[Husker] The young and the restless (spring game notes)

[David Elfering]

I went to the spring game today and came away with some opinions (me and
over 60,000 other people).

Here's a cliff note version:
- Penalties: 20 total, are you kidding me? We can't blame B12 refs for THIS
day :)
- Young gun: Holy moly Brion Carnes looked excellent. I know... the third
string guy always does but I thought he had a presence as the white team QB
that I haven't seen for a while. He just made things happen.
- Happy feet: In contrast I thought Tailor Martinez seemed tentative, but he
did still make some plays
- Rex on the run: No doubting it, Rex Burkhead is a quality back
- Kellog who?: We have some depth at QB as I thought Ron Kellog really did a
nice job. Nothing jumps off the page but like Joe Ganz he just finds ways to
get it done.
- Putting the special in special teams: We had some nice returns today. Wow
Jamal Turner looks to be a difference maker. Nice run backs and finds the
creases. Amazing for his age.
- Vanilla, flavor of the day: Hard to gauge the offensive and defensive
changes since EVERYTHING looked vanilla to me. We did run a lot of I
formation on offense, pitches, etc. I didn't notice any special influx of
230 pound linebackers as we prepare for old school B10 hit fests.
- Flu season not a worry: Well at least for wide receivers since they have
trouble catching most things :) <that's pun... mostly>.

In essence I thought we saw some nice line play here and there, way too many
penalties, and some signs of youth making a deep impact in the coming
season. We have (IMO) depth at QB and some emerging backs. The receivers
remain a work in progress in my eyes but there were both a few nice snags
and a few heinous drops. The penalties were worrying and I ponder the
discipline of the team as this seems to be a central theme after the past
couple years.

To be honest I got a little bored but maybe it was getting way too much
sunshine and at my age it makes me sleepy :)
---
David Elfering
aroundomaha at gmail.com