NEBRASKA FOOTBALL: Big Red Swagger

[HuskerfaninOkieland]

Pretty good article. Can't wait for the season to begin

 

NE Statepaper

 

It’s hot as hell as Nebraska’s football team started its fall camp Saturday, but that confidence you see among the players and coaches is no mirage emanating from NU’s new practice fields.

 

These Huskers like themselves some Huskers. Guns loaded. Let’s get it on. The defense has a whole season’s worth of excellence to prop itself up, while the offense has, well, pluck. .

 

“I think (we’ve grown) leaps and bounds,” said junior wideout Brandon Kinnie. “We got a little bit a swagger about ourselves and we got a lot to prove and the defense doesn’t like that very much.”

 

Said left guard Keith Williams: “We’re going to be physical. We’re going to fly around. We’re going to hit people.”

 

And tight end Mike McNeill: “The confidence, the excitement - we’re just a team. The guys all love each other. We love hanging out. We love competing….guys aren’t dreading fall camp. Guys are looking forward to going one-on-one against each other. We’re going to have fun.”

 

Check back on, oh, Tuesday, to see how much fun it still for NU as Death Valley weather descends on Lincoln and temperatures creep into the triple digits.

 

Nevertheless, the Huskers appear chuffed, with an attitude geared for championships. Confidence is part of the Bo Pelini package, and it’s trickled down to the roster. You could see the swagger come from a mile away, frankly, and not just because the Nebraska football team rocked ice, chains, aviator sunglasses and mustaches out of a spaghetti western for Saturday’s Fan Day.

 

It started in the Holiday Bowl. Continued through what, by all accounts, was a smashing session of winter conditioning. And the summer, quiet by the usual standards of a major college football program - aside from that viral video to “Beat Texas” - was a bit different, at least in description, from 2009.

 

No, the program wasn’t any easier. But the Huskers seemed to enjoy it more.

 

The levity came from unexpected places. Sophomore defensive end Cameron Meredith was poring over some of the old portraits NU has of former All-Americans when he saw a picture of Mike Knox. He liked the mustache. Started to grow one.

 

“I’ve already got a girlfriend,” Meredith said. “If I was single, I don’t know.”

 

And now, Burt Reynolds and Ion Tiriac, you have a lot of Husker company, the most interesting of which was Alonzo Whaley’s dipped-in-blond-dye look.

 

“I saw his this morning,” Meredith said. “I didn’t know what it was.”

 

Then receiver Niles Paul - in what seems to be a years-long debate with cornerback Prince Amukamara over just about every little thing - brought some boxing gloves down to the locker room on the final day of summer workouts. How about some afternoon fights?

 

“It was fun, just to be done with some summer workouts,” Kinnie said. “Just in the locker room, going at it.”

 

Amukamara paired up with Rickey Thenarse. Kinnie called out a cornerback, but nobody answered, so he took on scatback Austin Jones. Paul battled Roy Helu. And Yoshi Hardrick and Baker Steinkuhler, in a battle of the behemoths, squared off.

 

“There was some tumbling in that one,” Kinnie said.

 

“I was laughing so hard I was about to cry,” McNeill said.

 

Every team jokes around. Blows off steam. Nebraska’s no different.

 

But Bo’s fingerprints are all over these Huskers now. The family vibe resonates throughout the program. Another move by Meredith: He started inviting all of the freshmen - really any player - over to his house on Friday nights.

 

“When I came here that first summer it was like the worst summer I ever had,” Meredith said. “I didn’t know anyone. I was in the dorms every day. So I always try to invite them over.”

 

Said McNeill: “Bo wanted to change the culture and he has. He’s the leader of us and we look to him and follow what he does. At the same time, seniors are now going to do what he can do and has done for us.”

 

It’s the transition I talked about Friday coming to bloom. But it needs to be tested with time, heat and toil. Saturday is likely to be the sunniest of fall camp; one the grind begins and adversity slams into the side of this team - as it does every squad - we’ll see who the enforcers are. And we’ll see how much more Bo has to crack the whip.

 

[admo]

Word. Good stuff man..

 

Compared to the last 5+ or whatever seasons, this is so friggin refreshing