it was a post-practice probably not to the liking of anyone
on the offensive side.
It was running, and a lot of it. Sprints,
sideline-to-sideline, over and over again.
No, this wasn't part of the original plan. It became one
though.
" I think today was just battling through. They're
sore, they're tired. They've just got to keep pushing themselves. The effort
was good 90 percent of the time, and the 10 percent wasn't very good,"
said Offensive Coordinator Tim Beck. "I'm a perfectionist. I want it to be
perfect. I'm going to keep pushing the guys until we get it."
While there isn't even a handful of practices left, Beck
said that they as a staff are still working on things, throwing things in and
trying new stuff - which perhaps contributed a bit today to the lack of focus
that led to some unwanted mistakes. " We threw in some wrinkles today.
That was the mental aspect - when you change some pieces, there was probably
some confusion," he said. "That's part of practice, but we have to
fix those things. It's not OK to put the ball on the ground. It's not OK to
jump off sides."
Even in the most vanilla of practices, if you have enough of
them, some players are going to stand out. While we are certainly used to the
fact that this staff doesn't pick players out all that often, when it came to a
couple of players, Beck said that he is pleased with their progress thus far. "I
have been really pleased with Jake. He's a very aggressive physical guy. I love
the way he plays on the offensive line," Beck said of freshman Jake Cotton, who moved over to the right tackle spot on offense from playing
defensive line. "He's been able to learn. He's got a good coach in his
dad. He does a great job. He's just been able to get what we are doing. And he
plays hard. He plays hard, and he plays fast. I like that in him."
Another player is Brion Carnes, who now goes into his
redshirt year with the program and is looked at as a very similar player to
both Taylor Martinez and Cody Green, but obviously without the actual game
experience. " He's made a tremendous amount of improvement. I have been
real pleased with what he's been doing. He's made tremendous games, no question
about it," said Beck, who also offered the obligatory 'he still has a long
ways to go'. "I am real proud of him and real pleased with where he is at
right now."
Today was an interesting day as post practices go, as the
media was finally able to talk to two of the new assistant coaches, both of
these on the offensive side. First there was Rich Fisher, who came to Nebraska
from being a head coach at the prep ranks, and John Garrison, who moved from
his position of intern to coaching some on the line as well as the tight ends.
Beck sees both as welcome and valuable additions to the crew.
On Fisher: " I see a lot of myself in him. I was kind
of the same way. I was coaching high school and got an opportunity to go into
college. He's able to deal with these kids and relate to them. He believes in
what we are doing, and expects perfection as well."
On Garrison: "I love John's eagerness and
aggressiveness. He's a young guy striving to be his best. He works hard. He's a
smart guy. I think guys that care about kids are the guys you want. They will
learn the football you need them to learn. I am really happy with those guys. "
The Huskers will go two more practices before the third and
final practice which is the Spring Scrimmage on the 16th. When asked if the
players are starting to see the light at the tunnel following another very
physical Spring, Beck said that today the players probably didn't see much at
all. "I don't think today they saw the light at the end of the tunnel. I
think eventually they will. I want them to keep working," he said. "The
goal isn't the Spring Game. The goal is to get better every single day."
Note: Junior quarterback Kody Spano sat out of practice
today, and Beck said that Spano had seen a doctor, but he was unaware of the
prognosis. But he did say that it wasn't a knee, which is probably good news
for Husker fans who didn't want to watch Spano potentially go through another
knee rehab, as he has been through two already, which both ended two
consecutive years for the Husker QB.
Stay tuned as we will have video coming up with Rich Fisher and John Garrison, two of the new assistants with the team.
Click the following link for the full audio with Tim Beck today.
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