Ron Brown calls it “rubber ball resiliency.”“When you squeeze it, it pops back into shape,” the Nebraska tight ends coach said.
Consider Saturday to be Zac Lee's rubber ball bounce back.
The NU junior quarterback, fresh off the worst performance of his young career, rebounded with a sharp outing Saturday during Nebraska's 55-0 victory over Louisiana-Lafayette.
It was light years from his 11 of 30 and two-interception showing against Virginia Tech. His 238 yards on 15 of 18 passes tell part of the story. The way he handled himself in getting from one Saturday to the next tells another part.
“The thing about Zac is that he's got so much resiliency,” Brown said. “He has a tendency to not let things get to him.”
Lee said he did almost everything the same this week, other than maybe a little more film work. After two NU wins in which he amassed 553 passing yards and six scores, the struggles at Virginia Tech were a reality check.
He said during the week he just “focused on ball,” while trying to move on and have a short memory.
“Mistakes are going to happen. Bad things are going to happen,” Lee said. “You've got to deal with it, move on and learn from it and make sure you don't repeat it.”
The guy who may have seen Lee's resiliency the most this week was backup quarterback Cody Green. The freshman said there was a “new notch” in Lee since the loss to the Hokies. He was the first one there and the last to leave. There was a different determination in everything he did.
“You could tell he just had a look in his eyes,” Green said.
There was little evidence of the highly publicized thumb injury on his non-throwing hand. Lee brushes it off as a nonissue.
But it was one of the things guys noticed as he fought past his first dose of disappointment, Green said.
“People saw the battle in him because he kept fighting,” he said.
And Brown says Lee isn't the only one. The veteran coach went as far as to say he has been “very impressed” with the way the Huskers as a whole have dealt with adversity.
“They came out Monday and they got after it,” he said. “I love the way this football team has responded in the last year and a half. We have really learned some great things about not sitting around pouting. We've had short memories. We've been able to come back from some tough losess and come back the next week and play well.”
And Green said the guy he shadows on a daily basis is the undeniable leader of that group.
“He's running the thing now,” Green said.
