Nebraska Linebacker Owen Chambliss the Clear Leader of His Squad

When you listen to Nebraska linebacker Owen Chambliss, you hear a voice that oozes leadership.

Chambliss’ words are delivered with deliberation and purpose. Can’t imagine his teammates not paying serious attention.

To every word.

When you see Chambliss on the field, patrolling the middle, it’s confirmation this is the leader of the defense, the guy calling signals, the guy making plays, the guy who sees everything on the field and reacts accordingly.

Then, at a news conference Tuesday, defensive coordinator Rob Aurich said this about Chambliss: “Not to toot Owen’s horn too much, but, he’s a little bit of a general out there, out on the field. So, when he’s out there, it’s good to have him.”

“It means a lot to me,” Chambliss said in a news conference Tuesday about what Aurich said about him. “You know, I come in here every day, try to work to try to put my guys in the best position to be successful on the football field and when people say great things like that to me, it means the world to me.”

Chambliss moving forward

Injuries have plagued Chambliss after he arrived in Lincoln from San Diego State along with Aurich. Chambliss and the 2-0 Huskers play North Dakota on Saturday (6:15 p.m., Big Ten Network).

“He’ll say it himself,” Aurich said. “He’s like, I haven’t played football in a while just because he was out in spring with a turf toe and then had the hammy throughout fall camp.

“So, he came to the sidelines a couple times [against Bowling Green] like, ‘Man, it’s good to be back.’

“But I thought we saw the mild version of what Chambliss is. I think there’s a whole lot left in what he brings to the table. But from an operation standpoint, I think it’s good to have him back. People feel really comfortable when he’s on the field.”

Chambliss had four tackles in the Huskers’ 56-7 win over the Falcons. Nebraska held the Falcons to nine first downs, only 2-of-9 on third downs, and 169 total yards.

“I felt good. Yeah, had to knock off a little bit of rust off. I haven’t football played in a while,” Chambliss said. “It felt good to be out there with my guys, flying around and having fun.

“Yeah, we’ve done pretty well. I mean there’s always room for improvement. We have massive steps to take but I think we've played pretty well. I think coming out of halftime we got to play a little bit better but other than that [we’ve played] pretty good.”

Defensive touchdown for Nebraska

Chambliss’ defensive buddy, junior linebacker Derek Wacker, scored on a 25-yard fumble recovery in the fourth quarter. Those defensive guys love to hit pay dirt.

Nebraska linebacker Derek Wacker scored on a fumble recovery vs. Bowling Green last Saturday. | Kenny Larabee, KLIN

“I love Derek and Derek’s one of my best friends on the team and he puts in so much work every day and it just comes in with a positive attitude,” Chambliss said. “So to see him score and he’s a local kid [Yutan, Neb.], you know, it’s kind of makes the whole day better.”

When he scored? “I was screaming,” Chambliss said.

Nebraska expects North Dakota to run the ball plenty, a challenge for the middle linebacker.

“I mean, it’s fun to play football every week, but when you know someone’s going to try to run the ball and you play middle linebacker, you really get excited, right?” Chambliss said.

“You don’t want to play somebody that’s running run-and-shoot offense all game, you know.”

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