Huskers Focus on Situational Drills

Lincoln ? The Nebraska football team held another two-hour, half-pad practice inside Memorial Stadium Thursday afternoon, as the squad continued preparations for its Sept. 2 season opener against Louisiana Tech.

 

While the Huskers seemed to have eased up on full contact workouts in anticipation of Saturday’s simulated game on the FieldTurf of Memorial Stadium, Head Coach Bill Callahan said his squad is instead focusing its attention on refining certain aspects of its game this week.

 

“We’ve practiced well in the last few days,” Callahan said. “We haven’t tapered off. We’ve just been more situation oriented in terms of what we’ve emphasized.”

 

Thursday the NU offense worked on several situations, including two-minute and desperation plays, blitz pick-up drills and stall offense, where the unit attempts to burn the game clock at the end of a game.

 

“All of those things are a focus of our football team,” Callahan said. “We have a couple of bonus days here and we’re trying to zero in on some things, as well as bridge the gap to the in-season schedule.”

 

Callahan also commented on the status of junior linebacker Steve Octavien, who returned to practice early this week after undergoing an appendectomy last week. Callahan said he appears to have recovered nicely in the short time he’s been back.

 

“He’s moved extremely well,” Callahan said. “He’s reacted and responded to everything we’re giving him. (Defensive Coordinator Kevin Cosgrove) is monitoring his reps, and again we’re just trying to be as intelligent as we can in monitoring his play. We have some competition at that spot, as well, with Bo Ruud and Andy Kadavy, so we’re rolling a lot of different players in. (Octavien) is certainly getting in enough work.”

 

The Huskers welcomed a pair of new players to the squad Thursday, as quarterback Sam Keller and offensive lineman Chad Roark each practiced for the first time with their new team. Keller spoke with the media for the first time following the workout, conveying why he chose Nebraska over a host of other top Division I schools.

 

“(Nebraska) just seemed like a really good fit,” Keller said. “They seemed like they were really excited to have me.”

 

Keller said one of the main reasons he chose the Huskers was because of the offensive system implemented by Callahan, a system the quarterback described as similar to what he ran while at ArizonaState.

 

“It’s very fast paced and a wide-open attack like I’m used to,” Keller said. “I just have to learn the terminology and get my timing down, and things should be good when I get a chance to compete for the job.”

 

Nebraska holds its final workout of the week tomorrow before Saturday’s mock game scrimmage.