Spring Game

The Field Turf Grounds Keeper's Blog

Partly Cloudy

Prior to the game, Greg McMullen, a soon to be senior and anchor of the defensive line announced to the rest of the team that he was forgoing his final Husker season to pursue other life goals.  Add to the fact that backup defensive tackle Kevin Williams had made his intentions known that he was going to transfer and backup center Paul Thurston was also leaving, the game had a certain dreariness to it that matched the sunless sky.  If  you had a chance to go to the Nebraska Spring game or check out the three quarters that were shown on the Big Ten network, you probably noticed it was an overcast day at the grand old Memorial Stadium.  And that wasn’t just because of the clouds.

The game itself is never a big indicator of things to come, as many of you have witnessed over the years.  Players like Jamal Turner that blow up during this annual scrimmage oftentimes don’t have the career that this practice sometimes may promise.  With that being said, Coach Riley seems to have settled into his role of Husker caretaker and wanted to establish the ground game during the spring.  With Tommy Armstrong breaking off a handful of beautiful runs, it looks like they have an identity to how this offense will work with Armstrong and that is very promising after last year’s first nine games, when it seemed like no one could get on the same page for more than a quarter or two.

Anytime you play against yourself, everything is either good or bad depending on how you want to look at it.  Young players that will be counted on to help make the Blackshirts a feared unit again, made some plays that let you know there is a lot of talent on that side of the ball, but at the same time, gave up the long runs to Armstrong and were blown off the ball enough to know that there is still a long way to go before Oregon comes to Lincoln in the fall.

At the same time, names like Mohamed Barry, Carlos Davis and DaiShon Neal look to be the real deal and give promise to seasons to come.  

If you were looking for offensive fireworks, outside of the running game, most of the passing was held in check. Cethan Carter and Brandon Reilly probably were underutilized and we didn’t see some of the dynamic passing that helped the late season surge in the takedowns of the Michigan States and UCLAs of the world.  All of that was by design however and I expect those two along with the return of Jordan Westerkamp and Stanley Morgan give this offense a lot of firepower to compete in the Big Ten.

Hope springs eternal in Husker nation, but that is based more on the promising finish to last season than on one spring scrimmage, and that is probably how it should be.  There was some real positives to the spring, as hope truly should be eternal.  Now the only problem that we seem to have is the stunning reality that, well…..there is no football for the next four months.  And for that, the spring game was a nice oasis on an otherwise dreary day.