Red Report: Running back Helu not making excuses

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By BRIAN CHRISTOPHERSON / Lincoln Journal Star

OPENING STATEMENT

“It’s not about morale. It's about getting better. It’s easy to have good morale when you win the football game. We lost. You’ve got to be a man about it. You have to take a good, hard look at it — we as coaches, we as players — and get better because of what happened.”

— Bo Pelini

[+]Enlarge

Nebraska's Roy Helu, Jr., (10), tries to fight through Iowa State defenders Fred Garrin (43) and Christopher Lyle (55) in first quarter action, Saturday, October 24, 2009. (Gwyneth Roberts / Lincoln Journal Star)

Nebraska's Roy Helu, Jr., (10), tries to fight through Iowa State defenders Fred Garrin (43) and Christopher Lyle (55) in first quarter action, Saturday, October 24, 2009. (Gwyneth Roberts / Lincoln Journal Star)

Injured shoulder or not, Husker running back Roy Helu isn’t making excuses, pointing at himself as a major factor in the team’s slide to 58th nationally in total offense from 12th a year ago.

“It’s me not playing the best I can,” the junior said. “I take all the load on that, why we’re not moving the ball and being productive.”

Why so tough on himself?

“Because the running game sets the tone for everything,” he said.

Helu is coming off a rough outing against Iowa State. He carried the ball just five times for 24 yards. He lost fumbles twice. One of those helped the Cyclones to three points and the other came inside the ISU 5-yard line.

His recent shoulder soreness didn’t contribute to his fumbles, he said.

Helu, who was again wearing a green "hands-off" practice jersey Monday, was asked if he feels pain going into contact.

“I’m pretty sure everyone on the team does, so there’s nothing different with me,” he said.

* Shaking it up: Look for some depth chart changes at wide receiver this week.

“There’s going to be some shakeup, there’s no question about it," Nebraska receivers coach Ted Gilmore said. “In what direction, that hasn’t been decided yet.”

Gilmore said he gave more practice reps Monday to redshirt freshmen Tim Marlowe, Steven Osborne and Khiry Cooper, and junior college transfer Brandon Kinnie.

“I just want to see what they can do with no one standing behind them and see how much they know,” Gilmore said. “I’ve got a lot of coaching to do. I’m going to be a little bit grayer after this week.”

So who’s on scout team?

“We’ll find out tomorrow," Gilmore said. “It hasn’t been decided who’s been down there for sure, so I’m not going to put that out there yet.”

* Talking about sparks: Asked if the quarterback situation remains the same two days after a 9-7 loss to Iowa State, Husker coach Bo Pelini said: “Yeah, right now it is.”

Pelini said junior quarterback Zac Lee graded out “pretty well,” though there were some throws the quarterback would like back.

“I do believe the offense needs a spark, and where that spark comes from, that’s for us to determine,” Pelini said. “I think it could come from a lot of different areas. But I can tell you this: We need to light a fire under it and make sure we get somebody ... we feel we’ve got to step up and make some plays.”

* Time to fight: Pelini took a determined tone after Monday’s practice

“This team’s fine,” he said. “We talked about what happened. You can look in the past. You can be disappointed and feel sorry for yourself, talk about what-ifs. But (we’re) not. We’re in a very similar situation that we were a year ago, but you have to fight your way back.”

The Huskers (4-3, 1-2 in the Big 12) were 3-3 last year before finishing the season winning six of their final seven games.

The effort doesn’t need fixed, Pelini said. The execution does.

“It was sloppy football. It was putting the ball on the ground. The effort was there.  The want-to was there. That wasn’t the issue.”

* Security measures: The team worked on more ball-security drills than usual Monday, two days after NU  tied the school record with eight turnovers.

“We do ball security every week, but obviously when something happens like it did the other day ... you can’t emphasize it enough,” Pelini said. “It’s something that we talk about all the time. I’m embarrassed by what happened.”

* Injury report: Husker senior wide receiver Chris Brooks continues to be sidelined with lower back pain. Defensive end Pierre Allen, who missed the second half Saturday after getting dinged, did not practice  Monday. Pelini said he thinks Allen will be back today.

Practice meter

The Huskers worked out in  Hawks Championship Center — an intense practice, according to players.

Pelini liked it. “We got a lot done today,” he said.