Riley not worried about Nebraska defense

Sep 4, 2017 - 9:56 PM Nebraska would seem to have quite a bit of work to do on defense in its second game.

Coordinator Bob Diaco's decision to play soft coverage against Arkansas State's wide receivers led to a plethora of easy first downs last Saturday. Factor in the lack of a consistent pass rush, and it's easy to see why the Huskers gave up 32 first downs and 497 yards as they eked out a 43-36 victory.

Things don't figure to get easier this week, when Nebraska plays at Oregon, which put up 77 points against Southern Utah last week in coach Willie Taggart's debut last Saturday.

The Nebraska defense did perform better in the second half last week, but the unit still had trouble stopping Arkansas State and it was only saved by a nice last-minute defensive stand resulting from solid backend coverage.

Coach Mike Riley maintained at Monday morning's press conference that the Huskers were not surprised by the Arkansas State offensive installations, and he lauded his defensive unit for not giving up many big plays.

"Defensively, we got the two interceptions that were big. Nice tipped ball in the red zone for an interception," he said.

"We anticipated a lot of what they were going to try to do and they did it well for the yards in the game. And part of the plan actually worked out as you would see it unfold. They only had five explosive plays. Their longest run, I think, was 14 yards; their longest pass was 29 yards and that came as the result, really, of a 7-yard hitch that was a missed tackle."

One of the big storylines this week will be Riley's return to the state of Oregon. He was the head coach at Oregon State for 14 years before leaving for Nebraska after the 2014 season.

"It's exciting to do that," he said about going back to the state.

"I'm not all that fired up about the ticket requests I've got coming, but it's all right. It actually is pretty neat. I embrace things like this as pretty unique personal opportunities that are just that, they're personal. This is not about me going back to Oregon. This is about the Nebraska team playing the Ducks, but it is fun for me.

"I've spent a lot of time, and had too many hard times in that stadium, so we're excited to go play and win the game for this 2017 team."

Offensively, quarterback Tanner Lee was fairly sharp last week in his Nebraska debut.

With the exception of the last few drives, when he decided to throw incomplete deep passes that expended little time off the clock, Lee generally made the right decision and showed many of the tangibles that pro scouts were touting during camp. Lee completed 19 of 32 passes for 238 yards, with two touchdowns and no interceptions.

Mostly, though, the game marked sophomore running back Tre Bryant's explosion onto the Husker scene.

Rushing for 195 yards on 31 carries and two touchdowns, Bryant showed much of the power and one-cut explosion that he demonstrated in practice. And regardless of running back Devine Ozigbo's availability, Bryant figures to the man for the rest of the season.

"Tre looked good, didn't he?" Riley said. "He's quick-footed, he's hard-nosed, he's smart and he's versatile."