Spring Game notebook: Paul gets the best of Amukamara

[Nexus]

OK, we know this guy is good. Perhaps All-American good.

 

But Nebraska senior cornerback Prince Amukamara didn’t have his best day in Saturday’s Red-White Spring Game.

 

Husker senior wideout Niles Paul (five catches, 103 yards) twice beat Amukamara on long pass plays — a 48-yard gain when Amukamara couldn’t find the ball at the last moment, and a 31-yard gain on the Bouncerooskie play, when Paul basically won a jump ball.

 

Before the scrimmage, Amukamara told Paul he was going to shadow the receiver wherever he lined up — a bit of a departure for Amukamara.

 

“He got the best of me,” Amukamara said. “He made two amazing catches today. Other than that, I think I played fairly well, but not up to my potential, of course.

 

“Coach (Bo) Pelini always says nobody’s played their best football yet, and I think we all agree with that.“

 

Nebraska’s defense generally stayed vanilla Saturday, Amukamara said.

 

“They tried to keep it pretty basic with the playbook for young guys who are not as experienced,” he said. “For the most part, I think the guys did really well.“

 

(Click here for Niles Paul's postgame comments.)

 

NU goes old school with Bouncerooskie

 

When coaches told players that each team could run one trick play in the Spring Game, Cody Green wanted to go old school.

 

He chose the Bouncerooskie.

 

“Saw it on a highlight tape,” Green said.

 

Hey, why not have some fun in a scrimmage by running the play in front of Husker fans who crave blasts from the past?

 

Green, quarterback for the White team, bounced a lateral pass about 10 yards to Mike McNeill, who threw downfield to Niles Paul for a 31-yard gain.

 

“I heard we ran it in the past,” McNeill said. “I heard Irving Fryar and Turner Gill ran it.”

 

And Mitch Krenk. Don’t forget Krenk, who caught Fryar’s pass, after a bounced lateral from Gill, in the 1982 game against Oklahoma in Lincoln.

 

Coaches on Saturday had no clue the play was coming.

 

“When I saw that,” wide receivers coach Ted Gilmore said, “I was like, ‘I can’t believe that happened.’”

 

Nebraska had never practiced the play before Saturday.

 

“(Green) just told us (before the game) that’s what he wanted to run, and that’s what we ran,” McNeill said.

 

To prepare, Green threw about five bounced balls to McNeill in pregame warmups. None was nearly as good as the one in the game.

 

“It bounced perfect,” McNeill said. “It bounced right into my hands.”

 

Thenarse leaves his mark on Saturday

 

The old hard-hitting, playmaking Rickey Thenarse showed up a few times during the Spring Game on Saturday.

 

He’ll probably need more of that to see major playing time next season at safety, where players such as DeJon Gomes, P.J. Smith and Austin Cassidy have impressed.

 

Thenarse, who has also been a special-teams standout during his career, received a medical hardship after suffering a season-ending knee injury in the fourth game last season and will have a fifth season of eligibility.

 

How does Thenarse feel he can fit in the rotation?

 

“I see myself fitting in where the coaches need me,” he said, “and of course be a leader, that’s the biggest thing, taking over for Larry Asante and Matt O’Hanlon.”

 

Thenarse had four solo tackles and three assists Saturday, and the only interception of the game came when Alfonzo Dennard tipped a ball that Thenarse caught and returned 2 yards.

 

He had a couple of big hits this spring, Thenarse said, and began to trust his knee early in spring practice.

 

“I guess like the second practice, (tight end Ryan Hill) called me out on the hitting drill and I kind of went full speed and drove through him, and ever since then I’ve been going good,” he said.

 

Change in O-line

 

Nebraska’s offensive line splits appeared to be wider than usual in Saturday’s Red-White Spring Game.

 

Actually, the splits were similar to what the Huskers used in last December’s 33-0 Holiday Bowl win against Arizona, offensive line coach Barney Cotton said.

 

“It was 2-foot-plus today,” the coach said of the gaps separating his linemen. “In the past, we were probably more like 18 inches. We might be two-and-a-half feet now.”

 

The reason?

 

“With a lot of the things we were doing, we were getting hemmed in,” Cotton said. “We just wanted to be a little bit more spaced out. In pass protection, it keeps those defensive ends a little bit farther away from our quarterback.“

 

Offensive coordinator Shawn Watson said the wide splits also help the run game because the defense has big gaps to fill.

 

“It just causes a lot of space issues for a defense,” he said.

 

Cunningham gives zebra stripes a try

 

On Saturday, Ed Cunningham gained a new respect for the officials he is sometimes critical of as an analyst for football games on ESPN and ABC.

 

The former college and NFL lineman worked as a guest side judge on the officiating crew during the Spring Game.

 

Many analysts have played or coached, but few have officiated, and Cunningham jumped at the opportunity to learn more about the game from a new role.

 

He had another official shadow him part of the game, reminding Cunningham of his responsibilities. Cunningham signaled the first touchdown.

 

Following the game in the official’s locker room, the crew gave him a signed game ball. Some of the officials exchanged phone numbers and told Cunningham to call if he ever has questions.

 

Cunningham said he learned a lot.

 

“Beyond some of the mechanics that I didn’t understand, I also learned why they don’t call certain things, and that will be good for my analysis,” he said.

 

As a player at Washington, Cunningham played at Memorial Stadium in 1991, and he said it was good to be back on the field. He said it was much different than being in the TV booth, like he was for the Nebraska-Oklahoma game last fall.

 

“You have such special responsibilities that you can’t get caught up in the game at all,” he said. “I didn’t see a football game today, I saw my responsibilities.”

 

Cunningham threw one flag for helmet-to-helmet contact. He said coach Bo Pelini, who had known about the arrangement, had fun at his expense.

 

“He came and got in my ear — I can’t repeat it — and I turned around and he’s kind of smiling,” Cunningham said. “My only response was, ‘Start teaching them how to tackle better, coach.’”

 

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