Lincoln, Neb. – The Huskers returned to practice Tuesday after the Rutgers win and practiced for just under two hours. The offense practiced in the Cook Pavilion while the defense practiced in the Hawks Championship Center.

Head Coach Mike Riley spoke to the media following practice. He spoke about the team’s need for a bye week.

“We’ve played 11 straight weeks. We went right through fall camp and started playing games, so I’m approaching this week a little bit differently than I would normally.” Riley said. “We are going to practice two hard days. One of them was today, one of them will be tomorrow and they’ll have some lifting times. Then I’d like to get them rested. We’ll start practicing Sunday afternoon.”

Coach Riley also talked about how he and his staff have been involved in a lot of Friday games in the past.

“In my old league, we were playing any night. We played them all…Thursday, Friday, Saturday. So we were always pretty flexible…It’s just about the countdown to the game and it doesn’t matter the day of the week.” Riley said. “Having a bye really, really helps us, considering that it’s a Friday game. It’s about time for us. I’ve really appreciated this team a lot. I think that they’ve stayed the course, battled a lot of injuries, got better and positioned ourselves to set the table for a big game.”

Coach Riley proceeded to explain how the Iowa game is another great opportunity for the team to come out and shine.

“It’s really exciting.” Riley said. “This is another great opportunity for this year’s team. We’ve been on a little bit of a roller coaster in a lot of ways, so it would be just a great opportunity to win.”

The Huskers will return for another hard-hitting practice on Wednesday afternoon. Check back to Huskers.com for further coverage as the bye week continues.