Freshmen duo hint at bright future for Husker football

Even when they make mistakes, freshmen Cody Green and Rex Burkhead can do no wrong.

Take Saturday's game against Louisiana-Lafayette, for example. On a drive early in the fourth quarter, Green called the wrong play in the huddle, confusing his teammates and coaches.

Green then took the shotgun snap, dropped back and flipped the ball forward to Burkhead on a shovel pass. As Green put it, things worked out fine from there.

Burkhead juked left to avoid a tackle, burst past his blocker and stiff-armed a diving Lafayette defender en route to a 24-yard touchdown.

Green, expecting Burkhead to be down after hitting some tacklers, looked over to the sidelines for his next play. When he saw the coaches weren't paying attention to him, he looked up at the North Stadium video board and took it all in.

"I look up on the big board, and he's still making cuts," Green said with a laugh. "He got in the end zone, and I was OK with that."

So what was the right play call?

"No one knows," Burkhead said with grin.

Burkhead, the always-humble I-back from Plano, Texas, credited everyone but himself for the play.

"I got a great block from Kyler Reed downfield and was able to cut off him," Burkhead said. "And it's a lot easier to make good runs when you have this tremendous offensive line in front of you."