Fall Camp Video & Report: August 20

Nebraska special teams coordinator Ed Foley met with members of the media following the team’s fall camp practice on Tuesday. Foley spoke on the kicking and punting groups, and the competition overall. 

He specifically touched on John Hohl and measuring his temperament.
 
“He was on our radar and we knew him for probably a year,” Foley said. “With really seeing him do what he can do, our camp. He came in for the camp, and was working with our guys during the Matt Rhule Football Camp that second week in June. He was a monster in that workout. He just looked really good. It’s not as random as ‘see how he does, through the course of that camp.’ He actually came to two camps. We watched him make pressure kicks and he did the circuit, so he’s out there with guys like Jamie Kohl. We’ve seen him in some high pressure situations in addition to what I saw with my own eyes. But, to equate that to 87,000 in the stadium, that’s something we have to see like what we did with Tristan (Alvano) last year.”

Foley then discussed the kickoff competition. 

“I’d say it’ll be a little slower back to the kickoffs,” he said. “He (Tristan Alvano) is just starting the approach on the kickoffs now. Brian (Buschini) has kicked off too. So the kickoff thing is a totally different conversation because of Brian. John (Hohl) has a big enough leg to do that. Brian’s done it in games for us at a pretty high level. I don’t know, for me I’m not going to put a bunch of pressure on Tristan to hit a bunch of kickoffs particularly early. I’m trying to examine more how he’s hitting the 50 yarders and the 48 yarders, watching and observing that – how does he look getting through that, and what does the result of those balls look like as opposed to the kickoffs.”

He also talked about the state of the punt return unit. 

“We’ve got IGC (Isaiah Garcia-Castaneda) as the punt returner,” Foley said. “Jacory (Barney Jr.) has really done a good job in terms of tracking it. We’re putting Jacory and Emmett Johnson into situations where they’ve got to make decisions with things like poison and doing things down around the goal line. Down around the goal line, there’s different decisions that need to be made. I would say IGC is probably a little bit ahead in terms of decision-making. Coach (Rhule) and I were talking about that the other day and how we see that moving forward. I would not be surprised to see both of those guys returning punts for us. All three of those guys I think can go into a game and return punts for us. I think that puts us in a better situation than we were last year. I feel good about those guys out there.” 

Head Coach Matt Rhule will follow the Huskers’ Friday practice with media availability.