With all the hype of a new offense, and the long wait the Nebraska Corn Huskers football to be back in Lincoln, Bo Pelini and crew took the field on Saturday against Tennessee Chattanooga.
The game started off with a little rust. Freshman Ameer Abdullah muffed the opening kickoff, but the Huskers recovered. Tim Becks offense then took the field, and went “old school”. The first play from scrimmage was a fullback dive up the middle. After that the offense kept the “Tom Osborne esk,” offense going. There was a lot of triple option look, and quarterback under center looks from Taylor Martinez.
The offense was very vanilla and didn’t look to complicated. The biggest surprise out of the offense was the diamond backfield look. With 3 running backs in the backfield and the quarterback in the shotgun. It may look familiar from a lot of the looks Oklahoma State used last year. I really don’t look for Nebraska to give a lot of triple option looks this season. That diamond offense formation could be a very familiar site for Husker fans this season. In Mondays press conference senior wide receiver Brandon Kinnie said that Nebraska is going to use different formations to fit what they want to do against certain defenses.
Taylor Martinez went 11 of 22 on Saturday, and rushed for 19 times for 135 yards. On Monday he said that him running the ball so much was only because of what Tennessee-Chattanooga was doing, more than the offensive strategy. Martinez said that the offense wasn’t moving as fast on Saturday as it usually does during practice. Martinez also compared the Huskers new offense to what Oregon does offensively.
The biggest thing that stuck out on Saturday, was the performance of defensive end Cameron Meredith and Defensive back Daimion Stafford. What Stafford’s performance looked like on Saturday is what Nebraska has asked players like Eric Hagg, and Dejon Gomes to do, play a safety/linebacker position.
Meredith on the other hand was another animal on Saturday. He had 3 tackles, two sacks and an interception. He seemed to be around every defensive play, even after coming back into the game after rolling an ankle.
I think the biggest question of the off season was, how do you replace a kicker like Alex Henry? Welcome to Lincoln, Brett Maher. Maher went 4-4 on field goals, and extra points his longest was a 50-yard field goal kick.
MONDAY
Junior linebacker Will Compton did not practice on Monday. Compton left the game on Saturday with a foot injury. Pelini said Compton was day-to-day, but said the injury was not serious. Linebackers coach Ross Els said if Compton can’t go on Saturday, freshman David Santos would more than likely take his spot. Redshirt freshman Trevor Roach stepped in for Compton on Saturday. Bo Pelini was very pleased with the way Roach handled himself in the game. He said Roach wasn’t intimidated by the situation at all.
Senior cornerback Alfonzo Dennard sat out of practice again on Monday. Pelini said that Dennard is still showing improvement. Dennard’s status for Saturday’s game against Fresno State is still uncertain.
Watching the game film from Saturday, offensive coordinator Tim Beck was not pleased with his offense’s performance. Beck, said it blew his mind how many mental mistakes his players made in the game, saying there were some mistakes that players hadn’t made since the spring. Beck said some of the problems Nebraska had running the option against the Mocks, wasn’t just Martinez making mistakes. Instead, he said players in several areas weren’t getting it done.
Ameer Abdullha said he had not known he was going to be returning kick offs till last Thursday.