
The lack of touches for wide receiver Wan'Dale Robinson has been a concern through two games.
Lubick said it could be as simple as drawing up more jet sweeps or designed screens his way.
The bottom line is Robinson hasn't touched the ball enough and everyone inside the North Stadium walls knows that and they want to get him the ball more this week.
Diving into the penalty issues
You heard coaches take the blame for the penalty issues on Tuesday, but redshirt freshman Ethan Piper offered some interesting insight.
He said one of the things that was throwing the line off Saturday vs. Northwestern is they did a lot of pre-snap shifting and they were yelling out calls before the snap to try to draw the Huskers off.
It obviously worked, as all five of the Huskers starting offensive linemen were charged with one penalty vs. Northwestern.
This has to get better. NU had a penalty on each of their first three drives to start the game, and that set the tone for the rest of the day.