Wednesday practice nuggets

Here are some quick notes and observations to pass along from Nebraska’s full-pads practice on Wednesday afternoon…

***Head coach Mike Riley said he’s not looking at these final five games of the season as “an audition” to impress new athletic director Bill Moos. Instead, to quote the sign that hangs in Jim Harbaugh’s office, all Riley wants to do is “Coach the Team” and make the most of the remainder of the year.

***Riley said they are “closer to some resolution” on a potential medical redshirt for running back Tre Bryant. He said he’ll probably have more information on Monday, but hinted that it would ultimately be up to Bryant. “That’s a good question for him,” Riley said.

***Riley said his biggest takeaways from watching the film of the Ohio State loss was the overall lack of execution by his team on both sides of the ball. Riley said he wasn’t disappointed the in the defensive game plan, but was about the number of times players were just in the wrong place and not even in position to execute their assignments.

On offense, he once again said Nebraska’s inability to maintain any sort of consistency. He said the offense has shown signs of what it’s capable of at times all season, but it just hasn't been able to maintain that level of production on a consistent basis.

***Riley said there have been no discussions about him taking over the team’s play-calling duties, but there have been talks about what NU can do to “score more points”. That, of course, starts with better consistency, but Riley said the Huskers had to be better at finishing drives with touchdowns.

***Asked about the overall spirit of the team this week, Riley said: “I don’t want to sound pie-in-the-sky, but I think it’s great.” Riley said the staff is still looking at things like winning the division and going to a bowl game as goals for the team, as they want to do all they can to keep the players inspired.

***The improvement of quarterback Tanner Lee since the second half of the Rutgers game has been a credit both to improved pass protection - Lee has only been sacked two times since then - and Lee just getting more comfortable in his role. Riley said what you’ve seen from Lee since that point is what you should expect to see from here on out.

***Riley said he would like there to be a better balance between receiver JD Spielman - who has been targeted 28 times the past two games - and Stanley Morgan - who’s been targeted 12 times - in Nebraska’s passing game. Riley also said there needs to be more production from the flankers (De’Mornay Pierson-El, Tyjon Lindsey, etc.) and the tight ends.

***Riley said he hopes to get freshman running back Jaylin Bradley more involved in the offense over the next five games. He wasn’t sure how they were going to do that, but he wants Bradley to have a bigger role.

***Riley said half of the staff would run practice on Thursday, and the other half would go on the road recruiting. Riley said he would be on the road as well, seeing a “local” game and then going out of town somewhere (he wasn’t sure where he was going yet).