If overseas sleeping were a competition, Casey Thompson did as well as anyone last week.
The Nebraska quarterback took some medicine and allergy pills on the overnight flight to Ireland and slumbered for more than seven hours — he awoke only when the flight attendant alerted him the plane was landing. Thompson repeated the feat on the way home late Saturday night into Sunday, this time with no extra help required.
“I think most of us should be over the jet lag,†Thompson said Tuesday. “Not everybody got to sleep — I know it’s not easy for everyone to sleep on a plane — but when you play a four-quarter game like that, I think it’s easy to fall asleep.â€
The Huskers’ own bodies and spirit may be the biggest challenge this weekend as FCS foe North Dakota makes the 550-mile trip straight south to Memorial Stadium. Physically shaking off a difference of six time zones in seven days. Mentally pushing past the fog of a seventh straight defeat by single digits dating back to last season.
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While Northwestern stayed in Ireland an extra day and won’t face an opponent for another week, Nebraska chose to play its home opener right away. That decision may benefit NU down the road — it will have byes in late September and late October — but made for another abnormal practice week for the Huskers to start the year. A workout Monday evening instead of the morning. Pads to begin Tuesday but not to finish.
“Good morning,†Mark Whipple said to reporters Wednesday. “Or is it afternoon? I don’t know.â€
The Huskers must be up and at ‘em for Saturday’s 2:30 p.m. tilt quicker than any Nebraska team ever coming off long trips. Three road games at Hawaii between 1971 and 1982 all came at the end of the regular season. Same with the 1992 trek to Tokyo against Kansas State.
Some players — like Thompson and edge rusher Caleb Tannor — felt readjusted early in the week. Others, like cornerback Quinton Newsome, found it more difficult to snooze on the flight home. Running backs coach Bryan Applewhite was in no mood to sleep while in transit.
“I was anxious to get back to work,†Applewhite said. “My motivation to be awake was a little more than it had been in the past.â€
North Dakota — like so many FCS teams to their FBS counterparts — represents a chance to get right.
Nebraska, which is paying the school $515,000 for the game, is 12-0 against Division I-AA/FCS opponents since the NCAA reclassified in 1978. Most have been blowouts, like Fordham last year. A couple, like South Dakota State in 2010 and McNeese State in 2014, took longer to secure.
Where the Fighting Hawks land in that discussion may depend on the Huskers’ headspace.
Divergent psychologies between NU incumbents and newcomers have been on display since the three-point loss to Northwestern. Linebacker Garrett Nelson spoke despondently afterward in Dublin, admitting that he wasn’t doing a good job keeping his head up in the moment.
Thompson, sitting nearby, was quick with encouragement. The team will be fine.
Tannor, who has played in all 45 games of the Scott Frost era, said the defeat was “emotionally hard†after an offseason of grinding. Of the 30 losses he’s absorbed, he said, the latest was among the toughest to get over because this felt — and still feels — like the team to end a bowl drought dating back to 2016.
“We ain’t got time to sulk about it, cry about it,†Tannor said. “We gotta get back to work. That’s all I’m worried about right now.â€
Said Newsome: “Everybody’s all in. Everybody’s just ready to play the next game and get a win and get this thing rolling.â€
And Applewhite: “You’re going to get knocked down and it’s okay to get knocked down. But it’s not okay to stay down.â€
Thompson isn’t expecting a sleepy Saturday afternoon from the Huskers. Body language this week has been too good. Demeanors and meetings have been professional. Practices have been energetic. If there’s considerable noise around North Stadium about the significance of these early games in Frost’s fifth season, it hasn’t altered their focus.
In an era of transfer-portal free agency, Nebraska could have used an NFL-style preseason game to get five new assistant coaches and a slew of new players — 17 who cracked the initial depth chart — on the same page. Instead it learned fresh lessons through yet another this-close defeat.
North Dakota arrives with a similar background after coming off a 5-6 season in which it had the lead or a chance to take it in the fourth quarter of every game. Saturday will be like a bowl game for the Fighting Hawks, who last faced a Power Five team in 2018 when they lost to Washington 45-3.
For Nebraska, UND represents the start of a two-week ramp-up to Oklahoma as the Huskers continue to figure out who they are and what they can do.
It’s a game NU needs to get back on schedule in more ways than one.
“I guess it is (back to the routine),†Whipple said. “As they say around here, day by day.â€â€‹