Wednesday notebook: Bowl game or not, NU won't take December lightly

Nebraska technically isn’t officially eliminated from bowl contention yet, as there remains the very slim chance that numerous dominoes fall this weekend to get to the postseason at 5-7.

But assuming the Black Friday showdown at Iowa is the Huskers’ last game of the 2018 season, head coach Scott Frost wants to make sure the month of December doesn’t go completely to waste like it a year ago.

Frost said his players would get next week off but then would come back and go through a week of pre-winter conditioning workouts before going home for Christmas break.

Frost said the Huskers were a bit behind last winter when his staff took over after basically being off for an entire month, so they want to make sure the players don’t get too rusty before the start of winter workouts.

“When we inherited this team last January, the guys had been stagnant for a long time, and it caused us a few issues at the beginning of winter conditioning,” Frost said. “Our team’s going to be in better shape heading into it (this year), but we want to make sure not to take an entire month off before we start as we get more work done in the winter.”

For Nebraska to have any chance at extending its season, it must beat Iowa for just the second time since 2012.

The team could be view Friday as their bowl game considering their current situation, but Frost said the only thing different about this game compared to any other was that it could be the final time its seniors suited up as Huskers.

“This is another game for us,” Frost said. “Now, it’s a special game because if it’s the last one, the seniors are playing for the last time with Husker ‘N’s’ on their helmet. That was special for me and special for every guy that’s played here.

“So we want to go out and play the best we can, and I think the guys are fired up to do that. As long as we go out and play with the effort and intensity we’ve been playing with lately, I’m going to be proud to be their coach.”

- Robin Washut

Quarterback Adrian Martinez certainly didn’t have his most electrifying game this past Saturday against Michigan State, completing a season-low 43.2 percent of passes and only throwing for 145 yards, his second-lowest mark on the season.

However, after looking over game film and understanding the circumstances, Nebraska’s coaches agreed that Martinez played one of his better games in a Husker uniform.

“When we watched the tape and talked to Mario [Verduzco] about it, believe it or not, he played one of his better games,” Frost said. “Just understanding in those situations that it isn’t going to be a track meet and a video game type deal on a day like that.”

Verduzco agreed, adding that the type of game plan that the Huskers had in place was designed to work around the cold temperatures, high wind gusts, and one of the best defenses they had faced all season in the Spartans.

“This is the game we knew was going to happen,” Verduzco said. “It was going to be a dogfight, right? It was going to be a punch-yourself-in-the-face sort of game. The decisions he made in the second half with regards to what he had to do from snap to snap, in that environment, playing against that opponent was, for a young guy, really, really good.”

As for Martinez going forward, Frost is confident that the young quarterback will take this game as a learning experience and knows he will only continue to get better in those types of conditions.

“That’s all part of his learning process,” Frost said. “Every game there’s still things that he’s learning and things that need to get fixed. The great part about him is that he fixes them the next week. He’ll get used to the cold after living here for a while. Hopefully, we won’t have a game like that for a long time.”

- Mike Wheeler

Last Saturday was a Senior Day to remember for safety Antonio Reed.

The senior finished with an interception, two forced fumbles, one sack, and seven tackles in Nebraska’s 9-6 win over Michigan State. On Monday, Frost announced that Reed had received a Blackshirt after his impressive performance.

“When I first saw it there was excitement for me, but I think the most excitement came from my brothers and my teammates around me,” Reed said.

Reed’s biggest play came in the fourth quarter with a sack that forced a Spartan fumble that was eventually recovered by Nebraska.

Despite having an up-and-down season and suffering an injury in NU’s win over Illinois, earning a Blackshirt was the perfect ending to Reed’s final game at Memorial Stadium.

“It means everything,” Reed said. “To be a Blackshirt, it’s something you have to earn every day. It’s something that can be taken away at any time.”

- Allie Snow

Nebraska’s defense bent at times vs. Michigan State on Saturday, but it never broke. In fact, the Blackshirts had one of their most impressive performances of the year, recording seven tackles for loss, two takeaways, and a sack.

As the Huskers turn the page to their annual matchup with West Division rival, Iowa, NU defensive line coach Mike Dawson knows it won’t be an easy trip for his group.

“These guys do a great job,” Dawson said. “They’re a big, strong team, and they’re so well coached. You can see everything they do, they know exactly where they’re going.”

Dawson said the Hawkeyes were a unique opponent in that their offensive line worked together better than any he’d seen.

“Whether it’s in the run game or the pass game, they work so well together and they’re in unison all the time," Dawson said. "It’s really an impressive group.”

- Grace Harmon

***Frost said “we’ve got our fingers crossed” regarding the injury status of receiver J.D. Spielman. It’s still unclear if the sophomore will be able to play through an ankle/foot injury at Iowa, but Frost said, “if there is any possible way he’ll be out there, he’ll be out there.”

***Despite a short week of preparation and the team having played 11 straight weeks, Frost said Nebraska again had a great week of practice this week. Frost said they held a walk-through session on Sunday night to get a jump on the gameplan install, the past three days were all strong efforts.

Frost said football was a lot like life in that regard where “it’s a lot more fun” to come to work at practice when things are going well and “you do things the right way.” He said it was “easy to coach this team right now” with how dialed in they’ve been.

***Frost said the Huskers had a team Thanksgiving dinner on Tuesday night catered by Hy-Vee, and after Wednesday’s practice the players would go visit kids in the hospital.

He said that was a tradition from previous staffs he definitely wanted to continue because he feels it’s so important for the players to see how big of role models they are in the community and why they need to give back as much as possible.

“I want these guys to get out in the community and help learn how to be givers, not takers,” Frost said. “The more they be reminded of how much of a role model they are to the people of the state and how much of a hero they are to the young kids in this state, I think the better for our team. That’s a tradition that we’ll keep, and I’m glad to get those guys out there and see if they can’t make a difference for somebody.”