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Nebraska Freshmen Lenhardt and Doss Expected to Play Against Illinois

Coach Matt Rhule expects Illinois defensive lineman Jer’Zhan ‘Johnny’ Newton to be a handful Friday night in Champaign

Joe Hudson

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After sitting out two games with an ankle injury, freshman defensive lineman Cam Lenhardt will play when Nebraska squares off Friday night with Illinois. 

Available for the first time will be freshman receiver Jaidyn Doss, whose broken arm forced him to miss the first five games of the season.

Those were the injury updates from Nebraska head football coach Matt Rhule as he spoke to reporters before Wednesday evening's practice. The Huskers are traveling to Illinois for a Friday night game that is going on as scheduled after a two-alarm fire Tuesday night at Illinois' Memorial Stadium.

Rhule said Illinois defensive lineman Jer'Zhan "Johnny" Newton will be a high pick in the NFL draft and is someone you need to game-plan around. But you can't do that at the expense of making things easy for any of his cohorts on the D-line.

"Their scheme, because they play with five down linemen basically 90 percent of the time, creates five one-on-ones," Rhule said. "So you have to win five blocks and they have to win just one pass rush, or one run block, to have a successful play. So it's a real challenge."

Ahead of Illinois Trip, an Attitude Recharge for Huskers

The Huskers are trying to bounce back from a 45-7 loss Saturday to Michigan.

"The way we've worked this week," Rhule said, "I think guys are hopefully just pretty much locked in on tonight's practice and tomorrow morning, and then getting up there and playing a good game."

It is Nebraska's third road trip in a season that started with games at Minnesota and Colorado. Rhule said it's important to bring your own energy, especially to a road game. "We created a lot of energy Sunday night [at practice] when no one was watching," he said. "We created a lot of energy yesterday morning, and we'll have to do that Friday night.”

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Joe Hudson
JOE HUDSON

Joe Hudson has operated a Husker-related website since 1995 and joined forces with David Max to form HuskerPedia (later renamed HuskerMax) in 1999. It began as a hobby during his 35 years as a newspaper editor and reporter, a career that included stints at the Lincoln Star, Omaha World-Herald, Philadelphia Inquirer and Denver Post. In Denver, Joe was chief of the copy desk during his final 16 years at the Post. He is proud to have been involved in Pulitzer Prize-winning projects in both Philadelphia and Denver. Joe has been a Nebraska football fan since the mid-1960s during his childhood in Omaha. He earned his bachelor of arts degree in journalism and economics at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 1976. He resides a few freeway exits north of Colorado Springs and enjoys bicycling and walking his dogs in his spare time. You can reach him at joeroyhud@outlook.com.

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