NU Notebook: Cook Eager for Scrimmage

If you're wondering what a Nebraska volleyball team with no seniors and six freshmen looks like in action, well, you're not alone.

Coach John Cook has prepared his Huskers for 20 seasons now, and he's as eager as ever to find out which players shine brightest in Saturday's 6 p.m. Red-White preseason scrimmage at the Devaney Sports Center.

"It's a great opportunity for people to step up and show they're ready for primetime," Cook said after Thursday's practice. "It's always interesting to see who performs in that match, because it is stressful."

If the last two weeks of practice serve as any indication, fans and coaches alike will see a hotly contested, competitive battle.

"The level of intensity, the level of effort they've given every day has been really good," Cook said. "Every drill is great competition. They've got to play well to win it, and it doesn't matter what side you're on."

In other words, you cruise, you lose.

"You don't get to play," Cook said.

Nebraska is coming off its fourth straight NCAA Final Four, and 10 players return from the 2018 national runner-up team, but for the first time in school history, the Huskers will have no seniors.

That's where a prized freshman class enters the picture. The six players are already "a whole level better than when they started," Cook said, which has contributed to the ultra-competitive practices.

Will these freshmen thrive in primetime?

"We'll find out Saturday night," Cook said. "They're a very confident group. It's a fun group. They have a lot of personality. I don't think too much fazes them. I'm going to be really curious how they play."

In part because sophomore setter Nicklin Hames returns with a year's experience, Cook expects his team to be more sophisticated offensively than last season, at all spots.

"We're able to move our hitters around a little bit more," Cook said. "We look like we know what we're doing."

Don't read that to mean drastic changes. Cook compared it to a great baseball pitcher suddenly adding a fourth pitch to his already strong arsenal – something different to keep the opponent honest.

"We're able to do things offensively to allow our hitters to move around a little bit," Cook said, "so we're not always coming from the same spot."


 
McQuitty Ready To Roll        
 
Healthy, confident and eager, redshirted sophomore receiver Jaevon McQuitty is ready to fill whatever role his coaches tell him.

He means it, too.

"I'll be a missile. I'll just do it. You shoot me here, I'm going to blow it up," McQuitty said. "You tell me what to do, I'm going to do it."

Nebraska entered the offseason with question marks abounding at wide receiver, meaning this is a prime opportunity for McQuitty to prove himself after a tough start to his career. He had shoulder surgery that cost him his first spring season after he arrived early on campus, and a knee injury wiped out his freshman campaign that fall.

He played in six games last year as a backup, but didn't have a catch.

Yet, McQuitty persevered, and he never placed blame.

"It's easy for doubt to come in, but you just got to fight it off," McQuitty said. "There were a lot of points where I wanted to give up, but I couldn't because I got people back home looking up to me. I've got people here looking up to me. If I quit, I'll look back one day thinking, 'I should've kept going.'

"That's not the type of guy I am. I'm not a quitter. I'm just going to keep fighting until I can't no more. If it didn't work out, it didn't work out. But I've always fought. I'm never going to quit."

Now, McQuitty wants to do whatever is necessary to help his team.

"I don't need to be a star," he said. "I just want to do what the team needs."

He's learned to take to coaching, too. When he hears receivers coach Troy Walters harping at him, he regards that as something good.

McQuitty welcomes it, in fact.

"I'm glad he's on me, because it's time for me to take that next step," McQuitty said. "I don't get upset, or I don't get mad. I just tell him, 'Yes sir,' and I'll fix it. I don't ever talk back.

"If I feel he's being too hard on me, it's for a reason. Like when a bird's in the nest, you gotta push the bird out and see if he'll fly or not. That's what he's doing, is pushing me out of that nest, pushing me out of my comfort zone."

As for his position group as a whole, McQuitty is confident the receivers will step up in replacing the school's all-time leading receiver, Stanley Morgan Jr.

"We already know people don't think we're going to do too much because we have no experience, but we honestly all are just ready," McQuitty said. "We just take it every day, play with a little chip on our shoulder.

"We aren't afraid to play. We're all ready to show what we can do as a group."


 
Husker Backfield 'Dialing in'

Assistant coach Ryan Held may have a general idea of what his running back rotation will look like when Nebraska begins the season Aug. 31 against South Alabama, but for now, he's leaving all options open.

"We've got a good group to choose from," Held said, "but again, we've got to keep dialing in, taking care of our bodies, putting ourselves in position where our legs are fresh and we're shot out of a cannon on (that) Saturday."

When asked whom he trusted the most to date, Held first named sophomore Maurice Washington, junior college transfer Dedrick Mills and senior walk-on Wyatt Mazour.

Held continued, saying true freshman Rahmir Johnson is "coming along very well," redshirted freshman walk-on Brody Belt "has done some good things," and true freshman Wan'Dale Robinson will play some running back, in addition to receiver.

"When he's out there," Held said of Robinson, "he's dynamic."

And that's all without mentioning true freshman Ronald Thompkins, who's off to a late start because of his recovery from a high school knee injury. Don't forget him, because he's not a sure-fire redshirt.

"I told him, 'I'm going to give you every opportunity to build yourself up to have a chance to play this year.' " Held said. "That guy's talented. We're just being smart not having him go out there and doing anything that puts him in jeopardy.

"But it's not, 'He's done for the year, redshirting.' No. I'm going to see what he can do and build him up and see what we got there."

Asked about Mazour specifically, Held described a smart player who knows every play.

"He's got a really good feel for the offense, where the ball can hit on certain concepts," he said. "He's Steady Eddy. You feel comfortable putting him in, in any situation. Guys really like him. I'm glad he's on our team."

No matter who starts, Held said, it doesn't mean the same player will finish the game. Also, Held would like 2-3 players ready to rotate, because he wants a fresh backfield for a fast, up-tempo offense.

"The good thing is," Held said, "I feel like this year the guys have a better grasp, obviously, of the offense. I've got probably a few more choices to choose from."

Still, the standard doesn't change for the next man up.

"I've just got to get as many guys ready, and then when they're put out there, I can't have deer-in-the-headlight guys," Held said. "They've got to go out there and function at the level that we need to in this offense, if we get it back to what it needs to be here, which is an historic position that is dominating on game day."

Reach Brian at brosenthal@huskers.com  or follow him on Twitter @GBRosenthal.