LAWRENCE, Kan. - It was billed before the season as the game for the Big 12 North crown. In reality, there was very little at stake in Saturday's Nebraska-Kansas game.

It just felt like it, as Kansas took a 17-16 lead midway through the fourth quarter, juicing the chilly 51,525 fans at Memorial Stadium, which included a reporter-estimated 10,000 Cornhusker partisans.

But NU answered with a short-field touchdown of its own. And then, pressed with finishing off the game – Nebraska did it again, going 74 yards in ten plays, all on the ground, all out of power sets, as if the Huskers jumped in a time machine and exited the craft back in 1986.

Nebraska 31, Kansas 17. Bring on the real battle for the Big 12 North crown, next Saturday vs. Kansas State.

“We did what we needed to do in the fourth quarter,” head coach Bo Pelini said. “I'm proud of the way they hung in there. I'm proud of the way they finished the game...the offensive line, the tight ends, fullback – that's the way you finish. That's the way you come out with a drive.”

In total, NU (7-3 overall, 4-2 in the Big 12 Conference) amassed 404 total yards, its best output since the Lafayette game in late September.

“We got our mojo back,” offensive coordinator Shawn Watson said. “We've been nicked up. The kids have just been resilient. They've never questioned or doubted themselves at all.”

The Huskers got a huge boost from quarterback Zac Lee – seemingly wresting control of the starting job once again – who threw for 196 yards and surprisingly scrambled for 53. Lee's only glaring mistake – a fumble at the goal line – was masked by Roy Helu's recovery of that fumble for a touchdown.

Lee was entrusted with an opened-up, retooled offense that again included more option plays – including an option pass that went to Niles Paul for 37 yards – and a heavy dose of playaction, which Lee often executed with precision and accuracy.

“We just saw some things that we could take advantage of in the defense,” Lee said. “Get behind them a little. And really just let our receivers make big plays. Let them go up and get the ball.”

Paul did just that, catching four passes for 154 yards. All of his receptions were longer than 20 yards, and three of them were jump balls. His catches helped set up nine points.

But Paul's biggest play occurred right after KU quarterback Todd Reesing hit receiver Dez Briscoe for a 21-yard touchdown with 7:34 remaining in the game. Kansas tried a pooch kick – the Jayhawks were offsides in doing so – but Paul came up to catch it. Then he rattled off a 44-yard return to set up the Huskers at Kansas' 31-yard line.

“I knew by the way he coming at the ball how he was going to kick it,” Paul said. “The kicking team gave me a lane to make a play.”

Kansas (5-5, 1-5) stuffed Nebraska on three consecutive plays. But on the last of those plays, KU defensive back Justin Thornton yanked Khiry Cooper's earhole, drawing a 15-yard facemask.

“The ref made a good call,” Thornton said.

Said Cooper: “I've never had it grabbed like that. He went up and under.”

Nebraska got the ball at KU's 20. Roy Helu – who gained 156 yards on 28 carries – scored on the next play, a gallop around right end on a counter call. Lee converted the two-point play with a heady scramble and toss to Paul in the corner of end zone.

Kansas couldn't answer. After keeping Nebraska's Blackshirts off-balance for much of the game, KU called an odd series of plays. The last of them was a tunnel screen to 240-pound fullback Toben Opurum, who lost five yards. The Jayhawks punted.

And, much like a month ago at Missouri – that seems almost two seasons ago, doesn't it? - NU slammed the ball down KU's throat, converting a 3rd-and-10 with simple counter play by Helu, who bounced the play twice before hitting the corner. Helu looked like he could have scored a touchdown, but he veered back toward the middle of the field, where he fell down for a 30-yard gain.

“I did it because I was tired,” Helu said. “I didn't trust in where I was going. I didn't know the situation that well, so I just fell on the ground. Probably spoiled a good run there.”

Helu scored five plays later on a 14-yard run. Nebraska rushed for nearly 100 yards in the fourth quarter, better than one-third of its 233 total.

“Defenses get tired of tackling the same running back,” Helu said.

NU opened the game with a shot, literally and figuratively, as Lee hit Paul on a go route for 35 yards. Lee placed the ball perfectly on Paul's back shoulder. Five plays later, Nebraska got a crucial break that Kansas wouldn't get later in the game.

On third and goal from KU's 2, Lee veered around left end, cut back into a hole and was smacked at goal line. The ball rolled down his left arm, as if going down a chute, into the blue of Kansas' north end zone. For a second it sat there unattended to, until Helu, the pitch back on the play, pounced on it for a touchdown. NU led 7-0.

Kansas had a similar moment in the second half when Nebraska cornerback Dejon Gomes popped the ball from KU receiver Kerry Meier's clutch. But NU safety Matt O'Hanlon fell on the ball inside the Husker. It was the game's only turnover.

Back to the second quarter, Lee got busy again. He scrambled for 32 yards after a playaction fake. Then he perfectly executed an option pass to Paul for 37 yards down to KU's nine-yard line. The Huskers sputtered from there, and Alex Henery kicked a 25-yard field goal to pad the Huskers' lead to 10.

But Reesing, after a cold, inconsistent start, owned the rest of the half – with a little help from true freshman running back Opurum.

Reesing opened KU's touchdown drive following the Henery field goal with a 13-yard scramble; NU safety Larry Asante was flagged for a late hit personal foul. KU then ran the ball on eight of the next 12 plays – converting two fourth down plays on short runs by Opurum. Nebraska chose to keep its dime defense on the field for all of it, and corners Dejon Gomes and Eric Hagg were unable to make crucial tackles on Opurum and Reesing, who capped the touchdown drive with a five-yard, spinning scramble.

NU punted after three lackluster plays. Reesing then stormed down the field again. The crucial completion of the drive was his first, a 28-yard slant to Dez Briscoe on 3rd-and-14. Briscoe slipped by defensive end Barry Turner, who was in coverage while the Huskers sent a heavy corner blitz. Kansas burned Nebraska for the same play. KU had to settle for a field goal as time ran out.

Although Reesing only completed 19 of 41 passes, he made each completion count with 236 total yards. KU also used a delayed quarterback draw to stymie NU's front-four pass rush, which scaled back in the second half to take the play away.

“We have to credit Kansas,” linebacker Phillip Dillard said. “They came out with a good scheme and they came out with a lot of plays we hadn't seen before.”

The Jayhawks amassed 339 total yards.

“We had too many busts,” Pelini said. “We did not execute well consistently. Especially in a couple spots, which I'm not going to name. We gave them some things that there's no way should have happened.”

In the second half, KU's first drive was thwarted by Meier's fumble. NU put together two consecutive field goal drives to take a 16-10 lead early in the fourth quarter.

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Players of the game and report card for Nebraska's 10-3 win over Oklahoma:

OFFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE GAME: Roy Helu. He's back – and just in the nick of time! Helu made a few runs Saturday that only he, on NU's football team, can make. His vision and quick cuts to the hole are rare for a player at any level, and more than once he caught an OU defender peeking or heading the wrong way. He needs to improve with his pass protection. But what college running back doesn't, right?

DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE GAME: Matt O'Hanlon. He called his interceptions a product of being in the right place at the right time, which is true. But MattyO was terrific in run support – his tough tackles help convince OU to move away from the running game, and his one interception return – which helped set up a field goal – was fairlu crucial. Great game for a kid who's earned it.

GRADES

QUARTERBACK: C The position has now shifted into “don't kill us” mode for the rest of the season. Zac Lee and Cody Green didn't exactly make many plays Saturday – but they didn't lose the game, either. Who Nebraska plays from here is anybody's guess.

RUNNING BACK: B+ Roy ran like the old Roy, Traye Robinson had some authority, and Tyler Legate was solid in the blocking scheme. This unit is so much better when Helu is reasonably healthy.

WIDE RECEIVER: I For “incomplete.” They blocked, mostly. Only two receptions by the position all night, both belonging to Brandon Kinnie.

OFFENSIVE LINE/TIGHT ENDS: C Oklahoma has an awesome defense, and NU occasionally held its own in the running game, especially when Nebraska chose the power route with Legate as a lead blocker. But the pass pro was fairly shabby Saturday night. Neither Green nor Lee had much time.

DEFENSIVE LINE A The front four played so damn hard, blunting OU's run game and producing enough of a pass rush on Landry Jones to throw him off his rhythm. The Huskers are as physical and imposing across the front as any defense in college football. The Sooners and Alabama are up there, too.

LINEBACKERS: A Essentially a grade for Phillip Dillard – and we're OK with that. Dillard made two or three key tackles on screen passes, had an interception and a sack, and served as on-field emotional motivation for the defense. He's become an all-conference caliber player in a matter of months.

SECONDARY: A Landry Jones will see these guys in his dreams. O'Hanlon played great, Prince Amukamara and Alfonzo Dennard constantly challenged receivers, Eric Hagg and Dejon Gomes worked over the inside slot routes, Larry Asante provided the hits, and Anthony Blue and P.J. Smith looked good in spot duty. And what about Hagg's big tackle on fourth down? Yep – these guys can play!

SPECIAL TEAMS: B Nebraska's punt coverage units were a little leaky, sure, but Alex Henery's punting was strong overall, and Ndamukong Suh blocked a field goal attempt in the second quarter. Kickoff coverage was excellent. Niles Paul displayed sure hands on punt returns. Gomes needs to be a little more careful out there – he cost NU about 35 total yards on two penalties.

GAME MANAGEMENT/PLAYCALLING: B+ From a defensive perspective – brilliant! Bo and Carl Pelini constantly had OU guessing on offense, and the Sooners kept choosing the wrong door. On offense, coordinator Shawn Watson played it safe and smart. For this week, we can live with it. Expect Kansas and Kansas State to have better plans though, and Watson better figure out a way to move the ball. The offensive penalties early in the game were simply absurd. Why is Ricky Henry cut-blocking the opposite guard's man, 10 yards away from the play?

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It's too late to wipe away the eight turnovers that cost Nebraska in a 9-7 loss to Iowa State, but NU took dramatic steps Monday to make sure it doesn't happen again.

The 4-3 Cornhuskers devoted the opening portion of their 90-minute workout to ball-security drills. Position coaches manned four different stations – including one where players dueled one-on-one to recover a fumble – after Saturday's performance, in which NU fumbled five times, and defensive tackle Jared Crick failed to recover a fumble.

“It obviously needs emphasis,” head coach Bo Pelini said. “We can't emphasize it enough. It's something we talk about all the time. I'm embarrassed by what happened.”

Pelini said Nebraska would “over-emphasize” ball security for now.

NU wide receivers coach Ted Gilmore also shook up his depth chart, sending starters Menelik Holt and Curenski Gilleylen down to the scout team – at least for a day – while promoting Steven Osborne and Tim Marlowe to work with the first team. Khiry Cooper and Brandon Kinnie had already been seeing time with the top units - each played significant minutes in recent games – and continued getting repetitions there.

Gilmore said he wanted to get a look at some of his younger receivers with the first unit. Pelini called the wideout race “wide open,” although it would appear the starting job of Niles Paul, whose fumbles vs. Texas Tech and Iowa State cost Nebraska 14 points, is safe for now.

“We're looking for somebody to step up and make plays,” Pelini said. “That's where we are.”

That includes running back Roy Helu, who was in the green jersey Monday, but is still expected to play with a shoulder stinger. Helu had limited carries Saturday and fumbled twice. Running backs coach Tim Beck yanked Helu from the game in favor of true freshman Traye Robinson, who led all rushers with 81 yards.

Helu said he wasn't too hurt to play vs. the Cyclones. Pelini said Helu isn't going to be getting a break to rest his shoulder, either.

“We'd all like to have a week off,” Pelini said. “That's not part of the game. Everybody has bumps and bruises. Little nicks. You gotta work through it.”

Nebraska returns to the practice field Tuesday looking steadfastly forward, Pelini said, in preparation for 3-4 Baylor. The coach, who sardonically asked reporters if they knew a “good psychiatrist” on Saturday after the upset loss, declared the Huskers focused and mentally sound Monday.

“It's easy to have good morale when you win,” Pelini said. “But we lost. You've got to be a man about it, take a hard look at, we as coaches, we as players, and get better because of what happened.”

Wide receiver Chris Brooks remains out, while defensive end Pierre Allen was held out Monday, but should return to practice Tuesday. Cornerback Alfonzo Dennard wore a green jersey, too.

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A program-making win for Iowa State. A full, dark shudder for Nebraska, especially its offense, which came unglued with a school-record eight turnovers in every awful way one can imagine.

ISU – without its starting quarterback and running back, with just 239 total yards – stunned NU 9-7 Saturday afternoon in front of crowd of pale, grim faces, who hadn't seen the Cyclones beat the Cornhuskers in Lincoln in 32 years. Who hadn't seen Nebraska commit eight turnovers in 37 years. Who had to settle with themselves, for that particular moment in time, that Nebraska had just suffered one of the more deflating, infuriating losses in its recent history.

“I'm disappointed in our football team,” a subdued head coach Bo Pelini said. “I'm disappointed. We didn't – I'm disappointed. And it starts with me...we were our own worst enemy.”

Said tight end Mike McNeill: "We knew coming in. It's something we talked about before the game. They like to try and take the ball away, they like to try and rip the ball. They did a good job of it."

Ten nightmarish Husker blunders stood out. Some were mental errors, some were excellent plays by the Cyclones, and a few were total flukes. But all of them counted against Nebraska just the same:

*A fumble by Roy Helu on the game's first play that became a 52-yard field goal by ISU's Grant Mahoney.

*An underthrown pass from Zac Lee to Mike McNeill near ISU's goal line turned into a tip drill and a Cyclone interception, snuffing out a probably Alex Henery field goal.

*Iowa State punter Mike Brandtner waited until Nebraska's punt return unit had cleared the left side of the field. Then he took off, ball clutched in his left arm, for 20-yard gain on fourth down. On the next play, Tiller froze the linebackers with a playaction fake to Jeremiah Schwartz and lofted a deep ball to Jake Williams, who beat Eric Hagg on a fly route. Hagg turned the wrong way, and Williams caught the ball in the end zone for a 47-yard touchdown.

*After receiver Niles Paul caught a long pass from Lee and seemed headed for the end zone, he fumbled while trying to stay in bounds, recovered the ball briefly at the three, then fumbled it again into the end zone, where it was recovered by Iowa State's James Smith.

*Jared Crick failed to cover a fumble late in the second half that would have set NU up in Henery field goal range.

*A second Helu fumble inside ISU's five-yard line recovered by the Cyclones in the end zone. Officials originally ruled Helu down, but reversed the call.

*True freshman Traye Robinson accounted for NU's fifth turnover when ISU defensive tackle Nate Frere ripped out the ball, again, at the Cyclones' 5. Robinson was chewed out by left guard Keith Williams as he left the field.

*Menelik Holt fumbled on a inside screen pass for the sixth turnover, marking the first time since 1976 that Nebraska had lost five fumbles in a game.

*The seventh turnover. Lee threw slightly behind Curenski Gilleylen on a post route, Gilleylen tipped it, and the pass was intercepted by Michael O'Connor.

*The final Lee interception, thrown directly to ISU linebacker Jesse Smith, the best player, along with NU's Ndamukong Suh, on the field Saturday.

Lee finished 20-of-37 for 248 yards and three interceptions – two on Nebraska's last two drives. He completed 14 of his first 16 passes, but hit only 6 of 21 thereafter. Pelini said said it was an “easy decision” to start Lee over true freshman Cody Green - “Cody's not quite ready yet” - thought Lee played well despite the interceptions.

“Zac Lee was the least of our problems today,” Pelini said. “We didn't play well around Zac.”

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There are no quick fixes, Nebraska head coach Bo Pelini likes to say. There are probably no instant leaders, either.

But after two lackluster performances, NU's offense stand to get a few more..

The consensus, really, is that Huskers' O has one who's up front, center Jacob Hickman, and two supporting players behind him. We'll get to them in a minute.

“Hick's the guy who really captains all of our calls,” offensive coordinator Shawn Watson. “He's a real leader.”

It's not necessarily common for a center to fill that role, although Dom Raiola and John Garrison did that years ago. But Hickman - a senior who's sampled nearly every offensive line position and thus knows the scheme as well as anyone – has been up to it.

A cerebral type, mature, already married, Hickman's a certain kind of leader, a strong, thoughtful hub of the Husker community. Ndamukong Suh happens to be that guy, too. Suh calls himself a “silent killer.” The phrase fits Hickman, to some extent, too, even if he's talking quite a bit during the game, calling out defensive line shifts.

But Hickman is not a red rump. I'd use another choice word, but we're still, you know, read by families and stuff. At any rate, he's not going to crawl down your skin. He's the good cop, the “calm down” guy.

“I get more annoyed when people yell at me than anything else, so I'd feel hypocritical if I got too riled up,” Hickman said.

But sometimes, he said, it's been necessary. Hickman stepped on the emotional gas pedal at Missouri, he said, getting the intended response in the fourth quarter. He did it again vs. Texas Tech, to no particular avail.

“I got a little frustrated,” Hickman said. “I got a little talkative.”

Who else?

“I don't really think we've had anyone stepping up and say “I'm the one taking control of this offense,'” tight end Mike McNeill said. “Hickman's done a good job, but I don't think we've had one guy who just stands out and says 'this is my offense, and I'm running it right now.'”

Said Hickman: “It really helps sometimes to have a guy get riled up like that.”

You already know Nebraska had that in 2008 with quarterback Joe Ganz.

“Nobody was quite as vocal as Joey,” Hickman said.

But the Huskers had Nate Swift, Todd Peterson and Matt Slauson, too. None of them had Ganz's swagger and personality, but each of them carried authority and experience.

Is the latter of those two traits always necessary for leadership? Not for head coaches, right? There are tons of first-timers, - Pelini included – who just have the “it” factor when it comes to commanding a group of men. They don't need to prove it at every level of football before they arrive in college.

With players, though – that's a leopard with different spots. For every Peyton Manning and Tommie Frazier, who just walks with an air of authority and confidence, there are thousands of guys who haven't properly paid their dues yet.

At a top five program, that's probably how it should be. For Nebraska, which aspires to get there again, a transformative leader wouldn't hurt. No matter what class they're in.

Besides Hickman, two names popped up from several sources for co-leaders: Roy Helu and Niles Paul. Paul does it, Hickman and Watson said, with his work ethic in practice. Helu's leadership skills are evident when you visit practice and talk to his teammates, but the junior, publicly modest, deflects all attention. Nebraska's best offensive player – the best Husker running back in a decade, from this vantage point – is thoughtful, lighthearted and sometimes deadly serious in the span of three minutes.

Is he healthy enough to put the team on his back?

“Roy's been hurt lately, which is tough,” Hickman said. “It's hard to be really in the forefront of leading when you've been hurt.”

Of course, Hickman was sick and a little hurt, too. Maybe not as much as Helu, but this season hasn't been sundaes and rose petals for No. 67.

Zac Lee was also establishing himself, Hickman said, but he's in the midst of a quarterback competition again.

“It's tough when you don't have many seniors out there,” Hickman said. “It's the nature of the game sometimes.”

Tougher still when you don't have many red rumps.

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The reverie lasted all of a quarter. All the fanfare and hoopla and warm feelings over No. 15 Nebraska and its potential run through the Big 12 have been put on hold. Indefinitely.

Sloppy, slow and uncertain. That's how NU played in a calamitous meltdown loss to Texas Tech. The Red Raiders looked speedier, smarter and definitely less rattled by one of the more incompetent group of officials I've seen.

Most of all, the seemed sure of themselves. Even before Niles Paul's boneheaded, casual drop of a backwards screen pass, which led to a 82-yard fumble return for a touchdown, the Red Raiders played and acted like the better, more confident team.

“If y'all would have seen the locker room before the game, you would have thought it was a bunch of animals running around,” Texas Tech quarterback Steven Sheffield said. “That's how our program is, just letting go and letting everybody be themselves and a lot of loud music.”

Understand that Tech's already been through a tumult of a season – two tough losses, suspensions, the typical Mike Leach chicanery. Maybe the boys from West Texas can give Bo Pelini some advice on how to handle the next two weeks. Loud music, apparently.

Get ready. It's going to be a bumpy, restless fortnight. Oh, Nebraska can probably handle defenseless Iowa State and toothless Baylor no matter who takes the field. But NU better have this figured out by Nov. 7, or the stretch run of the season could be a long, troubling slog.

What's wrong? Oh, quite a bit. We'll get there. Let's start with what's right.

Nebraska's front four plays like beasts. Every damn one of them. With attitude, toughness and fury. Phillip Dillard – remember, he's not as good as Colton Koehler for the first two games of this season – is suddenly realizing every ounce of potential he has. Can he please start the game next week and give Will Compton the sideline seasoning he needs? Alfonzo Dennard and Prince Amukamara, a few hiccups aside, bring their lunch pail every week. No cornerback – none – has a perfect record. Larry Asante plays a clean, hard-hitting game. And Pelini is starting to put some of those fancy blitzes back in the box – which is a good thing.

Now for the rest of it.

*Nebraska's offensive line is limping along. Something is missing, and the frustration on the face of Jacob Hickman and Barney Cotton make it clear that they don't quite know what it is. Part of it, I fear, is simple personality. The Huskers aren't nasty enough. Hickman, Mike Smith, Marcel Jones and Keith Williams are all, well, pretty nice guys. Analytical, thoughtful. Technicians. And right now, it's just not working. They're all getting beat at the point of attack. Ricky Henry, too, although he certainly brings a mean mug to the field.

You cannot – absolutely not – run a zone-blocking system without being quick, and tough. You don't have to be that big, and you don't have to pancake guys. But that first step has to be vicious. There can't be a hint of a leak. Roy Helu was flitting around all afternoon like a skier on a slalom course. He'd never admit it, but he got almost all of his yards on sheer improvisation.

*The line is forcing Shawn Watson to alter the game plan. Oh, we'll knock Watson when it's on him. And some of Saturday was on him. But not much of it. Sorry, but when NU runs two of its basic – and often successful – playaction passes, and a Tech defensive lineman is in the backfield before the fake is done, you're not going to have much luck with anything. Watson was relegated to calling two-second slant pattern (that Zac Lee can't throw) and bubble screens that were misadventures.

*Lee isn't trusting his game. His performance was painful, because it was the portrait of a quarterback second-guessing himself. Lee wants to go downfield. Something is stopping him. Because he's not Sam Keller, a professional bail-out artist, Lee sits back there, clutching, shuffling, worrying – until he's sacked, or he's left with a two-yard throw.

And he just won't scramble. This, I don't get. Watson doesn't get it, either. Nobody gets it. Lee is fast, he's tough – and he won't run. And when he does, he runs with his body pitched forward, and his head down.

*Bo still blows defensive timeouts. And two in the first half didn't make much sense.

The first of them was on the fourth down play that NU had stopped – until Pelini called the timeout at the last second. Was it to ice Mike Leach, who always does this? The result: A 21-yard gain on an end around that NU seemed utterly unprepared for.

The second occurred when Tech had the ball on the Huskers' four-yard line. Understandable – except that it was first down. What was Bo going to do – design three plays' worth of defense? As it was, Nebraska committed pass interference in the end zone, and Tech scored a few plays later.

*The penalties. Ugh. First of all, the officiating in the Big 12 – across the board – stinks. Bo can't say it. I'll say it. The zeebs on Saturday were confused, disorganized, out of position and generally perplexed. I give them credit for getting the fumble/touchdown right. Not a lot else.

But how does Bo help his cause by berating the line judge to the point where Memorial Stadium even takes notice, and it more or less delays the last kickoff of the game? How? NU clearly has a reputation at this point, and seems to nurture it with Bo's incredulous behavior.

Some of the penalties are earned, of course. The offensive line seems to pay its weekly toll of 30 yards. When does that stop? Can it stop?

*Most of all, it's just the vibe of this team. Tech obviously had a lot to be fired up about, but the Red Raiders seemed loose, active, ready to mix it up. Outside some of NU's defenders, the reticence – the sheer lack of fire - was glaring. The play of the game – Tech's 82-yard punt return – boiled down to a lack of concentration and mental toughness: Lee not getting a deep enough drop, Niles Paul futzing on a catchable ball, and the whole Husker offense just trotting back to the huddle. Folks, not every team does that. A lot of teams have a few guys, at least, with the sense to be safe about it, and cover the damn ball.

In key moments, Nebraska suffers a collective brain cramp. It happened last year. It's happening now. What's Bo and his capable crew going to do about it?

See also: Defending Shawn Watson - For Now

and

NU/Tech Report Card

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Part of good coaching is knowing when, and how, to push player buttons to get the desired effect.

After Nebraska’s offense laid an egg in the first half of the Missouri game, wide receivers coach Ted Gilmore benched Niles Paul and Menelik Holt. He made them turn in their hand warmers and gloves. He stuck Antonio Bell and Brandon Kinnie out there, to no real avail other than it fired up Paul, who responded with two touchdown catches in the fourth quarter.

“It kind of let me get down on myself,” Paul said. “But then I kind of thought about it and was like ‘he’s doing this for the team.’ And he put us back in there.”

Offensive coordinator Shawn Watson told his quarterback, Zac Lee, point blank: We’re thinking about sitting you for a drive, and inserting true freshman Cody Green.

“He said, ‘We’re going to do it for a series,’” Lee said. “‘Keep your eyes open.’”

Watson didn’t bench Lee. One wonders if his mere consideration was a fire he was trying to light under the junior, who came alive and threw his best passes of the game in the fourth quarter. If Green had entered the game, and played remotely well, Watson would have opened a Pandora’s Box in Husker Nation. As it is, he cracked it opened a little bit,

“It is what it is,” Lee said. “I had to deal with it. I know Coach Wats has my back, I know Coach (Bo) Pelini has my back, so it kind of motivated me to have their back. It’s just part of the game.”

How often do those motivational techniques work? Once? Twice? Ideally, you don’t use them much.

But Nebraska’s offense, especially the running game, has been a little slipshod at times since the Arkansas State game, when Lee looked like the best quarterback in the Big 12. Roy Helu’s bailed out the offensive line with some terrific individual efforts – more than half of his yards this year are after early contact - and Lee’s fired up that great arm of his at just the right times.

Can NU really afford to hope the switch flips at the right time? To assume the offensive coordinator alights on just the right passing plays to beat the opposing defense?

Watson took considerable heat for his playcalling in Missouri. By Watson’s own actions and logic, he deserved some of the criticism.

Watson used the awful, rainy conditions to defend Lee, yet shrugged off those same conditions in defense of his playcalling because Missouri was “loading the box” against the run. But Watson didn’t exactly help his own case when he unveiled a quite successful quad-tight set at the end of the game that ground out 68 rushing yards in eight plays. The Tigers had ten guys hovering near the line of scrimmage – but the Huskers still ran the ball.

Now comes Texas Tech, a “vanilla” defense that doesn’t blitz much and relies on its front seven to stop the run. Will Watson impose NU’s size advantage? Or will the game, again, fall on Lee’s right arm?

The Huskers could, but should not, use the absence of Rex Burkhead as a built-in excuse for throwing the ball 40 times a game. Burkhead was valuable – he made several crucial plays in the Missouri game – but he was only averaging roughly 6-8 touches per game. If Helu has to carry it 30 times, so be it. He’s a great back, Nebraska’s best in a decade. If Helu’s shoulder is too banged up for the heavy load, Watson and Tim Beck need to trust their own coaching skills, and insert Burkhead’s replacement. It’s football, after all, not a North Korean nuclear treaty negotiation.

And defenses are going to start getting wise to Nebraska’s strategy. If it’s that easy to move NU away from the running game, they’ll take the chances with a quarterback and receivers who have been uneven at best over the last month.

Missouri was a handful of plays away from a shutout, frankly. If Burkhead doesn’t make a nifty move to gain four yards on a third-down play, Lee never gets to make that throw to Paul, and the Tigers shift into the “eating game clock” mode. And the bulk of this week is a real bear for Nebraska and its coaching staff, instead of a celebration of Ndamukong Suh’s many defensive talents.

“Bottom line is, we need to score points,” head coach Bo Pelini said. “You’re not going to shut (Texas Tech) out. You’d like to, but they’re a pretty good offensive football team and we need to match them. We need to put some points on the board.”

You wonder if Bo will have to push some his coaches’ buttons to make it happen.

See also: 50 Husker Fans, 50 States: Pittsburgh

See also: Defending Tech's...Running Game?

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Just in case you haven’t come out of that rain-fueled reverie from last Thursday, Texas Tech coach Mike Leach delivered a public service announcement Saturday. More like a warning, with that 66-14 drubbing his Red Raiders hung on Kansas State. KSU isn’t particularly good. But the Wildcats aren’t 52 points that bad either.

Yes – just like playing at Tech wasn’t as hard as it seemed last year, this year’s game won’t be as easy as it seems. In many ways, the “Air Raid” system is better than Missouri’s spread offense, especially in creating big plays for the running backs, which Mizzou’s system doesn’t do so well.

If NU thinks it can get chuffed and proud, the Huskers had better cleanse their system of that incredible comeback win before Leach and Co. head to town. Once thing about Leach: He simply doesn’t care. He’ll boot players, bluff his own athletic director and happily serve as a hypocrite when he chastises players for the seeking the publicity he hounds. He just doesn’t care. Leach is a football mercenary for hire – Texas Tech has him tied to long-term contract – whose measurement of success is racking up points and yards.

My wife and I were watching a YouTube clip on Leach. Some nonsense about dating advice and pirate obsessions.

“He’s kind of a clown,” my wife said. Molly’s a pretty polite girl; she prefers half-insults unless we’re on the subject of bad officiating.

“Well, maybe,” I said. “But he wins a lot of games.”

“Yeah,” she shrugged. “He’s still a clown.”

As we await Leach’s circus on Saturday, we relive, one last time, the Mizzou win.

Five Players We Loved

Defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh: You rarely get to see “legendary” defensive performances from a single player. On national TV, Suh delivered one. I’m not sure even he understood just what he’d done. In the coming weeks, if he makes a push for the Heisman, he will. The Missouri game was his launching pad.

Defensive back Dejon Gomes: He stuck to Mizzou receivers like glue all of Thursday night. Where’s he been? Doesn’t matter. Gomes needs to stay in the game, and off the bench.

Linebacker Philip Dillard: He’s re-established himself as Nebraska’s best linebacker. It took the coaches too long to realize it, but they’ve finally come around to Dillard’s brand of play and leadership.

Running back Rex Burkhead: Made a lot of little plays in the game, including a couple key third-down conversions. He’s excellent in open space, and getting better between the tackles.

Wide receiver Niles Paul: Oh, if only his confidence matched his raw talent. Maybe his fourth-quarter heroics vs. Missouri will clue Paul into the kind of player he can be – every game. He may want it a little too much. Paul needs to let the game come to him a little more often.

Three Concerns We Still Have

Depth and trust in the running game: It’s really hard to account for Nebraska’s deliberate choice to pass the ball, over and over, vs. the Tigers in the pouring rain. We keep hearing about all these guys in the box, but the Huskers pretty much abandoned the run until the game’s final drive and, then, embracing it with the heaviest of the heavy sets (four tight ends!), looked quite good. Where was that all game?

Punt snaps: Freshman P.J. Mangieri needs to figure this out. If Alex Henery wasn’t back there making incredible plays just to get the ball off, NU would have three or four blocked punts by now. Some were critical of Bo Pelini’s minor chew session of Mangieri, but the kid, young as he may be, is only on the team to do one thing. He needs to do it right.

A little too much offensive diversity: Nebraska flashed a ton of formations at Missouri Thursday night, and almost seemed to cross itself up. In big games, it’s not the chess match that wins, but the execution of your best stuff. What is Nebraska’s best stuff? We’re still waiting a little.

Reviewing The Five Keys

Mystery Ingredients: The weather definitely affected Nebraska (although offensive coordinator Shawn Watson called the game like it didn’t) and the flu bug kept five or six players under the weather. The power outage at Faurot Field threw another curveball the Huskers’ way, as the coaches were forced to conduct their locker room sessions by flashlight, essentially. For all that, for NU to still win the way it did – it’s character, plain and simple.

Zac Lee On the Road – Again: I wasn’t encouraged by Lee’s performance through three quarters, but he made some clutch throws in the fourth quarter to redeem the performance. Another plus: Lee put the ball in places where his offensive players could nab it. Unlike Blaine Gabbert, whose vision – not his ankle – was the real culprit Thursday night.

The First Impression: Nebraska’s defense sent a very different message in 2009; Suh and his front four mates made sure of it. Mizzou tried to run NU off the field on the first couple drives, but the Tigers slowed down out of necessity.

Stick or Quit: Missouri’s running game never really got shut down, but never got going, either. The Tigers threw too many passes, and too many of those passes were simply bad, telegraphed reads by Blaine Gabbert.

Pelini vs. Pinkel: Call it a draw, I suppose; both coaches failed to slow the game down with running attack, and both coaches made some gutsy decisions. Pinkel gambled and won on fourth down, while Pelini subbed out three starters – Anthpny West, Will Compton and Lance Thorell – to go with guys whom he thought would get the job done better. He was right.

Three Questions We Have

Is Nebraska ready for more, more, more? NU’s going to see one version or another of the spread from this point forward until Kansas State. Can it stick with the current gameplan used vs. Missouri, or must it alter the plan to fit the needs of each team and quarterback?

Time for Blackshirts? We think so. How about you?

Who’s the real Zac Lee? The kid who knocks em dead at home, or the head-scratcher on the road? Will we really learn anything this week? Maybe. Tech is easily the best home opponent Nebraska has faced this season.

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Two of the prime architects in Nebraska’s 27-12 comeback victory at Missouri almost never got the chance.

But a little dose of trust, at the right moment, left quarterback Zac Lee laughing in joy as he left Faurot Field Thursday night. It left Niles Paul chatting happily on the phone next to reporters, a vintage vinyl Spider-Man backpack slung over one shoulder.

After an awful first half with a muffed punt and several dropped passes, Paul was benched to start the second half in favor of true freshman Antonio Bell.

“We needed to get his attention,” offensive coordinator Shawn Watson said. “Let him settle down a little bit.”

Watson considered doing the same to Lee, who looked worse than he did at Virginia Tech.

But Paul was sent back in two series later. And Watson never pulled the trigger on the QB change.

“All of our confidence was kind of wavering,” Paul said. “We kinda let ourselves down. We came out in the second half and Coach Watson and Coach(Ted) Gilmore challenged us to a man. We came out and showed how we play ball.”

One minute into the fourth quarter, to be exact, as Lee shuffled back in the pocket and lofted a pass to Paul, running a deep post. The ball cut through the rain, Paul caught it in long stride, and bounded into the end zone for a 56-yard touchdown. Missouri’s coverage, rather surprisingly, focused on the short curl route and Paul darted into the open space the safety had just vacated for the score.

“They played right into what we thought they were going to do,” Paul said.

Said Lee: “That play kinda sparked us. It kinda got us in a rhythm. It was a little weight off the shoulders.”

The two hooked up less than a minute later after an Ndamukong Suh interception on a 13-yard fade route. Lee threw the ball inside Missouri defenders instead of to the pylon, which was smart. Paul sliced through the coverage to grab it.

“The first man in the air wins the war,” Paul said. “I just went up and got it.”

Lee added one more touchdown to Mike McNeill after another interception.

What if Watson had yanked his starter for Green? Would Lee ever have returned? Doubtful. The line of demarcation seemed to be Lee’s lame attempt to cover a fumble after a bad snap, when he slid up to the ball, casually held it between his knees and allowed it to be taken away from him.

“Get on the ball!” head coach Bo Pelini barked at Lee.

But Lee seemed with it on the sidelines, Watson said. And there was no reason to necessarily believe Green would do much better in the rain, on the road, against a blitzing defense.

“Look at it out there,” Watson said, pointing to the empty Faurot Field, still getting pelted by a slow-moving storm. “It’s unbelievable. It’s sheets of rain. That’s hard if you’re a quarterback.”

So, instead, Watson wanted to talk to Lee. He told him persevere. Hang tough. Find a way to win it.

“It didn’t have to be pretty,” Watson said. “We just had to win it. And Zac did it.”

Watson was in a buoyant mood afterward, about ten notches higher on the exuberance scale than Pelini. Did Watson sense he’s just escaped eight days of criticism, and potentially eight days of quarterback controversy?

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COLUMBIA, Mo. - Out of the darkness, and into the driver’s seat of the Big 12 North.

Faced with a 12-0 deficit at the beginning of the fourth quarter - having played some of the worst offensive football in recent memory - Nebraska’s football team turned on an unexpected switch, staging the largest final-quarter comeback in school history and taking an early – and crucial – lead in its league division.

NU scored three touchdowns in four minutes – assisted by two interceptions of Mizzou quarterback Blaine Gabbert – to win 27-12 in front of Faurot Field’s 65,286 stunned, soaked fans, who sat through a 15-minute power outage one hour before the game and nearly three hours of the Tigers playing sloppy – but winning – football.

That changed one minute into the fourth, when quarterback Zac Lee – who almost yanked by offensive coordinator Shawn Watson – threw a 56-yard touchdown to wide receiver Niles Paul - who was yanked to start the second half – to cut Mizzou’s lead to 12-7.

“We caught them in a good coverage, and the safety played the middle hook route, and we got a post over the top,” Lee said. “That play really sparked us.”

Then defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh picked off the third pass of his career at the Tigers’ 18-yard line. Lee hit Paul again, seven seconds later, from 13 yards to give NU the lead for good.

“We just kept fighting,” head coach Bo Pelini said. “You can get down in situations like that, when things aren’t going your way and it’s pretty easy to feel sorry for yourself and let the game get away from you. We never let the game get away with us…I thought we showed a lot of character in every aspect.”

Once the Tigers fell behind, NU made sure not to give it back, either. Junior cornerback Dejon Gomes, who’d played sparingly until Thursday night, intercepted another Gabbert pass on Missouri’s next drive, returning it to the Tiger 10-yard line.

“The receiver broke out, I broke out with him, and I was in perfect position to look back at the quarterback,” Gomes said. “The ball was right there.”

Lee then threw his third touchdown pass of the night, an eight-yard floater to tight end Mike McNeill, who was wide open after blocking and pretending to stumble. Lee drew the defense to himself, then tossed into an open space, where McNeill ran under it.

“I just wanted to make sure I caught it,” McNeill said.

So Nebraska led 20-12, and forced a turnover on downs on Mizzou’s next drive, which briefly reached NU’s 22-yard line before a holding penalty – one of eight overall penalties – pushed the Tigers back to the 32. Gabbert threw four incomplete passes after that.

“There were a zillion penalties,” Mizzou coach Gary Pinkel said.

NU ran the ball eight straight times for a final touchdown, highlighted by Roy Helu’s 41-yard sideline gallop. Helu, suffering from the flu, didn’t arrive in Columbia until Thursday morning.

By the end, Missouri fans were filing out, while a small, raucous contingency of Huskers waved them goodbye.

“It wasn’t the exact way we wanted to win,” Suh said. “But we’ll take it.”

Pelini said Suh – and the rest of the NU defense, which may be in line for a Blackshirt promotion after this – kept the Huskers in the game while the offense sputtered. Missouri gained just 225 yards, punted eight times and scored only ten points – and all of those came on a short field. Derrick Washington gained 80 yards on 20 carries, but never busted a long one until the game had been decided.

“They played their you-know-whats off,” Pelini said. “They played hard, they played well. And you can say that about everybody who lined up on defense. We played some pretty good football.”

The secondary repeatedly challenged Mizzou’s receivers – and won the battles. Gabbert, meanwhile, seemed out of sorts most of the night, and could have thrown more interceptions than the two he did – the Huskers had their hands on a number of his passes, which often looked telegraphed.

“He struggled a little bit,” Pinkel said of Gabbert, who completed just 17-of-43 passes for 134 yards and two interceptions.

Before the final quarter, Lee struggled a lot more than that. He’d lost a fumble, and completed just 9-of-27 passes heading into the final quarter.

“There was a time I was actually going to put Cody (Green) in and have him sit down and let him look at it a little bit,” Watson said. “But he’s just got great character. I thought about it for about a half-second and said ‘Nah.’

“He’s such a great competitor that he kept fighting through it.”

Said Lee: “The coaches trusted us. They have our back. We have their back.”

Nevertheless, Missouri forged a 12-0 lead with a big help from the offense and special teams. MU scored a safety when punter Alex Henery was forced to throw the ball out of his own end zone after a bad snap - one of several - from true freshman P.J. Mangieri. The Tigers' touchdown drive started on the NU 44-yard line. Its third-quarter field goal drive started at the NU 34.

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It’s a force of habit, around these parts, to look ahead to the biggest games in Nebraska’s football season and view lesser opponents in advance of those contests as preparatory fodder. If effort, sacrifice and massive walk-on classes are integral to the “Nebraska Way” so, too, is the mild arrogance that goes along with shucking fools like Arkansas State.

And so, NU’s 38-9 win over the Red Wolves is viewed through the prism of what it means heading into Saturday’s game at Virginia Tech. Since ASU’s multiple, run-oriented offense is quite similar to Tech’s, the looking glass isn’t quite as distorted as it usually would be.

But, still, you have to try to sever connections between the two. The NU team that travels to Blacksburg will be one week smarter and more focused. The Virginia Tech team that awaits has, unfortunately for Nebraska, learned lessons from a 34-24 loss to Alabama, which runs enough of the same plays that the Cornhuskers do to provide a valuable teaching tool.

So in the review, we chart NU’s growth from game No. 1 to No. 2, ask the difficult questions still in search for answers, and look, ever briefly, at the larger picture beyond Virginia Tech to the Big 12 Conference – which suddenly seems more wide open than it did two weeks ago.

Five Players We Loved

Quarterback Zac Lee: It wasn’t just Lee’s efficiency, yardage and touchdowns that were impressive, although they were. It was how he arrived at those numbers. The variety of passes he threw, to 11 different targets, was a kind of dream scenario for the West Coast Offense. While Lee isn’t the tallest guy, his arm strength – coupled with smarts and mobility – allows offensive coordinator Shawn Watson to change the geometry of the field. The WCO often gets the knock – and it’s often earned – of returning to the same handful of pass plays, most of which are controlled dinks and dunks. Sam Keller, and to some degree Zac Taylor, fell into that rut at times. With Lee, Watson has few limits. Maybe inside screen passes, which are hard to run with Lee’s lack of height. Otherwise – not much.

Kickoff specialist Adi Kunalic: Talk about a secret weapon. Kunalic had five touchbacks on Saturday, consistently forcing Arkansas State to march the long field. And, against the wind, he showed off a nasty little stinger kick that ASU’s return men struggled to handle. Kunalic appears, at most, ten times per game. But he’s worth the scholarship.

Wide receiver Niles Paul: The junior from Omaha needed a game like this to shake off the expectations, to shake off the eyes of his hometown – don’t kid yourself, the Omaha media was all over the kid after the game – and to show off that explosiveness everyone’s been talking about. Once Paul has as much confidence in himself as his coaches do, watch out. With less to prove, he’ll explode even more.

Cornerback Prince Amukamara: He did the little stuff on Saturday. He blitzed aggressively. He stoned a couple ASU receivers right after they made a catch. He stuck his nose in the pile on two running plays. When I watch defensive backs on Sunday, I like the Vikings’ Cedric Griffin and Antoine Winfield, the baddest, most physical corners in the NFL. They’re not elite cover men, but they make up for it in sheer attitude at the line of scrimmage. Amukamara has the size and speed to be that kind of player. If he wants it.

Strong safety Larry Asante: His coverage skills won’t be fully tested until the Missouri game, but Asante is a legitimate physical force against the run. He’s grown skilled at the punch-out tackle, apparently, causing one fumble on Saturday. But Asante’s put together two pretty good games of hits thus far. Now if he can just catch an interception.

Three Concerns We Still Have

Leaky Line, Walking Wounded: It’s conceivable that NU could start two backups – Derek Meyer and Mike Caputo – at Virginia Tech. Nothing against either, but it’ll be nice if center Jacob Hickman and left guard Keith Williams are close to 100 percent next Saturday. And even then, you have to wonder about NU’s short-yardage run blocking. At the point of attack, both Arkansas State and Florida Atlantic have won some of the trench wars. A little disconcerting.

Defensive confusion: We’re still seeing Nebraska’s defense unsettled just before the opponent’s snap. While Bo and Carl Pelini want to match up personnel as much as possible in a lightning round of chess, we’ve seen the Huskers’ front four practically standing at the snap, awaiting instructions. MIKE linebacker Will Compton is young, but he’s got to be more urgent toward the sidelines when the call is slow to come in. Maybe such assertiveness comes with experience.

Dumb penalties: Not every personal foul is a borderline judgment call by the referee. Nebraska has five through two games. How much longer can NU afford to give up precious field position in a fit of aggression, frustration or just plain foolishness?

Reviewing the Five Keys

The Buzz Word, Tempo: Nebraska zipped in and out of its huddle, rarely got close to the end of the play clock, and seemed especially sharp in the first quarter. Mission accomplished.

Lead Wolf: ASU quarterback Corey Leonard never strayed too far from the watchful eye of NU’s defense, which sacked him four time. The Red Wolves took few to zero chances in the passing game, and Leonard didn’t break any long runs.

Lanes: For the most part, Nebraska stayed disciplined in getting after Leonard. It helped that the Brothers Pelini dialed up smart corner blitzes that kept Leonard guessing. The best of them, with junior Eric Hagg screaming like a missile on a delayed blitz, left Leonard in the possum position – lying down on the turf, before Hagg ever got there.

The Edges: NU’s receivers dominated ASU’s defensive backs, frankly. The Huskers got open, stayed open, and fought for yards after contact. They block well, caught well, and generally made Ted Gilmore look like a pretty smart guy. Through two games.

Mix tape: Nebraska didn’t run much, but Watson effectively mixed in a variety of ground plays. A little option, a nifty reverse, two quarterback counters for Lee; he put a few things on tape for Virginia Tech to think about. This is a better-designed offense right now than it was a year ago.

Three Questions We Still Have

How do NU’s receivers hold up against a first-class secondary? They’re pretty good against the Sun Belt, but can they get open against the best defensive backs in the ACC? Alabama managed it, but remember: The Tide has freak Julio Jones, whom the Hokies chose to bracket in double coverage most of the night. What kind of problems, if any, can the Huskers pose?

Can a downhill running game crunch the Big Red? We’ve seen FAU and Arkansas State look right at NU’s seven-man front and shove a couple isolation plays right down the Huskers’ gullet. Defensive tackles Ndamukong Suh and Jared Crick make their share of plays, but they’re pushed out of others. Can Virginia Tech, and Missouri, and Kansas, and Oklahoma, gash Nebraska right in the kisser? We haven’t seen very compelling evidence to the contrary thus far. NU linebackers, especially Compton, have to step aggressively into the hole.

How emotionally mature are the Huskers? We’re about to find out. Maybe. The strength of the 2008 team – and a weakness of the 2007 squad – was internal fortitude, the willingness to wipe the slate clean after bad plays, and work for those good plays. But, last year, Nebraska didn’t truly grow up until embarrassing itself at Oklahoma. The personal fouls are not a good sign. Pelini’s motor runs hot. So does his team’s. But it can’t run in the red. Not on the road. Not in the Big 12.

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Quarterback controversy? Not around here.

By the time Nebraska’s defense started to bend Saturday against Arkansas State, NU junior Zac Lee’s right arm had already broken the Red Wolves with series of deep, accurate strikes in the heart of their secondary.

Lee completed 8 of his first 9 passes for 111 yards and two touchdowns to help stake NU to a 21-0 lead early in the second quarter. From that point forward, the run-oriented Arkansas State couldn’t muster enough momentum to get much closer in a 38-9 Nebraska win.

“I really liked the way we came out,” head coach Bo Pelini said. “We attacked. I thought we played really well offensively. To start the game, I loved the energy we came out with.”

While Lee had a fair debut in a 49-3 win over Florida Atlantic, his play was overshadowed, to some extent, by a single 49-yard run from true freshman Cody Green.

No such dilemma on Saturday. Lee completed 27-of-35 passes for 340 yards and four touchdowns. He personally found 11 different receivers, and made every throw in the book – including a couple nifty shovel passes.

“It was a good day,” Lee understated. “Hopefully it’s that way every week. That’s kind of my goal.”

Lee and his teammates have a much stiffer test at Virginia Tech next Saturday. But for one game, he couldn’t have been much more efficient.

Said NU offensive coordinator Shawn Watson: “I loved everything that happened. Zac was just lights out. That’s a great performance.”

A crowd of 85,035 at Memorial Stadium sat thrilled and dazzled by Lee’s first-quarter performance. On Nebraska’s opening drive, he converted an early third down with an 11-yard pass to Mike McNeill, scrambled for 11 yards and threw a perfect 46-yard lob to receiver Curenski Gilleylen before finishing the drive with a three-yard flip to fullback Tyler Legate to cap the 80-yard touchdown march.

On the second drive, Lee hit all five passes for 54 yards, the last of which was another perfectly thrown lob to tight end Mike McNeill for a 13-yard touchdown.

“We had guys get open,” Lee said. “It’s easy to throw to open guys.”

Niles Paul then scored on a 30-yard reverse one minute into the second quarter for a 21-0 lead. Paul took the pitch from Lee and ran back toward NU’s sideline, toeing the chalk for the last ten yards.

“We had it on our script,” Paul said, “and I just blew it off like ‘we’re not going to run that, we have it on script every week since last year. But we finally ran it. And I was happy.”

Those first 16 minutes were NU’s best in recent memory, dating back, possibly, to 2006. Pelini said he challenged his team throughout the week, after another sluggish start vs. Florida Atlantic, to hit the ground running vs. ASU.

Mission accomplished. The Huskers outgained the Red Wolves 206-39 in that span, and left a run-based with little chance for a comeback.

“We came out of the gates well,” center Jacob Hickman said. “That’s something we wanted to make sure we did, to set the tempo of the game.”

Arkansas State then scored on a 32-yard touchdown drive after an NU punt and a 15-yard facemack penalty on safety Rickey Thenarse. The Red Wolves missed the extra point. The Huskers tacked on a 29-yard field goal from Alex Henery right before halftime.

In the second half, Nebraska scored quickly after an ASU punt, as Lee hit McNeill again, this time on a 32-yard fade route for a touchdown. In the fourth quarter, he found Paul for a two-yard score, setting up the touchdown with a 27-yard pass to tight end Dreu Young.

Nebraska had 494 total yards, the 16th time in 20 games, NU went over the 400-yard mark.

“They played a whole lot faster than we did overall,” ASU coach Steve Roberts said. “I think that was a big difference in the game, their speed advantage.”

The Red Wolves (1-1) averaged more than four yards per carry and amassed total yards, but only converted 2 of 10 third down attempts in the first three quarters.

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Trap game. Tune-up. Upset alert. Afternoon pastry.

You could flip-flop all morning, you know, on just what Saturday’s 1:10 p.m. game vs. Arkansas State represents for Nebraska’s football team.

But, in the state that invented the reuben, we prefer the independent party on this debate: Call the Red Wolves the first of three “sandwich” games. The next is Sept. 26, vs. Louisiana-Lafayette. The third is Oct. 24 vs. Iowa State. All home games. All bridges to and from more important contests. All meant, eventually, to be devoured.

ASU is perched between NU’s season-opening romp over Florida Atlantic – crucial for development and experience – and the game at Virginia Tech. It’s should be a win, but, initially, it probably won’t be easy. Arkansas State is liable to raise more questions about the Cornhuskers than it answers. Consider it a hoagie bun of meat, vinegar, olives – OK, we’ve taken the analogy far enough. On with the keys:

The Buzz Word: Which, over the last week, was “tempo.” Is it college basketball season yet? Did Doc Sadler start coaching the NU offense?

No, it’s still Shawn Watson up in the booth dialing up the touchdowns, and he wants his plays more quickly relayed to quarterback Zac Lee, called in the huddle, and executed. Watson figures – and he’s right – that if Lee scoots to the line of scrimmage with 12-13 seconds left on the play clock, Nebraska can wear out a defense much like a no-huddle offense. Against Florida Atlantic, when Lee and Co. finally got around to establishing optimal “tempo,” some bioengineer got his wings, and the Owls couldn’t stop the run.

That’ll be the same idea against Arkansas State. It’s still humid in September around here. It’s still pretty easy to wear out a smaller-conference team. And it’s still a big, athletic Nebraska offensive line. Even though ASU has two defensive linemen who could play at NU – especially defensive end Alex Carrington – it is, as a whole, is undersized and mashable. It might take a couple quarters, but tempo, eventually, sets in.

Lead Wolf: On ASU’s offense, that’s quarterback Corey Leonard, a scrappy, stocky kid who threw for 2,347 yards last year and ran for 516. He was the team’s second-leading rusher in attempts with 157, or roughly 13 attempts per game. Leonard’s better running north-south than he is east-west, but he’s counted upon for that extra offensive dimension.

“He can run,” NU head coach Bo Pelini said. “He’s a good dual-threat guy. He presents some problems in that way. They’re not afraid to run him, especially when they get down in the red area.”

More of an athlete than a classic quarterback, Leonard runs to set up his passing, and the result isn’t always pretty. He was fairly awful (8-17, 67 yards) at Alabama last year. But Nebraska has to cause him to have a bad day.

Also a boon to Nebraska: ASU is a little vulnerable to the sack monster, giving up 29, 39, 37 and 31 of them in each of the last four years. The Red Wolves may try to play it safe, like FAU did, but look what it earned the Owls. A bag o’ peanuts back to Boca.

Much of the game will be decided on whether NU’s front seven – we’re including blitzers here - can get up close and personal with Leonard.

Lanes: As in keeping them. On punt team, on kickoff, and especially on upfield defensive pursuits. Spread offenses feast on teams with undisciplined defensive lines. The very concept of the sloppy sack, where four defenders just sort loop around aimlessly until one of them reaches the quarterback, doesn’t apply to the spread, which creates lanes so big, and so inviting, that if a player runs through that trap, Leonard, or his running back, Reggie Arnold, are zipping right by.

After a frustrating week against FAU’s timid offense, NU defensive linemen will be tempted to freestyle in order to get to the quarterback. Which is precisely what Arkansas State wants.

The Edges: Nebraska has a subtle, but potentially important, advantage over ASU. NU’s wide receivers will dwarf members of ASU’s secondary. All three starters – 6-foot-4 Menelik Holt, 6-2 Niles Paul and 6-1 Curenski Gilleylen – weigh well north of 200 pounds. None of the Red Wolves’ defensive backs, including strong safety M.D. Jennings, are anywhere near that weight total, or taller than six feet. It’s a fast bunch, but not necessarily a physical one.

Where does that advantage matter most? Running plays. If Nebraska can rebuff ASU’s scrappy defensive line, and running backs Roy Helu and Rex Burkhead can hit the corners, Paul, Holt and Gilleylen should be able to hold their blocks. Blocking, in fact, might be what the three of them do best. Paul and Holt earned some of their spurs last year, while Gilleylen shook down the thunder on Holt’s 28-yard touchdown catch in the Florida Atlantic game.

“I want a complete receiver, I do,” wide receivers coach Ted Gilmore said. “And I challenge them like you wouldn’t believe to block and take pride in it…you can fire up a team without making a touchdown.”

Mix tape: The Huskers only showed a portion of their running game vs. FAU, and what they did show was a little different from 2008. I liked what I saw – misdirection, a little veer action, a counter sweep. It wasn’t Florida’s offense, but it was nice blend of power and finesse.

Saturday may require more of the finesse. Option plays. Toss plays – which Nebraska ran well on Saturday. Outside zone runs out of the shotgun.

“We’ve got a lot of toys in the trunk,” running backs coach Tim Beck said. Not that he was dishing about just which toys offensive coordinator Shawn Watson was going to use, of course.

See also: Guess The Score NU-ASU, Five More Keys, Five Players to Watch, Husker Locker's Top 25 Poll

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Nebraska wide receiver Niles Paul said he plays football “angry,” anyway, but Saturday’s Florida Atlantic game provided an extra dose of frustration for the junior from Omaha.

After a month of making big plays in fall camp, Paul was the silent partner among the starting wide receivers in NU’s 49-3 win. Menelik Holt and Curenski Gilleylen both scored touchdowns on highlight-worthy receptions. Paul finished with two catches for 13 yards, one decent kickoff return and a personal foul penalty on Rex Burkhead’s eight-yard touchdown run late in the third quarter.

Not exactly the breakout party Paul had wanted.

“Everybody that knows me knows I play angry,” Paul said. “Things weren’t going the way I was hoping, so I was just trying to make a play.”

“I either have the safety or the corner on that play, and I chose to get the safety,” Paul said, smiling. “For whatever reason I chose the safety. A little frustrated. So I went in and took him out. And Rex scored. We exchanged words…and I got caught exchanging words.”

Paul wanted the ball so badly, he said, he made an ill-advised punt return attempt in the first half. Instead of calling for a fair catch, Paul took a running leap into a FAU defender, catching the ball, but getting flipped over in the process. He drew a penalty for his effort – and an earful from return coach Ron Brown.

“He chewed me out for it,” Paul said. “It was a little too risky. He wants me to be fearless, but not that fearless.”

Not that Paul wasn’t happy for his fellow receivers, Holt and Gilleylen, whom he said were “vindicated” by their performance on Saturday. As a whole, Nebraska’s receiving corps had been a question mark heading into 2009. It probably still is.

“They’re like family,” he said. “I was just happy for Curenski and Meno. It was just like I scored when they scored.”

Paul said Holt has been trying his hop-step move throughout fall camp. Not too successfully, either.

“We kind of give him crap about it,” Paul said. “But it finally worked. And he scored on it.”

And if Paul isn’t getting the ball, he knows, at the very least, blocking is a fallback. Younger receivers hold up 6-foot-2, 210-pounder as a role model, said sophomore Brandon Kinnie, who knew little about blocking before heading to Nebraska.

“He just gets after it,” Kinnie said. “Niles is the guy we all watch.”

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Driving home Saturday night from Nebraska’s blowout 49-3 win over Florida Atlantic, I couldn’t help but think of another blowout win to kick off a season: NU’s 52-7 romp over Nevada in 2007.

In both, the opponents’ reputations far exceeded their actual gameplans and execution. And both teams wilted in the second half against bigger, stronger NU.

Nevada just stunk on offense, and admitted as much after the game. Florida Atlantic was more of a quandary.

The Owls were supposed to be athletic and exciting; instead, their quarterbacks, Rusty Smith and Jeff VanCamp, played hot potato with the football, firing wild darts before their receivers even had time to look for the ball. Nary a trick play, or even a trick formation, from FAU. Smith looked jittery, nervous and slow. His backup was mysteriously inserted in the second quarter and just as mysteriously removed. Apparently FAU coach Howard Schnellenberger likes Smith to see a drive from the sidelines.

At any rate, it was hard to get a read on Nebraska Saturday night. That’s part of the trouble with “directional” – or in the case of FAU, “oceanic” – opponents. Expect a better, stiffer test from FAU’s Sun Belt counterpart, Arkansas State.

On with the review:

Five Players We Loved

Junior running back Roy Helu: A big back who still knows how to pick his way through holes and burst out the other end pulling away from defenders. If he can stay healthy, Helu’s big ride in 2009 is just beginning.

Senior left guard Derek Meyer: The native Husker with a great story just moved to left guard a few weeks ago after working at right guard and right tackle for spring ball. Meyer wasn’t perfect, but he held up well, especially in pass protection. NU lacks great depth along the line, but Meyer was blue collar as advertised.

Redshirt freshman linebacker Will Compton: He played nearly every defensive snap in the first three quarters, and fit right in. Compton had a busy night around the ball. He’ll only get smarter and better.

Sophomore wide receiver Curenski Gilleylen: Two of his three catches were adventures, frankly – but he caught them. Gilleylen’s best play of the night, though, was a bone-crushing block to help spring Menelik Holt on his 28-yard touchdown catch-and-gallop.

Senior defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh: Quick tackle for loss on the first drive, and he later saved a first down by peeling back on a screen pass and taking down FAU fullback Willie Rose one yard short.

Special Mention - true freshman linebacker Eric Martin: His energy and enthusiasm on the game’s opening kickoff is precisely what that unit needs.

Three Concerns We Still Have

Again With The Penalties: Nine more to open the season, for 86 yards. Two personal fouls, two holding calls, a couple false starts. Sloppy.

Not Enough Niles: Offensive coordinator Shawn Watson and wide receivers coach Ted Gilmore spent fall camp talking up the junior from Omaha. Well, fine: If he made plays in the practice, give him a chance to make them in the games. A reverse. A go route. Something. Gilleylen and Holt got most of the choice looks.

Blocked Punt: Not the best thing to see two weeks before Virginia Tech.

Reviewing the Five Keys

KIDS: Watson tried to go right at FAU, but Helu found the corners of the defense an easier go. And if Roy can make it work, so be it.

Truthfully, NU nicely blended some running staples of the West Coast Offense with some new counters, sweeps and even a veer play. The Huskers ran two options near the goal line. Neither worked very well, but Cody Green did score a 1-yard touchdown on his effort.

36 inches: FAU’s quarterbacks spent the entire night avoiding Suh and the rest of NU’s front four, and got nothing in return for their cowardice. You get out what you put in, and the Owls didn’t physically or strategically challenge Nebraska’s defense.

Attack Zac, Zac Attack: Once again, FAU was pretty tame in its blitzing of Lee. When the Owls did take a chance, Lee burned them with the touchdown pass to Gilleylen and a nice scramble for a first down. Lee wasn’t counted upon to win the game, but he held up nicely anyway.

Young Guns: The youngsters on offense and defense were terrific. Big thumbs up to Compton and Sean Fisher, plus redshirt freshman Cameron Meredith, who played a lot at defensive end, and recovered a fumble. On offense, Cody Green and Rex Burkhead both had their moments.

The Specials: Net wash here. Even with the blocked punt, NU’s net punting average was only one yard worse than FAU’s The Huskers did well on kickoff returns and kickoff coverage. Adi Kunalic booted two touchbacks, and a couple more bombs into the end zone were unwisely returned.

Three Questions We Still Have

Can NU get its goal-line package honed for game two? The Huskers used a couple fourth-down plays for touchdowns, but it shouldn’t have taken that long. Was Watson holding off on his pass packages to pound the ball on the ground? Probably.

How much better is Nebraska’s defense against the spread? We’ll find out when Arky State rolls into Lincoln. FAU’s pro-style attack wasn’t much of a problem.

Does Keith Williams return soon? Nebraska’s most skilled offensive lineman helps especially in the running game.

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Nebraska wide receivers coach Ted Gilmore had wanted to find his six or seven top candidates for playing by the end of last week.

On Tuesday, Gilmore said, he’s carrying the competition over to the end of this week. As of now, only one player – junior Niles Paul – has earned significant playing time, and another sophomore Marcus Mendoza, moved back to running back. That leaves roughly a dozen players for five spots.

Well, maybe five more spots.

“You knew what? I threw that number out, six, but if two of them are doing it, then two of them are going to play,” Gilmore said. “I’m looking for the best football players.

And if NU needs four pass-catchers for a third down, who fills the role? Tight ends?

“There you go,” Gilmore said. “We’re gonna put the best 11 players on the football field.”

The receiving corps has until the end of this week to prevent Gilmore and offensive coordinator Shawn Watson from implementing any kind of plan out of the Norman Dale handbook.

Said Watson: “They’re competing. We’ll find out who those guys are. We’ll give them to the end of the week to figure it out.”

Here are the likeliest candidates for those roles:

Senior Chris Brooks: Battled injuries, expectations and bouts of inconsistency to earn more playing time at the end of 2008. He was NU’s No. 5 receiver and occasionally lined up in the slot. He caught a touchdown pass vs. Kansas.

Senior Menelik Holt: Has been slated to start by pundits and most fans since the start of spring football, but the coaching staff has handed the 6-foot-4, 225-pounder nothing thus far. Holt had 31 catches in 2008.

Senior Wes Cammack: Specialist on kick coverage units in 2008, finishing with nine tackles. He caught a touchdown in the spring game and just went on scholarship last week.

Junior Will Henry: A 6-5, slender outside receiver who had strong practice sessions in late 2008 and during the spring. Gilmore said last week Henry’s had a fair camp, but hadn’t made any standout plays.

Junior Adam Watson: Shawn Watson’s son. Converted walk-on safety.

Sophomore Curenski Gilleylen: With speed to burn and a good frame, he could be a front-runner at slot, but he’s struggled catching the ball at times.

Sophomore Brandon Kinnie: Looks the part at 6-3, 220 pounds, but is “sinking” in terms of learning the playbook.

“He hasn’t really shown what he can do,” Gilmore said. “And you can see it in his play. His hesitation…once he gets it, we’ve got something good there.”

Redshirt freshman Khiry Cooper: The two-sport kid who missed all of spring camp playing baseball.

Redshirt freshman Steven Osborne: Tall, lanky guy whose brother, Courtney, plays defensive back. Gilmore has alternately praised and been tough on Osborne during fall camp.

Redshirt freshman Tim Marlowe: Small, speedy slot guy whom Gilmore has praised a couple times in camp.

True freshman Antonio Bell: Nicknamed “Lil Frantz” because he has a frame and speed like former NU receiver Frantz Hardy, Bell has shown good receiving skills. Now it’s a matter of blocking and getting separation at the line of scrimmage. Same obstacles Hardy had, although Hardy enjoyed a solid career, and caught 54 passes for 971 yards and seven touchdowns during his career.

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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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The kids just keep back to school earlier and earlier it seems, doesn’t it? Strange that, right in the middle of the dog days of summer, you’ll have some 8-year-old trudging with his backpack into a hot school, hoping his lunch doesn’t melt in his metal lunchbox over on the food rack.

It’s really no different for college football teams, either, as Nebraska enters fall camp this Saturday, conducting nearly a month’s worth of practice before the first game, vs. Florida Atlantic, on Sept. 5.

Here’s five offensive questions as we enter the camp. For five more bonus questions, click here.

We know quarterback Zac Lee has the physical tools. Now – can he lead?

Lee presumably spent the summer cementing his relationship with Husker skill players and potentially treating his offensive linemen to a treat or two. In fall camp, does he emerge as a guy the offense looks to in tight spots, or does he defer to some of the more senior linemen? Clearly, the Husker offense no longer has Joe Ganz. But Lee has to leave his own imprint on the position.

Is [url=http://www.huskerlocker.com/blogs/browse/t/search/official/y/tag/niles paul]Niles Paul[/url] ready to step up and break out?

Our ears perked up a little when NU running back [url=http://www.huskerlocker.com/blogs/browse/t/search/official/y/tag/roy helu]Roy Helu[/url], Jr., mentioned at [url=http://www.huskerlocker.com/blogs/browse/t/search/official/y/tag/big 12 media days]Big 12 Media Days[/url] that Paul was Nebraska’s best receiverby far. Really? This wasn’t the guy we saw in 2008 running stop and curl routes, was it? Apparently, Paul’s going to be a deep threat this year, running the routes he wanted to run last year, and we’ll find out just how skilled and explosive a player he is.

Paul also has the ability to be a gifted leader, if he so chooses. He’s well-liked and has a strong personality. Does he become a vocal guy in 2009, or does he let the play do the talking?

Can Ricky Henry master the right guard position and win the job?
For Lee’s sake – and Nebraska’s sake – you’d hope so, as Henry’s emergence would allow Jacob Hickman to stay at center. Hickman probably projects to guard at the next level, but he should be much improved as the center this year – if Henry can win the job. Word is Henry’s plenty tough and physical – it’s just a matter of getting the offense and techniques down pat.

Two or three running backs?

Position coach Tim Beck seems to prefer three, but Helu and [url=http://www.huskerlocker.com/blogs/browse/t/search/official/y/tag/quentin castille]Quentin Castille[/url] are hungry for carries and plenty capable of carrying the load themselves. Will Beck and [url=http://www.huskerlocker.com/blogs/browse/t/search/official/y/tag/shawn watson]Shawn Watson[/url] allow for that to happen, or will the third running back see 5-10 touches per game, as was the trend in 2008? If so, who is the third running back? Lester Ward? Austin Jones? Collins Okafor? One of the freshmen?

Does the Wats Coast Offense change at all to fit the personnel?

Lee’s a fast guy, and a good runner. Nebraska now has more speed at the wide receiver position with [url=http://www.huskerlocker.com/blogs/browse/t/search/official/y/tag/marcus mendoza]Marcus Mendoza[/url] and Tim Marlowe. Does Watson try some wide receiver sweeps, more option, more zone read with QB keeps? Or does he keep what was ultimately a pass-heavy offense under Ganz? We suspect Watson has a few tricks up his sleeve, and we won’t see all of them until the Missouri game that opens Big 12 play.

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As one of three Nebraska representatives at Big 12 Media Days, running back Roy Helu, Jr basically has to answer questions about the entire scope of the offense, including quarterback Zac Lee.

But his most telling comment was about the Huskers' receivers: "Niles Paul is our best receiver. I'll say that right out. And we know that. The explosiveness he has that hasn't been shown yet is amazing. I really hope this is the breakout because he has so much potential."

Helu said NU has been throwing the ball deep in 7-on-7 sessions; not surprising, since Lee has a 70-yard arm. He added that the wide receiver position looks "way different" from 2008 with Paul, Antonio Bell and Marcus Mendoza showing off their jets.

See also: Bo Pelini audio.

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