Lincoln, Neb. – The Huskers practiced for just under two hours in half pads Tuesday afternoon. The offense practiced inside Memorial Stadium and the defense practiced on the Ed and Joyanne Gass practice fields in preparation for the Northwestern game this Saturday. Offensive coordinator Danny Langsdorf spoke with the media following practice.
When asked about the confidence level of junior quarterback Tommy Armstrong Jr., and if he thinks it’ll continue to grow, Langsdorf said, “I think you would certainly hope so. We did some good things (against Minnesota) and when you have a game like that you can build on it and keep growing. Anytime you can complete some balls like we did and move the ball well, everybody should be more confident going into this one.”
Langsdorf elaborated on the players confidence stating, “I think just getting some completions early… we still had a couple (drops) on the first few drives that we were a little off on, but I think we got into that rhythm a little bit better. Just the whole confidence factor, getting the completion and being able to build on it and kind of get on a roll and get hot. (Armstrong) was something like 10 or 11 in a row, I believe, from the second quarter to the end of the third. So if you can keep that thing going with good confidence in the plays and good, accurate throws, I just think you get better and better.”
Coach Langsdorf also spoke on the recent struggles of Northwestern’s defense.
“They played two very good teams,” Landsdorf said. “That obviously factors into it, but they got two great (defensive ends). They’re extremely fast at linebacker. They cover well in the backend. I don’t think they’ve played their best football the last two weeks, but I think they have a solid, solid defense and good speed, especially off the edges. That’s going to be a big deal for us, is blocking the defensive ends. The linebacker speed makes it tough to get to that second level. So we’re going to have to do a good job of taking good angles, chipping the edges and making sure that we get those defensive ends handled.”
Nebraska takes on Northwestern on Saturday. Kickoff is slated for 11:00 a.m. (CT) and can be seen on ESPN2, as well as the WatchESPN app. The Huskers will return to practice tomorrow. Be sure to check back to Huskers.com for continued coverage.