“We made some progress last year, and that’s about it. Around here, we measure being back by championships…you’ve got to earn that respect on the field.”
-- Bo Pelini


Comment Monday on the Jim Rome radio show about progress in this years' fall camp.

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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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It’s one of the odder transitions you’ll ever find Nebraska head coach Bo Pelini make.

Literally seconds after saying he’d kicked junior running back Quentin Castille off the team, Pelini pulled out a white index card and announced the dreams of six in-state Husker walk-ons had come true: They were put scholarship for the 2009 season.

Senior linebacker Colton Koehler, senior wide receiver Wes Cammack, senior offensive linemen Derek Meyer, junior kicker Alex Henery, junior tight end Dreu Young and sophomore center Mike Caputo will be scholarship players this year. All six should play one role or another on this current squad. Henery is considered one of the best kickers in the nation, while Young, Koehler and Caputo played often in 2008. Cammack is one of NU’s best tacklers on special teams.

“This is a great group of guys and it is great to be able to have the ability to recognize their contributions by placing them on scholarship,” Pelini said. “Each of those guys has shown a great commitment to our football program, and they do things the right way on and off the field.”

Pelini said there were more walk-ons who were deserving of scholarships, and he continues to strive toward rewarding them eventually, as well. Sophomore WILL linebacker Mathew May and sophomore nickel back Lance Thorell would have to be, presumably, high on that list.

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Nebraska junior running back Quentin Castille, who rushed for 505 yards and six touchdowns – including 125 yards in the Gator Bowl – in 2008, has been kicked off the team for violation of team rules, head coach Bo Pelini announced after Saturday’s practice.

“We have guidelines, we have policies set up here, we have a culture set up here,” Pelini said. “It’s pretty black and white, my expectations that we lay out as a staff, and if somebody doesn’t follow those policies and guidelines, they’re no longer going to be with the program. And that’s the case with Quentin.

“I wish him luck. He’s a good kid. He’s just not going to be with our program any more.”

Pelini did not elaborate on the team rules violated. He said he made the decision without the assistance of the Unity Council. Castille had been at practice the last two days watching in a t-shirt and shorts, but wasn’t at practice Saturday. He was spotted outside Memorial Stadium, however, wearing Husker gear.

Castille’s dismissal likely means a bigger load to carry for junior Roy Helu, who rushed for 803 yards and seven touchdowns last year while splitting time with Castille and the now-graduated Marlon Lucky. On Friday, Helu said he believed Castille was being held out for the same reason Helu had been held out earlier in the week – “doing some recovery stuff like I was doing.”

Receivers coach Ted Gilmore gave a “no comment” when asked Friday. Only Pelini typically addresses such issues, and he hasn’t spoken with the media as a group since Wednesday.

Castille spent about three weeks training with his uncle in Atlanta. Pelini was asked about his status with the team at Big 12 Media Days; Pelini responded then that Castille had a “good summer.”

On July 27, Castille pleaded no contest to an April charge that he had failed to deliver a state title on a vehicle he had purchased. He was ordered to pay a small fine. There was briefly a warrant out for Castille’s arrest in June, which was rescinded when Castille appeared in court.

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If a Nebraska football player wants to make a strong bid for early-season playing time, now is the time do it, as the Cornhuskers near the end of the second week of fall camp.

“We’ve got a couple more practices before we’re going to make a lot of decisions,” wide receivers coach Ted Gilmore said after Friday’s morning practice, the first of two that day. “Those last two practices are going to make a difference. There’s a few that have kind of separated themselves, and there’s a few who are kind of teeter-tottering back and forth.”

The heated competition may have something to do with what senior safety Ricky Thenarse called one of the hardest-hitting practices of camp. Thenarse said he got in on the fun, as well, laying a shoulder into senior receiver Chris Brooks on a slant pattern.

Thenarse is one of those players making a late surge in practice. He worked with the No. 1 unit today as senior Matt O’Hanlon did not practice. O’Hanlon is still expected to be the guy at strong safety, but the athletic Thenarse was pleased with his progress.

“I’ve been making good keys,” Thenarse said. “My eyes have been focused. I’ve been focused. I haven’t been having missed assignments.”

Ditto for much of the defensive secondary, which feels far more comfortable with the schemes and calls than it did in 2008. Secondary coach Marvin Sanders said better competition has pushed his unit to learn the defense and communicate it more efficiently.

“We’ve really started to grow as a unit,” Sanders said. “We’re way ahead of where we were last year…I think we have made some progress.”

Sanders said he feels confident about “4 or 5 guys” at cornerback. He named four specifically: Juniors Anthony West, Prince Amukamara and Dejon Gomes, and sophomore Alfonzo Dennard. Sophomore Anthony Blue, or one of the true freshmen, might be in that mix, too.

Gomes, a junior college transfer, has a redshirt season, but Sanders doesn’t think he’ll need it.

“No plans to redshirt him,” Sanders said. “He’s a guy competing for a job.”

At receiver, Gilmore singled out junior Niles Paul for praise, much like offensive Shawn Watson did two days before. Senior Menelik Holt is working now at X and Z position, Gilmore said, and is having a better fall camp than he did spring campaign.

“In the spring, a lot of those contested balls, he dropped,” Gilmore said. “He’s got to understand he’s a big-bodied guy, and he’s not going to run away from everybody.”

Also mentioned by Gilmore: Sophomore Curenski Gilleylen, senior Chris Brooks, and true freshman Antonio Bell, who had the standout catch of the Red/White Spring Game, and surprisingly, redshirt freshman Khiry Cooper, who missed all of spring camp while playing for the Nebraska baseball team.

Gilmore said the slender Bell has improved his physicality and blocking.

“In spring, he didn’t want anything to do with it,” Gilmore said. “He looked at me like I had two heads. Now I’ve got one, but I still might have three eyes. But he’s coming. He’s coming and he’s working at it.”

Gilmore said he was generally pleased with his receivers’ play during the no-huddle session on Thursday.

NU practiced Friday afternoon and will return Saturday morning with another workout.

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This just in: NU defensive coordinator Carl Pelini likes coaching Ndamukong Suh.

He also likes breathing and eating regularly.

“There’s not a lot of guys like him physically, I promise you that, he’s got a strength that I’ve never seen on the football field,” Pelini said after practice Thursday. “With him, it’s fun to coach. Every day we come out and I say ‘Hey, let’s try doing this a little differently.’ He loves that and I love challenging him with new techniques. “

Pelini said once opposing offense coordinators start thinking about Suh, half the battle is already over.

“They just can’t double him on running plays because it just destroys the whole integrity of the team, it’s pass protection where they can assign someone to help whoever is aligned on (Suh).” Pelini said. “Then you got three other guys with one-on-one situations, so you got to win them and that’s something we were able to do a year ago.”

Pelini said Suh and the rest of the defensive line will have more of an emphasis on fighting with their hands and not just trying to surge into the backfield this year. When the latter happens, offensive linemen are often able to direct the surge in one direction or the other, creating seams in the defense.

The coaches also spent Thursday’s practice trying to confuse the defense.

“Today we worked a lot on the no-huddle,” Pelini said. “And our guys handled that really well and that’s something we didn’t always do well last year. We picked up the pace on them but they communicated really well and I can’t think of one play where we didn’t get ourselves into the correct position.”

The starting linebacker positions are still up for grabs and Pelini said Sean Fisher is continuing to attract the coaches’ attention and make his case for a starting spot on defense.

“Right now I look and I see Sean Fisher really rising to the top, he’s having a great camp,” he said. “He’s able to play all three linebacker positions and handle them well and he doesn’t hesitate in terms of his assignments. The mental aspect of his game has really picked up. He’s always been a great athlete who could move and run well in the linebacker position.”

At 6-foot-6, Fisher doesn’t fit the mold of a typical hard-hitting linebacker but Pelini called his extra inches a “bonus.”

“I think length is good at the linebacker position,” Pelini said. “He’s got great leverage, he’s able to lower his level so he can play low but at the same time he really gives something in coverage with that length.”

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We’ve heard whispers all summer and fall camp about the potential of Plano, Texas running back Rex Burkhead, and when we got the chance to see him in person, we were impressed by his frame and his ability to put 10-15 pounds, if the coaches so choose

Wednesday, offensive coordinator Shawn Watson went a long way to confirming that, indeed, Burkhead will be playing this fall. Just how much, and where, remains to be seen. But Watson’s comments are beaucoup positive:

“He’s earning it every day,” Watson said. “He’s surprised all of us with his maturity. He gets football. He’s doing things you wouldn’t expect a freshman to do. He’s doing things that, really, you wouldn’t expect him to do until maybe a year from this time. So he came here ready to play football. I think he’ll play for us, I just don’t know how much or where. But he’s earned himself into that depth (chart.)”

Burkhead has good hands; everybody knew that. And he’s a talented runner. But our hunch is that he picks up NU’s offense so well because of being a former quarterback, and having to know the offense from that perspective before he was ever a running back.

That, and Burkhead’s work ethic, are the two key contributors on top of his prodigious skills.

See also: 8/20 podcast Integrating true freshmen

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Toward the end of Nebraska’s 2008 football season, wide receiver Menelik Holt would see quarterback Zac Lee literally throwing a football by himself, into a net, after practice. Lee, who at the time was about to engage in a battle for the 2009 starting job with then-Husker Patrick Witt, needed a partner.

Holt was the guy.

“There were some routes I didn’t really have down pat last year to work on,” Holt said. “Some balls in different positions that I wasn’t used to catching. So that’s something we worked on every day.”

The two of them would head down to the far, deserted north end of the Hawks Center and play catch, sometimes for an hour. Then they’d carry their pads back toward the locker room, discussing the work they’d done.

“Now, we’ve developed a rhythm,” Holt said. “I know where the ball’s going to be placed.”

Here’s the thing about Holt, the 6-foot-4, 225-pound senior who is hoping, at long last, for the breakout season that’s often been predicted for him: He has the conscience and good habits of an excellent player.

He’s thoughtful. He’s mindful of the younger guys, and helps them when he can. He’s made himself into a serviceable blocker, making several key plays in the Colorado game. He has done most, if not all, of the little things. Certainly more than his predecessor in size, Maurice Purify.

But here’s the other thing about Holt (and, tangentially, about Purify): For a wide receiver, the big thing is catching the ball, running with it, and scoring touchdowns. And the longer the catches, runs and touchdowns are, the better.

Holt’s caught 34 passes in his career at NU, most of them of the short, over-the-middle variety. And scored just one touchdown, on the last play of a 52-17 loss to Missouri. Frankly, Holt’s probably talked to the media more times, in the last calendar year, than he has career catches. To compare him, at this point, to Todd Peterson, Nate Swift, Purify or Terrence Nunn is a disservice.

Are Holt’s modest numbers a result of modest opportunities, or something else? The San Diego native has a year to provide the answer.

“When you’re a younger guy or underclassman, you don’t really understand it until you’re there,” Holt said. “It’s time for me to make those kinds of plays. It’s definitely been something I think about before I go to sleep every night. I don’t want it to end, but it has to happen sometime.”

After a so-so spring camp – by Holt’s own admission – and a Red/White Spring Game where he virtually disappeared, Holt’s been pleased with his work in fall camp. His best to date, he said. “Ball skills,” he said – catching the ball in the right place, and catching it cleanly – has never been much of a problem.

Rather, it’s catching the ball in traffic, with defenders groping after the ball. The best defensive backs get leverage by leaning, just slightly, into a receiver in coverage. Those nudges and racing rubs, if you will, are enough to knock some guys off balance.

“I’ve taken a couple hits this camp, and you don’t really want to have that as a receiver,” Holt said. “But I was able to hang on to the ball.”

Receivers coach Ted Gilmore refers to it as “courage.” You want the ball? Go own it. He wants to see his receivers show it before they earn starting jobs or a ton of playing time.

And not every receiver naturally possesses that instinct. Peterson did; it was his biggest strength. Purify, when he chose to be, was full of courage. Other times, he’d trot as if he were in a forest glade.

Holt, from this vantage point, is somewhere in between those standards. He’ll camp in the middle of a zone, receive the pass, and take the shot. He’s done that a number of times. But Holt has to be able to knife through a cover two on a deep post, catch the ball 25 yards downfield, and take the blowup shot. He has to deliver on those short slants on third down, when a linebacker is almost guaranteed to get a glancing blow, at least.

And if he doesn’t, well, Niles Paul will. Heck, if fall camp is any indication, Niles Paul has already been doing that. Or Brandon Kinnie will. Somebody will, because Zac Lee’s arm is too big to waste solely on 12-yard outs and bunch routes right to the first down marker.

So, to be more aggressive, Holt said, he’s written “attack the ball” right inside his helmet visor.

“I think about it before every play,” Holt said. “When the ball’s in the air, I have to have the mentality that it’s mine. I’ve tried to live by that in this camp.”

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Nebraska offensive coordinator Shawn Watson is slightly more generous with praise than head coach Bo Pelini, but rarely does he single out a player as “the guy” in fall camp.

Watson made an exception Wednesday for junior receiver Niles Paul.

“Niles Paul is the guy, no doubt about it,” Watson said after NU’s three-hour morning workout. “Plays. Big plays…your respect is earned by performance. And I think everybody on this team – offense, defense, coaches, managers, everybody who watches practice – knows he’s done a nice job.”

The occasional bluejay landing on the grass fields just west of the Hawks Center probably took notice, too.

The Cornhuskers have been working on two-minute drill, goal line and third-down conversion situations for the last several days, in part to test potential starters in high-pressure spots. Every one of those situations is money time for receivers, and Paul’s been coming up with big grabs.

Paul said he’s tried to become a better role model in the football classroom, too, taking notes and taking charge in meetings.

“I like being that guy, being held responsible,” Paul said. “When it comes to going out there and talking about making plays, I’d rather just do them than talk about them.”

Although, Paul said, he’s not above a little trash talking to NU’s defensive backs, with whom he’s been locked in a “crazy battle” over the last three days.

“They’re out there competing, we’re out there competing,” said Paul, who caught 23 passes for 214 yards as NU’s No. 4 option last year. “Sometimes we win, sometimes we lose. It’s just great to be competing.”

The 6-foot-1, 215-pounder has called out some of the true freshman defensive backs to work against him, too. It’s a lot like what was done to him, two years ago, when he was a highly touted recruit out of Omaha North High School.

“When you come out of high school, you got the attitude that you can do anything,” Paul said, “but you’ve got to kind of ground them a little bit and let them know ‘this is college now, big boy.’”

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Another day of fall camp in the books for the Nebraska football team equaled more changes and movement along NU’s offensive line Tuesday.

Position coach Barney Cotton opened his chat with the media after a 2 ½-hour workout on the grass fields just east of the Hawks Center with news that true freshman Brent Qvale, who had been working as the No. 2 right guard, will be held out for the remainder of fall camp with an undisclosed injury.

Only head Bo Pelini goes into any depth on injury issues, and he doesn’t speak on Tuesday.

In Qvale’s place: Redshirt freshman Quentin Toailoa, one of the few scholarship players to miss the original 105-man roster.

Qvale’s absence is another curve ball thrown at Cotton. Left tackle Mike Smith and right guard Ricky Henry have missed practices. True freshman Jesse Coffey is out for the rest of camp with an MCL knee injury. Even now, Henry, who is a contender to start at right guard, is “probably going a fourth of the time,” Cotton said.

“Sometimes your development is maybe not as fast as you would like,” Cotton said. “On the other hand, when you’ve got guys who aren’t out there for periods of time, you’ve got more depth.”

Cotton said he’s got a good idea of which ten players he’ll be using this fall on the line.

“We don’t necessarily know the order of which those guys are going to be placed on the depth chart yet,” Cotton said. “Little by little, it’s starting to fall into place.”

In the meantime, Cotton has experimented with a number of his linemen at different positions. Seniors Andy Christensen and Derek Meyer have worked at both guard positions. Marcel Jones, currently No. 1 at right tackle, has also worked at left tackle. Junior D.J. Jones was at left tackle briefly, but is now challenging Marcel Jones for the top job on the right side.

“Marcel and D.J. are locked in a good battle right now,” Cotton said. “It’s a very even competition.”

Center Jacob Hickman “experimented for one day” at right guard, Cotton said, but he’d prefer to keep the senior right where he is. Hickman previously started at right guard before moving to center, where a capable backup, sophomore Mike Caputo, now provides a viable starting option, if needed.

Continuity is important as the Huskers installed more of the two-minute offense and worked on third down situations Wednesday.

“Lots of running for the skill guys, lots of pass blocking and lots of pass rushing for the big guys,” Cotton said.

One skill guy held out: Junior running back Roy Helu, who walked among the rows during stretching encouraging linemen, and guided younger running backs to their spots. His injury, whatever it was, did not seem serious.

“Just the normal strain of practice,” Cotton said when asked why Helu wasn’t practicing.

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The topic is Barry Turner’s country Tennessee accent, and Turner, like he often can, is cracking up a couple reporters with an example.

“I was going through McDonald’s one morning and I said, “‘Can I get a sausage biscuit?’" Turner said. "I say sausage and (my teammates) are laughing at me – country, down south.”

The way Turner, a native of Antioch, Tenn., says “sausage,” it sounds like “Sawshige.” Of course, they make some pretty good spicy country patties in Tennessee.

The Volunteer State raises some pretty good defensive ends, too. Turner, after breaking his leg in the second game of 2008, is hoping to combine his explosive first step with an on-field emotion that belies his easygoing nature for the consistent season NU fans have been waiting for since Turner’s true freshman campaign in 2005, when his six sacks helped him make many Freshman All-America teams.

Since then, there have been intermittent flashes of brilliance. Turner basically saved NU in the 2006 Texas A&M game with a blocked field goal. In a difficult 2007 season, Turner started all but one game, had a career-high 29 tackles, and played well in early season games vs. Ball State, Wake Forest and Iowa State. Then, like too many Husker defenders, he faltered in a crucial stretch of losses to Missouri, Oklahoma State, A&M, Texas and Kansas.

In 2008, Turner was supposed to be one of the stars of NU’s defensive resurrection. Then, against San Jose State, the broken leg. Then rehab and a spring camp more about finding confidence. He wears a knee brace in practice now, which is a new experience. Anytime he sheds that, Turner said, “I feel extremely fast.”

Turned looked explosive at times in the Red/White Spring Game, stuffing out Quentin Castille on a running play, and blasting past his blocker to nab one of those phantom sacks on a green-shirted Zac Lee. Other plays, especially toward the sidelines, Turner wasn’t moving as quickly.

But a summer of running and lifting, Turner said, took care of that.

“I’m getting back to my old habits, my old ways, what I’m used to doing,” Turner said. “During the summer I had more time to get used to it, to trust my leg more…guys tell me ‘you look pretty fast, you’ve got good get-off.’”

Defensive coordinator Carl Pelini sees the same.

“The old Barry's back," Pelini said. "He looks like Barry of a year ago, but with better understanding of our defense. Which makes him even faster.”

Once Turner was out for 2008, he duplicated what defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh did when he missed the 2008 spring camp – he stood next to Pelini in practice and learned without doing. That extra time off seemed to help Suh understand the techniques and strategy.

It did the same, Pelini said, for Turner.

“He was basically at my shoulder,” Pelini said. “Almost a student coach last year. And now that’s paying off for him. He has a great grasp of what we’re doing defensively.”

Turner brings an emotional leadership to the defense, too, Pelini said. While NU’s 2008 defense made significant strides, it wasn’t exactly a loud, frothy unit of players. Turner – along with MIKE linebacker Phillip Dillard and strong safety Larry Asante – are a key vocal component that measures the lifeblood of a defense.

In practice, it’s pretty obvious who gets the defensive linemen in stitches – Turner and his best friend, Pierre Allen, who mans the base defensive end position.

In one recent workout, a TV station cameraman was getting stock shots of the defensive line, drinking water during a quick break. Turner and Allen caught the guy’s attention and pulled the camera over to Suh, who was leaning against a concrete pole. Expected by many to be a first-round NFL Draft Pick in 2010, Suh, not one to mug for the camera, turned away right into the wall, essentially, laughing while he did it.

And yet Turner convinced the cameraman, as a joke, to focus in even more on Suh. That might have gone on for minutes if the linemen hadn’t been ordered to work the retractable chute for a drill.

“It’s just natural,” Turner said of his personality. “It’s nothing I have to act to do. It’s just natural. That’s what’s been instilled in me so I hope it rubs off on them. It makes practice go by faster.”

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Nebraskans can be a hearty-yet-worrisome lot, and in times of concern, they often turn to the timeless stress reliever known as hand-wringing. Or hand-clasping, if you prefer.

It’s a tidy, discreet Midwestern gesture but fairly unmistakable at a Husker football game, when, in a big moment, you see a mass of hands drawn together, as if trying to rub off paint, to defuse the tension of the moment.

I suspect that more than a few hands have been wrung over the state of Nebraska’s right guard position, and maybe even the right side as a whole. The money side in the running game, usually. Where you stick the maulers and the gate crashers, and watch them slug and push and cut and engulf defenders to part holes for running backs.

But those same fans have looked past the strength of the left side of the line, where two returning junior starters –tackle Mike Smith and guard Keith Williams - are nice blend of athleticism and power.

And to hear Williams talk about it, chemistry between he and Smith and center Jacob Hickman.

“We show and lead by example,” he said. “If we’re not doing the job, then the others slack off. We’re not having that…it’s gonna be a war. We have our plays and we need to get the job done.”

The 6-foot-5, 315-pounder caught my eye late last year, when he seemed to blossom into the physical player that Bill Callahan envisioned him being in 2007, when Williams played frequently as a redshirt freshman. But Williams didn’t start to play with more nasty until Barney Cotton got ahold of him. Williams started the last ten games in 2008, and steadily improved.

On Quentin Castille’s 60-yard run in the Gator Bowl, Williams blocked/carried/tossed his Clemson defender ten yards to the side, creating a giant cutback crease for Castille to work through. In the Red/White Spring Game, the White team, with reserve running backs, repeatedly ran right behind the Florissant, Mo., native, as he generally controlled NU defensive tackle Jared Crick.

You cut these moments of excellence splice them together with the penalties Williams has committed and missed blocks, and you get a picture of inconsistency. And Williams, though he wears a slight smile on this day – the offensive line got the better of the defensive line in a goal line scrimmage – knows it.

“Can’t make mistakes anymore,” Williams said. “I’ve got to be mental error-free.”

Position coach Barney Cotton sees a steadily improving, and more consistent, lineman through this fall camp. After Saturday’s scrimmage, Cotton said Williams’ best practices had been his last two. NU had two more practices Monday.

“Keith has a chance to be a very, very physical guy for us,” Cotton said. “We just look for that continued development. I don’t worry about what his top end potential.”

We’ll say this much: Williams has the potential to be NU’s best guard since, oh, Toniu Fonoti in 2001. That spans a lot of time and a lot of players – including recently drafted Matt Slauson – but Williams is nearly prototypical for the role.

Now about that right side…

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Nebraska began to bite into the meat of fall camp Monday, kicking off the second week with its second two-a-day. The morning practice left head coach Bo Pelini pleased enough, as the Cornhuskers worked on their two-minute offense and punt coverage unit.

Pelini said the “tempo was pretty good,” and NU “got a lot done” in two hours. Nebraska, apparently, responded well after a day of rest.

Competition for jobs because more intense in week two, Pelini said, as if wasn’t spirited already.

“The big thing this week is to figure out who’s going be playing for us,” Pelini said. “The competition is fierce. We’re looking at a lot of different guys, but after this week, we’re going to have to start zeroing in on who’s winning jobs and where people are. We’re trying to find out specifically who fits in where, fit the puzzle together.”

Said running back Quentin Castille: “Coach (James) Dobson and Coach Pelini always preach this: ‘Time and time again, week two and three of camp are the weeks that are going to help you out throughout the season.’”

Castille said installing a two-minute offense - one of the more critical parts of the game – on Monday will “set the tone” for the rest of the week in practice.

NU quarterback Zac Lee agreed.

“Last week before school starts,” Lee said. “Last week to really, really get after it all day. It was good last week in intensity, but I expect it to be picked up this week.”

Lee added that the offense is “clicking pretty well right now.”

“The best thing about this offense is that no one knows where the ball’s going,” Lee said. “Hopefully we have six guys with, shoot, 35, 40 catches. That’d be awesome.”

Lee said he hasn’t seen coaches try to scale down the playbook, or make it more protective of Lee, since backup Kody Spano was lost for the season with a torn ACL.

“I don’t know that you can ever play football like that,” Lee said. “You’ve just got to go out and play. The game’s gonna happen no matter what plays are called.”

Notes:

*Offensive lineman Luke Lingenfelter was pulled up on the 105-man roster to replace Jesse Coffey, who is presumably out for the rest of fall camp with an MCL, Pelini said.

*Starting left tackle Mike Smith was held out of practice but should return this week.

*Right guard Ricky Henry, defensive back Alfonzo Dennard and tight end Dreu Young all returned to practice Monday. Young did not practice in pads.

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Bo Pelini called the Nebraska football team’s Saturday practice/scrimmage a “good long go,” and indeed it was, a three-hour workout inside the empty Memorial Stadium, where workers are busy putting the finishing touches on the old ship before the 2009 season kicks off.

“We got a lot accomplished,” said the NU head coach. “It was obvious to me that, after watching it, we have a long way to go as a football team, but we’re seeing some good things, too. We’re coming along, we’re well on our way, but we have a long journey ahead of us.”

Pelini said the “effort was good” during the hour-long scrimmage but, “we were sloppy at times, especially with penalties.” NU ran around “50-60 plays.” It ended just before a warm, afternoon rain began to fall.

Said offensive line coach Barney Cotton: “They came to work today. There were certain things we wanted to look at; it wasn’t a continuity kind of scrimmage as far as calling the exact same stuff you’d normally call. But they brought their lunch buckets to work today.”

Quarterback Zac Lee, Pelini said is beginning to develop strong chemistry with the rest of the offense.

“His confidence is growing every day, and as soon as that happens, you see the confidence growing around him,” Pelini said. “The offensive guys feel a sense that he’s ready to step in and lead this team. I think everyone would agree they’re seeing the right things from Zac.”

Pelini also praised the special teams units, which expects to be better than they were last year, especially in kick and punt coverage.

“Our steps are better,” Pelini said. “Our protection is better.”

Preseason All-Big 12 kicker Alex Henery and Brett Maher are in “ongoing competition” for the starting punter job, and Pelini said new snappers trying to replace T.J. O’Leary have “done well.”

“Alex has looked good,” Pelini said. “He’s really confident back there. He wants the job. I think it’s going to be a good battle as we go through camp.”

Nebraska also has “a lot of options” at punt returner, as well.

The Huskers now get a day off Sunday, their first of fall camp.

“We’ll give them some rest,” Pelini said. “We have a lot to accomplish in the next week.”

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At the time, Dennis Claridge didn’t even consider one of the most amazing streaks in college football history had started, or that it would be going strong 47 years later.

“We were more interested in winning some games,” said Nebraska’s starting quarterback in 1962.

After a number of difficult seasons under head coach Bill Jennings, who essentially declared the NU job a lost cause, you couldn’t blame Claridge for wanting, simply, to right the ship under first-year head coach Bob Devaney.

But modest intentions often produce extraordinary results. So it is with NU’s consecutive sellout streak, which began with a 16-7 loss on Homecoming - Nov. 3, 1962 – to Missouri, and continues, nearly 300 games later, today.

No. 300 is Sept. 26 vs. Louisiana-Lafayette, but Nebraska’s athletic department brought Claridge and three other players from the 1962 team – Willie Paschall, Lyle Sittler and Dwain Carlson – down for the unveiling of the throwback jerseys to be worn during the game, and a brief meeting with current head coach Bo Pelini.

The jerseys are red with scripted numbers. Plain, but classy. They’re part of an auction where any Husker fan can place a bid. The helmets have black numbers on them. NU athletic director Tom Osborne – a graduate assistant on the 1962 team – recalled the team equipment manager, Mike Corgan, liked a simple look.

“Mike was kind of a straightforward, no-nonsense guy,” Osborne said. “So there won’t be a lot of flourish with the uniforms…wasn’t always the players who were thrilled, but we won a lot of games in those uniforms.”

Oh, Ndamukong Suh and Roy Helu, Jr., - the players who modeled the throwbacks, seemed to like them just fine. And there was certainly nothing wrong with the helmets, which add a little black back into the Husker look.

That 1962 squad finished 9-2, beat Miami (Fla.) in the Gotham Bowl, and witnessed the first handful of sellout crowds in the streak. Memorial Stadium held a little more than 31,000 at the time. Only small bleachers in the end zones. And a knothole section for kids, where they’d squeeze in for a quarter, or for free, if they got there early enough.

“They’d ask for your chin straps, tape, anything that was on a football player,” Paschall said. “These kids today, they aren’t any different. It was just a lot of enthusiasm.”

The team fans saw was a marked improvement over the previous decade, when the Huskers repeatedly ran into stronger – and arguably happier – programs in Oklahoma, Kansas and Missouri. Jennings conducted notoriously long practices that stretched into night, and scrimmaged often. His teams were overworked and beaten up by Saturday.

Devaney, fresh off a successful stint at Wyoming reversed course. He kept his practices short. He didn’t scrimmage much. And, so long as he got the effort he demanded, he kept the mood light.

“Devaney somehow was able to get that focus, join us together so we could really play like we were capable of playing,” said Claridge, now an orthodontist in Lincoln. “Just going from loser to winner, that’s the big thing for me.”

That and the Gotham Bowl, played in front of 6,000 fans on a frozen field. Devaney likened it to a back-alley fight when no one was watching. It was a fight NU won, 36-34. The first bowl victory in program history.

“That turnaround was really significant,” Osborne said. “It meant for awhile that Bob Devaney could do no wrong, because he was the guy who turned it around.”

Many Husker fans are familiar with what came after that season. Devaney’s magnificent 10-year run - with only two 6-4 hiccups in 1967 and 1968 – that climaxed with two national titles in 1970 and 1971, and a Heisman Trophy for Johnny Rodgers in 1972. Then Tom Osborne, his 25 years and three national crowns, the Frank Solich era, the controversial firing, Bill Callahan’s forgettable four seasons, and now Pelini.

There was a moment in 2007. Right after a 45-14 loss to Oklahoma State, that miserable first-half effort in front of the 1997 national championship team. When fans streamed out at halftime more out of disgust than a Runza. For just that few minutes, you thought “they’ve had it. This streak could end.”

It didn’t.

“After going through that 2007 season and the seats still being sold out? That speaks volumes right there,” Suh said.

The joint holds well over 80,000 now, with the end zone sections flaring out and over the original sideline structure. The skyboxes have been put in. The video screens.

“But even though the stadium has gotten larger,” Paschall said, “that enthusiasm has not changed. It’s all family. It’s just like a big family. The more you can get there to pump the team up, the better.”

Fans have changed a little, said Sittler, a center on the 1962 team. They’re a little tougher on the kids than they should be. Sittler gets to the first couple home games “before harvest time” and he doesn’t like the negativity. Not long ago, he sat in front of a guy berating a Husker.

“I asked him, ‘Do you have a grandson?’” Sittler said. “He said, ‘Yes.’ I said ‘Maybe that’s your grandson down there.’”

The guy didn’t talk for the rest of the game, Sittler said.

“There’s TV influence,” Sittler said. “Too much professional influence on TV. You end up belittling an 18-year-old kid. Nebraska is a better fan than what we’re showing today.”

But the current Nebraska fan, added Sittler, is still better than any other.

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