The bye week was a relaxing one for Nebraska senior wide receiver Billy Kemp IV.
Kemp watched a little football and rested after a rugged first six weeks of the season.
“Treatment, spent time with family and watched football,” Kemp said of how he spent his weekend off. “It was a great weekend. Got to enjoy some games and see some old teammates play.”
The week off was also an opportunity for Nebraska to refocus its offense via self-scouting. Nebraska head coach Matt Rhule said this week that one of the big priorities during the bye was finding more ways to get the ball in Kemp’s hands.
Hopefully Kemp rested up.
“We just have to,” Rhule said. “I think that was a focus for us last week. Billy is a dynamic player, and we have to get him involved more. When it’s third down they can kind of tell and they double him and bracket him. We have to get him involved more in normal downs. We have to continue to get Thomas (Fidone II) the ball more. Get (Joshua) Fleeks involved.
We have enough players to win with. It’s just sometimes when you go through what you go through you kind of try to just go 1-0 this week. Now you get to the bye week and you sit down and say, ‘hey who do we need to get involved.’ I think those guys have done a good job of that. If I leave them alone they would have probably gotten that ball more. These first six weeks, I wanted to build a run-game that we could run the ball with.
I wanted to build a run-defense off of last year, being 108th until now. I think the second half of the season we have to continue to do those two things. We’ve got to get better at third-down defense. We’ve got to get better at third-down offense. We have to throw the ball better. We have to play better pass-defense. Those are all things we examined over the bye week. But Billy is a big piece of that.”
In six games this season, Kemp has 20 catches for 219 yards and one touchdown. He has also carried two times for 13 yards and one touchdown. Kemp and Fidone are the only Huskers with double-digit catches through six games this season.
Finding a way to get Kemp the ball will be at a premium, considering he’s one of the few healthy veterans available at the wide receiver spot heading into the second half of the season.
Kemp said this week that while he welcomes more opportunities, he’s willing to do anything necessary to help the Huskers win games.
“I like to get the ball any way possible,” Kemp said. “Running the ball, catching, any way possible. Like I said before, I’m here to do whatever they need me to do.
“You go into a week with a certain gameplan and then a few plays happen and things get flipped upside down. Sometimes it gets off script. I want to affect the game any way I can. If that means making a big block so the running back can score, I’m just here to do my job and make a big play any way I can.”