Red Report: Wrapping up
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By the Lincoln Journal Star
Nebraska defensive coordinator Kevin Cosgrove said the Blackshirts had three missed tackles in their first game against Nevada.
Cosgrove counted 12 missed tackles Saturday at Wake Forest.
“We didn’t tackle very well,” Cosgrove said. “A lot of it had to do with body position, getting in football position.”
It’s an example of what Cosgrove means when he says coaches aren’t concerned as much with this week’s opponent — No. 1 USC — as they are about improvement with their own team.
“We need to improve on our fundamental techniques,” Cosgrove said. “That’s the biggest thing.”
On the injury front, safety Tierre Green and defensive tackle Ty Steinkuhler, both starters, practiced on Tuesday. Green injured his shoulder in the third quarter Saturday at Wake Forest and didn’t return.
Steinkuhler, who left in the first quarter of the Nevada game with a knee injury, suited for the Wake Forest game but did not play.
“He wasn’t ready to go,” Cosgrove said. “It was good to see him out there today.”
Finding ways: While much has been made of Sam Keller’s 2005 game against USC (while he was at Arizona State), Keller on Tuesday said there’s another past USC game from which he could learn.
“I think a good film to look at was Oregon State,” Keller said. “Oregon State had some success on them through the air.”
Keller was referring to Oregon State’s 33-31 victory last season in Corvallis, Ore., when OSU quarterback Matt Moore was 21-of-32 passing for 262 yards.
“There’s definitely ways you can attack them, but again, it’s being patient,” Keller said. “They are very good at not getting beat deep. They have a tremendous range in the back end. They’ve got guys who can make plays. You just really have to pick your spots.
“The game is going to be reacting, not thinking.”
By the numbers
24: Home victories in night games for Nebraska since 1986 (the first night game at Memorial Stadium). That’s against two losses (Washington 1991, Texas 2002).
Scouting report
WR Maurice Purify
Senior receiver Maurice Purify won’t have to do much to have a bigger impact than he did last year against USC.
He played only two snaps in Nebraska’s 28-10 loss to the Trojans, something he said really discouraged him at the time.
“(Receivers) Coach (Ted) Gilmore told me it was going to be my breakout game,” Purify said Tuesday. “Everybody was going to get to know who Maurice Purify was. I got two plays. I was kind of mad and he told me how it was.”
Purify’s anger simmered after talking to coaches.
“Coach Gilmore said Coach Callahan didn’t want to put someone in the game that wasn’t 100-percent sure what they were doing and wasn’t comfortable with the game plan,” Purify said. “I just had to tell him I knew everything I was supposed to do, and in practice I showed it.”
In his season debut against Wake Forest last week, Purify had three catches for 30 yards. He did drop a pass on a third down that killed a Nebraska drive.
Though the Trojans are No. 1 and Purify is a California native, he maintains that he is treating it as just “a regular game.”
“You got to look at it that way,” he said. “If you’re nervous and scared before the game starts, you’re going to play like that.”
Opponent watch: Kansas
Kansas athletic officials are considering tightening sideline restrictions for TV stations during home football games as the result of a expletive-laced tirade by coach Mark Mangino that was aired on the Internet, the Wichita Eagle reported Tuesday.
KU associate athletic director Jim Marchiony told the Eagle that TV station WIBW “used terrible judgment” in airing footage of Magino berating sophomore receiver Raimond Pendleton on the sideline.
Pendleton had drawn an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty when he made a showboating dive into the end zone at the end of a 77-yard punt return Sept. 1 against Central Michigan.
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