Nebraska Football: Tuesday Practice Report With Bob Diaco

Your Nebraska Cornhuskers went at it again today, practicing for just over two hours in and around the grass fields of North Stadium.

Due to the law of the NCAA, players could not be in pads the first two days of practice, so today is the first day that players that started camp on time could suit up in full gear.

Going with the basic script of how Nebraska does post-practice availability to the media, new Nebraska DC Bob Diaco had his turn in front of the microphones after the workout this morning. Along with Diaco, members of the Nebraska defensive unit that have played in a game for the Huskers were allowed to be interviewed.

A little scruffy, a little shady in the black. I dig it. Anyhow, what did he say today?

Interesting statement about Josh Kalu, but it makes the most sense. Josh has the most starts of anyone returning for Nebraska with 28, and only trails Drew Brown on having the most starts for Nebraska period.

I stated this morning on Nick Gregath’s show on ESPN 1480 in Lincoln that I was excited to see what LB’s chimed in and will take advantage of spots that are open. We all knew about Avery Roberts, but Andrew Ward and Willie Hampton should make some noise as well.

Another interesting thing to me, at least, is a senior saying this about two kids who seem to take over whatever they do and put it on their back. They did that in both football and track back in high school, and Carlos should at the very least be in the fray this coming season. Khalil should be heard from as well.

Interesting in how in the spring, it was more a staff mentality when it came to special teams. But, with Scott Booker on the main staff now, he’ll be the ST guy. Hopefully, it’s not with Bruce Read’s money, but I digress.

Drew Brown isn’t the issue right now, anyways. The entire return game and the jump Caleb Lightbourn needs to take are bigger issues.

Speaking of Booker:

I’ve always said that if you can’t be a great coach, you better be a pretty damn good recruiter. We have no idea how good Williams will be at Nebraska, but he fits because he can get kids to Lincoln. We’ll have to see what Booker does coaching, but he does have a good background in recruiting.

Notre Dame folks weren’t high on Booker’s ST coaching, but they were still ranked decently in a lot of categories.

Lamar Jackson last year did all right at times, but there were times that the true freshman was burnt like toast. Primarily, the bowl game was kind of rough on him. Considering that Chris Jones is out until at least the Wisconsin game, Nebraska needs Jackson to lock down his side of the field and make a big jump.

The Cobcast guys just popped a bottle of Korbel.

The Huskers will work out again on Wednesday and Thursday this week before taking Friday off, then one workout on Saturday. There will be press availability after Thursday and Saturday, with Danny Langsdorf and Mike Riley getting the spotlight accordingly. Then the Huskers will take Sunday off and get into a Monday-Saturday practice schedule for the rest of Fall Camp.