Nebraska fans might call him “T-Magic,” but to NU receivers coach Ted Gilmore, Taylor Martinez may always be the one who got away.
Gilmore jokingly told a crowd of around 250 at Friday morning's Big Red Breakfast about being in meetings and hoping that the Martinez experiment at quarterback would be less than successful.
At least he seemed like he was joking.
“For selfish reasons, I was hoping he'd fail,” Gilmore said tongue in cheek. “Because guess who would have got him? It was one of those deals, sitting in the back of the (meeting) room, you're listening to what's being said, you've got your fingers crossed.”
And Martinez, Gilmore said, is partly to blame for getting Gilmore's hopes up. The coach said the redshirt freshman would make sure that Gilmore got a glimpse of what life would be like with him at receiver.
“It never fails that when (I come) walking out, I'm walking by the quarterbacks, and when they're playing catch, he'll just kind of catch the ball with one hand ... and smile at me,” Gilmore said. “So he's part of the reason I was keeping my fingers crossed because he knew I was watching.”
As for the guys that do play for Gilmore, senior Niles Paul got both heavy praise and a tad of criticism from his position coach. Gilmore spoke highly of the Omaha North graduate's toughness, something he said is rubbing off on the other receivers.
It's the attention to detail — the “little things” he called them — that are going to be the difference in Paul meeting expectations that have been set for him.
Gilmore also praised freshman receiver Quincy Enunwa in an anecdote involving Paul.
In fall camp Gilmore said he matched newcomer Enunwa against Paul in the “Husker Drill,” a high-contact portion of practice in which Gilmore said he tries to create as many collisions as possible.
“In most cases like this, when you have your senior, your alpha male, and that true freshman comes up, he doesn't want to have anything to do with that,” Gilmore said. “This youngster stepped up, I blew the whistle and he got after Niles Paul. I mean he got after him. Shocked everybody. And of course Niles went, ‘No, coach, I want another shot at that.' Of course Niles finished him off the next time. But (Enunwa) got everybody's attention. Right then we knew we had something.”
Gilmore on some of his other receivers:
• Brandon Kinnie: “Obviously we're starting to see what he's capable of doing. Between him and Niles, I cannot stop them from running their mouth. Gosh they like to talk.”
• Mike McNeill: “It's been a good move. Mike has brought a sense of calmness to the room — to a room that was a bit immature a year ago. That (brings) instant credibility. What he is, he's a very heady guy. Obviously he's a guy that I'm leaning on to show some of those younger guys the way.”
• Khiry Cooper: “We've got to get him stronger where we can get him on the perimeter and can hold up. He's got to get to know (strength coach) Dobson a little bit better. I think once that occurs, once that body starts to change a little bit, he's going to be a much better player for us.”
• Will Henry, aka “Avatar,” according to Gilmore: “Will has worked harder than anybody in my room to get to the point he's at. He had a great spring, a great fall camp. So if for some reason we had to put him in the ballgame, I'm not nervous about doing it at all right now.”
• Tim Marlowe: “In my room he's got the tag of being vertically challenged, but he's got a big heart and he competes his tail off. He's a nice little change-up. We'll continue to develop his role. He's on the come.”
• Enunwa: “He's giving me gray hairs, but he's well worth it. He really is. As the year progresses, you're going to see more of him.”
Gilmore also said that he's seen good things from true freshman Tyler Evans and walk-on senior Joe Broekemeier. Injuries have slowed Kenny Bell, another true freshman, and Curenski Gilleylen, but Gilmore said he's still high on both. Gilmore said Bell has put on 16 pounds since coming to Lincoln. He also added that the staff worked Gilleylen back in last week and he's practicing this week.
One of the more interesting things Gilmore talked about Friday came when he was asked about the differences working under Bo Pelini and former NU coach Bill Callahan. When he first came to Nebraska, Gilmore said, he sensed a feeling of divide. You could have split the room down the middle. When Pelini and Tom Osborne returned, that changed, he added.
“So I think that's the biggest thing for me,” Gilmore said, “is that I know when it comes to Husker Nation, everybody's on board.”
Contact the writer:
850-0781, nickrubek@hotmail.com
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