Huskers Prepare for Initial Road Test

Lincoln - While the first day of autumn is a few days away, a brisk temperature change greeted the Huskers as they conducted an hour and 45 minute practice inside Memorial Stadium Thursday afternoon. The balmy temperatures from earlier this week were replaced by temperatures in the low 60s and brisk northerly winds in excess of 20 miles an hour.

Despite the drastic climate change, Nebraska Coach Frank Solich was pleased with today's work.

"Practice went fine today," Solich said after Thursday's workout. "We had them in half pads for about the same time they have been on the field the last two days."

The Huskers worked to acclimate themselves to the loud visiting crowd, piping in crowd noise throughout the drills. The Huskers, who are ranked 15th in both polls this week, will make their first trip to Southern Miss for Thursday's ESPN national broadcast, and Solich said he has talked to other coaches about the environment at M.M. Roberts Stadium.

Solich said he has not been surprised with the Huskers performance through the first three weeks of the season.

"I think things are playing out to the degree I expected them to," Solich said. "Their effort has always been good, so that is no surprise, and I always thought we had good team speed on defense. We are about where I expected us to be, but we need to keep improving and get better in some phases of the game."

Through three games, one of the strength of NU's offense has been the ground game, led by I-backs Josh Davis and David Horne. The duo is combining for over 165 yards per game on the ground, as NU is third nationally in rushing at 292.7 yards per game.

"Tim (Albin) has built it around both having a couple of series, and if one guy gets hot or is playing well, he will stick with that guy," Solich said on the philosophy regarding carries for both backs."

The Huskers will wrap up the week's practices Friday afternoon with a workout focusing primarily on conditioning, while the redshirt players will conduct a scrimmage of their own on the stadium turf.