Wednesday notebook: Lindsey's departure 'a shocker' for Huskers

It started with some message board rumblings about a notable change on Nebraska’s official online roster on Tuesday night, and less than an hour later the Huskers had confirmed that sophomore wide receiver Tyjon Lindsey was no longer with the program.

After playing 68 total snaps over the first four games of the season, Lindsey approached NU’s coaches following Tuesday’s practice – in which he was a full participant – and informed them he was requesting a release from his scholarship.

Offensive coordinator/wide receivers coach Troy Walters said the former four-star’s decision definitely came as a surprise to him and the rest of the staff.

“Yeah, it was a shocker,” Walters said. “There were no indications. I know he didn’t play as much as he would have liked to, but we have a long season and things happen…

“He felt like he wanted an opportunity at another place, and so right now we’re focused on the guys we have. I told the guys in the meeting room that whoever practices well, they’re going to get an opportunity. When your number’s called, you’ve got to be ready to make the most of it. Everybody has to prepare like they’re going to play 80 snaps.

“We wish Tyjon all the best, but the guys that are in that room, we’ve got to focus on them and they’ve got to be ready to go.”

Lindsey, who was Nebraska’s highest-rated signee (6.0) since 2008, never lived up to the hype of his recruiting profile. He played in 12 games with one start last year as a true freshman, catching 12 passes for 76 yards.

The beginning of this season wasn’t much better, as he only managed three receptions for 22 yards and was targeted just eight times in four games. He also returned five punts for one total yard and muffed another.

Even so, Walters said he was still encouraged by Lindsey’s development in Nebraska’s new offense and thought he had a bright future ahead of him.

“He was getting better and better,” Walters said. “He was frustrated with the reps he was getting, and so he wanted to move on. We’ve just got to focus on the guys that are here. We feel like we’ve got enough talent to win with the guys that are here, and it gives other guys opportunity to go out there and make plays and help this team win.”

- Robin Washut

Senior center Cole Conrad missed a good portion of the Purdue game with an injury, which forced the Huskers to have senior guard Tanner Farmer fill in for him.

Offensive line coach Greg Austin said that both Farmer and Conrad split snaps at the position at practice on Wednesday and would be available to play at Wisconsin this weekend.

“Cole is back and obviously there’s going to be some residual soreness and things that come from his injury,” Auston said. “Tanner has done a good job stepping in and handling the reps, most of those reps, so we’ll see. Both of them had probably an equal amount of reps at center, so it will probably be kind of a game-time decision.”

Austin spoke about what Farmer brings to the position in Conrad’s absence. He said the two actually share a lot of the same traits and regardless of which one starts this weekend he has confidence in them.

“He’s a tough kid," Austin said. "Stout, he knows the calls, he knows the offense, he’s got a lot of snaps with him being as old as he is so there is a maturity there. Tanner is one that, just like Cole, both of those guys are kind of even-keeled kids.

"They don’t get all caught up in a bad play. They don’t let not so good plays affect them. They calm everybody down. Both of them are loud, they can communicate and both of them are smart. I have confidence in both of them.”

- Nate Clouse

Over the month of August, Nebraska used referees in practice for all of their major scrimmages, but other than those three days, they haven’t had refs around on a daily basis.

That changed on Wednesday when NU had an entire crew of Big Ten certified officials working practice. It’s something you’ll probably see on most Tuesday and Wednesday’s from here on out.

“We obviously have to fix our penalties,” running backs coach Ryan Held said. “We had too many doggone penalties. We had refs out there today. We have to fix it. It’s not: ‘Oh, we’ll get them the next time.’ Now it’s second-and-20. We can’t recover from second-and-20 a lot of the times. We are playing behind the sticks too much. We have to be able to be proactive and fix these teachable moments for our guys.”

Using practice refs has been common over the years at Nebraska ever since the days of Tom Osborne and Frank Solich. It sounds like that will be the new approach going forward.

“They were in Fall Camp some of the time, but they were out there today,” Held said. “As many times as they are out there, we want them out there, because our guys need to be able to see it. Because when we run a motion you can’t be sitting here moving your feet and say, ‘now I’m going to get lined up,’ but then we have illegal motion. That happened in the football game. Those things matter in the heat of the battle.

“We just can’t have those things. All three phases of the game we just keep killing ourselves. We need to have a clean game where we don’t have turnovers, or we don’t have penalties, and we go out there and play a game when they made the game like it’s supposed to be played.”

- Sean Callahan

Going into a hostile road environment like Wisconsin's Camp Randall Stadium is never easy, especially when you have a true freshman starting quarterback.

However, quarterbacks coach Mario Verduzco remains confident that Adrian Martinez will be able to handle the environment on Saturday. Earlier this year Martinez played in front of over 110,000 fans at Michigan.

“It didn’t appear there was any issues with that,” Verduzco said of Martinez’s communication at Michigan. “I know when we played (at Wisconsin) when I was at Northern Iowa, we didn’t experience any issues with the noise. Now, maybe the situation at Michigan was such just because it was kind of out of hand, so they weren’t getting too ruckus, but nevertheless, haven’t experienced any problems at Camp Randall at least the first time around.”

As for Martinez’s play on the field, Verduzco said he continues to make steps in the right direction.

“Two parts to that,” Verduzco said of Martinez’s progress. “One, is that when he gets to practice, to understand that you can’t have a mood. You can’t be happy you can’t be sad, you can’t be whatever, pissed off or whatever it might be, same thing with pregame. No moods. Come to practice fired up, excited, let’s go. That’s been awesome right.

“The other piece of the puzzle is he’s learning how to practice like a champion whatever the period is, whatever the tempo of the period is. So, if it’s a walk-through period or if it’s no sweat Thursday. To ensure that, despite the fact that it’s walk-through, and it might be slower paced. That every aspect and detail of what you’re doing is perfection. He’s learning how to do that.”

- Sean Callahan

***Walters said Lindsey’s departure only furthers the need for other receivers not named Stanley Morgan Jr. and J.D. Spielman to step up. Walters praised Kade Warner’s emergence last week and said the walk-on would continue to have a big role, but they still needed others to be more consistent factors.

***Walters said one of the biggest parts for any of those receivers to see the field more was how well they blocked on the perimeter. He said the motto in the WR room was “No block, no rock.”

***Walters said they still have a few freshmen they want to redshirt this season but also plan on using the four-game window with going forward.

“We have certain guys in mind that we’re going to try and get a redshirt out of," Walters said. "We still want them to play in those four games and get the experience so that next year they’re even better.”

***Austin said Conrad’s play this season has been “hot and cold” but Farmer also had some issues with his snaps vs. Purdue because of fatigue as the game wore on.

***Austin said he’s still waiting on players to step up as NU’s seventh and eighth offensive linemen but noted that guards Matt Sichterman and Trent Hixson were “close” to getting there.

***Austin said Boe Wilson is the top backup option right now at both right and left guard.

***Held said Maurice Washington has fully practiced all week and will be available at Wisconsin.

***Held said Devine Ozigbo’s big role was more a result of his play in practice and Washington being out, so it’s no guarantee that he will have that type of workload every game.