Nebraska football preparing to play without playmaker again
The Nebraska football team is looking at playing its last game of the season without its best young player. The Huskers are hoping fortunes will turn before Friday.
The Nebraska football team has come to lean pretty heavily on freshman wide receiver JD Spielman. That’s why even Mike Riley is holding out hope his playmaker is going to be ready on Friday, even if he hasn’t practiced all week.
While some players would be ruled out of a game in two days if they haven’t practiced, Spielman has been too big an impact on an offense that has struggled more often than not. With this being the last game of the year, Husker coaches are willing to let him on the field if at all possible.
“We’ll wait as long as we have to for JD,” Riley told the Omaha World-Herald. “We’re hoping that he feels better (Thursday). If he feels better (Thursday), we’ll put him through the gamut. He hasn’t practiced this week, so we’ll get him going. I’m hoping he just wakes up a new man in the morning.”
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The freshman from Minnesota leads the team in catches this year with 55. He’s amassed 831 yards to go along with those receptions. Spielman has come into his own in the Huskers’ last five games. Over that span, he’s got 35 catches or an average of seven receptions a game. It’s quite a step up from the seven catches he had in his first three games.
While hauling in six catches for 96 yards in a 56-44 loss to Penn State, Spielman aggravated an existing shoulder injury. He left the game after the injury but managed to return, though he was obviously in a great deal of pain afterward.
Now the Huskers, who would like to end the season on a winning note, are hoping he can get right in time for Friday afternoon. The waiting game the Nebraska football is doing is similar to what they had to do last week in regards to Tanner Lee and his concussion. We may not know if JD Spielman is able to play until the opening kick.