• Video: Nebraska coach Bo Pelini speaks at the spring football press conference:
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LINCOLN — Nebraska senior Mike McNeill has been around long enough to know what happens when the Huskers have 15 practices with no game ahead, no plan to install and no opponent to study.
You go to the practice field, McNeill said, and head coach Bo Pelini asks you to get after it.
“Coach Pelini's not going to let us off with a little less because it's the spring," McNeill said. “We're going to be hitting just like we would in fall camp. Obviously fall camp is a little more strenuous, but it's not like we're going to pull back at all."
Nebraska starts spring practice Wednesday without pads and will go Friday in helmets and shoulder pads, per NCAA rules. The Huskers then will hold 12 of the last 13 workouts in full pads.
And with full contact.
“It's real physical, probably more physical than fall camp because we don't actually have any real games coming up," receiver Niles Paul said. “Coaches really push us and they really test to see who's going to go out there and compete every day."
Pelini said Tuesday that there has to be a balance between being physical and not beating up your team. But that isn't as much of a concern when the first game is still five months away.
Freak things can and will occur, he acknowledged. It happened to quarterback Kody Spano in a noncontact drill last year, when he tore a knee ligament.
“I don't care whether it's a contact drill, a noncontact drill .... when you're out there in athletics and these guys are big and fast and talented and doing things, you can have injuries," Pelini said. “But how much you hit and how physical you are, I don't think, plays a lot of part into it.
“You go after it, you play hard, you go in there and you try to do the best you can. And hopefully, God willing, everybody comes out of it healthy."
Pelini said he likes the look and attitude of his third team, and by testing it over the next 312 weeks he will find out more.
“I think we practice smart,” he said, “but in the end we need to be a hard, high-effort, physical football team, and that's the way we're going to practice.”
That means no more green no-contact jerseys for the quarterbacks, with the exception of Spano. the jerseys have been a common sight in recent seasons, although coaches did take quarterbacks out of the green for segments of last fall.
Even without the special jerseys, Paul said, the offense will be protective of Cody Green and the other QBs.
“It kind of heats things up,” Paul said. “Because, you know, we expect the defensive players to respect that he's still the quarterback, and sometimes they don't. And it starts conflict, and the level of intensity in practice increases.”
Pelini said he loves spring practice because it gives the staff a chance to develop its players. It's also a time to build on the work done in winter conditioning, especially for players who redshirted or hardly played last season.
And that's why Pelini wants them to see a physical and challenging spring.
“I like where our football team is right now,” he said. “I like what we accomplished through the winter, from January through March. It set us up to have a good spring. I think we're in a good position to make best use of these 15 practices.”
Contact the writer:
444-1042, rich.kaipust@owh.com
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• Video: Nebraska wide receiver/tight end Mike McNeill speaks at the spring football press conference:
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