“White Hawk” is a converted walk-on safety, a tough-but-reserved sophomore who might be one of Nebraska’s fastest, most athletic defenders in recent memory.

“Knight Rider” is a chatty, smiling junior showing off his new $495 helmet, a player so well-versed in Bo Pelini’s defense that he’s almost like another coach on the field.

Matthew May and Blake Lawrence might be battling hard for the starting WILL linebacker job on Bo Pelini’s defense, but they’ve managed to forge a friendship and keep it light off the field.

“We figured you guys were going to talk to us about each other,” Lawrence said to reporters. “So we just made up nicknames.”

“Blake, why couldn’t you tell me that yesterday?” joked one scribe away from the interview.

“We made them right after, I swear,” Lawrence said.

Of course Lawrence is in good spirits, despite a grueling start to fall camp. That he’s allowed to practice is an improvement over last spring, when Lawrence suffered his third concussion in one year, and his football career was in jeopardy.

When the concussion occurred, “I didn’t think it was very serious,” Lawrence said.

“But the doctors and trainers said, ‘Whoa, Blake, this is a red flag. Three in one year. We’ve got to go through all these tests, and you really have to decide whether you want to play football again. Hearing that for the first time was kind of shocking.”

And tough when the 6-foot-3, 225-pounder had made so much progress, and even become a starter, toward the end of the 2008 campaign. After spot action through the first eight games, Lawrence got an extended opportunity in the Oklahoma, and made one of the better plays in that 62-28 loss, batting down a third-down pass from Sam Bradford and forcing OU’s first punt.

“Although the final score didn’t reflect too much success, I felt I succeeded on the field,” Lawrence said. “After that, the coaches kind of put me in a starting role based on packages for the rest of the year.”

He added five tackles in a win over Kansas State and three vs. Colorado. His best game was NU’s last, the 26-21 Gator Bowl win over Clemson. Lawrence had four tackles and intercepted a bubble screen pass that led to a Husker field goal. Nebraska held the Tigers to just 210 total yards.

“There was a point where I was on the field and I realized ‘this is nothing different, this is just playing football,’” Lawrence said. “Just getting that experience, being out on the field, it was great for me to accomplish what I came here to do, be a contributor as much as I can out there on the field.”

And then, concussion No. 3.

Lawrence missed the Red/White Spring Game, and had to pass a battery of medical tests in the following weeks. At the end of the summer, he took a neuro-pyschological exam and passed that, too. He was officially cleared to play football.

And then he got fitted with a Xenith Helmet, an-elaborate-but-expensive piece of headgear that uses shock absorbers to stabilize the head and minimize force. The absorbers look like a small hockey puck. They’re hollow inside, and each has a tiny hole to release air pressure. When they receive a blow, they instantly deflate, inflate again in a fraction of a second, and rebuff some of the energy to the shell of the helmet.

Developed by former Harvard quarterback Vin Ferrara, Xenith is still a bit of a boutique business, battling mainline manufacturers and a $1000 Riddell helmet called the Revolution, but they’ve got Lawrence as a pitchman. Figures. He’s got a 3.9 grade-point-average in marketing, and is on schedule to graduate with his bachelor’s degree in 2½ years.

Lawrence touted the airflow and the comfort, which helps him stay cool in hot practices. And hits do seem lighter now, he said, although fully-padded practices don’t begin until Wednesday.

“The other guys on the team are jealous,” Lawrence joked. “I said, ‘Just get three concussions and get a sweet helmet like this!’”

Don’t ask Lawrence’s position coach, Mike Ekeler, to laugh about it.

“I’m a superstitious guy, so I don’t even want to talk about it,” Ekeler said. Asked the same question a slightly different way, Ekeler said, “Apparently you didn’t hear what I just said.”

He’s smiling. But he’s not kidding.

Ekeler is just glad to have Lawrence back in the mix.

“Knows our system better than anybody,” Ekeler said. “He’s really become like a coach on the field. Bo can say ‘Hey Blake, make a correction here or there,’ or Carl or myself, and it’s done. The guy is sharp.

May, the 6-1, 216-pounder from Imperial, agreed. When Ekeler and head coach Bo Pelini shifted May from safety to the WILL spot, it was Lawrence who would help in those down moments of practice, or in between drives during games.

“Other than the coaches, he approaches me first when I come off the field and we make the corrections,” May said. “He’s more supportive than anyone I know. So it’s a competition between us, but we’re really supportive of each other.”

It’s been a whirlwind for May. From unknown walk-on, to linebacker, to the guy leaping through the air to cause a Josh Freeman fumble in the 2008 KSU game, to top of the depth chart in the spring.

Last year “seems a long ways away,” now, May said. He’s in the thick of position battle, and no longer a walk-on novelty brought in on blitz downs.

And May knows it, Ekeler said. He watches films, gets in the playbook, asks questions.

“He’s a guy who wants it so much,” Ekeler said.

Said Pelini: “He’s learning a lot. He’s still got a lot to learn. He’s nowhere near a finished product. The linebacker position right now, it’s up for grabs. At all three spots, we don’t really have any starters right now…everybody is in the mix.”

Including reporters, Pelini said, if they want to suit up.

Only if we can get a nickname, coach.

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Former starting MIKE linebacker Phillip Dillard began NU's spring football practice in an unfamiliar place: At the back of the line. Dillard was standing with the third and fourth units during early stretching drills, an unlikely place for a guy who was expected to be one of the defensive leaders in 2009.

"Right now, he's down there," linebackers coach Mike Ekeler said. "We'll see how things shake out, but he's down aways."

Why?

"There's some things that we ask," Ekeler said. "I'll just leave it at that."

Right now, Colton Koehler and Matt May are working ahead of Dillard at the MIKE position. May could also swing back to WILL linebacker, where he played last year.

"I love that kid," Ekeler said of May. "At the end of the day, he's going to find his role on the field. He already has. He's just going to keep getting better and better. We're going to put him to work."

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Today, we take a look at the second part of NU’s 10 priorities for spring football. You can read part one here. Enjoy!

Casting calls at linebacker: Time to mix the redshirt freshmen in with the veterans and see which dogs get a spot on the porch. Knowing head coach Bo Pelini and linebackers coach Mike Ekeler, it will be a high-energy, spirited competition.

Last fall, Pelini clearly stated that some of his young pups, including Will Compton, Alonzo Whaley and Sean Fisher, could have helped the Huskers’ depleted linebacker corps. But he stuck to his plan to redshirt them – Fisher, after he sustained an early-season injury – to give the bunch four years to gel together.

Don’t think that means the jobs of Phillip Dillard, Blake Lawrence and LaTravis Washington – who hasn’t played any more at BUCK ‘backer than Fisher – are particularly safe. Dillard has been a leader in the past, but must show he’s fully recovered from a tough ankle injury that managed to keep him out of the Gator Bowl. Lawrence improved at WILL, but must hold off guys like Imperial sophomore Matt May, whose Superman leap in the Kansas State game turned some heads, and potentially Whaley, depending on where coaches put him. And it’s hard to know what Washington can or can’t do. And you can’t forget about walk-ons like Colton Kohler, Thomas Grove and Matt Holt, either.

It wouldn’t be fair to say linebacker play was a weakness of Pelini’s defense last year. Too many injuries and strange developments – like Cody Glenn’s suspension. But it needs to be a steadier force in 2009.

New guys in the offensive line rotation: Offensive line coach Barney Cotton has at least four guys – and maybe more – to help cover the departure of Matt Slauson, Lydon Murtha and possibly one other player who may not see much action in 2009.

The new guys are seniors Derek Meyer and Andy Christensen, junior Ricky Henry and redshirt freshman Brandon Thompson. Meyer, a transfer from Kansas State, won scout team award last fall, while Christensen returns after what can only be called a difficult year in 2008. Henry, tough and hungry, redshirted after transferring from a JUCO and Thompson worked out with the scout bunch after redshirting, as well.

Meyer and Thompson are probably tackles, while Christensen and Henry will fit into the guard rotation. Look for their names this spring.

Steinkuhler for Steinkuhler: Departing senior Ty Steinkuhler was one of the more pleasant surprises of the 2008 season; his terrific play beside nose tackle Ndamukong Suh made teams pay for double-teaming one guy or the other. Might his replacement be younger brother Baker Steinkuhler? Maybe. Baker is bigger and faster than Ty, and although sophomore Jared Crick is a perfectly good option at defensive tackle as well, Baker should figure prominently at the position.

The mental and physical recovery of Anthony Blue: If Nebraska can get this kid back on solid, confident ground, it would be like picking up a blue-chip recruit for 2009. Blue, a 5-10 cornerback who blew out his ACL last spring, is finally back to physical form, if recent reports are correct. Now it’s about trusting the knee in action. If healthy, Blue is the team’s most aggressive, most athletic cornerback. He’s not the biggest – but at cornerback, you don’t have to be. Here’s where a smart coach like Marvin Sanders helps. Sanders is a superior communicator, and getting Blue to buy into the strength of his knee is a big priority, and it helps Pelini moves the pieces around the chess board.

Finding the diamonds: With each spring practice, some Huskers emerge from the fray in a far better position than where they started. Last year, it was Matt O’Hanlon, Roy Helu and Mike McNeill who made big moves, setting themselves up for quite a bit of playing time in 2008. Who will it be in 2009, and how does Pelini and Co. bring them to the forefront? We’re about to find out.

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