Huskers need Glenn's speed at LB
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BY BRIAN ROSENTHAL / Lincoln Journal Star
Coaches see Cody Glenn still making freshman mistakes. That’d be OK, only Nebraska doesn’t have many experienced linebackers, and injuries have further depleted the unit, perhaps magnifying those mistakes a bit.
Oh, and one other thing: Glenn isn’t a freshman.
“I think there’s a tendency to look at Cody and see he’s a senior and get frustrated, as a coach,” Nebraska defensive coordinator Carl Pelini said. “I try to remind myself of it, and I know coach (Mike Ekeler) does.
“Cody, he’s a perfectionist, and he wants to be perfect, and I think sometimes he needs to take a step back and say, ‘Hey, I’ve only been at this position for six months.’ But he’s done some great things.”
Glenn, the WILL linebacker, is Nebraska’s third-leading tackler with 47 stops, including six for loss. The former running back was the talk of the offseason with his sudden position switch. Practice reports of his penchant for creating turnovers and having a natural knack for defense caused excitement.
While Glenn has made progress, he’s not necessary been the havoc-wreaker that some may have expected.
“He’s not frustrated,” Pelini said. “He just keeps playing, and he’ll make plays for you. It’s just something we need out of him. We need his speed to make plays.”
Glenn is the only scholarship linebacker expected to start Saturday against Kansas, and coaches know he’ll do anything he’s asked, and to his best abilities.
“He just needs to keep progressing,” Pelini said. “We still have three games left, and he needs to get better every day. The best thing I can say about Cody, beyond his talent, is that he does approach practice that way. He wants to learn and he wants to get better, and we’re just force-feeding him as much as we can.”
Perhaps preseason expectations were too high for Glenn. When you’ve not played defense since high school, and now you’re playing in the box, things happen fast. For Glenn, it’s been a game-by-game adjustment.
“There’s pullers that you’ve got to see, you’ve got to see the back, and you’ve got to know who’s pulling and where your fits are,” Pelini said. “That’s fast. Just the more experience you have, seeing that whole picture, the faster it works for you. Until you get that experience, you’re just a step slow in seeing that stuff.”
Glenn said the linebacker corps as a whole hasn’t performed well in recent weeks.
“Too many busted assignments, everybody not on the same page, everybody not communicating,” Glenn said. “Just overall, it hasn’t been very good, and it has to pick up in order for the defense to be successful.”
Injuries haven’t helped. Nebraska played last week without Phillip Dillard, who likely won’t play against Kansas because of an ankle injury. Glenn also missed a game earlier this season because of injury.
That, Glenn said, affects chemistry.
“Especially with Phil,” he said. “He’s the MIKE backer, so he’s the more vocal guy, the guy everybody looks to for the calls and different stuff like that. You can always count on Phil. With him out, it’s a big loss.”
Nebraska has used walk-on Colton Koehler in place of Dillard. Another walk-on, Matt Holt, started when Dillard missed the Texas Tech game with a knee injury. Walk-on Tyler Wortman starts at BUCK linebacker.
“We don’t really pay too much attention to who’s a walk-on and who’s a scholarship kid,” Pelini said. “We have competition. We don’t worry about who has a scholarship and who doesn’t.”
Head coach Bo Pelini said the linebackers have been inconsistent but continue working.
Carl Pelini said the linebackers “are hanging in there” and becoming more comfortable in positions some have been forced into.
“They’re still making mistakes but they’re getting better and they’re starting to get more of a feel for what they need to read,” he said. “Each offense we’ve seen has been so different, it’s presented almost a starting-over point for those guys. I know they get frustrated at times, but we’ve got just to keep coaching them and preparing them week to week, and hopefully we’ll start to get healthy at that position, and we’ll go from there.”
Reach Brian Rosenthal at 473-7436 or brosenthal@journalstar.com.
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