Lincoln, Neb. – The Nebraska football team ended its first full week of Fall Camp on Saturday with a two-hour practice at the Ed and Joyanne Gass practice fields outside of the Hawks Championship Center.

With the conclusion of the first week of practice, NU has seen its fair share of bumps and bruises along the way, losing both sophomore linebacker Michael Rose-Ivey and junior nickel back Charles Jackson for the season due to injury.

Head Coach Bo Pelini met with the media following practice Saturday, noting that the teams overall morale is just fine, despite the loss of two potential starters for the 2014 season.

“Our team morale is fine, I feel for those kids,” Pelini said. “As far us going forward, we have a lot of good players and a lot of good competition. We will be fine.”

Overall, Pelini thought the Huskers had a good first week of practice, mentioning that he has been impressed with the competition between the players.

“We had a good week, our kids are making progress. There is a lot of competition going on for spots and that competition will continue.”

A player that has stepped up recently in practice has been true freshman cornerback Kieron Williams. Williams, a late addition to the 2014 recruiting class  played at Air Force Prep and Byrd High School in Shreveport, La.,  before coming to Nebraska. He recorded 41 tackles in two seasons at Byrd, 36 of which were solo stops.

“I think Kieron is aggressive, he has good insticts,” Pelini said. “I think his understanding, the more we install, it is all starting to run together for him.”

Nebraska will take Sunday off, before resuming practice on Monday with two practices.

Nebraska fans are reminded about their opportunity to be on hand at Memorial Stadium as the Huskers kick off the 2014 season. Fans can purchase the Cornhusker Kickoff Combo package for the Florida Atlantic game on Aug. 30 and the matchup with McNeese State on Sept. 6. The two-game package can be purchased at Huskers.com for $100. Fans can also purchase single-game tickets to all games other than the Miami and Minnesota games at Huskers.com.

Lincoln, Neb. – The Nebraska football team continued Fall Camp on Thursday evening with a 75-minute practice at the Ed and Joyanne Gass practice fields outside of the Hawks Championship Center.

After practice, Head Coach Bo Pelini addressed the media briefly, announcing that junior nickel back Charles Jackson will miss the entire 2014 season due to a knee injury suffered this week.

Jackson, a native of Spring, Texas was expected to compete for the starting nickel back job, a key position in the Husker defense.

“For his (Jackson) long term best interest, they are going to fix it, so he will be out for the year,” Pelini said. “Fortunately for Charles, he has a redshirt year so he still has two years left. It is not a horrible injury, it is a very unusual injury.”

Pelini added, “He will come back and be better than ever,” Pelini said. “It was a hard deal for him, he has put in a lot of work in to it, I feel for him right now.”

Besides the injury, Pelini mentioned that there should not be much more change to the defense this fall. Pelini said that, “We are good, I like the way we are lined up right now, we are not going to make any changes.”

Players that are likely to step in to fill the void left by Jackson are junior defensive back Byerson Cockrell of Columbus, Miss., and true freshman Joshua Kalu of Houston, Texas.

Cockrell, a junior college transfer out of East Mississippi CC, joined the program in January. The 6-0, 185-pound Cockrell was impressive throughout spring ball, earning significant action with the top defensive unit.

“I love Byerson Cockrell, he is a really good player,” Pelini said. “He is a very smart and very intelligent football player.”

Defensive coordinator John Papuchis also likes how Cockrell has improved since joining the Huskers this past January.

“He (Cockrell) is a fast learner, he is all business every day that he takes the field, he is trying to get better,” Pelini said. “That has nothing to do with being ‘more in the spotlight’ that is just how he has been since he has gotten here.”

Kalu, a 6-1, 170-pound Houston native made 51 tackles and had four interceptions as a senior at Alief Taylor High School, with three returns for touchdowns. Kalu’s play earned him All-Greater Houston first-team honors from the Houston Chronicle, and he was also a first-team all-district selection.

Papuchis talked about the strong play by the five newcomers in the secondary as well, noting that the players are learning very quickly.

“In four days I have been pretty impressed, you can tell they were well-coached in high school,” Papuchis said. “The things that we are coaching and installing, it doesn’t seem like they are hearing it for the first time.”

Nebraska will put on full pads for the first time during the preseason on Friday, and wrap up week one of fall camp with a Saturday practice.

Nebraska fans are reminded about their opportunity to be on hand at Memorial Stadium as the Huskers kick off the 2014 season. Fans can purchase the Cornhusker Kickoff Combo package for the Florida Atlantic game on Aug. 30 and the matchup with McNeese State on Sept. 6. The two-game package can be purchased at Huskers.com for $100. Fans can also purchase single-game tickets to all games other than the Miami and Minnesota games at Huskers.com.

Lincoln, Neb. – The Nebraska football team continued Fall Camp on Wednesday with a two-hour practice at the Ed and Joyanne Gass practice fields outside of the Hawks Championship Center.

Afterward, Offensive Coordinator Tim Beck spoke to the media about the up-tempo speed of practice and was pleased with the way it is going so far.

“I like it,” Beck said. “It’s part of the simplification process on us to allow those guys to play a little bit faster. It fits what we can do. I think we have good depth on both sides of the ball. We’re going to go after people a little bit. It keeps them focused.”

Beck also talked about the quarterback battle from the last few practices.

“(I see) just inconsistency right now,” Beck said. “Obviously we are putting in all the install today. Their heads were swimming a little bit. But there’s talent. There’s a lot of good things they are doing. I’ve been pleased. I see improvement in them every day in the things they need to improve on. It’s going to be a process we are going to have to go through here in the next couple weeks. Hopefully the best player is going to end up rising to the top. They are all working hard. I’m pleased the way they are working. We’re a work in progress. We just have a ways to go.”

Beck said that reps have been split “pretty evenly,” but added that Tommy Armstrong has been mostly with the ones. When discussing Armstrong along with Ryker Fyfe and Johnny Stanton, Beck said, “No matter which one of those guys is in there, I like them all and we can build an offense around each one of those guys.”

Beck added that today was a heavy day but said the offense needs to keep an edge.

“You introduce it, you practice it, you start focusing on ‘this is what we are best at. Here’s what we are going to do,” Beck said. “We aren’t to that point just yet.”

Beck also elaborated on how the coaching staff has simplified the offense.

“Everything,” Beck said. “How we call it. What we call it. Signaling. Just kind of everything.”

Nebraska fans are reminded about their opportunity to be on hand at Memorial Stadium as the Huskers kick off the 2014 season. Fans can purchase the Cornhusker Kickoff Combo package for the Florida Atlantic game on Aug. 30 and the matchup with McNeese State on Sept. 6. The two-game package can be purchased at Huskers.com for $100. Fans can also purchase single-game tickets to all games other than the Miami and Minnesota games at Huskers.com. 

The Nebraska football team hit the practice field for the first time in preparation for the 2014 season on Monday night, going through a one-hour and 40-minute workout in shorts and helmets inside the Hawks Center and on the Ed and Joyanne Gass practice facility.

The Monday evening workout began four weeks of practice for Nebraska in advance of the Huskers’ season opener against Florida Atlantic on Aug. 30. Nebraska will conduct single practices in the evening through Friday, before a mid-day practice on Saturday.

Head Coach Bo Pelini enters his seventh year at the helm of the Big Red. The 2014 team includes 14 returning starters from last year, when NU finished 9-4 including a Gator Bowl victory versus Georgia on New Year’s Day. Pelini has guided each of his first six Nebraska teams to nine wins or more, and Nebraska is one of only three schools to win at least nine games each year since 2008.

Pelini met with the media today after practice, noting that practice was just what you would expect after the first day of fall camp.

“I thought it was what you expect after the first day, I liked the tempo and I thought it was an efficient practice,” Pelini said. “I think guys competed and there were a lot of first-day mistakes.”

Entering the 2014 season, Pelini mentioned that he and the coaching staff decided to cut down a few things at practice, in the hopes to help the overall tempo of practice.

“Just a few pre-practice things, we shortened individual time a hair. I think if I count the reps it is not much different than what we have done on a normal basis,” Pelini said. “We just did it more efficiently. I like the way it looked the first day.”

According to Pelini, sophomore quarterback Tommy Armstrong impressed during practice this evening.

“I liked what I saw out of Tommy today, he is very confident and he is under control,” Pelini said. “He really understands the offense.”

*Pelini announced that sophomore long snapper Gabe Miller will be day-to-day with a minor injury, as well as freshman linebacker Jaevon Walton will miss a few days due to a personal issue.

Nebraska will be back on the practice field on Tuesday evening for their second workout of camp. Check back at Huskers.com for all of your preseason football practice coverage including the latest news, photos and video features.