• Photo Showcase: Husker fans in Seattle
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Jeff Jamrog relayed the message from the top.
It's going to be loud.
Nebraska's assistant athletic director for football said legendary coach Tom Osborne told him this week that Husky Stadium was the loudest he ever stepped inside. He wanted to make sure the Husker staff knew what was in store at Washington.
So to prepare, Nebraska pumped in plenty of noise this week during practice. For better or worse.
“Coach (Bo) Pelini … it gives him headaches,” Jamrog said at Friday's Big Red Breakfast.
Jamrog said the Huskers will take 86 players — 61 on scholarship, 25 walk-ons — to Washington for Saturday's 2:30 p.m. game. They apparently won't be the only Nebraskans in Seattle. Jamrog said he's already heard from friends in the area who tell him there's plenty of red on the streets.
He expects to see NU fan support reflected the way it was when Husker fans showed up in South Bend, Ind., in 2000 when NU visited Notre Dame.
“It's impressive,” Jamrog said. “Even though it is an away game, it's almost like a home game for us when you see 15,000, 20,000. Hopefully Washington's offense is going to have some problems with the crowd noise.”
Jamrog, a former Nebraska player and assistant coach, spoke for nearly an hour before going through a set of highlights from last week's win against Idaho and then some of Washington. Both Idaho and Washington have big-time quarterbacks projected to be high NFL draft picks.
But NU's focus wasn't about Idaho's Nathan Enderle and won't be Jake Locker of Washington, Jamrog said. It is on what Nebraska does.
“We didn't make a big deal about the quarterback,” Jamrog said, while pointing out six of Nebraska's seven sacks against Idaho came on a four-man rush. “But we did make a big deal about our front four on defense. We made a big deal about covering the right people and making it tough to make those kinds of throws.”
NOTES FROM THE BIG RED BREAKFAST
• Strength coach James Dobson told the Nebraska staff that the group of 40 freshmen (both scholarship and walk-on) who participated in the summer program made up “the best class we've brought in top to bottom, scholarship to walk-on,” Jamrog said. “And you're going to see a lot of those kids make heavy contributions in the future.”
• An NFL scout at Saturday's game called coach Bo Pelini this week and was impressed with how hard the Huskers played against Idaho, and specifically commented on senior I-back Roy Helu.
• NU linebackers coach Mike Ekeler is to blame for quarterback Taylor Martinez “throwing the bones” as a touchdown celebration in the opening week. The gesture usually is reserved for the defense. Ekeler apparently gave Martinez the idea on the sidelines after his first score of the game. “The one thing about youth is they will listen,” Jamrog said to laughs. “So you've got to be careful what you tell Taylor. He'll probably do it.”
• Nebraska will likely go with the same linebacker set-up it did a week ago, with LaVonte David and Eric Martin as the starters.
Contact the writer:
850-0781, nickrubek@hotmail.com
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• Video: Husker fans invade Seattle:
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