Huskers Begin Countdown to Game Day

Lincoln, Neb.- The Nebraska football team went through two hours of work in full pads on the Memorial Stadium turf Friday afternoon. In continuing preparations for the season opener against Western Illinois on Sept. 4, Coach Bill Callahan noted that the Huskers are preparing for every defensive possibility from the Leathernecks, who have had three defensive coordinators in the past 12 months.

"We don't know what they are going to run. Every season is new and everybody comes up with a new plan of attack and ways to feature their system," Callahan said. "(WIU defensive coordinator) Vince Okruch is an experienced coach in this division and in this league. He is a guy who knows the 4-4 front, and I'm sure there is a lot of consistency in terms of what they did prior to him being there. I don't think you can just hone in on any one simple scheme or system. You're going to have to study it all and that's what we're doing right now."

Callahan also added that the Huskers will run through situations during Saturday's practice that will help the Huskers get acclimated to an actual game-day experience.

"We're going to go through a mock game situation and put the players through a lot of different scenarios," Callahan said. "We really want to test our special teams and create situations where our special teams have to respond. This will provide us an opportunity to come out, go through our pregame regiment, go through our bench procedures in terms of bench discipline on the sideline and, of course, give the players the feel of an actual game-day experience."

Callahan said the Huskers enter the final week of practice before the opener relatively healthy as a team. Quarterback Jordan Adams had his spleen removed successfully in a pre-planned operation Friday, while Shane Siegel, Jared Helming, Jay Moore and Ben Zajicek were all held out of practice Friday.