Younger linebackers give Huskers a lift

LINCOLN -- They’ve already gained some respect from their elders, if not also the occasional nickname.

Sean Fisher is already called “Fish” by Cody Glenn, and Will Compton is spoken about as just one of the guys.

Picking on the newcomers? Not here. No time. Nebraska’s linebackers know they have a lot to get done and division by age sure won’t help.

“We preach that everyone is the same,” says the senior Glenn. “We know who the seniors are. We know who the younger guys are. But we make them feel like they’re at home and make it like there’s really no difference between the older guys and the younger guys.”

Husker coaches were optimistic before fall camp started that the 2008 recruiting class could provide depth to a linebackers corps that was otherwise conspicuously thin. And there’s a sense from those involved that it’s happening with the season-opener against Western Michigan just 12 days away.

While Glenn (WILL), Phillip Dillard (MIKE) and Tyler Wortman (BUCK) seem to have the inside track to the starting spots, the fight to add capable bodies beyond that trio involves plenty of true freshmen: Fisher, Compton, Alonzo Whaley and emerging walk-on Matt Holt.

Glenn says the Millard North grad Fisher has been working mostly at the BUCK spot. Compton has been practicing at the MIKE position.

Both are as talented as they were advertised during the recruiting season, Glenn thinks.

At this point, linebackers coach Mike Ekeler isn’t prepared to separate any of the freshmen, saying: “The hay’s not in the barn yet. We’ll see how it shakes out.”

But all remain in the running to possibly contribute this fall.

“They’re about where you’d expect them right now,” Ekeler says. “It’s starting to slow down a little bit for them. You got some tremendous talent. Sean Fisher, I tell you what, there are not too many guys who are 6-5, 235 pounds and can run around like that. He could play safety for us. That kid is really talented.”

Glenn would say just as much for Compton, the ballyhooed recruit from Bonne Terre, Mo.

“He has a natural knack for everything,” Glenn says. “He’s going to be really good.”

And then there’s Holt, who came as a walk-on from Lee’s Summit, Mo., made the 105-man fall camp roster, and according to Glenn, was at one point seeing some action with the No. 2s.

“Everybody in that room is in the mix,” Ekeler says. “We have to field the best three linebackers at the University of Nebraska coming out of that room. Every single one of those guys is in the mix. We’ve tried a whole bunch of different rotations trying to get guys in spots where they’re more comfortable.”

In one position group meeting this fall, Ekeler told his group he’s going to coach them all like seniors because they need to play like seniors.

“No one can be green in this room,” he told them.

Granted, the multiplicity of Nebraska’s defensive schemes makes learning the system a steep challenge for an 18-year-old not far removed from a dance at the prom.

Ekeler says Nebraska’s defensive system could be as multiple as any in the country.

“If the common person really understood what these guys had to process in a split second, they’d be shocked,” Ekeler says. “They’d have a lot more respect for what happens out there.”

But the newcomers have been eager to learn, and Bo Pelini has seen steady progress.

Still plenty of mistakes, of course.

“Too many mistakes right now,” the Husker head coach says. “But that’s to be expected. We’re trying to push them as fast as we can and get them caught up in their understanding.”

Senior Tyler Wortman says the freshmen spent a lot of time during the summer trying to catch up from what they missed in the spring, studying hard the defensive packages.

That devotion was not lost on the older guys, and when fall camp started, the offseason diligence of the freshmen showed.

“I think they’re going to be able to contribute right away �- and that depth’s going to help,” says the senior Wortman. “You don’t want it to happen, but if any injuries happen, we need guys who will be able to go, and I think those guys will be ready to step up.”