The Nebraska football team is preparing for whatever Saturday brings.
Head coach Scott Frost touched on practice format, injuries, team captains, team confidence and weather during his final update with media members before the Georgia Southern game at 6:30 p.m. on Saturday.
Rusty Dawkins of KLKN and Husker Weather on Thursday issued a new forecast for kickoff this weekend. Temperatures are estimated in the mid 60s with at least a 70-percent chance of rain for kickoff and the three hours to follow.
“We’ll see what the weather’s like, hopefully it doesn’t change anything,” Frost said. “We got to handle it if it turns into the type of game where we have to run the ball to win.”
The head coach said he liked what he saw out of the first-team offense playing against the first-team defense in practice this week.
“Defense always practices hard, we just want to make sure we give them full-speed looks,” Frost said. “It just seems to me like we were a half step away from a number of plays.”
Georgia Southern is likely to push tempo in Saturday’s game. Those looks in practice gave the head coach some extra reassurances.
The Huskers still might be without two team captains against Georgia Southern. Linebacker Nick Henrich and tight end Travis Vokolek were both sidelined during last week’s game after suffering injuries against Northwestern. Frost admired seeing their leadership on the sidelines and how they continue to make an impact even when off the field.
“They’re both great, best leadership we’ve had for sure,” Frost said. “I spent a little more time with offense and Travis has done a great job but I’ve seen Nick do it to.”
Frost said they both want to play as soon as they’re able. It’s a struggle juggling that with making sure they’re healthy enough for the marathon of a full season.
“Those guys are day to day so we’ve got our fingers crossed,” Frost said.
Those who filled in for their team captains showed promising traits. They could still see significant snaps even if Vokolek and Henrich are healthy enough to return.
The Huskers look forward to playing a night game in front of home fans. Nebraska has the opportunity to win consecutive games for the first time in a calendar year with a win on Saturday.
More news and notes:
>> While Frost seems to be pleased with special teams so far in 2022, he offered some thoughts on the next steps he’d like to see special teams take.
“I’d like to see that unit start helping us win games and that’s creating more impact plays and not making any mistakes,” Frost said. “I think we’ve got the people capable of doing that so they’re going to get a lot of chances over 10 more games.”
>> Teddy Prochazka said earlier in the week that he’s still in his head a bit as he returns from injury. Frost provided some insight on that as well.
“He’s getting there. I think he’s healthy,” Frost said. “The biggest thing is just trusting it, believing it and having some confidence. I expect his play to just continue to improve as the year goes along and he feels more comfortable.”
