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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Permanent Link to this Blog Post

Toward the end of the 2008 season, Matt O’Hanlon’s storybook rise through Nebraska’s defense seemed to have hit a ceiling.

A walk-on who won a spot on the team after a tryout at dawn, O’Hanlon had earned the starting free safety job last spring, and kept it through nine games. Head coach Bo Pelini awarded him with a scholarship. The NCAA gave O’Hanlon an extra year of eligibility. He was even the subject of a New York Times story.

By the Kansas State game, however, O’Hanlon had lost his starting job to Rickey Thenarse. He watched most of that game, and the win over Colorado, from the sidelines. And he wasn’t awarded a Blackshirt along with many of his teammates.

“Not getting a whole lot of playing time those last two games, my self-confidence wasn’t that high,” O’Hanlon said.

The Bellevue East product made up for lost time in the Gator Bowl, notching six tackles. His signature moment, however, involved a deft swat of his hand.

On Clemson’s second-to-last play of the game, Tigers running back C.J. Spiller sprinted past NU linebacker Tyler Wortman on a seam route. He briefly caught Cullen Harper’s pass in the end zone, but O’Hanlon leapt, grabbed Spiller’s right arm, and lodged the ball free.

It was a perfectly timed deflection that saved NU’s hide on a play where Clemson got precisely the matchup it wanted.

“Just to get a big play and prove to everyone I belong out there – that was a big deal to me,” O’Hanlon said.

He and Thenarse expect a lot more big plays in 2009. O’Hanlon now has his sea legs under him and understands the full breadth of the defense. Thenarse, meanwhile, said he’s finally 100 percent healthy. And while it may seem, under those conditions, that the dynamic Thenarse would have the edge, it’s O’Hanlon who has worked with the No. 1 defense thus far in spring.

“Which feels good,” O’Hanlon said. “But it’s a constant battle. Nothing’s solid.”

Thenarse agreed.

“We’ve both got more experience,” he said. “We’re just competing. Going hard. Pushing each other every day. I don’t how it’s going to turn out.”

Head coach Bo Pelini wasn’t ruling out redshirt freshman Courtney Osbourne, either. Pelini made a point, when asked about Thenarse and O’Hanlon, of singling Osbourne’s out contributions.

But it’s the two seniors who have the time and comfort with the defense. O’Hanlon said there isn’t anything, at this point, that he and strong safety Larry Asante don’t know almost before it happens.

“At this point, it’s more physical than mental,” O’Hanlon said.

Thenarse called the defense a “no-brainer” for him this spring. Last year, he admittedly struggled with the learning curve as O’Hanlon surged ahead in their race.

“I actually know what the linebackers and defensive linemen are doing now,” Thenarse said. “The whole concept of why we’re doing things this way or that way… It gave me a lot of confidence just to know I can play through a whole game and get the concepts down. I can play a whole, steady game without coming out.”

Thenarse said he’ll still play special teams – last year, he forced a fumble and blocked a punt – but he might excuse himself from kickoff coverage. During the opening kickoff vs. Western Michigan last year, Thenarse sustained a shoulder injury that kept him out of half of the season.

“Kickoff team is what’s dangerous,” Thenarse said. “But they know I can do that. If they need me out there – if we’re playing against a good returner – they know where to find me.”

Permanent Link to this Blog Post