Among the many conversations Bob Lee had with his son, Zac, about playing quarterback, the former NFL signal-caller once said this: You're not a true quarterback until you've been run out of at least one town.

Zac Lee certainly wasn't sent packing from Nebraska's football program – but the junior was benched during periods of the Texas Tech game, and seemingly for good when freshman Cody Green took the helm at Baylor. Fans and pundits who had seen Lee's on-field confidence and performance waver with each double-clutch and each tentative throw didn't figure the San Francisco native had a second act in him.

They also didn't know Lee's dad, who spent 12 years in the NFL with three teams – mostly in a backup role – had already prepared him for such a moment.

“Taking that to heart, and hearing that for as long as I've heard that – it's just part of the deal,” Lee said. “I've said that before.”

And yet – Lee's confidence went somewhere, didn't it? Head coach Bo Pelini had called Lee “borderline arrogant” during fall camp – Lee bristles a bit at this – but, by the Texas Tech game, offensive coordinator Shawn Watson termed Lee's mistakes as “chasing ghosts.” Misreading coverages. Refusing to scramble.

“Maybe earlier I was trying to make plays passing the ball too much instead of just reacting and going,” Lee said. “Holes close pretty quick.”

A seat on the bench for Baylor – and the first two drives of the Oklahoma game – woke up Lee, Watson said, to the realities of the position. At least the realities of NU's offense right now, as the Cornhuskers try to shift from a shotgun spread offense into a power-based, double-tight without pumping the clutch.

Such a jarring transition needed a steadier hand.

“He saw he wanted to play,” Watson said. “Wanted to be out on the field. Given his opportunity, he grasped what we've been trying to get him to grasp, and that's just managing the game. Start there, and grow from there.”

On the sidelines, Lee found “a little extra hunger that maybe I didn't know I had.”

“It was realizing you've got to do whatever it takes to win,” Lee said. “No matter what that may be.”

Against Oklahoma, that meant handing off and executing safe, playaction passes. Against Kansas, that meant reducing his reads – with the power formations there weren't that many reads to check anyway – and running when the holes were available.

“It wasn't an extremely conscious decision,” Lee said. “I just saw some lanes and took off...if 1 or 2's not there, take it, tuck it and run.”

He rushed for a career-high 53-yards at KU. Threw for 196. Considering the opponent, the hostile setting and Nebraska's so-so defense, Lee agreed it was the best game of his young career.

While Watson prepared some plays designed to utilize Green's strengths in Lawrence, Pelini said they weren't necessary.

“Why make a switch when you don't need to?” Pelini said.

Maybe that's why Pelini has noticed “a little swagger out of Zac.” And Lee has noticed it in himself.

“I don't want to necessarily call myself arrogant, but there's a certain amount of confidence you've got to have when you're the quarterback of a team,” he said. “A certain amount of it comes from just having fun, just playing, being an athlete. I got that back.”

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Be wary. Be plenty wary.

As Nebraska's football team floats into that final bend in the Big 12 river, it is, to borrow a Bo Pelini phrase, pretty obvious that just about anything can happen to the Huskers – that anything can happen to any team in the North division, for that matter.

It's the kind of league, right now, where Colorado, that collection of sunshine boys, has an outside chance at heading to Dallas (er, sorry Nat Geo types – Arlington) for the league title game.

We use the phrase “happen to” because, until a four-quarter defensive masterpiece vs. Oklahoma, NU hadn't fully seized its own destiny in the conference season. The offensive gameplan was geared toward a chess match with the opposing defense – not helping the Blackshirts. Running back Roy Helu either wasn't fully committed to playing hard or was sending mixed messages to the coaching staff about his relative health. Suddenly, of Helu's own volition, he toughened up and turned it around last week with a terrific performance vs. OU.

It seems now, finally, the Cornhuskers have found an identity for the whole, instead of the individual parts. Run big sets. Hope Helu busts a few. Throw playaction to offset the run. Let the defense do its thing.

And so – Kansas.

KU has the worst offensive line the Big 12. That's two years now, and that's on Kansas Coach Mark Mangino. Its defense is better, but still overmatched against stronger teams. But the Jayhawks have three skill players – quarterback Todd Reesing, wide receiver Dez Briscoe and wide receiver Kerry Meier – who can make plays off the board. The kind of guys who can take advantage of NU's momentary lapses in concentration.

It's senior day for Reesing and Meier, and it is might as well be for Briscoe, a junior who's gone, baby, gone to the NFL after this year, considering KU needed glue and chicken wire, so to speak, just to keep the kid academically eligible this year. They're going to put up a fight. As much as defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh would like to run over their collective dog, don't be surrprised if, entering the fourth quarter, you're wary. Plenty wary. On to the keys:

QB Shuffle: No easy answers for Nebraska's signal-caller, but we think the starter is Zac Lee, sprinkled with a dose of zone read from Cody Green. Bo Pelini hinted strongly that both quarterbacks might play in Lawrence. To what advantage? We've no beef with quarterbacks sharing time, so long as they're not out there doing the same thing. Use Green to run the spread game. Keep Lee in hand-off and playaction mode.

Reesing's Last Run: You get the sense that, despite a high degree of competitiveness, Reesing is about ready to move on with life. He's an international business guy, he's been running around behind an awful offensive line for two years, the crowds on Mt. Oread are indifferent, his coach is suddenly benching him for fumbles. Reesing has his magical year in 2007, he has win memorable win over Missouri, he has his place in the KU record book. Expect a loose, exciting effort from him on Saturday. Kansas has lost four in a row. There's not much else to lose.

Short Stuffed: Nebraska's secondary has been consistently excellent against the short pass. Bubble and tunnel screens, quick slants, rub-off routes, stops, curls, you name it. NU's cornerbacks are aggressive and confident 15 yards in. Kansas won't be immune to this treatment. So the Jayhawks have to gamble, and send their talented receivers deep. Reesing has to hit them. If they can't make plays downfield, the short-to-intermediate game will be closed for business, and KU is in for a lot of punts and potential interceptions.

Vengeance: Don't kid yourself. That 76-39 score from two years ago is in the hearts and minds of a lot of Husker players who lived through it – especially guys like Ndamukong Suh, Barry Turner, Roy Helu, Phillip Dillard, Larry Asante and Jacob Hickman. You think they've forgotten? Not a chance. You will see an emotional, hungry team Saturday. They won't give KU an inch. This is intended, after the OU win, as a statement game.

Keep It Together: NU's offensive line needs a half without penalties. Just a itty-bitty half of clean football. No false starts. No 15-yard hi-lo blocks. No personal fouls. No holding. No failing to place one's head at Hickman's torso. No illegal men downfield. A clean half. It would do wonders.

The Beck Advantage: Former Kansas assistant – now current NU assistant – Tim Beck knows the Jayhawks well. He recruited Reesing. He coached the wide receivers. He helped incorporate a spread running game at Nebraska. His knowledge of KU's scheme and personnel was invaluable last year – and it will be again this year. Kansas hasn't changed much since 2007, and the personnel is still similar.

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It was three hours before Saturday night's kickoff, and Nebraska's football team had just hopped off two red Arrow buses and prepared make the short, winding “Unity Walk” around the north side of Memorial Stadium. As is custom, Ndamukong Suh, headphones blaring, led the team. Linebacker Phillip Dillard and center Jacob Hickman were there, too.

Freshman quarterback Cody Green was right beside them.

Zac Lee was somewhere toward the back, tucked under a red “N” hat. Along the path he quietly, almost sheepishly, shook the hands of the few fans paying attention as he walked by.

It was a startling picture of their momentary fortunes that switched suddenly in the second quarter, when offensive coordinator Shawn Watson pulled Green and inserted Lee, who threw one excellent goal line pass for a touchdown and otherwise made perfectly safe, pedestrian plays that Green could have made. But Green never went back in to make them.

Watson said Green was “nervous in the service.”

Head coach Bo Pelini thought inserting Lee “felt like the right thing.”

“Make no mistake about it, I've got a tremendous amount of confidence in Cody Green” Pelini said. “(But) you've got to go with your gut. I felt that way. Wats felt that way. It played out for us.”

Will they reverse their places in the Unity Walk line this week? Do they both head to the front? Does Green start and Lee play relief pitcher? Does Lee start and Green become a mid-game spark?

Now that the euphoria of Nebraska's 10-3 win over Oklahoma has worn off a bit, the Huskers' offense are left with, among many, this central question: Who be the QB?

Green?

Lee?

Both?

Roy Helu in the Joker? Kidding. Maybe.

It's become a mess to assess, frankly. Watson seems caught between a spread running game and a power one, a quick passing game and one built on long, playaction fakes. The spread attack favors Green, who can run the ball, and isn't afraid to stick his passes in tight spots, whereas the power stuff favors Lee, I suppose, who's a slightly better ball handler and in better command of the offense.

Can Watson really try to run two different offenses? It hasn't worked so far. Green seemed stripped of his wits Saturday night. The quail Green threw into a wide expanse of field was not a good sign. Yet Lee is so comically painful on those zone read and option plays that you wish he'd make an executive decision, and simply change the call in the huddle. He had a “blow the whistle!” look about him every time he ran.

But Lee quite effectively ran three playaction passes. The touchdown to Ryan Hill. A little wide receiver drag route to Brandon Kinnie. And the best of them, a fake-then-throw to Helu, after the defense had vacated Helu's area.

It's baby steps for rebuilding Lee's confidence and skills. He can still throw a mean deep ball. And he's OK in playaction. If Watson wants to start there, and sprinkle in Green on some shotgun stuff, that's a plan that could win Nebraska the Big 12 North.

What about Green's confidence? Outwardly, it's there. You could say the same of Lee, I suppose. Inwardly – who knows?

The kid from Dayton,Texas has been often been presented as “the answer” to Nebraska's struggling offense because he make plays off the board, on athleticism and instinct, that Lee cannot.

But Green is trapped inside a rigid structure of NU's offense, which finally is playing to its dominant defense. Green talks a good game about letting instincts take over, but it's hard to freelance in the thick of a conference race, in the West Coast Offense, in an offense desperately trying to possess the ball behind a leaky, creaky offensive line. Watching the game tape again, Green's setting seemed stuck on “overload” of all kinds – emotional, mental, physical – and the WCO is too precise, even when masquerading as a spread, to accommodate that state of being.

Lee has already been there. Watson still hasn't stripped the quarterback run game from Lee's list of plays, but he has toned some of the other elements.

Is the offense too complex? It doesn't have to be. But you need a staple on the table first. Last year, Nebraska rolled its opponents with a short, controlled passing game of screens, stops, curls and crossing patterns. Defenses crept up to take it away, and Joe Ganz burned them with long throws to Nate Swift and Mike McNeill.

Lee is not a good short-game passer. Green is designed for a free-wheeling attack that allows him to hit the edge, throw all over the joint, and generate mismatches.

There is no good answer. Just survival.

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Do you remember how your high school buddies and fat little girlfriends – thanks Mike Leach! – used to scrawl in the back, blank pages of your yearbook, “Stay the same...never change!” Wasn't that about the most common phrase in the last quarter-century of yearbook history? I mean, besides “Have a kick-ass summer!”

If Nebraska quarterback Cody Green brought a yearbook to Tuesday press conferences – caution, belabored analogy ahead – I assure you, the media would fill every page of the book with “Stay the same...never change!” At least when it comes to talking to the press corps.

The kid can talk, he can talk a lot – a 20-minute session of smiles and wisdom Tuesday - and, for now, he says interesting football things. In my racket, that's like dinner with Naomi Watts.

Plus, he's truthful – which is a little different than being skeptically honest – about his game.

He needs to work on the little things, like finishing off zone read fakes.

“At the end of the game, I started getting lazy,” Green said. “Started watching the game. And we always say if you want to watch the game on the field, buy a ticket.”

He knows Oklahoma's defense will “bring the house at me.”

He can joke about himself, like when his high school coach told him he “choked” in the second half at Baylor. Which, frankly, is a little true, although understandable.

He knows that game day is about making plays, not thinking about making them: “I try to analyze everything throughout the week the best that I can and then once game day comes, just go out there and play. Just let my instincts work. I trust my instincts. I’ve been playing football for a while now so I really can just sit back and say, ‘All right, there’s a hole here, I think that guy’s going to run there, take off.’”

The kid can talk. He and Blake Lawrence could go into business together and sell a million widgets in a month.

The question for Saturday is this: Can Green color inside the lines enough to give himself the chance to make one or two spectacular plays when Nebraska needs them? Because, if Saturday goes according to NU's plan, the Huskers limit their mistakes against a faster, more talented OU team, win the field position battle, and keep Green on a reasonably short leash – except for those one or two plays where he lets loose.

“This'll be like a NFL game,” offensive coordinator Shawn Watson said. “It's going to be a physical, hard-knocking football game. It's one of those games where it's important to win on normal downs and stay in a manageable third down situation. That's our objective: Stay on the field, move the ball, good things will happen.”

Groan if you wish at the NFL reference, but Watson, fundamentally, is right. NU needs to drag this game in the fourth quarter with a fighter's chance. And it only does that with a NFL-style gameplan: Eat clock, complete the short passes, convert half of your third down attempts and pick your spots for the big shots. That's a winning formula, which is why Watson and offensive line coach Barney Cotton need to whip the offensive line into shape for its best game of the year.

Saturday won't be a game for stat hounds. If the Huskers muster 280 total yards and 17 points, know this: They've done about all they can do with the inexperienced, banged-up materiel on hand.

Green needs to know his role. By his own admission, he got a little loose in the second half at Baylor – the fumble was more inexplicable and maddening, in my view, than the Pick Six – and all of that needs to be tightened up by Saturday.

There is a sense that, despite his poise and confidence, he'll try to make plays outside the system, because he trusts his natural ability and instincts. But OU represents an elite level of speed and defensive talent. The Sooners make some gaffes, at times, overplaying their hand and getting too aggressive. But Green's not going to outrun them. He's not going to fool Oklahoma's master bluff artists at cornerback. Kansas' Todd Reesing and Joe Ganz can attest to that.

He can, however, get three yards instead of one on a zone read. Scramble for a first down or two. Get out on the edge with a bootleg and hit Mike McNeill in a soft part of the zone.

Little things win big games.

The key: Will Green get starry-eyed? Saturday, in the immortal words of Danny Nee, will be an electric zoo in Memorial Stadium. At kickoff, anyway. And then NU will have to settle into a modest game plan that relies on the Blackshirts, Adi Kunalic and Alex Henery.

The crowd may get restless – especially if the Huskers fall behind. Green can not.

See also: An Unforgettable NU-OU Memory

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Right after Bo Pelini was hired to coach Nebraska in 2007, a good helping of Cornhusker fans, well-versed in both modern and historical college football, pointed to this upcoming week as an early mid-term, if you will, on NU's progress under Pelini.

A home game vs. Oklahoma, the standard-bearer of the Big 12 in the 21st Century, coached by Pelini's old buddy, Bob Stoops. If Pelini had a grace period of, say, 20 games – he's coached 21 thus far – OU, with its balance, talent, speed and reputation, would be an apt measuring stick for how far the Huskers had come – and how far, still, they had to go.

As we stand here now, with both fighters bruised and frustrated, it's harder to see that stick in the mist of injuries, offensive woes and close, painful losses.

But it's still there. And all of Nebraska's goals are still there, too. The Huskers control their destiny. Win out and punch a ticket to Dallas and the Big 12 Championship vs. Texas. Win out, and NU, with its fan base and classy reputation, is guaranteed no worse than the Holiday Bowl to tangle with another of Pelini's mentors, Pete Carroll and his USC Trojans.

Yes – win out, and a fairly cool prize awaits at the bottom of the Cracker Jack box.

NU's 20-10 victory over Baylor isn't the kind you love to relive, aside from one particular performance. We'll do it anyway, with an eye on the big stick that Nebraska would very much like to carry into the final quarter of its season – after measuring up to it, of course.

Five Players We Loved

Defensive tackle Jared Crick: Opponents pay so much attention to Ndamukong Suh that Crick feasts on the single-blocker approach. But Saturday, he tossed those blockers aside and chased Baylor quarterback Nick Florence like a wolfman. Thirteen tackles? Absurd. Crick's small-town persona only adds to the appeal.

Linebacker Eric Martin: He's been threatening to make a big special teams play all year; Saturday, he finally made it by setting up a blocked punt that was returned by Justin Blatchford for the Huskers' first touchdown. If Martin is able to make the leap defensive back Alfonzo Dennard made from his freshman to sophomore season, watch out.

Quarterback Cody Green: Warts and all, Green ran hard, competed bravely and generally seemed in command. He's got some work to do, particularly on timing routes, but he's finally a position to do something about it on the field.

Punter/kicker Alex Henery: Nailed two important field goals – Baylor's Ben Parks missed a chip shot of his own – and made a touchdown-saving tackle on a wild BU punt return right at the end of the game. Athlete first. Kicker second.

Cornerback Prince Amukamara: One terrific interceptions with three more pass breakups to boot. Amukamara rebounded from a so-so game vs. Texas Tech with a strong performance here.

Three Concerns We Have

No Daylight: Nebraska ran the ball 19 times in the second half for 61 yards. How many teams is that going to beat? The beefy offensive line has to earn its keep.

Going Horizontal: Offensive coordinator Shawn Watson laid off the sideways passes for the first half. Then, with a seemingly comfy 20-0 lead, he started getting cute again, trying to burn Baylor for loading the box by throwing 20 yards sideways, in the hopes of creating one-on-one situations on the perimeter. You all know what eventually happened. If Watson wants to go horizontal, here's a thought: Run wide receiver sweeps.

Shaky coverage: Baylor was close on a couple kick and punt returns to busting one open for a touchdown. The Huskers have to keep lane discipline and learn to break down and tackle better, instead of searching for the killshot.

Reviewing The Five Keys

Play to win, not to dominate: Nebraska did just that with a modest offensive gameplan and a defensive strategy that called for maximum coverage and zero blitzes. The result? Seven sacks and three turnovers on defense. Safe to say the plan worked.

Match up and move it: Dejon Gomes, Lance Thorell and Sean Fisher probably were exhausted by game's end, running in and out of the game as NU mixed and matched nickel, dime and dollar coverages, but the Huskers were rarely out of position, and almost always had double coverage on the deep receiver, which led to Gomes' interception. The Huskers were lucky that Florence wasn't more accurate on that skinny slant pattern to Kendall Wright, though.

Neutralize the earth-movers: Baylor couldn't do anything against Crick and Suh, while Nebraska had initial success against the Bears' front four, with that success waning by the second half.

Traye and Jay: Dontrayevous Robinson looked like Nebraska's best running option until he got hurt in the fourth quarter; Robinson, like Green, competes hard on every play. BU's Jay Finley was not a factor.

Bo vs. Briles: Baylor head coach Art Briles threw the kitchen sink at Nebraska, and the Brothers Pelini dodged nearly every bullet and landed some haymakers of their own. NU won this coaching chess match with a big dose of help from Crick and Suh.

Three Questions We Still Have

Is Roy Helu anywhere near getting healthy? Why did he play Saturday? Repeat: Why? If Nebraska couldn't beat Baylor without Helu – and, just for the record, the Huskers pretty much did – then Nebraska had no business winning, period. Helu should have stayed home and nursed his injured shoulder.

Where in the world is Mike McNeill, and how does Watson get him involved in the offense again? McNeill's too good to be wasted on well-covered tight end routes. Give the kid a chance to work on the edge and use his size advantage. He's a mismatch waiting to happen. Isn't Watson all about that?

Can the Nebraska crowd find some inner resolve? And create a nightmarish atmosphere for Oklahoma this week? Memorial Stadium needs to be the toughest environment that OU quarterback Landry Jones has ever played in.

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Players of the game and grades after Nebraska's win over Baylor:

PLAYERS OF THE GAME:

OFFENSE: Cody Green. He provided exactly the kind of spark you'd hoped he would. He was poised in the pocket. He didn't waste a lot of time at the line. He scrambled and ran with authority and power. And he was called upon to throw a beauty of a deep ball, he did so with accuracy and perfect placement. The second half wasn't so pretty - but, really, who else deserves it?

DEFENSE: Jared Crick. It was the kind of performance that reminded me of Danny Noonan and John Parrella, a display of power, tenacity, toughness and brute force. Ndamukong Suh made his usual array of plays all over the field; he's still one of a kind. But, on this day, Crick was that tough-nosed local boy that Nebraska used to ride to conference and national championships. Crick's a little nasty, too. We love it.

GRADES

QUARTERBACK: C Cody Green made some solid plays early in the game, and his two scrambles on third down help set up Alex Henery's 45-yard field goal. He also threw a beautiful pass to Niles Paul to set up a touchdown. But his second-half play? Not real pretty. Green has to watch those throws to the sidelines and try not to go airborne on, well, just about any running play, ever. It's a start. Not a perfect one. But a start.

RUNNING BACK: B Given the Huskers' injuries, this bunch did pretty well with the holes they were given. Traye Robinson is a valid option at running back. Roy Helu is hurt. Lester Ward did OK in limited action, but runs too high. Austin Jones didn't have a prayer.

WIDE RECEIVER: C A couple untimely drops were offset by two key catches by Niles Paul, who manned up and made some nice grabs. Cody Green missed a few receivers on top of everything else. The perimeter blocking, especially from Khiry Cooper, could have been better.

TIGHT ENDS/OFFENSIVE LINE: D The shoddy blocking in the second half is unacceptable. When Nebraska needs two yards – the line needs to be able produce those two yards against a team like Baylor. The Huskers were stymied far too often in short yardage situations. Also a costly holding and false penalty when they weren't needed.

DEFENSIVE LINE: A+ Seven sacks warrants a perfect grade in our book. Crick was spectacular. Baylor never got anything on the ground, either. This unit is scary good right now.

LINEBACKERS: A Phillip Dillard and Sean Fisher snuffed out Baylor's junk plays all afternoon, and got after the quarterback when it matter. Nice job by both against the zone read. Fisher, who was running on and off the field all day, adjusted quite well.

SECONDARY: B The Bears busted a couple big throws in the second half, but NU, for the most part, covered well. The Huskers could be a little more aggressive on the short routes, and the safeties could improve on laying out the receiver when there's underneath coverage. Terrific interception by Prince Amukamara; Dejon Gomes' pick was just a bad pass.

SPECIAL TEAMS: A A defensive touchdown, a ton of touchbacks and Alex Henery's key tackle on a wild Baylor punt return – this unit helped save the Huskers bacon.

GAME MANAGEMENT AND PLAYCALLING: B Offensive coordinator Shawn Watson got a little cute in the second half, but, for the most part, he called a tough-minded, simplified game that seemed to suit the Huskers' strengths. His presence on the sideline was helpful, even if it didn't always seem like it with NU's play. On defense, Bo and Carl Pelini kept the gameplan beautifully simple, and let the front four do what it does. No blitz calls on the day? Nice job, gentlemen.

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WACO, Texas - Finally. Maybe. We think. We hope. Sigh.

Yes, it's like that, right now, for Nebraska's offense. For Nebraska, period.

NU seemed to locate its offensive identity Saturday in 20-10 win over Baylor. For a half, anyway. It's not fully-formed, it still remains trapped a bit in the inane intricacies of West Coast Offense, but it's a start. Maybe. We think. We hope. Sigh.

Cody Green at quarterback, scrambling when necessary, running with poise and authority. A power offense designed to punish lesser teams and set up deep passes. A strong, forward-leaning running back in true freshman Traye Robinson. And, at long last, a compliment of big-bodied tight ends on the field – at the same time.

Fireworks, it wasn't. Well – unless you count the ones that got shot off after Baylor intercepted and returned one of Green's two mistakes for a touchdown.

What did you expect after a month of sideways passes, soft-bellied screens and tentative quarterback play from Zac Lee? Sixty points? Saturday was a modest step forward. Finally. Maybe. We think. We hope. Green had all the advantages - a special teams touchdown, a dominant defensive performance, a Baylor offense, set to the melt setting every time it ventured into Nebraska territory. And there were times – like most of the second half – where he didn't do anything with those advantages.

But this is change we can believe in. Finally. Maybe. We think. We hope. It's an offense that, at long last, suits the kind of defense Nebraska has become. Offensive coordinator Shawn Watson had to descend from his perch – physically and philosophically – for it to happen. Yes, that was Watson on the sidelines, in his trademark sunglasses, barking excitedly, getting in the faces of his linemen at key moments.

“That was to help Cody,” Watson said. “We've got a freshman tailback (Robinson) that's playing a lot, we've got a freshman quarterback now. I wanted to be there with the guys. Something some of the older guys asked me about. I did that for them.”

It was good to see. He took ownership Saturday. He didn't have much of a choice.

Oh, Watson got cute again midway through the third quarter – and Green got lazy. Watson started calling the horizontal passes again, and Green locked onto receiver Khiry Cooper on a third-down play. The result: A Pick Six that might have had the last remaining members of the Zac Lee camp saying “I told you so.” A fourth-quarter fumble – when Green rather inexplicably left his feet on a quarterback draw – had them roaring a little bit louder.

We think they're wrong. Maybe. We hope so.

It really doesn't matter if NU can't run the ball. Once again Saturday, Barney Cotton's bunch did not deliver on its potential or responsibility. They played hard, but not in sync, and not as a smoothly-operating, confident unit. And head coach Bo Pelini was plenty vocal about it after the game.

“It's a huge concern,” he said. “We've got to be able to run the football better. We didn't run the ball to my liking today.”

This is the tone Pelini has to strike – the same kind of aggression and expectation he shows with his defense. He needs to show it weekly – heck, daily - with Watson, Cotton and that offensive line, which is too big and too experienced to make communication gaffes for the bulk of the second half. Watson tried pounding the ball with big sets, fullbacks, inside zones and the old-school Callahan stretch play. The offensive line didn't respond with enough gashes for Robinson, Roy Helu, Lester Ward and Austin Jones.

Yes, I just named four running backs there. Marcus Mendoza played a couple snaps, too. If Helu isn't 100 percent healthy, the Huskers really have no bellcow. Robinson can only do so much with the time he's been given, and the rest of the backs are not consistently good runners. Baylor wisely took away Green's running lanes on the zone read Saturday, forcing Helu and crew to pick their way through narrow holes, just hoping to stay upright and healthy. Helu got dinged again. So did Robinson.

Even if NU stumbled into success Saturday – even if it's a first step to something better – the Huskers have to healthy and confident enough to keep it going.

Bo pulled the trigger on Green. It was a must. Lee might have given the Huskers some looks in the passing game. But, honestly, I doubt it. NU's receivers were again average. Baylor's corners mostly did stayed with them. The Bears brought two or three blitzes that Green stepped away from for positive scrambles, or withstood in the pocket to throw first downs. Lee wilted under those same blitzes in recent weeks. Green gives defenses an element to worry about. And right now, the Huskers need every element on the periodic table they can get.

But now, Bo has to aim his sights on that offensive line. Whatever they've given already to the team – they've got to dig in and give a little more. The unit is not completely healthy – center Jacob Hickman is nursing a severely sprained ankle – but it's healthy enough.

Time for Cotton – who is a tough, honest coach and a skilled teacher from this point of view – to drive that unit just a little harder, and get them to execute a little better. Oklahoma blows into Lincoln next week plenty ticked off – with a wicked defense to match. If NU can't dent that OU front line, the Sooners will eat Green – or Lee – alive.

This is a unit fighting back the light, folks. The offense remains under siege from pundits and fans. Just one minute into Pelini's press conference, a fan clutching a white gate just feet away screamed a particular insult about Watson.

His boss took it in stride at the moment, but after his media session was done, he walked over to that fence, shook hands with athletic director Tom Osborne, and looked into that crowd. He wanted to know – who had the big mouth? It wasn't the most politically correct moment, but it was vintage Bo. Loyal and tenacious to the last. Nebraska fans may not always like it. But it's what they paid Osborne to find, and Bo to do.

Bo's in the thick of tough, grueling season. He knows it. This is the year that will forge his coaching character even more than he's already forged it himself. And he's fighting back with the best defensive front four I've seen at NU in years.

Now that offensive front five has to do their part.

Can it? Finally?

Maybe. We think. We hope. Sigh.

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WACO, Texas - A special teams touchdown. A home crowd on the road. A day without rain, boos or clouds. Plenty of sacks and turnovers. And the starting debut of a Nebraska freshman quarterback who seems to have the skills and poise to go as far as his long, powerful running strides can take him.

His arm may be another question.

But after two stunning home losses in a row, Nebraska's football team captured a needed rebound victory, beating Baylor 20-10 Saturday afternoon.

Bo Pelini's bunch, now 5-3 overall and 2-2 in the Big 12 Conference, inserted themselves back into the Big 12 North race in front 31,702 at Floyd Casey Stadium that included a reporter-estimated 15,000 Cornhusker fans.

“It was real important,” Pelini said. “We needed a win. We got a win. We got a lot of work to do yet. A win's a win. It's No. 5.”

Many of those raucous fans – silenced for whole portions of the second half - were from Texas, and took the opportunity to watch true freshman Cody Green – a native of Dayton, Texas – make his first start at quarterback. The decision was made on Thursday, Pelini said, because “you gotta go with your gut.”

Initally, Green didn't disappoint. His first-half performance – 6-of-9 passing for 85 yards, 25 yards rushing – was a portrait of efficiency. With offensive coordinator Shawn Watson calling plays on the sidelines and simplifying the attack, Green operated mostly out of multiple tight end, power formations. He ran only four times, but two of them were scrambles of ten and six yards on a drive that led to Alex Henery's 45-yard field goal.

All but one of his completions were of the short, controlled variety, but he did hit wide receiver Niles Paul on a 45-yard fade route, Green placing the ball perfectly on Paul's outside shoulder. Two plays later, true freshman Traye Robinson skied into the end zone for a one-yard touchdown. That gave NU a 20-0 halftime lead.

“In the first half, things were rolling pretty good,” Green said.

But the freshman made a giant mistake midway through the third quarter, locking in on receiver Khiry Cooper, only to see Baylor safety Cliff Odom step in front of the pass at NU”s 45-yard line, pick it off and return it for an easy touchdown. Later, Green fumbled right after the Nebraska defense had forced BU to turn it over.

“It was just a late throw on my part,” Green said. “If I had thrown it a second earlier it would have been a completion, but I threw it a second later...one thing you have to do is go back on the next drive and just forget about it. You have to have a memory like a goldfish.”

For the game, Green completed 12 of 21 passes for 128 yards and rushed for 43 yards.

“He had some rough spots,” Watson said. “He did some things freshmen sometimes do first time out. He's got a lot to get better at, but, no doubt – he competed. He gave us some nice runs and did some good things. We didn't ask him to do much. We just asked him to kind of manage us. He had the one pick. Gotta get that fixed.”

Fortunately, Green had plenty of help.

NU got on the board quickly, as another true freshman – linebacker Eric Martin – bulled his way through Baylor's punt protection and partially blocked Derek Epperson's punt. The ball floated sideways and was caught by backup defensive back Justin Blatchford, who darted hard to his left, tip-toed down the sideline, and leaped into the end zone just before he fumbled.

“I just hit (the blocker),” Martin said. “I didn't even know it was blocked until I hear the crowd yelling and I look around, and Blatchford is taking the ball back.”

Just 90 seconds into the game, the Huskers had a bigger lead – 7-0 – than they had enjoyed since the waning moments of the Missouri game.

NU's Blackshirts – particularly defensive tackle Jared Crick, who had a record-breaking game – made sure the lead held up. Tested again and again, the Huskers' defense held up. Cornerbacks Dejon Gomes and Prince Amukamara both notched interceptions of Baylor quarterback Nick Florence in Husker territory. Nebraska chased Baylor's fast receivers and running backs sideline-to-sideline, throwing them down for short or no gain.

And then there was Crick, who benefited from the Bears choosing to double-team All-American Ndamukong Suh. Crick, just a sophomore out of Cozad, had a school-record five sacks.

“It could have been anyone today with all of those stats,” Crick said. “It is just a group effort.”

The final one of the first half, in which Crick bulled through two blockers and engulfed Florence in a massive bear hug, was as impressive as any play Suh's made this season. NU had seven sacks overall.

“Is that a monster game by him, or what?” defensive coordinator Carl Pelini said. “He just plays his tail off. He's strong, he's fast. Offenses? I don't know – they've just got to deal with him, because they started the game putting the center toward Suh, and it just makes them look foolish.”

Said Bo Pelini: “Jared's too good of a player if they're gonna do that.”

For the game, Baylor amassed 270 total yards, but ran 11 more plays than the Huskers did. The Bears (3-5 overall, 0-4 in the Big 12) thrice invaded NU territory after cutting the lead to ten. Once, kicker Ben Parks missed a field goal. On the second foray, Baylor turned the ball over on downs. The game clock ran out on their final charge, which occurred after a bizarre punt return that included three laterals and a touchdown-saving tackle by punter Alex Henery.

“We had plays at the end and we didn't do it,” BU quarterback Nick Florence said. “We fought hard in the second half, it was valiant effort, but it does hurt when it is so close.”

NU was left concerned with its running game, which produced just 145 yards and failed to deliver on several third down situations in the second half.

“Absolutely,” Pelini said when asked if he was concerned. “It's a huge concern. We've got to be able to run the football better. We didn't run the ball to my liking today.”

Said Husker center Jacob Hickman: “It was just missed communications that caused that. The effort was there.”

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“I'm a strong believer in culture. My vision I have for this football team – that process is well under way. I cannot proclaim it has completely taken over yet. It is a process. And it's not something that happens overnight. I understood that coming in.”

-- Bo Pelini, Nebraska Football Head Coach.

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Quarterbacks and boos and media and questions and turnovers and rankings and sound bytes and fans and -

Oh, yeah. Breakfast with Iowa State.

The Cyclones are playing with house money. Free as the bird that serves as their mascot. At 4-3, ISU doesn't have much to lose other than the health of its two best offensive skill players, quarterback Austen Arnaud and running back Alexander Robinson.

Iowa State can pull out the stops, or play it cool to keep it reasonably close.

Nebraska, meanwhile, needs to win, and look good doing it.

Head coach Bo Pelini preaches high standards. That's good. He's not satisfied with nine-win seasons. He asks for perfection because, in his words, “you get what you ask for.” He coaches a tenacious, active game in search of execution and mental toughness. And he's good after a loss - better, maybe, than after a win.

The man was in his element this week. He's got his team buying into an us-against-the-world mentality. Bo served as point guard on Monday with his “buck stops here” comments, and as bookend on Thursday with a similar statement. Fans may perceive Pelini as angry. Not precisely. He's trying to use a difficult loss – a stunning loss, really – as a rallying point to quickly reverse course.

Pelini doesn't believe in a panic button. It doesn't mean he isn't pushing some other buttons.

On to the keys.

Playing Harder and Smarter: Nebraska's offense has been a little too cute over the last two weeks. Power football out of a shotgun spread, four-wide set? Oh, sure, you can do it. But defenses have to respect the quarterback and the receivers. And, right now, that's not happening. Both Texas Tech and Missouri left linebackers on the field to cover NU's wideouts, confident that quarterback Zac Lee either couldn't or wouldn't find open guys.

That hunch was right. Offensive coordinator Shawn Watson often talks about taking what a defense gives. But what Tech gave wasn't a schematic advantage. It was an athletic challenge. And the Huskers weren't up to it.

Watson's gameplan was in the right place. But the troops couldn't execute it. Which means – find something they can.

Maybe that's straight power stuff. Maybe that's the zone read with Cody Green. Nebraska can't stray too far from its original design, but it may need to shed a few play pounds to get to the core of its success.

And the offensive line? Well, you already know – don't you? So do they.

Steep incline: If Big 12 defenses were a treadmill, ISU is about to hit a massive elevation change. The Cyclones have not faced a defense as complete as Nebraska's since the Iowa game, and the Hawkeyes' front four is a notch below the Huskers. Throw in a motivated Memorial Stadium crowd – they'll be back Saturday, with a vengeance – and this is toughest game that Iowa State has had this year. If NU can pounce early, ISU won't put up too much of a fight.

Wounded Clones: Arnaud and Robinson won't be 100 percent on Saturday, and how the game progresses may determine the length of time they're in the game. Again – that's why the quick start is so important. ISU coach Paul Rhoads isn't going to worsen Robinson's groin injury by running him while down 21 points.

Arnaud will test that throwing hand early. He's not a great passer to begin with, and his backup, Jerome Tiller, is more of a big-play runner than he is passer.

Where's Mike? Nebraska tight end Mike McNeill has played roughly 50 percent of the snaps in each of the two previous games, and most of those were in the second half. McNeill wants to win more than anything – but he'll never turn down the ball.

“I've ran pretty good routes this year and I'm moving pretty well,” McNeill said. “I think I'm open sometimes. But I'm not always in the quarterback's progression, or maybe he's got another throw he's got to make. It's not like I'm running down the field and no one sees me.”

It's just that Lee hasn't been throwing him the ball very much.

Ditto for the rest of the tight ends. What's happened here over the last several weeks? NU tries to throw the ball to Kyler Reed two times a game, and calls it good. Ben Cotton, Dreu Young and Ryan Hill – all pretty capable receiving options – rarely get their names called. McNeill catches just about everything in the vicinity, but it's like he's one of the fallow parks on the edge of the Lincoln city limits. What gives?

The Specials: Iowa State has some return and kicking weapons that could account for field position and/or a touchdown. Nebraska has to find the vibe it had going before the Missouri game. Even punter/kicker Alex Henery's been a little off.

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So now it's the media. Now it's the fans. So now it's about whether you played college football.

"No one knows what's going on in our meeting and practice room,” Nebraska quarterback Zac Lee said. “Only we know. That's how it is.”

“He feels like the whole state of Nebraska is against him,” head coach Bo Pelini said of Lee. “That would affect anybody.”

“I feel sorry for him tremendously,” competitor Cody Green said. “I wish I could take some of the pain off of him. I just don't want that feeling for anybody, that a whole state would jump on somebody's bandwagon one second, and jump off the next.”

“We won't have a split locker room at all,” Ndamukong Suh said. “I know that's what you guys are looking for, and that's your little thing, you want to see who's going to go for Cody, who's going to go for Zac.”

“Did you play?” offensive coordinator Shawn Watson asked a reporter. “If you did, you would understand what I'm talking about.”

The comments and sentiment seemed designed to rally around Lee, whom Pelini and Watson – not the fans, not the media – yanked twice from a 31-10 loss to Texas Tech.

But this is a team overreacting, frankly, to a situation that happens just about everywhere. Fans boo. The media speculates. You think this is potentially divisive? Head back to 1995, when arguably the best team in college football history was split to the core over Brook Berringer and Tommie Frazier. Head back to 1997, when Scott Frost received a chorus of boos with a 13-2 starting record. Head back to 1999, when Eric Crouch left the program for a couple hours.

It. Happens.

Nebraska's response Tuesday was to take pity on Lee, and re-frame his performance – indeed the whole offense – as part of a great rebuilding/development process. Watson actually talked about how much it hurt to lose Lydon Murtha, Matt Slauson and Jaivorio Burkes in the offseason. He hasn't uttered those first two names since last spring.

Now, suddenly, Lee's “logging time” at the quarterback position, making up for lost reps he didn't get last year because Patrick Witt was the backup. Huh? A month ago, after a dazzling performance vs. Arkansas State, Watson called Lee “lights out, a cool customer.” Two weeks ago, after a 27-12 win over Missouri, Watson said “this is the moment we've been waiting for.”

Tuesday, when a reporter rightly pointed out that Lee is not a new player in the system – he's been at Nebraska for two years now – Watson touched off this exchange:

“But they're playing for the first time. You don't get it. Did you play?”

Not at this level, the reporter responded.

“OK. Well, if you did, you would understand what I'm talking about. It takes time to develop those things. It just doesn't come natural.”
Watson's trying to set the boundaries for his authority and leadership, which is fine. He's taken his share of shots across the bow in the last two weeks; he's allowed to dish a few out.

But his argument doesn't jibe, especially when Nebraska is considering starting Green, an 18-year-old who's admittedly become a “new quarterback” in the last month.

“I'm not going to lie, all I wanted to do is run,” Green said. “If I get in the game, just give me the ball, tell them get out of the way, I just want to take off running. Now I've learned how to manage an offense, when to take chances and when not to. Learn how to be a complete quarterback.”

Reporters tend to read into media performances too much. Joe Dailey, for example. But Green is smooth, assured, and smart for such a young player.

“I'll always tell Coach Watson just let me get hit one time,” Green said. “Whenever I get in, just let me run the ball, let me run right into somebody, let them try to break me, and then the butterflies will be gone, all that, and I'll be focused in. With the run, if I get in there, and we get the called play for me to run, I'm pretty sure y'all be able to see my smile from the press box.”

That kind of spirit is infectious.

Lee can have it, too. His smile after getting thwacked on an option play at Missouri said a lot about him. But that confidence was missing Tuesday. Lee's still the starter, technically, and although he wouldn't be my choice for Saturday vs. Iowa State, he's going to get every chance, I sense, to hold on to his job.

Curiously, he didn't own his mistakes vs. Texas Tech. Or, at least, he didn't own them in a way that suggested he played out of the ordinary.

“That's your opinion,” Lee said. “I didn't necessarily feel like that. There were some decisions that maybe looking back weren't the best decision. There were two or three of those, which is every game.
For whatever reason, we didn't have breakout plays. That's kind of the black and white of it. We didn't have plays we needed to make. And I'm the guy up front. That's just how it is.”

The “black and white of it” is that Lee didn't push the ball downfield to open receivers, and he didn't run for first downs that were available to him.

I'm surprised Lee didn't dimiss Pelini's “whole state of Nebraska” comment out of hand, especially when Lee claimed he didn't even hear the boos, most of which were aimed at the referees anyway.

The comment simply isn't true anyway. After practice Monday, some kids milled around Memorial Stadium, and asked to take a picture with Lee. Were they against him? Of course not.

And while Lee is able to articulate that, he did not Tuesday.

“It's not easy, being in this state and being in this situation,” Lee said. “It is what it is.”

True. It's also a job a lot of kids would kill to have for 12 seconds. Would Lee?

See also: Cool Husker Hoops Photos

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Three days after getting pulled in Nebraska's 31-10 loss to Texas Tech, quarterback Zac Lee brushed off his performance, suggesting the Huskers' woeful offensive output was related to a “lack of breakout plays.”

Asked if he was too hesitant or cautious Saturday – Lee was sacked five times and completed 16 passes for just 128 yards – the junior from San Francisco disagreed.

“That's your opinion,” Lee said during Tuesday's press conference. “I didn't necessarily feel like that. There were some decisions that maybe looking back weren't the best decisions. There were two or three of those, which is every game.

“For whatever reason, we didn't have breakout plays. That's kind of the black and white of it. We didn't have plays we needed to make. And I'm the guy up front. That's just how it is.”

Earlier in the press conference, head coach Bo Pelini said Lee felt like “the whole state of Nebraska was against him” after fans booed Lee's final pass attempt – a fourth-down overthrow of Niles Paul that ended up in the visitors' tunnel, capping a bewildering ten-minute, zero-point drive in which Lee frequently audibled while the clock ticked away and threw dump passes to Marcus Mendoza.

Said Lee: “That could be how (Pelini) is viewing it. It's not easy, being in this state and being in this situation. It is what it is. Nothing I can really do about it except go out on Saturday and do my thing.”

Lee said he didn't hear the boos. Pelini was “disappointed” with fans, but added that Lee has “got to learn to handle that, the 'negativity' and just go out and play.”

Freshman Cody Green, who's now competing with Lee for the starting job, said he “felt sorry” for his teammate, echoing Pelini's comments about the state turning against Lee.

“I just don't want that feeling for anybody, that a whole state would jump on somebody's bandwagon one second, and jump off the next,” Green said. “...on the inside I'm pretty sure it's eating at him, but on the outside he doesn't show it one bit.”

The best remedy?

“You fight through, you persevere, you take a I'll-show-you attitude,” Pelini said.

Lee said he already does that because he was forced to take the junior college route out of high school.

“That's kind of my mentality regardless of the situation,” he said.

Pelini indicated that Lee is technically the starter until Green takes the job away. That said, Green also sat in front of the entire reporting pool on Tuesday for the first time, talking to the media for more than 15 minutes.

Lee said it's a normal practice week for him, as Nebraska's coaches act as if every job on the field is up for grabs.

“I know you guys honestly don't believe that, but we really do,” Lee said. “That's how it is...we compete every week. We don't take anything for granted.”

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Jacob Hickman doesn't like the circumstances that brought Nebraska's football team to a defining moment in its season. But the NU center isn't about to argue with the new offensive game plan.

“They're gonna shift it onto our shoulders this week,” Hickman said.

Meaning the offensive line. The bunch that helped produce just 70 yards rushing in a 31-10 loss to Texas Tech will be counted upon, Hickman said, to carry the load while the Cornhuskers try to settle on a starting quarterback and running back Roy Helu deals with a shoulder stinger.

“We're gonna go out there and run the ball out of every set we've got and see what works best for us,” Hickman said after practice Monday. “When they're committed to the run at that level I really like that. It's now on our shoulders.”

Expect NU, 4-2 overall and 1-1 in the Big 12 Conference, to “get big,” Hickman said, and use more heavy, tight end-laden sets that calls for the quarterback – be it Zac Lee or Cody Green – to stay under center. Against Missouri, the Huskers used a four tight-end, “W” set to score the game's final touchdown.

“There's going to be more plays that we like,” Hickman said. “We might get big some more. We didn't get big last year; that wasn't our identity. We're gonna get big sometimes (now).”

To prepare for it, the Huskers had a fully-padded practice Monday, with lots of “good on good,” head coach Bo Pelini said. Typically NU practices in shells on Monday.

“We do that now and then,” Pelini said. “I thought today was the right day.”

Lee and Green split snaps quarterback hours after Pelini said the starter would be determined as in a “gametime decision.”

Both “did some good things” Monday, Pelini said. He didn't elaborate, nor seem interested in breaking down the battle.

“Everybody wants to focus on the quarterback position, “We've got to execute around the quarterback. There's a lot of things that go into enabling the quarterback to play well.”

Hickman said he has a good rapport with both. The senior also added that the Unity Council talked Sunday about making sure the race doesn't become divisive inside the team, no matter how fans or the media might handicap it. Lee was booed by portions of the Memorial Stadium crowd on his last pass of the Texas Tech game, a fourth-down misfire that ended up in the visitors' tunnel.

You can't have picking sides,” Hickman said, “because then you'll have a situation like we had two years ago, when we had some problems with guys picking sides and not trusting certain people.”

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Nebraska's quarterback job is back up for grabs.

Head coach Bo Pelini said he wouldn't name a starter between junior Zac Lee and true freshman Cody Green until Saturday, when the Cornhuskers play Iowa State at 11:30 a.m.

“It'll be a gametime decision,” Pelini said. “Right now, nothing's changed. If and when it changes, we'll announce it.”

Asked specifically if the job is open, Pelini said, “it's always open. That's how we approach it.”

Green twice replaced Lee in NU's 31-10 loss to Texas Tech Saturday. Green's second stint in the game produced a 13-yard touchdown pass to Khiry Cooper. It also produced an interception.

“Cody did a couple good things,” Pelini said. “He didn't grade out exceptionally well. He was a young guy that went in there in a tough situation. He made a couple plays. He made some mistakes. He made a number of mistakes.”

Pelini said he's “not real big on rotating quarterbacks” but didn't rule out it as an option.

“It's hard to get a guy in a rhythm,” Pelini said. “But we'll see how it goes and how they practice and we'll go from there. There's a lot of variables. There's a lot of things that could happen. But it'd be hard for me to look into a crystal ball.”

NU, at 4-2 overall and 1-1 in the Big 12, will not be making wholesale schematic changes to the offense, Pelini said, although “you always look at personnel.”

“You've got to do what you do and do it better,” Pelini said. “You can't panic...we know how to address the situation and it's being addressed.”

Pelini said both defensive back Alfonzo Dennard and Chris Brooks are “day-to-day” and would be held out of Monday's practice.

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I'm probably going to tick off some people by doing what must seem unthinkable right about now.

Defend Shawn Watson.

Don't worry. It's just a few words, and they're conditional on Watson taking some concrete steps this week – which I think he'll take – toward building an offense that can win a wide, wide open Big 12 North.

Sifting through the rubble of a 31-10 loss, it'd be easy to lay the blame on Watson, who is, after all, responsible for the whole offensive package. He's the one who gets the extra cash, who gets labeled a genius in the offseason, who gets the credit when things go right. He answers the tough questions when they don't.

Thing is: He did that Saturday. And unlike his boss, Bo Pelini, he didn't slough off questions with a trademark “What do you think?” which is quickly become Bo's least desirable media trait.

And Watson didn't call a bad game on Saturday. He didn't call a good one, either. He called the game his offense – and his boss - allowed him to call. Which is – not much of a game at all.

Watson can't control when Pelini defers every coin toss Nebraska wins, and prefers to gain momentum with a stop instead of a score. Texas Tech scored, of course, immediately putting NU in a match mode.

Watson can't control his offensive line being so leaky that NU can't even run its safest playaction plays – four yard passes to the tight ends. He can't control that the Huskers' running game, no matter how many running plays he would have called, was going nowhere. Read: nowhere. And, other than an inspired performance at Virginia Tech – more attributable to Roy Helu than anything else – it's been an issue from week one. Nobody's going to confuse the Huskers with Alabama or Florida's offensive line, is the point.

Watson can't control Niles Paul's bad hands.

Watson can't control that his quarterback, Zac Lee either didn't see open receivers or was afraid to throw the ball downfield. On this issue, after the game, Watson was clear: Lee didn't see it. NU was sending its receivers on deep posts to clear the safeties and bringing receivers into the vacated space. Lee wouldn't deliver the ball. He just wouldn't Chris Brooks and Menelik Holt were open on those crossing routes all day.

“Zac's got to squeeze the trigger,” Watson said. “My job is to help him learn from it. I just don't think he was seeing it well. Maybe over-analyzed it a little bit.”

Watson tried to compensate. He called some quick five-yard stops to get Lee in the rhythm; Lee hit a couple, but two others were knocked down. He tried the bubble screens, which were mostly a disaster. He tried a shovel pass – natch. Tried a reverse. Tried the zone read with Lee running it. Tried to go wide. Tried to slam it inside. None of it would go.

It was a far cry from Watson's masterpiece at Texas Tech last year. But NU's quarterback and wide receivers are a far cry from Joe Ganz, Nate Swift and Todd Peterson, too.

Yeah – color me surprised, too. But, even when Nebraska couldn't run the ball in 2008, they could always throw it. Ganz was just better than Lee is now. Ganz was canny, for one thing; he was a lot more accurate under 20 yards, for another.

Right now, the Huskers can't do either one. And while the entire performance falls under Watson's supervision, the specific ugliness of Saturday was, to some extent, beyond his control.

Of course, he can fix that.

He has start Cody Green next week. And the week after. Not simply because “it's time.” Because Green earned it by going into the game and taking the shots downfield that Lee wouldn't. Because his personality, a mixture of maturity and “aw heck” hominess works for the players. Because he runs with his head up. Because he's taller, even. And faster.

Let's not make Green out to “the answer.” He's not that guy, yet. Lee is, when his head's on straight, a better passer. Green slings it, which isn't conducive to throwing the deep ball. He threw into coverage, oh, 10 times on Saturday, was lucky to only toss one interception. But he's willing to fight downfield, and make plays. Lee, for whatever reason, shrunk from that challenge Saturday. And coaches can't abide by that.

Watson also has to develop a quicker running game. He doesn't have to ditch the shotgun zone game, but he could incorporate more pistol and more quick, simple counter plays to offset Nebraska's shoddy run blocking. These are in the West Coast Offense, so Watson doesn't have to dream them up.

Watson has to use Traye Robinson, pronto. NU burned his redshirt on kickoff returns Saturday for a reason. He didn't play at running back Saturday. But he will – and he needs to. Robinson can become the big back option for the last half of the season. Husker fans may be surprised by his talents.

Watson needs to get back to his bread and butter, playaction and tight ends. If Nebraska can't make every block, well, at least make the edge blocks, which will allow Green (or Lee) to get some breathing room outside of the pocket.

Watson needs to cut down on the number of allowable audibles. Run the play as called. Get the team in the habit of playing the hand they're dealt. Lee's more interested in shaking his hands dry than he is delivering the ball downfield. If Green's inexperienced, don't send him out there with a trunk full of options.

Watson, finally, has to go to his offensive line, if he didn't already on Saturday, and lay out a workable plan for improvement, play selection and snap counts. If they can't block it, don't run it.

"Shawn Watson's a good football coach," Pelini said. "He's stood the test over a long time...that hasn't changed and that won't change."

That's coachspeak, sure. But Watson dragged NU's defense through some ugly moments in 2008. He gets a shot here to turn it around.

See also: You're Shawn Watson...what do you do?

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The best play of Rex Burkhead’s young career at Nebraska shouldn’t have happened.

The freshman running back scored a touchdown on a 24-yard shovel pass reception with a nifty feat of speed, moves and toughness in the waning moments of NU’s 55-0 win over Louisiana-Lafayette.

Burkhead caught a short, forward flip from fellow true freshman Cody Green, eluded one defender, broke the tackles of three more, and stiff-armed a fifth tackler at the five-yard line to score the second touchdown on his career.

“I was hoping to get the first down,” Burkhead said. “But I was fortunate to stay up.”

Too bad Green called the wrong play in the huddle. He misread the signals from the sidelines, called a shovel pass, watched it work thanks to Burkhead’s effort and trotted over to the sidelines, where a smiling Zac Lee awaited him.

“Coach (Shawn) Watson told me the exact same thing,” Green said. “He said, ‘Nice job of running the offense. I think I’ll hand over the reins to you and you can call your own plays. Because you just did now.’ It was supposed to be a regular pass to get the first down. But, heck, my shovel pass went for a touchdown. So I was happy for it.”

So was Burkhead, who accumulated 108 all-purpose yards for the night, throwing in his two punt returns for 55 yards. It was the most extensive action he or Green - the most ballyhooed of NU’s 2009 recruiting class – has seen this year.

“It was awesome,” Burkhead said. “Every time you get in the end zone. When 86,000 fans roar, it’s a great feeling.”

Green, a native of Dayton, Texas, scored a touchdown of his own on a 24-yard zone read play that looked like his 49-yard showstopper in the first game. Green completed 7-of-8 passes for 62 yards and the touchdown to Burkhead.

On Burkhead’s score, Green thought the Plano, Texas native was already down. He glanced up at the HuskerVision screen – Green calls it the “big board” – to watch a replay. Instead, he watched Burkhead’s touchdown.

“That kid’s got something right there,” Green said. “I think that little guy has probably the best center of gravity I’ve seen in just a freshman or any young guy that’s been playing. The kid doesn’t go down. For nothing.”

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Cody Green already knew quite a bit about life in the Nebraska football fishbowl before Saturday night.

After all, he’s been on campus for nine months now, and surely is attuned to the onslaught of commentary and intrigue surrounding his arrival, his size, his injury in spring camp, his unusually deep voice and his play in practice.

“You can feel eyes on you as you run out onto the field,” Green said Tuesday. “You can just feel everybody talking about you. It’s really a cool feeling.”

And then Green busted that 49-yard run around the right end of Florida Atlantic’s defense, which felt like so many touchdown runs at Dayton High School in Texas. It led to NU’s final touchdown – a one-yard option keeper by Green – in a 49-3 win.

“I couldn’t even count on my fingers and toes - and y’all’s fingers and toes - how many times,” Green said of the long run. “Just make a move and hit the sidelines and try to outrun everybody. That was just like a high school flashback.”

The hype surrounding Green’s talent is in vibrant colors now. Imagine it the moment starter Zac Lee struggles for two drives, a quarter, or possibly a game. All based on Green’s one impressive, Youngian (as in Vince, not Carl) gallop.

Of course, that run was the X factor with Green. The one thing we couldn’t really know about him in spring ball, or in fall camp. We could watch his throwing mechanics, which still need works. We could offer a basic assessment of his leadership skills – he seems much older than 18 –and his mental aptitude.

But when Green took with those long strides on a college stage and made Husker fans fondly remember NU quarterbacks of old, he presented them with an interesting conversation.

One that offensive coordinator Shawn Watson has no interest in joining.

“Don’t do that,” Watson said. He knew where the question was headed. “Our starter’s our starter and he’s our guy. So we ride that horse. And if the opportunity presents itself to play (Green) like we did this last week, we will.”

Don’t get it mixed up. We’re not talking a quarterback controversy. Lee is the top guy, so long as he owns the role. He’s a better passer. He has more experience and chemistry with the top receivers. He was strong throughout fall camp, not just the last two weeks of it. He throws a terrific deep ball.

Green needs work in many areas. He’s still learning how live under center, considering he took every snap in high school and junior high school from the shotgun.

And Lee knows more. In the West Coast Offense, knowing is more than half the battle. Each Friday, Watson hands his quarterbacks a play call sheet – there are about 320 plays – and tells them to “mark down what you can run with your eyes closed,” according to Green.

“Whenever I went in, he pulled out my sheet and he called what I knew,” Green said.

Green marked about 15 plays.

And Lee? He’s ramping up to “Joe Ganz in 2008” status. The more, the better.

“I love everything on there,” he said.

So we’re not talking about a competition.

But we are talking about a change of pace. One drive a half. Or one planned drive a game. Something isn’t contingent, in other words, on whether the garbage man shows up.

If Green can run like that every game – or even just be a threat to make that kind of run – and if Lee’s job is to stick in the pocket and make it work downfield, defenses have that much more to worry about. Texas did with Young. Florida did it with Tim Tebow. Missouri, wisely, did it with Chase Daniel. Virginia Tech mixed Tyrod Taylor into the offense quickly.

Head coach Bo Pelini himself saw it close up, when LSU routinely inserted Ryan Perrilloux into games in 2007. While Perrilloux flamed out of the Tiger program, his experience paid off when he started and won the 2007 SEC Championship game vs. Tennessee.

Special talents can require special arrangements.

But to hear Watson and Green tell it, the best No. 17 can do is to hope for blowouts.

“I won’t be able to get in there as much as I want to,” Green said. “I’ll have to deal with that and help Zac as much as possible. I know he’ll be the No. 1 man and we’re going to have a lot of close games and he’s going to take all the snaps in those, and I know that. If I get in, great. But, if not, learn as much as possible from the sidelines.”

So if Watson allows Green only 40 more snaps this season, isn’t it the equivalent of getting a little bit pregnant? It’s not like Green can serve on special teams.

Subletting the quarterback position isn’t easy. Invariably, fans prefer the cameo to the lead in those circumstances. You can get too cute with it, and spark a rift. But if you define the terms properly, it can work.

And of course, there’s this: Sooner or later, Green’s knowledge and execution of the offense will catch up with Lee’s mastery. You can define competition terms sooner or later. But, eventually, Watson and his staff will have to define them

Maybe the Virginia Tech game throws a wrench into the development of such a plan. But the days when you can build one’s season around a non-conference game, as USC and Ohio State are doing this weekend, aren’t here yet for Nebraska. The red meat of NU’s schedule is just beyond the September horizon, starting with a revenge match at Missouri.

How nice would it be, by then, to force the Tigers’ defense to prepare for two quarterbacks, on top of everything else?

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True freshman Cody Green has surged ahead in the race for Nebraska’s No. 2 quarterback, NU offensive coordinator Shawn Watson said Tuesday, and junior Latravis Washington has some ground to make up if he wants the spot.

“Cody’s doing a great job,” Watson said after the Cornhuskers’ “intense” three-hour workout on the grass fields north of Memorial Stadium. “He’s really catching on…he’s just a mature guy. He gets it. He understands life a little bit and he understands football. Just a gift he has. He’s a natural leader and football comes natural.”

Green enrolled early at NU after a stellar prep career in Dayton, Texas. He accounted for 4,875 yards in total offense and 62 touchdowns in his senior year. Although slowed by a groin injury in the spring, he fully recovered over the summer and has looked good, according to several coaches, in two-minute and situational drills throughout practice. Washington converted from linebacker to quarterback in the spring.

"He's completing passes and making good decisions," Watson said. "He's executing the offense."

The situation at wide receiver and offensive line isn’t nearly as settled, as Watson said he and offensive position coaches will continue to evaluate throughout the week at those spots.

Offensive line coach Barney Cotton has experimented with several players at different positions. The battle at right tackle is between D.J. Jones and Marcel Jones, while Andy Christensen and Ricky Henry duel at right guard. Marcel Jones is working as left tackle as well.

“I’d like to see us a little bit further along,” Cotton said. “We’ve played an awful lot of guys. Marcel’s played on both sides. It’d be nice to get him locked in, but we’re going to have to have somebody who can swap…each year’s a little bit different. The older you get, you probably experiment less.”

The o-line currently has only one senior starter, center Jacob Hickman.

Nebraska added another quarterback to the mix on Monday, and Tuesday Watson confirmed it is NU baseball pitcher Joe Broekemeier, a 6-foot-4, 208-pounder from Aurora. He wore a green jersey and shadowed starter Zac Lee on Monday, and actually threw passes Tuesday. High velocity. So-so accuracy.

“We’ll try him there and if he doesn’t make it there, we’ll move him somewhere else,” Watson said. We have no idea where he’ll play.”

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Nebraska’s quarterback situation just got even dicier than it was in the spring.

Redshirt freshman Kody Spano is out again. Spano, who tore his ACL in the spring and spent all summer furiously rehabbing to recover in time for fall camp, did it again to same knee, and has been lost for the rest of the season, head coach Bo Pelini confirmed Wednesday.

“Football,” Pelini said. “That’s what happens. Just running. It was a non-contact injury. Happens.”

Spano should “probably be full speed come winter conditioning,” Pelini said.

In Spano’s absence, walk-on Ron Kellogg III has been pulled up onto the 105-man roster and began working out with the team Wednesday. He must wait five practices before he can wear pads, and thus worked out in only shorts today. Pelini didn’t have a chance to talk Kellogg, the Omaha Westside product was around for summer workouts.

While Zac Lee has all but sealed up the starting job, the backup role again looks murky. True freshman Cody Green and junior LaTravis Washington seemingly become the frontrunners for the No. 2 spot, with another true freshman, Taylor Martinez, more in the mix.

“We’ll be OK,” Pelini said. “Those guys are coming along. We wish Kody was still with us. But he’s not. That’s just part of the deal, we move on. I’m not worried about us, I’m worried about him. He worked his butt off to come back. I feel bad for the little kid.”

Washington said the other quarterbacks were informed during meetings Wednesday. The 6-3, 220-pounder moved from linebacker in the spring and played fairly well in the Red/White Spring Game, but he continues to work on his understanding of the offense.

“The thing I’ve got to get better at now is knowing when I can take my deeper looks,” Washington said. “Reading safeties – that’s my struggle right now.”

Green, meanwhile, looks the part at 6-foot-4, 220 pounds.

He’s also 18 years old, and there is some sense that NU coaches might like to redshirt him for a year of development – and also his playing clock doesn’t overlap too significantly with that of Lee, who is a junior. Martinez is playing catch-up with the playbook, having just arrived over the summer, while Kellogg figures to be a scout-teamer in 2009.

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Latravis Washington made a smart observation a few days ago.

“Nobody knows who the backup linebacker is,” he said.

You already know the other part of that sentence.

So the real question for Washington heading into Saturday’s Red/White Spring Game wasn’t whether the 77,000 fans at Memorial Stadium would recognize his green No. 15 jersey. It was whether he’d do anything worth remembering.

Judging by that perfect grin he wore the post-game media room, Washington did OK by his standards – and by the coaches’.

“I just executed the offense,” he said. “I didn’t try to do nothing out ordinary and be somebody I’m not, try to take the whole team under my hands. You’ve got to push the offense and it’ll work itself out.”

Work itself out? Sure did – to the tune of 13-of-21 for 190 yards and two touchdowns.

Now, let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Yes, Washington threw some passes so high and hard they sailed blissfully into the sidelines. Yes, he fumbled a couple snaps. Yes, he rolled into a sack or two – sacks he couldn’t have escaped from without a green jersey - and failed to change a couple plays correctly.

“There were some things that, even when he made plays, he did something wrong,” head coach Bo Pelini said.

But here’s the thing: He made plays.

Washington lacks the polish of a great college quarterback. Yet the presence is there. And the daring is there. While Zac Lee and Cody Green mostly played catch with tight ends held the ball considering more high percentage throws, Washington flung a few in there. And he was rewarded for it with nice grabs from Chris Brooks and Antonio Bell.

Generally, No. 15 progressed through his reads, only forced a couple dangerous passes – and Washington throws so hard he’ll be hard to intercept anyway – and stepped up when necessary.

The best part of his game? The attitude. After shying away from the quarterback spotlight for two years – Washington thought it too time-consuming and too difficult – he’s embracing with what has to be the biggest smile on the team. He makes offensive coordinator Shawn Watson’s job easier. He makes his receivers laugh. And he’s handled the media as well as Zac Lee.

The number and hometown – Bradenton, Fla. – might remind you of Tommie Frazier. His demeanor couldn’t be more different.

“As far as backing up Zac Lee – it’d be a wonderful deal for me,” Washington said.

And chances are quite good that Washington, if he stays healthy progresses reasonably well in the fall, will be the No. 2 quarterback through the non-conference season. Kody Spano won’t be ready by the Florida Atlantic game. Maybe by Missouri – maybe, although I doubt he’ll be ready at all –but not during September.

And judging by his so-so work Saturday, Cody Green needs time and seasoning. Pelini called him a “nervous camper.” I’ll be more blunt: Until the second half, when he was facing more scrubs, Green seemed to be thinking too much. He double-clutched a couple throws. He seemed cautious. Although he threw a beautiful incompletion late in the fourth quarter on a go route, most of Green’s throws were about as long as a backyard game of catch with your dad. NU coaches had him on a pretty tight leash.

Washington was, too. Ditto Lee, for that matter. Offensive coordinator Shawn Watson was a little too conservative with Lee’s first couple drives; the No. 1 quarterback didn’t hit his stride until Watson stretched the White defense downfield a little bit.

What Husker fans saw out of Lee should be some of the norm in 2009. He’s good at routes over the middle. He throws a flat ball, but he’s got decent touch. He’s athletic, as he showed on a jump screen pass to Quentin Castille. Lee doesn’t love pressure, but what quarterback does?

Best of all, Lee didn’t make too many “dumb passes.” He had a chance to force one to Menelik Holt, but threw it wide and to the outside, where only Holt could catch it, and only with a great grab that Holt didn’t make. Another pass to Ben Cotton was thrown to the far end zone pylon instead of into double coverage. Cotton didn’t get there, but Lee made the right decision.

It was, of course, impossible to tell what these guys would look like running with the ball. We may not know much about Lee until the first snaps of the FAU game. Until then, it’ll be hands off No. 3 in the most dramatic way.

Hands off them all. There is much more for all of them to learn.

“We’ve got a lot of work to do,” Watson said. “But we’ve got talent, I know that. And anytime you’ve got talent and a willing soul, you can get it done.”

Sums up the position – and Latravis Washington – pretty well.

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