Lincoln, Neb. — The Nebraska football team practice for under 90 minutes inside the Hawks Center on Monday night in sweats, just two days after upsetting No. 6 Michigan State.
Defensive coordinator Mark Banker spoke to the media following practice, impressed with his defense’s performance against Michigan State on Saturday.
“In the first half, despite the two runs on that short side, with the exception of the last drive, we played pretty consistent,” Banker said. “We started out the game and we had a third-down stop, had a fourth-down stop [and] had two three-and-outs. It was our best fourth quarter that we’ve had from a standpoint of score. In the second-to-last series, we come up with a stop. Byerson Cockrell made a tremendous open-field tackle when they tried to run a reverse they had success on earlier in the game, [but we] stopped them there. It was the best tackling day we had, we only missed four tackles. There were a number of tackles made out on the perimeter by all the positions.
“[On the very last drive] we had a chance to go back on the field with time left in the game, the ball up toward the midfield and nobody blinked. We probably had the best four-man rush on those two plays that we had in the whole game. Freedom [Akinmoladun] hit him both times, on the very last play, he almost lost the ball, Jack [Gangwish] got his hand on him. We had great coverage on that very, very last one and we were able to win the game. I thought the players really stuck to it, came out in the first quarter and started the game pretty well and finished the game well.”
Banker acknowledged that his defense still struggled at times against the Spartans’ offense, but he was proud of their resiliency.
“The disappointing thing was not being able to get off the field on the very, very last series [in the first half],” Banker said. “It kind of left a sour taste in your mouth going into the locker room. [In the] third quarter, we could not get off the field. They converted every third down in that third quarter, but I thought they stayed with it, they fought hard.”
The Huskers defeated sixth-ranked Michigan State 39-38 just two days ago, but know the necessity to focus on the upcoming game against Rutgers on Saturday, especially with offensive weapons like receiver Leonte Carroo.
“We don’t have a lot of film on him, therefore we don’t know exactly how or where he’ll line up or how he’ll be utilized,” Banker said. “We do know this – that he’s only played 15 quarters this year, and he has nine touchdowns and by NFL standards, a lot of the scouts are talking about him possibly being the first wide receiver to possibly go. So we know he has speed, he’s got good size and you can see him catching the ball and running around, running his routes. ”
The Huskers travel to Piscataway, N.J., to take on the Rutgers Scarlet Knights on Saturday, Nov. 14. Kickoff is set for 2:30 p.m. and the game will be air live on BTN and BTN2Go.com. Check back to Huskers.com for more information.