"I thought it was the best day of practice since I’ve been here at Nebraska."
Those were the words of head coach, Bill Callahan recapping the second day of
Fall practices at Nebraska.
The good news came mostly from the offensive side of the ball as Callahan
said that from yesterday to today, there was a marked difference. "To come off
yesterday’s practice into what we did today, it was really encouraging."
Callahan stated. "I saw a lot of positive signs out of the throwing game."
The throwing game will continue to gain much of the spotlight throughout the
Fall practices as while Joe Dailey seems to have the top spot for now, where the
depth chart sits behind Dailey is essentially wide-open.
Due to Adams still struggling to come back from his off-season illness,
quarterbacks like Beau Davis have found themselves with perhaps unexpected
opportunities. It was enough of an opportunity for Davis that he took it and was
today officially named number 2 at the position. "(he) got a little more
repetition today." Callahan said of Davis. "We’re trying to bring him along as a
number two right now."
The vaulting of Davis to the number two spot behind Dailey would appear to
have as much to do with Adams not being up to the physical stature that he’s
used to as it does what Davis has done during practice. "He lost considerable
weight - close to about eighteen pounds." Callahan said of Adams. "It’s really
affected his play and strength so we’re just going to be cautious about how we
proceed with him."
While the progression of Davis is encouraging to the staff, Callahan did
reiterate that he’s taking a wait and see mode when it comes to both Davis and
Adams. "Whether or not he’ll (Davis) hold down that position as we go through
the duration of camp, that remains to be seen, but let’s hope that Jordan gets
better."
"We’re very encouraged by what we saw on film when we recruited him and we’re
very excited about his prospects and what he brings to the table, but we’re just
going to have to wait until he gets back to full speed."
The battle at QB is obviously not the only battle taking place for playing
time come the start of the season - the running back position turning out to be
heated as well. One player that is trying to come out of the blue and make a
statement for himself is true freshman, Brandon Jackson and Callahan stated that
Jackson has a lot of potential to do just that. "He’s an explosive guy." he
said. "He’s fun to see the ball in the hands and what he can do with it. When
you just see him function with the ball in his hands, you get excited as a
coach."
"He’s really young and it’s encouraging to see a young guy like him that can
stay up with the system. But, we want to be smart with our freshman and a guy
like Brandon is a guy that we want to break down the playbook and give him five
or six plays that he can really focus on and get good at."
"So, we are giving him a package of plays where he can perform in a limited
role and help our team."
Nebraska continues practice tomorrow, this time hitting the field in pads for
the first time of this second half of practices for NU on the year, though it
will be limited to just shoulder pads and helmets. It’s what Callahan called
their "initiation" before the real hitting begins. "We’ll have to wait until
Friday and Saturday before we can actually get them into a live scrimmage
situation." he said.
Nebraska will continue with the one-a-day practices until Saturday, where
two-a-days begin, Nebraska taking the field for the first part at 8:45 in the
morning and resuming practice later that day at 3:40 in the afternoon.
Steve Ryan can be reached at SteveRyan@bigredreport.com or
402-730-5619