Nebraska Special Teams Coordinator Bill Busch met with members of the media following Tuesday’s spring practice. Busch opened with addressing the rain and wind conditions during practice.
“We will talk about the weather situation we had today,” Busch said. “I have learned from golfers if you get a rainy day you go out there and play. Today we had moisture and we had really high winds. It was probably a little bit harder on them because we did it on the practice field so there is no stadium blocking but today we did everything. We did kickoff into that wind and into that cold and into the snow. Then we did punts into it and we did it with it. We also kicked field goals and extra points with it too. It was a good mental challenge for them. Every opportunity we get with weather we are always going to use it. Guys handled it really well. They were excited about doing it so we got good work with it.”
Busch discussed the special teams mentality he is pushing.
“For those guys it is fourth down every time,” he said. “They only play on fourth downs. That is a dicey situation and there is not a lot of do-overs. If you throw an incomplete pass on second and 10 and it is just third and 10. You still have chance but in special teams you do not get a double down so everything is a fourth down. I put a fourth and one mentality in them every day.”
He also emphasized the importance of possessing the ball during special teams.
“I tell them after every punt return or every kickoff return there is going to be two signals by the referee,” Busch said. “It is either going to be touchdown Nebraska or first down Nebraska. That is it. We are going to possess the ball and that is the number one thing we have to have happen before we even worry about returns. Possess the ball. If we have the ball we can score. If we do not have the ball we can not. We talk about that real heavily.”
The Huskers will continue their spring practice on Thursday. The annual red-white spring game is set for April, 9 at 1 p.m. (CT) with national television coverage by the Big Ten Network.
