Terrance Knighton: Tough decisions coming in Nebraska's competition on defensive line

Position battles are the name of the game during college football fall camps. The Nebraska Cornhuskers have quite a few of their own going on, especially along the defensive front, according to the defensive line coach Terrence Knighton.

During a recent conversation with members of the media, the Cornhuskers D-Line coach discussed the players who have been standing out during fall camp. Knighton also lamented that he will have to make some tough decisions soon.

“A lot of competition in the room,” said Knighton. “We got young guys like Ashton (Murphy) and Keona (Davis) who are getting better each day. Young guys that played last year — Cam (Cameron Lenhardt) [and] Riley (Van Poppel); they’re taking the next step. James Williams, Kai Wallin [and] Dylan Parrott, who moved over to D-line, flashing right now. We just got a bunch of guys we’re just playing well.

“You know, it’s going to be a tough decision to make at the end of the day. But like I said before, we want eight, nine, ten guys that can go out there and play at starter levels. Right now, everybody’s battling for those positions.”

As the Nebraska defensive line coach mentioned in this comment above, he wants his defensive line unit to be somewhere in the neighborhood of 10 deep. Knighton would love nothing more than to be able to exchange and rotate players in and out, keeping individuals fresh and keeping the pressure up on opposing offenses. And it looks like he is well on the way to achieving that goal just in time for Nebraska’s season opener against the UTEP Miners.

Knighton, Nebraska rallying around Teddy Prochazka after season-ending injury

Nebraska veteran offensive lineman and projected starting left tackle Teddy Prochazka for the season. While this will likely be a tough loss for the cornhuskers to overcome, Knighton took some time to detail how the team is supporting Prochazka after his fortuitous end to the football season.

“We’re gonna rally around Teddy,” said Knighton. “He’s battled his way back from other injuries. And [it’s] just another roadblock in his path, but knowing him, he’s going to fight back. He not gonna give up. That’s just the type of kids we have on the team. We have a lot of guys who’ve been through adversity; they’re tough guys, and they fight back from those things. As coaches and the support staff, it’s our job to support them.”

As he detailed, the Cornhuskers defensive line coach is anticipating the coaching staff and staffers to fully support their fallen star. As he continued, he explained the Nebraska staff’s mentality when it comes to handling player situations like this.

“Everything’s just in line,” he continued. “Everyone has a job in the building; everyone has a responsibility. As far as the support staff, the coaching staff, everyone in the building, the first thing, the first priority of the players. So anything involving the players comes before anything that we do as coaches; in our personal lives, anything. Players come first.”