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Mike Riley’s Monday Press Conference: Tre Bryant To Undergo Knee Surgery

Nebraska’s head football coach discussed other injuries and some possible shuffles on the offensive line.

Arkansas State v Nebraska Photo by Steven Branscombe/Getty Images

Earlier this morning, the Big Ten Network announced that kickoff for the Huskers game against Northwestern (i.e. NU/NW) will be on November 4 at 2:30 p.m., televised by BTN.

Nebraska head football coach Mike Riley had his Monday press conference and started out by saying that while the Huskers are not happy with the football they’re playing, they are still working hard to improve and he still likes his team.

This is a good thing.

Chris Weber gets a Riley shoutout:

Antonio Reed, Aaron Williams and Joshua Kalu appear ready to return to action this week. This is good, because they’ll be needed.

Tre Bryant, unfortunately, is done for the season.

The good news is that Bryant is eligible for a medical redshirt, having only played in two games this season.

More bad news on injuries, though, as Dedrick Young and Luke Gifford (who had been playing well) are probably not going to see the field this weekend against Purdue:

Tyrin Ferguson is a sophomore out of Edna Karr in Louisiana. Marcus Newby is a senior from Maryland:

That could mean one of two things: First, one of the current quarterbacks may be thinking of transferring, or second, the coaching staff is reassessing the current roster and thinking they might need a different skill set, perhaps looking again at dual-threat quarterbacks. Honestly, this is where we really miss Brian and need to find someone to bolster our recruiting coverage:

Some people have criticized Nebraska’s depth at quarterback in recent years, and Riley counters that argument, especially with only 85 scholarships available for the entire team.

And here’s the money quote for everyone to rip on Riley, because it’s all his fault that in year three he still hasn’t gotten to the roster position he’d like to be in...

Riley has a point, although it’s mostly lost by now. We wouldn’t have been happy with Mark Banker sticking around, but we’re not happy with the defensive changes and Bob Diaco’s 3-4 defense either.

It’s not a good sign about your current tight ends that you bring up a couple redshirts when someone asks you about tight ends who might be able to help right now. Our tight ends have not played well at all, and it is hurting this offense.

More shuffling is underway on the offensive line, where redshirt freshman Matt Farniok is experimenting at guard.

Tanner Lee spoke after Mike Riley, and alluded to the growing speculation about the head coach.

That concludes this week’s Mike Riley press conference!

Woohoooo! Go Big Red!