Glenn shines in his debut at linebacker

His first three years at Nebraska lacked many highlights. But the man billed to be Nebraska's bruising running back during the Bill Callahan era flashed the athleticism, instincts and highlight material in his first game as a linebacker that had been missing through his first three seasons with Huskers.

"I really just wanted to play good football and just have fun, and that's something that I really haven't had in awhile," a relieved Cody Glenn said after a 47-24 victory over Western Michigan.

 Glenn, a linebacker in training since only March of this year, looked like a seasoned backer that the Nebraska defense has been missing for some time. The linebacker unit was perhaps the biggest question mark in this Husker preseason, and no individual on that unit was more questionable than Glenn to be able to make an on-the-field impact heading into the season opener against the Broncos.

Linebackers coach Mike Ekeler said the unit played far from a flawless game on Saturday against a tricky challenger in the Broncos, but Glenn's readiness to play the position was not in doubt from nearly the first snap of the game.

Glenn led the Nebraska defense with 12 tackles, three tackles for loss, three pass breakups and a forced fumble. One of his only mistakes roaming the middle involved a skill he learned as a running back – catching the football. He dropped a would-be interception, which drew some post-game needling from quarterback Joe Ganz.

"That's why he's on the defense now," Ganz said of Glenn.

Ekeler, known for his fire and animation since the Blair native arrived in Lincoln, showed some of it after Glenn closed on a pass near the first-down marker and jumped the route to bat it down in the first quarter to force a punt. Upon Glenn's return to the sideline, he was greeted by a leap from Ekeler that may have gotten Doc Sadler's attention.

"That was a heck of a play he had. You could see his closing speed, his burst and just his feel for the game," Ekeler said. "Think about it, that's the first game he's played on defense since high school. He doesn't even know what he doesn't know. That's a beautiful thing. Look at the upside with that guy."

Although Nebraska's defense surrendered 350 yards and gave up 24 points, including three 80-yard touchdown drives, defensive coordinator Carl Pelini saw plenty of upside in the overall unit.

"Each one of those drives had a big play involved that was a mistake on our part," Pelini said. "We're OK with that. We don't like that, but we can fix that. It wasn't a matter of guys running by us."

The Huskers allowed the Broncos 19 first downs – none came by way of the ground game. Western Michigan managed just eight rushing yards on 25 attempts.

"In terms of stopping the run, I thought our guys did a great job," Pelini said. "I think they came out and did want to run the ball and they struggled with it."

The unit that recorded one sack in the final seven games of last season recorded four in Pelini's first game guiding the defense, and he thought that total could have been greater with more commitment and confidence.

"I thought we had a pretty good pass rush, but I think we need to have more of a mindset to rush the passer," Pelini said. "When it's long yardage, we've got to just go. Sometimes I see our kids being a little bit too cautious in our pass rush.  I want them to throw caution to the wind and just get after that quarterback."

The team also forced two turnovers in the season opener after garnering no takeaways in six of its final seven in 2007. But without question, some of the same bad habits that plagued this non-Blackshirt defense last year still reared their ugly head – overpursuit, big plays and being out of position. That amounted to a better than 60 percent completion average for Western Michigan quarterback Tim Hiller, who completed 31 passes for 342 yards.

"I would give them an A for effort, but we did make a lot of mental mistakes that we've got to get better at," Pelini said. "In defense of our secondary, it was a difficult team to prepare for because what they did was lined up in heavy personnels and gave you a lot of spread looks."

"There were a lot of checks required. There was a tremendous amount of learning the last six or seven days for our secondary. They did make some busts, but scheme wise, it was a difficult opponent to prepare for in your first game in a new system."

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