Whipple Says Georgia Southern Has Athletes and Motivation

Coordinators speak after Tuesday’s Nebraska football practice

Author:
Joe Hudson
Updated:
Sep 6, 2022 8:17 PM EDT
Original:
Sep 6, 2022

In this story:

Offensive coordinator Mark Whipple says the Huskers will be facing a fired-up opponent Saturday in Georgia Southern.

"This is a big game for them. ... They have good athletes and guys that can run," Whipple said after Tuesday's Nebraska football practice.

"They have better athletes than they look on tape. That's what I told the players. ... We told them they're going to be a little bit more twitchy or faster than you see on tape."

*Clay Helton is in his first season at Georgia Southern.*
© Richard Burkhart/Savannah Morning News / USA TODAY NETWORK

The Eagles, coached by former USC coach Clay Helton, opened their season Saturday night with a 59-7 win over Morgan State.

Looking back at Nebraska's 38-17 win Saturday against North Dakota, Whipple said he liked how the offense responded after Casey Thompson's interception set up the Fighting Hawks' game-tying touchdown in the third quarter.

"There wasn't anything like the week before (during the loss to Northwestern) where we got the pick and looked around," Whipple said. "Those guys knew what they had to do and talked about finishing. I could hear them on the sideline, and that's what they did."

Defensive coordinator Erik Chinander said the defense's performance so far this season is "not up to our standard, but I feel like this is a young group that is hungry, that wants to be good, that wants to win and wants to do things the right way. I think they will continue to get better and better every week"

He likes the ones-vs.-ones work that has been taking place this week in practice.

"You don't have to have it be 80 reps, but 12 or 20 a day where you're getting your ones and your twos 10 reps apiece, really banging against a good guy, really covering a good guy, those types of things," Chinander said. "I think that's invaluable."

He described Georgia Southern's pass-heavy offense as "a lot to get ready for" in terms of tempo, formations and schemes.

"If you let them get in front of the sticks," Chinander said, "it's going to turn into a track meet." He said Helton "has been doing it for a while" and has "got it pretty much perfected."

Tuesday's session also included comments from edge rusher Ochaun Mathis and tight end Nate Boerkircher. Refresh this page to see the latest additions to the coverage links below. Asterisk indicates item may require a subscription. Go here for the HuskerMax discussion.