Shatel: Huskers look good in opener, and it appears they'll need to be

Lincoln — Opening night. Bad omens. Good omens.

Which do you want first?

Let's start with the bad.

On a wild first Saturday of college football, Nebraska's 2009 schedule came into focus. It's tougher today than it was yesterday.

Missouri looks better than advertised. The Tigers whipped up on Illinois 37-9, and made it look easy. Quarterback Blaine Gabbert looked like a poised veteran, not a shaky sophomore making his first start. The story of the game might have been MU's defense. The Big 12 North hopes the easy explanation is that Illinois just stinks.

Baylor is as good as advertised. The Bears took a gutsy win in the middle of ACC country, outlasting Wake Forest 24-21. Quarterback Robert Griffin is already a “bear'' to deal with.

Then there was the sight of Oklahoma quarterback Sam Bradford with his arm in a sling. What does that mean for Nov. 7 in Lincoln? It's too early to tell.

The good news is, Nebraska doesn't play Oklahoma State this year. Or Northern Iowa, for that matter.

There was other good news. Plenty, in fact.

Given the turn of events in St. Louis and Winston-Salem, N.C., it was imperative that the Huskers make a statement. They did.

It's not like they had to match Missouri, but they couldn't look sloppy, unorganized or incompetent. They didn't.

Nebraska handled Florida Atlantic 49-3 in one of the better starts in recent years.

Not because they beat Howard Schnellenberger's Owls, but because this bunch entered the season with the uncertainty of youth in key spots. We needed to see NU take care of business, and dispatch FAU in a swift and orderly fashion, and the Huskers delivered on that and then some.

If you wanted to nitpick, there were nine penalties, a turnover and no sacks on defense. Bo Pelini played it pretty vanilla; not much quarterback run game on offense and hardly any blitzing on defense. No surprise there. Pelini's not going to give any sneak previews to Frank Beamer and his defensive coordinator at Virginia Tech, Bud Foster.

Freshman running back Rex Burkhead ran into the game instead of flying in, but now we're getting really picky.

There was a lot more to like.

ŸZac Lee looked and played the part at quarterback. Lee was an efficient 15 of 22 for 213 yards and two touchdowns, and he might have had a third had tight end Mike McNeill not dropped a pass with no defender behind him (McNeill was trying to run before he made the catch).

Again, Lee wasn't asked to do a lot, but he had good presence in the pocket, didn't play nervous and didn't force things in his debut. It will be fun to watch him grow each week.

ŸRoy Helu has star written all over him. By rushing 16 times for 152 yards and three touchdowns, including a gutty 1-yard run on fourth down with everyone in the stadium looking for him, Helu answered questions about durability, stamina and toughness.

ŸThe offensive line played well, specifically the right side, with Ricky Henry and D.J. Jones paving the way for big gains, including a fourth-down touchdown run at the 1.

ŸReceivers Menelik Holt and Curenski Gilleylen made big plays — a good sign for this offense.

ŸPeople are looking for the Blackshirts to carry this team, and they didn't disappoint on opening night. They didn't get a lot of pressure on quarterback Rusty Smith, but there were good signs in some spotlight areas.

The young linebackers are fast. They were effective in the numerous nickel and dime coverages that will be necessary in the Big 12. The secondary was much more aggressive swarming to the ball. And the tackling was generally better.

Then there were the turnovers. The Huskers recovered a fumble and had two interceptions. They could have had a third, but Matt O'Hanlon's first pick was nullified by a late hit by tackle Jared Crick.

The Huskers have to improve drastically in this area to succeed. They can't repeat last year's output (minus-11 as a team, which ranked 107th nationally) and think they can win nine games again. That's a point of emphasis with Pelini. So far, so good.

ŸThe kids are all right. Burkhead is fun. He runs like his hair's on fire, always falling forward for more yards. He hits the hole like Pete Rose used to run toward home plate. The best thing he did was run for tough yards inside. It was Florida Atlantic, not Oklahoma. But that might mean the Castille void is not as big as anticipated.

Again, the only thing “Superman'' Burkhead didn't do was wear a cape. But I could have sworn freshman quarterback Cody Green wore it on a 49-yard gallop down the sideline in which he outran defenders who had an angle.

Wow. The long-term future is bright. The short-term isn't so bad, either.

Contact the writer:

444-1025, tom.shatel@owh.com

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