Huskers Continue Fall Camp

The Nebraska football team conducted a 2 1/2-hour practice in full pads in the Hawks Championship Center just north of Memorial Stadium on Wednesday. Still battling 100-plus degree temperatures, NU moved indoors to the air conditioned Hawks Championship center for the second straight day to avoid the heat and improve the quality of practice.

"It went fine," Pelini said. "We got a lot of work done. It was good tempo, we got a lot installed. It was a good go. (It was the) first day of pads obviously, no tackling, but it was good physical practice."

Pelini noted that practicing indoors with the air conditioning allows the team to stay focused and keeps the players healthy. The coaches will be making the decision on where to practice on a day-to-day basis.

"The other day we went out in the heat, it's pretty ridiculous out there," Pelini said. "It's just hard; you beat your team down if you're out there too much. We want to be at the point where we get our team acclimated to the heat, but it can be extreme and put guys in danger. We don't want to do that. In the end, you can get through it, but it hurts concentration, it hurts a lot of things. It affects your practice; we made the decision to come inside."

Pelini spoke briefly about the status of senior offensive lineman Mike Smith. Smith suffered a season-ending leg injury in practice on Tuesday. With the absence of Smith among the offensive line corps, Pelini and the coaching staff will rely on the depth behind him.

"It's one less guy, but we still have great competition," Pelini said. "We still have good depth. I talked about that depth early in the year and fortunately we still have some."

The Huskers return to the practice field on Thursday afternoon for their sixth practice of fall camp.