Nebraska Freshmen Lenhardt and Doss Expected to Play Against Illinois.
After sitting out two games with an ankle injury, freshman defensive lineman Cam Lenhardt will play when Nebraska squares off Friday night with Illinois.
Available for the first time will be freshman receiver Jaidyn Doss, whose broken arm forced him to miss the first five games of the season.
Those were the injury updates from Nebraska head football coach Matt Rhule as he spoke to reporters before Wednesday evening’s practice. The Huskers are traveling to Illinois for a Friday night game that is going on as scheduled after a two-alarm fire Tuesday night at Illinois’ Memorial Stadium.
Rhule said Illinois defensive lineman Jer’Zhan Newton will be a high pick in the NFL draft and is someone you need to game-plan around. But you can’t do that at the expense of making things easy for any of his cohorts on the D-line.
«Their scheme, because they play with five down linemen basically 90 percent of the time, creates five one-on-ones,» Rhule said. «So you have to win five blocks and they have to win just one pass rush, or one run block, to have a successful play. So it’s a real challenge.»
The Huskers are trying to bounce back from a 45-7 loss Saturday to Michigan.
«The way we’ve worked this week,» Rhule said, «I think guys are hopefully just pretty much locked in on tonight’s practice and tomorrow morning, and then getting up there and playing a good game.»
It is Nebraska’s third road trip in a season that started with games at Minnesota and Colorado. Rhule said it’s important to bring your own energy, especially to a road game. «We created a lot of energy Sunday night [at practice] when no one was watching,» he said. «We created a lot of energy yesterday morning, and we’ll have to do that Friday night.”
Nebraska Board of Regents Approves Memorial Stadium Renovation Proposal
Regents are wary of the price tag but unanimously approve the project to move forward.
The Nebraska Board of Regents unanimously approved the renovations after giving the OK for the initial contract at a meeting in April. Nebraska athletic director Trev Alberts spoke before the board Thursday, saying the proposal is not about today or tomorrow but the future.
NU system president Ted Carter noted for the regents that shovels wouldn’t meet dirt until money was raised from the fundraising effort. There will also be several opportunities in which Alberts will appear before the board over the next couple years. That will provide ample opportunity for changes to be made.
The proposal from Alberts is for a $450 million renovation of Memorial Stadium, including the replacement of the entire South Stadium.
Next up is fundraising and more detailed designs before the board approves the start of construction.