LINCOLN — :40, 39, 38, 37...

Read fast, friends. We haven't much time, and you don't want to get left behind.

See that clock?

:36, 35, 34 ...

That's the play clock on this Husker football story. The goal — no, the demand — is to finish the story before that clock expires. No timeouts.

We're talking about tempo, and if you've listened to Nebraska coaches and players hammer the talking points this week, you know its importance.

On offense, they want to play fast.

Dictate pace.

Force the issue.

Find a rhythm.

Make everyone in the great big stadium forget about that dang little clock.

:33, 32, 31, 30, 29, 28 ...

The story line started with a rather forgettable flaw. When Nebraska had the ball in the first half against Florida Atlantic, the play clock dropped below five seconds. It happened more than once.

So?

Burning play clocks is coaching tradition, like berating a poor line judge for a holding infraction that occurred 40 yards away.

Frank Solich ran out of time — all of the time. Bill Callahan had play-clock problems. And Bo Pelini in year one spent his share of timeouts, too.

Snapping the ball at three, four seconds sure beats snapping it after a referee flings a hanky through the sky, right?

You're missing the point.

The goal is to pressure the defense. Run more plays. Tire those big defensive tackles. :27, 26, 25, 24, 23 ...

Pelini, unprompted, griped about tempo Saturday night after his offense had scored a measly 49 points. Offensive coordinator Shawn Watson grumbled, too.

Yeah, yeah, first-game nitpicking. But coaches have made tempo Point of Emphasis No. 1 during Arkansas State week.

“You just saw our guys weren't crisp going and getting lined up, lulling around and it showed,” Pelini said Tuesday. “If you come out of the huddle with an attitude and you're getting up and down on the ball, it's going to show when the ball's snapped.

“It's just a way about going about your business.”

:22, 21, 20, 19 ...

So what's at fault? Start with experience. Confidence produces swift movement and it's hard to act with confidence during the season's first game, especially with a new quarterback.

Zac Lee, Watson said, must improve his “huddle tempo.” Apparently, he talks too slow.

:18, 17, 16, 15 ...

There were other factors to last week's first-half slowdown. Factors that don't involve Lee. Like stall tactics.

“Their defensive linemen were waiting for us to get set, so we were kind of waiting for them to get set,” center Jacob Hickman said. “So you kind of had a little standoff, where you're going to lose as an offensive guy because you're going to get a penalty.”

Line coach Barney Cotton's advice: Forget the defender across the line of scrimmage. Get to the line and get your hand on the ground.

:14, 13, 12, 11, 10 ...

This tempo thing works, coaches say, if only players execute it. After coaches raised their voices at halftime Saturday, Roy Helu ran for 95 yards on his next five carries. Nebraska moved 130 yards on two drives and scored 14 points.

“What happened in that third quarter?” receivers coach Ted Gilmore said. “Things got on a roll. You got going. Tempo. Guys were bouncing around.

“You didn't have the snapping the ball with two, three seconds like in the first half.”

Said Watson: “They couldn't stop us.”

:09, 08, 07, 06 ...

The 40-second clock starts when the whistle blows.

Nebraska wants to huddle, call a play, transfer the call from press box to sideline, signal the call from sideline to huddle, communicate the call from quarterback to offense and return to the line with, oh, at least 15 seconds remaining.

It's more than just wearing down defenders. There's another strategic element.

The quarterback needs time at the line of scrimmage to audible to a different play, if he must. But for Lee to evaluate the scene, the defense must be set. The only way to set the defense is set the offense. You see how this works?

:05, 04, 03 ...

“You gotta get in, you gotta get out, you gotta get up and get down,” Gilmore said.

:02, 01 ...

Shoot, we were just getting to the good part.

Contact the writer:

679-9899, dirk.chatelain@owh.com