Nebraska football players evidently have some pent up energy following the cancellation of the Akron game Saturday night.
A bummer of a situation has manifested itself in the form of back-to-back excellent practices, according to Husker coaches and players.
"We had two of the best practices I've ever witnessed," Nebraska sophomore inside linebacker Collin Miller said following Tuesday's practice. "Our Monday practice, guys came out jacked up: dancing, clapping, smiling.
"We had a choice to either come out here and kind of hang our heads and pout about the fact we didn't play a game, but thankfully guys came and put their helmets on and flowed with it. Today, honestly, it was the same momentum we had (Monday): flying around, getting 11 hats to the ball. A couple mistakes here and there, but we're cleaning it up."
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Nebraska defensive coordinator Erik Chinander said he was pleasantly surprised how defenders responded to the game cancellation. He said you never know how players are going to respond to that sort of emotional setback.
Meanwhile, Husker defenders went through the practice wearing bright gold jerseys with black numerals. The gold jerseys apparently will become a staple going forward.
"When I talked to Coach (Charlie) McBride in the offseason and he told me about the beginning of the Blackshirts, he said the first team had the black jerseys and the second team had the yellow shirts, affectionately known as the 'killer bees,'" said Chinander, referring to the former Husker defensive coordinator. "We went back to the yellow jerseys. They're pretty nice, but some of these guys already are saying, 'I want to get out of this thing, I want to get into the black.'"
In essence, the yellow jerseys are an incentive, as Chinander decided before the season to not award Blackshirts until they are earned in games. He said everybody on defense beside scout team defenders are wearing the yellow jerseys.
"After this first game, once we get the Blackshirts out there, then the Blackshirts will be in black and the second-team guys will be in the gold," the coach said.
Miller seemed to like the idea.
"It's pretty cool, a little tradition going back to the day — feeling like you're back in the old days playing with the team," he said. "I don't mind them, honestly. You see 11 yellow, bright jerseys flying around, it makes us look faster."
Tunnel Walk energy:Â Count Miller among those who enjoyed the new version of the Tunnel Walk, which was unveiled Saturday night before the game was halted.
"I can not believe what I saw," Miller said. "I've ran out the tunnel quite a few times, and that one might have been my favorite. New songs, new lights, new smoke … I'm telling you, I walked out of the tunnel and the fans looked at me in the eyes and slapped me on my shoulder pads. Everybody was just jacked up.
"I thought I could feel my feet shaking, to be honest."
Williams feels good again:Â Aaron Williams has had this conversation more times with reporters than he would probably like.
This time, though, he’s sure that he feels better. And it’s been quite a while.
The senior safety from Atlanta said he had labrum surgery in May. On Saturday, he warmed up on the Memorial Stadium turf with a harness on his left shoulder. He felt good early in spring ball, but then was limited as it went on, setting up the operation.
“This is probably the healthiest I’ve felt in about a year now,†the 5-foot-11, 190-pounder said. "I’m glad I’ve got that behind me. The biggest thing for me this year is just continuing to take care of my body.â€
Williams is listed behind sophomore transfer Deontai Williams and senior Antonio Reed on the depth chart, but coach Scott Frost reiterated the veteran’s importance last week.
“Aaron needs to be a player for us,†Frost said. “I think we’ve got some good depth there. He’s definitely part of that. We are going to need all of those guys to show up and play.â€
Update on freshmen safeties: NU’s pair of heralded freshman safeties, C.J. Smith and Cam’ron Jones, are not on the two-deep at the season’s outset. There are veteran options, of course, including a trio of seniors, but some wondered if one or both would play right away.
Jones, though, has missed time on and off through fall camp and was not in pads Tuesday. Smith donned the gold jerseys that most of the non-scout teamers sported.
“C.J. and Cam are guys that we really want to build on in the future, and those guys are great football players,†secondary coach Travis Fisher said. “We want to keep on catching those guys up to speed in practice and keep on grinding those guys just like I do the older guys.â€
Dewitt laments lost time: Sometimes you just have to laugh at your lot in life, so it seemed appropriate Tuesday when Husker assistant Jovan Dewitt was asked about his squad’s performance on special teams Saturday.
“I was the only one who got to coach anything on Saturday. It was pretty good,†Nebraska’s outside linebackers/special teams coach said.
On a more serious note, Dewitt lamented that Nebraska’s coaching staff has experience with canceled games. This was the third straight year the staff has lost a game to weather.
“It sucks,†Dewitt said. “So I guess the silver lining in all that is, we have a good understanding as a staff of how to prepare our guys for the next game, get them moving on to the next one, because you can wallow in the misery of not getting a chance to play, or you can get ready to go on to the next game. Unfortunately we have experience in that.â€
Dewitt said coaches introduced more live work into Monday’s practice in an effort to speed players up as if they had played a game.
“We’ve got to go out and attack practice this week as if we’ve played a game, and get our guys moving a little bit quicker than normal. So you introduce maybe one or two more live reps in the practice to get those guys moving at game speed, as opposed to a thud or a tag-off mentality.
"Because what we haven’t done yet is have a lot of live reps because we haven’t played a game.â€