As the Nebraska football team heads into its first game week of the season, offensive coordinator Matt Lubick spoke with members of the media over video conference Thursday to discuss the progress of the offensive unit.
Finishing up his first fall camp at Nebraska, Lubick spoke on what he learned about the offense over the past few months.
“I love the personalities of the guys, how competitive guys are,” Lubick said. “Especially when people’s mindsets have been tested through this pandemic, they have really motivated the coaches, our players, because of their work ethic every day. Nothing has really rattled them. Very impressed with who they are as people.”
Headed into game week, Lubick noted how the offense’s progress this fall and the unit’s preparedness ahead of the season has impressed him.
“I am very happy with our progress and how hard our guys have worked,” Lubick said. ‘We have a lot of good competition at different positions. Guys are playing fast. And part of playing fast is knowing your assignments. Our assistant coaches have done a great job ingraining their assignments so guys don’t have to think, they can just play.”
At the receiver position, Wan’Dale Robinson and Kade Warner stand out as leaders in the room.
“They lead by example. I always tell those guys, ‘Hey, they are going to respond more to you then they do to me.’ So they are the first out in every drill. When a young guy like Zavier Betts sees Kade Warner going 100 miles an hour, or Wan’Dale, that’s contagious. They have done a great job of that. That is why they are good players. They have talent, but also have a great work ethic and heart. And they play really hard.”
The depth at multiple positions, including quarterback, creates hard decisions for Lubick and the rest of the staff, but in a good way.
“We feel great about all our quarterbacks. Luke and Adrian are playing at a very, very high level,” Lubick said. “They both can win. They both can play. But who gives us the best chance, and the fact that it’s a hard decision is a good situation because we have two guys we feel really good about.”
“When it comes to deciding how many guys you are going to play in a rotation, you are going to play as many guys that can help you win. Fortunately, we feel confident that we are going to have multiple guys that we can move in and out there that can execute and win us football games.”
On his final Saturday without a football game this fall, Lubick’s focus will be on preparing for next week’s opponent.
“I’ll definitely watch the Buckeyes, and we have watched them a ton. We are going to use Saturday as a preparation day, getting out the last-minute, every type of situation that could come up in a game rehearsal one more time. The bulk of that day is going to be getting ready for the first game.”
