Nebraska freshman Khiry Cooper ended all speculation about his status with the Huskers.
Cooper was drafted in the fifth round of the Major League Baseball Draft by the Los Angeles Angels, but the deadline to sign with the Angels has passed. That means Cooper, a receiver and kick returner, will play with the Huskers this fall and join the NU baseball team in the spring.
"It's good that it's all past, but one thing I know about Khiry from when I recruited him is that he's a young man of character and his word," Nebraska coach Bo Pelini said. "When he came here, he told me he was done (with signing with the Angels). Once he came here, his mind was full into football. He wasn't trying to play one against the other.
"He and his mom made a decision that the best thing for him was to be here at Nebraska. At that point, they were shut down, so I felt fine about it."
The Huskers closed the second week of preseason camp with a two-and-a-half hour workout Saturday afternoon on the Gass Practice Fields northeast of Memorial Stadium.
Midway through his first fall camp Pelini assessed his team's progress in the first two weeks of camp.
"I feel pretty good about where we are right now," Pelini said. "Fortunately, we have two weeks left. We need to make a lot of strides in those two weeks to get ready for a pretty quality football team that we're going to play (in Western Michigan). We're making progress, but there's still a lot of learning to do. The attitude has been good and they are making strides, but we're not game-ready yet."
One key focus of this fall camp has been building the physical nature of the football team, and Nebraska has been able to do that with relatively few major injuries.
"For as much banging and work as we've done, we're pretty healthy," Pelini said. "You're going to have your bumps and bruises. That's to be expected. We don't have anything career-ending or season-ending, so we're ok there."
Under sunny skies and with temperatures only into the lower 80s during the afternoon workout, the Huskers were able to improve upon their Friday performance in Pelini's eyes.
"I thought it was a good practice today," Pelini said. ``Offensively, we had a real good day yesterday. Defensively, we didn't have as good a day. Our kids responded today. We had a hard go on Thursday, and we took a step back in some areas yesterday. There were just some specific guys who didn't come out and approach the practice like we needed to.
"Today, we challenged them and they responded. We're making progress. There's good competition on both sides (of the ball). Both sides are learning, and I think we're about where we want to be right now."
Pelini hopes that competition builds depth among the backups on Nebraska's depth chart.
"I feel pretty good about our first group on both sides of the ball," Pelini said. "There's a lot to be fixed, but we're trying to build depth and see more guys who are going to step to the forefront and see how much the young guys have learned to see who can contribute.
"It's a constant evaluation process going on. On top of that, we're working special teams to see who the guys are there. I think, as a football team, we've gotten better, but we also know that there's a lot more out there for us to achieve."
The Huskers' 105-man fall-camp roster will participate in Football Fan Day tomorrow from 2 to 3:30 p.m. at Memorial Stadium in Lincoln.
"It's going to be a lot of fun," Pelini said. "I hope it's not too hot."
