The Nebraska tight ends group is in the midst of a bout against the injury bug.
The top two in Sean Beckton’s group, juniors Austin Allen and Travis Vokolek, both missed practice Wednesday when reporters were allowed in for about 30 minutes, as did freshman walk-on Nate Boerkircher. Touted freshman Thomas Fidone has been out since mid-April with a torn ACL. NU is hoping, at best, he might be back at some point during the second half of the season.
Coach Scott Frost tamped down any worry about Allen, a 6-foot-9, 255-pounder and a candidate for captaincy, saying, “We were just giving Austin a little time off.â€
Vokolek, a 6-foot-6, 260-pounder and perhaps the best blocker on Nebraska’s offense, is going to miss more time than Allen. How much? Will it bleed into the regular season? Frost wouldn’t give a specific timeline for his return. His usual policy is only to confirm if a player is going to miss the entire season or miss extended time.
People are also reading…
“We’ve got a bunch of guys nicked up, but we expect them back. Travis is one of those,†Frost said.
He intimated redshirt freshman Chris Hickman also has dealt with the typical camp bumps and bruises.
“It’s strange. We’ve been nicked up at that position,†Frost said. “Every camp it seems like there’s one position where you kind of get a rash of things. Chris and Austin are going to be fine. Travis will be back. We had an appendectomy and just kind of a weird little fluke thing and we’ve been kind of hurting for depth there. The good thing is we’ve been getting young guys reps at that position that I think are going to help us down the road.
“We’ll keep getting those guys healthy and feel good about where we’ll be for Game 1.â€
Even so, Nebraska has had to adjust during camp. It moved freshman walk-ons Evan Meyersick and Jacob Herbek (a former defensive lineman) onto the 116-man camp roster — likely to take the spots of Vokolek and Boerkircher — and also moved transfer walk-on wide receiver Chancellor Brewington to tight end.
“Brewington is 6-3 and transferred this summer from Northern Arizona. He’s a big receiver and he’s gone in and done a good job learning and getting reps at tight end," Frost said.
Brewington is close with NU redshirt freshman defensive back Javin Wright and the pair attended Hamilton High School together in Arizona. At NAU, Brewington caught 54 passes for 642 yards and three touchdowns between 2017 and 2018 before redshirting due to injury in 2019 and missing the spring season at the FCS level earlier this year.
Frost said he thinks Brewington is bigger than his listed weight of 185 pounds.
“It’s going to be good for us, we can use somebody like him inside or outside and the more spots he has, the better chance he has to play,†the coach said.
Dirty laundry: Frost said the Huskers got good work in during a partial scrimmage Friday, but that he came away frustrated about the number of flags his team incurred from a Big Ten officiating crew that was on hand.
“That’s been a point of emphasis for us all camp,†Frost said. “Going to go watch the tape. Most of those are with the 2s and 3s on little things, but this team needs to understand that they’re good enough to be in every game if we don’t do the things to beat ourselves. That’s been the thing that we’ve talked to them about the most ever since the end of last season. I hope they get it, think they do, and we’ll keep working on them.â€
Banks, OL depth put to work: Another injury situation to track is that of freshman left tackle Turner Corcoran, who’s been limited for more than a week of preseason camp. The 6-6, 300-pounder has been in attendance and doing some work on the side during the open portion of practice Wednesday, but redshirt freshman Brant Banks was up with the No. 1 offense at left tackle during a team walk-through period. Sophomore walk-on Nouredin Nouili, a former starting guard at Colorado State, also worked at left tackle with the top group.
“Brant’s been repping with the 1s and with the 2s a little bit,†Frost said. “We’ve got more depth on the O-line than we’ve had. Nouri has done a good job, (Broc) Bando’s done a good job, (Trent) Hixson’s done a good job. Don’t want to leave anybody out, but there’s a lot of guys doing well.
“I think that’s going to give us the ability to keep guys fresh and get more guys into the game.â€
RBs, young QBs still competing: Frost echoed his offensive assistants earlier this week and said the race for the starting running back job remains open, while Logan Smothers and Heinrich Haarberg continue to battle for the No. 2 quarterback spot.
One of them had a particularly impressive scrimmage on Friday.
“Both guys have been doing a really good job,†Frost said. “Logan had a really good day today.â€
Illinois prep coming up fast: Nebraska is likely to shift into preparation mode for Illinois in the coming days. The season opener is 14 days away and, in normal years, Frost and his staff typically start into game-plan mode rather than installs and camp mode more than a week out.
“We’re going to start a little earlier,†Frost said. “Feel like, especially with the guys we’re going to count on to play a lot this year, they’re really comfortable with scheme and what we’re doing. They’ve gotten good reps to work on technique and fundamentals and we’re going to turn our attention to first game a little earlier.â€