Nebraska Football Fall Camp: Evan Cooper, Ed Foley talk leadership

Nebraska football coach Ed Foley before the game (Justin Ford-USA TODAY Sports)
Nebraska football coach Ed Foley before the game (Justin Ford-USA TODAY Sports) /
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Ed Foley and Evan Cooper took center stage after the latest installment of Nebraska football’s fall camp and the two coaches talked a lot about leadership.

The way that Nebraska football head coach Matt Rhule has set up the post-practice interview schedule for Fall Camp has been a revolving door of his assistants, who all get a chance to talk about their individual units to the media.

On Monday, both special teams coordinator and defensive backs coach Evan Cooper got their chance. Like the rest of the coaches so far, they were impressive in front of cameras and spoke like people who absolutely know what they are doing.

Like the rest of the Nebraska football coaches that are brand new to the program this year, it’s wait and see if they truly have the answers to turning this thing around.

Among the hot topics that the coaches talked about was leadership. That’s been a key theme for most of the early going of this fall camp. Cooper also talked about a few players that have stepped up on the field in position battles.

One player who got special mention against was Isaac Gifford who has stepped up as the first-team rover. It appears his promotion to the starting spot was part of what spurred Myles Farmer to move on.

Nebraska football special teams coming together

While there’s all kinds of questions about how the Nebraska football defense is going to come along this year, there’s rather obvious questions about special teams as well. While we’re going to have to wait and see just how good kick coverage and kick return units can be, Foley did offer a peak behind the curtain in the battle for punter and kicker.

Foley said that the one spot that doesn’t have a ton of competition is at punter. Brian Buschini is the starter there barring a catastrophe.

Kicker isn’t as settled. Timmy Bleekrode and Tristan Alvano are going to be battling it out for the starting spot all fall it appears. Bleekrode is the returning starter while Alvano wowed people all over the state with his big leg last fall.

Nebraska football will get back at it on Tuesday morning and we’ll hear more about their progress Tuesday afternoon. Coach Rhule and offensive line coach Donovan Raiola are scheduled to speak to the media afterward.