Saturday Notebook: Less is more for live contact

In front of an audience of hundreds of high school football coaches from around the state in town for the annual coaches’ clinic, Nebraska strapped on the pads and hit the Memorial Stadium field for one of the few full-contact scrimmage sessions of the spring on Saturday.

The live work only encompassed roughly a fourth of the practice, as the Huskers also did their regular individual and special teams work inside the Hawks Championship Center for about half of the session and also mixed in some 7-on-7 drills at the stadium.

The day kind of summed up NU’s overall approach to the spring, as the team has gone away from loading up on live tacking in favor of focusing on the details and technique work while also avoiding unnecessary injuries.

“We’re practicing pretty fast and physical without trying to go to the ground,” head coach Mike Riley said. “The ground and piles is where injuries are often created. I really, really want to get all the good practice and physical practice and fast practice that we can, and I really, really, really want to get out of this thing as healthy as we can be. I’m telling you, blending that is not an easy task, but it’s our job. This is how we’re doing it.”

Saturday marked one of only a handful of practices in which Nebraska conducted a live scrimmage with full tackling. Riley said the team would only practice like that two or three times all spring, including the Red-White game.

“I’ll be good with that,” Riley said. “I really have changed a lot of thoughts about spring practice through the years. I just don’t want to come out of spring practice with a whole lot of injuries and a whole lot of nothing as far as execution.

"I want to establish some things technically that the kids can do and then strategically that we can do on a play and then leave it at that. Not try to accomplish everything out there at once. Let’s just get some stuff done and come out of it with a good foundation.”

The approach this year is certainly a change from how Riley has conducted spring practices earlier in his career. But after seeing the results from nearly 30 years of college coaching, Riley has come to the conclusion that less is more when it comes to contact.

“Yeah, I think there probably would have been much more live stuff, and I think that we probably would have tried to install every part of the game and we probably would’ve practice for three hours or something like that,” Riley said.

“That’s really changed. I try to look at what are we really going to get out of spring practice and what’s important to get out of spring practice. I’m not sure we’ve hit on the final product yet, but I sure like what we’re doing.”

- Robin Washut

One way Nebraska has tried to maximize its practice time this spring has been utilizing scout team work for the both the top offense and defense.

While scout teams aren’t generally formulated until the fall, Riley and his staff decided to put them together this spring to allow both sides of the ball to get different types of work, much of it detailed around specific schemes and looks.

“We do that so that that defensively, for a 12-play period, they can see some stuff that they don’t get from our offense,” Riley said. “Things like empty sets at this time, some bunch sets at this time, maybe some particular zone read plays - things that we don’t run and they want to get some work on.”

For the past three practices, the Huskers have held two scout team sessions, with the most recent coming on Saturday.

Along with giving the defense different looks, Riley said the periods allow for the offense to really refine certain aspects of the playbook that the coaches want to highlight going into the season.

“The last two times we have done scout teams, they have been screen/draw/drop-back pass periods,” Riley said. “So there’s a mixture of that stuff to keep the defense honest with the draw or the pass and then run some screens with it. So we get an emphasis on those plays, which I really want to do better on.

"The screens, historically we have been a really, really good screen team. We were a really, really average screen team last year, so we want to get that back. We’ve got a couple focus periods, and it’s better done against scout teams sometimes than it is against the defense.”

- Robin Washut

It’s been a patient process with the development of redshirt freshmen defensive tackles Carlos and Kahlil Davis, but Riley likes where the Kansas City duo is at after nine spring practices.

During Saturday’s limited scrimmage work inside Memorial Stadium, but the Davis twins made their presence felt in the back field.

“They are doing well,” Riley said of the Davis twins. “I think the factors right now are consistency in play. As far as ability and what looks good out on the horizon, it’s all good stuff. That’s all a nice picture right there.

“Those are two good kids that have talent and are making some plays, and frankly we need them to either start or compete to start and they are capable of that.”

The Davis twins are also putting track practice on hold during the spring. Originally they planned to throw the discus at a meet over spring break in Arizona, but they said on Saturday they won’t compete until after spring practice is over.

-Sean Callahan

Going into the spring things were pretty established at running back with both Terrell Newby and Devine Ozigbo coming off strong finishes to the 2015 season.

The one mystery however remained sophomore Mikale Wilbon. After Saturday’s practice Riley said Wilbon has started to make a push and it’s a three-horse race with him, Newby and Ozigbo for the starting running back position.

“I kind of expected what we’d get from (Terrell) Newby, and obviously what Devine (Ozigbo) did last year and how he finished, I had a good feeling about that,” Riley said. “The pleasant part has been Wilbon. He fits right into the mode with those guys. I’m excited about that.”

Several things kept Wilbon off the field last year, the biggest being his ability to pass protect. Riley said that area of his game has improved, along with others.

“Just his total involvement with the team when we talk about playing special teams and just playing football,” Riley said. “I think he’s elevated that part of it too.”

-Sean Callahan

***Riley said quarterbacks AJ Bush and Patrick O’Brien both had good days in the live scrimmage portions of practice on Saturday. In fact, Riley said it was maybe the best day Bush has had yet. Once again, Riley praised O’Brien and how far along the freshman is already as such a young age.

***Riley said the progress and play of the offensive and defensive lines and the health of a thin secondary would be the biggest keys to the season for Nebraska.

***Riley said defensive end Freedom Akinmoladun has been improving “minute to minute” this spring, and he’s got a real chance to solidify himself as Nebraska’s top pass rush threat.

***Riley gave an update on De’Mornay Pierson-El, saying the wide out/return man is about 80 percent towards a full recovery from his knee injury he suffered last season. Riley said most importantly Pierson-El’s spirits are high and he feel good about his progress in his recovery.