The Nebraska football team took to Memorial Stadium for its 12th practice of fall camp on Wednesday. By the end, the defense had won the day.
Offensive coordinator Mark Whipple said the offense didn’t have much juice when it came out for practice Wednesday morning.
“We had a bad day today. I thought the guys were tired and felt sorry for themselves,” Whipple said. “The defense did a nice job today—a couple of turnovers—but I didn’t like how we responded. They’ve been pretty good all the way through, just today was a down day.”
Whipple added that it’s a long season, but that the Nebraska offense will have to find a way to power through those moments when it happens. It was similar in the spring for Nebraska, but days of poor effort provided new focus when the offense stepped onto the field next.
For quarterback Casey Thompson, he pointed toward the leadership on the offense. He said that the defense has done a better job of leading within itself and that the offense will have to step up and “push together.”
“Quite honestly, we need more guys to speak up on offense,” Thompson said.
Quarterback Chubba Purdy, like Thompson, sees plenty of room to grow for the Nebraska offense. However, there is a benefit to facing the Husker defense day in and day out.
“Our defense is really good,” Purdy said. “I always tell our offense that it’s awesome that we get to go against them every day because they truly are great at disguising their coverage. If we’re having a good practice against the defense, then we really know the offense has (progressed).”
To Thompson’s point of offensive leaders needing to step up, that person on Wednesday was tight end Travis Vokolek. He called the offense together following practice to discuss fighting through adversity as a group. He reiterated what Thompson said as well that the offense needs stronger leadership voices.
You can read more about what we heard and saw from practice in our observations post.
More news and notes:
>> While the starting quarterback spot is Thompson’s to lose, per Frost, Purdy is conceding nothing in the competition. Whipple said he is splitting reps with the ones—Logan Smothers is QB3 at this point in camp—and Purdy is preparing with the mindset that he will be the Huskers’ starter come Aug. 27 against Northwestern.
>> Turner Corcoran sat out of practice Wednesday—he also sat out for Saturday’s scrimmage—but Whipple didn’t have an update as to what’s going on.
“It’s football,” Whipple said.
>> Wide receivers coach Mickey Joseph said Trey Palmer was absent from practice today because he wasn’t feeling well this morning.
>> As for Decoldest Crawford, he was also absent from Wednesday’s practice. Whipple said to talk to coach Scott Frost about that. We’ll hear from Frost on Saturday.
>> Teddy Prochazka said he’s working with offensive line coach Donovan Raiola to make sure he takes a step forward every day as he continues to work back from the knee injury that cut his freshman season short. He said the toughest part is simply getting back into playing football.
“I tore it in October, so about 10 months since I played football football,” Prochazka said. “So that first practice was pretty tough, and then after that, that initial shock, it just kind of felt like my first spring ball when I first got here. That initial shock — ‘All right, that’s what it is; we’re playing football.”
Prochazka said that initial shock is tough on the body, and he just has to continue to roll with the punches and try to get better at something small each day.
>> You can check out more of what we saw and heard on Wednesday below.
Erin is the Deputy Editor and Digital Marketing Strategist for Hail Varsity. She has covered Nebraska athletics since 2012, which has included stops at Bleacher Report, Cox Media Group’s Land of 10, and even Hail Varsity (previously from 2012-2017). She has also been featured on the Big Ten Network, NET’s Big Red Wrap-Up, and a varsity of radio shows nationwide. When not covering the Huskers, Erin is probably at Chipotle.
