Huskers lose Clark for season, but young CBs look ready to step up

Nebraska was finally able to put pads on this week for the first time in 10 months, but the Huskers have already suffered their first notable injury loss of the 2020 season.

Head coach Scott Frost announced during his Zoom press conference on Friday that redshirt sophomore cornerback Braxton Clark would miss the rest of the season due to a shoulder injury.

“Braxton Clark was having a really good offseason as a defensive back for us, was going to be a contributor,” Frost said. “He was doing a pre-practice – not even that violent of a drill – and had a shoulder issue that’ll probably keep him out the rest of this season…

“Obviously, it’s heartbreaking any time someone has a season-ending injury, and we feel for Braxton.”

The 6-foot-4, 210-pound native of Orlando, Fla., was coming off a solid redshirt freshman campaign in 2019, where he played in every game and made his first career start against Purdue.

Clark finished with 11 tackles on the season while snagging his first interception vs. Northern Illinois and recovering his first fumble at Maryland.

His loss not only leaves NU without one of its more promising young defensive backs in 2020, but it also makes an already young cornerback room even less experienced.

Senior Dicaprio Bootle and junior Cam Taylor-Britt are the only upperclassmen cornerbacks on the roster. Without Clark, the rest of the depth chart is made up of redshirt sophomore Quinton Newsome, true sophomore transfer Nadab Joseph, and true freshmen Tamon Lynum and Ronald Delancy.

Of that group, only Bootle, Taylor-Britt, and Newsome have played in a game as Huskers.

Frost was asked if he was concerned about the lack of established depth at cornerback, but he seemed optimistic about the new faces coming up the ranks.

“We’ll see,” Frost said. “There’s a lot of young guys doing a lot of good things, some guys playing well right now. So I’ve got a lot of confidence in the guys we have. Braxton was certainly going to be a part of that…

“We certainly can’t handle a lot of injuries at a few positions, (cornerback) being one of them. But our team will rally.”

Frost also provided some good injury news that would go a long way in shoring up some of those cornerback depth concerns.

Newsome, who injured his arm back in July, has been cleared to return to practice and could be ready to play in Nebraska’s season opener at Ohio State on Oct. 24.

“We actually think we have a good chance of getting Quinton Newsome back,” Frost said. “The extra time probably helped us with that. He’s been cleared. That certainly helps…

“We have a few more guys nicked up and we’re waiting to hear, but for the most part, our team’s been pretty healthy.”