There is a freshman catching the attention of coaches, players and media.
Last winter when wide receiver Tyjon Lindsey flipped from Ohio State to Nebraska, we all knew he was a highly rated 4-star wide receiver that was coveted by coaches around the country. We also could watch his film and see the electric speed that allowed him to break games open at the high school level.
You don’t know how quickly, if at all, those skills translate to the college game but so far the freshman from Las Vegas, Nevada, has earned rave reviews. According to Nebraska wide receivers coach Keith Williams though, this started back in the spring when Lindsey continued to bug him on how to get better quickly so he could see the field as a freshman.
“He was anxious; he knows that he has an opportunity,” Williams said. “I told him that he has an opportunity to show me he could play as a true freshman. With me telling him that and him believing that could be possible, he was anxious. He was ready to go. He’s ready to move on to the next stage of his life so, yeah, he was bugging me.”
It’s one thing to pester your coach during the offseason to get tips here and there. Once camp starts and you have practice and schoolwork while going through the same things any college freshman would go through, however, young players can get lost in the shuffle and hit a wall with their growth. So what does Coach Williams stress to his young wideouts?
“Just keep playing fast,” he said. “They have to use their own time at home to get in the playbook. They know what’s coming the next day when we install and what we’ve already installed. Get in the book and use your own time. That’s the biggest thing these young guys don’t understand. When you go home to the dorm room, that’s not when you get on Instagram all night long. You need to read and review what has taken place and what you know is going in the next day, so know that and just come out here and play fast. When you come out of the huddle, perform that particular job as fast as you can.”
Offensive coordination Danny Langsdorf also mentioned the time Lindsey spent studying during the summer.
“He’s another explosive player, a really good route-runner, he’s got good hands. He is what we thought he was in terms of talent; there’s no question. I think he’s a smart kid; he’s picking up things well. He spent a lot of time with Tristan [Gebbia] in the summer studying and it’s showing, it’s paying off for him. He’s taken a lot of reps already, which is going to be important for us at that flanker position with De’Mornay [Pierson-El].”
There’s no question that athletically Lindsey is prepared to play college football. The thing that should make Husker fans excited is something that keeps coming up with offensive coaches and players — that Lindsey is a hard worker who asks a lot of good questions and wants to be great.
The first thing Coach Williams said about Lindsey post-practice on Thursday really set the tone for the discussion about the freshman.
“He’s not very good. He’s slow. He can’t catch. We missed the boat on Tyjon.”
Just kidding. He looks like we thought he would look. The other part that you can’t predict and Husker fans are just hopeful for is that he’s smart and he’s conscientious and it means something to him. He goes out with intentions on getting better.
It’s that type of focus that gets players on the field early.
