Nebraska held its first full-pads scrimmage session of the spring Saturday in front of media members and coaches attending the Nebraska spring coaching clinic. The team held full contact drills and special team work before breaking down into a full scrimmage.
The Huskers ran just under 70 plays during the scrimmage period. Each quarterback had a chance to work with different groups of personell, including Tanner Lee, Patrick O'Brien, Tristain Gebbia and Andrew Bunch.
"There were some nice, 10, 11, 12 play drives that were executed by each quarterback," Head Coach Mike Riley said. "I thought early on that Tanner (Lee) did that, Patrick (O'Brien) eventually, and then I thought Gebbia had a pretty darn good day for his first scrimmage in college."
The energy was high all day, partly brought by the defense under the helm of new Defensive Coordinator Bob Diaco. If one thing was evident, its that this team was ready to throw the pads on and hit someone.
"I love the enthusiasm of the work," Riley said. "There's an energy with our defense right now that's exciting."
While each quarterback had a chance to show off what they had today, Riley still says he isn't budging on saying which guy he thinks has an edge in the competition.
"Even if I did (see separation), I don't want to say right now," Riley said. "I think that it's not necessary. I really like what both of these guys are doing. We need them both to be ready to start and play. The way they are alternating their work is very very well done by coach Langsdorf. They're getting almost identical turns."
On the defensive side of things, Riley said that he loves the switch of Josh Kalu from cornerback to safety, and he thinks the new position changes will make the unit much better. He also said he enjoys having Lamar Jackson and Chirs Jones at the corner spot.
The offense had some struggles picking up blocks during the scrimmage period of practice, and Riley pointed to the 3-4 defense for causing those disruptions.
"I think we were fooled a little bit," Riley said. "That's the beauty of the 3-4 defense. What you think you're going to get is all of the sudden not there."
The Huskers will be back to work Tuesday for another spring practice before the April 15 Red-White Spring Game.
