Nebraska’s Riley doesn’t want his offence overrun by the run

The Nebraska Cornhuskers honored their punter who died in a vehicle crash this summer during a play in the first quarter of Saturday’s football game. Rather than send out freshman punter Caleb Lightbourn, head coach Mike Riley made a decision to take a penalty by sending only 10 players on the field for the punt and leaving Foltz’s spot empty.

Tommy Armstrong Jr. ran for two touchdowns and threw a flawless deep ball to Alonzo Moore for another, and Nebraska pulled away in the second half to defeat Fresno State 43-10 on Saturday night for Mike Riley’s 100th win as a college coach. He and Mike Sadler, a former punter for Michigan State, had traveled to Wisconsin to work a punting camp.

But Riley also knows that leaning so much on the running game won’t fly against the stout rushing defenses in the Big Ten.

The Cornhuskers did something cool on Saturday during their season-opener against Fresno State.

Nebraska continues its season-opening three-game home stand by taking on Wyoming on Saturday, Sept. 10. The Huskers return 16 starters from last year’s team that capped the season with a victory over UCLA in the Foster Farms Bowl. The crowd erupted, and all of Memorial Stadium felt Sam Foltz’s presence.

Nebraska owns an impressive 34-2 all-time record against current members of the Mountain West Conference.

Nebraska then sent out this tweet, noting that they had to take the penalty because they were “missing” one of their players. Since he took over last season, the Cornhuskers have had at least seven penalties in more than half of the team’s games. NU freshman Caleb Lightbourn followed with his first career punt, a 29-yard kick. Senior wide receiver Aaron Peck had 9 receptions, 112 yards and a touchdown.

They capitalized on Robert Stanley’s blocked punt and a couple Nebraska penalties, and that allowed them to keep it close until the third quarter.

Riley said he understands the need for a rule that protects players from serious injury. Drew Brown’s extra point pushed the Husker lead to 28-10 with 14:54 to play. Look for Fresno State to repeatedly challenge Nebraska deep early on. Watching the game last night, it’s evident that while Dzuris won’t be someone that comes along and makes the mind numbing play ala Myles Garrett of Texas A&M, he’ll be solid and be in position.

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