NU Concludes Off-Week Workouts

LINCOLN ? The Nebraska football team finished off its bye-week workout regimen Thursday afternoon with a two-hour practice in full pads inside Memorial Stadium. The end of practice featured scrimmage work between the top offensive and defensive units.

Head Coach Bill Callahan was pleased with what he felt the Huskers we able to accomplish during their off week, including improvement in several fundamental areas.

"We reviewed the objectives today as a staff," Callahan said. "Everything we set out to do in terms of improving ourselves fundamentally, we did. I think every drill we set up to that end we completed. There were situations we wanted to work on. We wanted to work on third down. We have to improve offensively. I really thought we took a step in our pass protection today. That was positive. As long as we can answer the blitz question and get better versus the blitz, I feel we will have success."

NU will utilize the next two days as a break from practice. Callahan said that while it is important to give the players a break from football, the squad should not lose focus on what lies ahead of it.

"(We told them) to be safe, be smart and stay focused," Callahan said. "We are going to watch the (Iowa State-Army) game tomorrow night on ESPN. We’re just going to relax and enjoy the two days off. We’ll be back here on Sunday working. It’s important that we stay focused as a football team. It’s important that we get a rest, but we shouldn’t lose our focus and concentration on what we want to get accomplished. I want the guys to be able to go home who are local, be able to go home and relax, and hopefully take a few teammates with them."

Asked if he would be able to relax this weekend, Callahan replied: "Absolutely. I’ll be relaxing watching film."

Following off-days on Friday and Saturday, Nebraska returns to practice Sunday afternoon.