Offensive line benefits from younger players stepping up

Jeremiah Sirles slept like a baby.

He calmly went over his playbook one last time, fell asleep, woke up and was ready for his first game as a Nebraska Cornhusker.

Sirles was set to start at left tackle in only his redshirt freshman season, a rarity in Husker history. He realized the magnitude of that about five minutes before kickoff.

"The nerves didn't really set in until I walked through that tunnel," Sirles said.

Freshman Andrew Rodriguez had a similar experience.

"Coming out of the tunnel walk, my heart was just pounding," Rodriguez said. "You could see my pads moving from my heart, just pounding so hard. It's an adrenaline rush."

Sirles and Rodriguez are key contributors in a crop of talented young lineman the Huskers rolled out for the first time on Saturday.

"It was good to get their feet wet," offensive line coach Barney Cotton said. "Getting all those guys their first game competition was huge."

Sirles and junior college transfer Jermarcus Hardrick spent most of fall camp rotating at the left tackle position. Both players have massive frames that are hard to miss when they step on the field.

The 6-foot-7 Hardrick and 6-foot-6 Sirles wasted little time disposing of Hilltopper defensive ends, helping the Huskers rush for 289 yards.

But Sirles' time at left tackle was short-lived. He was summoned to fill in on the other side of the line.

"I'm proud of a guy who is a redshirt freshman to go in and play both sides," Cotton said. "I hadn't told him until today, ‘I'm going to throw you in at right tackle, are you ready to go?'

And he goes, ‘Yeah, I'll give it a try.'

"But you've got to have guys who can flop. Right now, he's our flopper."

Sirles didn't start taking reps at right tackle until about a week ago, but said he played both sides of the line in high school.

The move to right tackle is a little more difficult than one might think, though.

"All of a sudden, an inside pass rush move is an outside pass rush move," Cotton said.

"Your outside foot's back and your inside foot's up. Your stance changes. Everything is totally opposite on the other side."

While the young lineman may have made minor mistakes, like blocking the wrong guy or taking some bad aiming points, Cotton said he was happy there weren't any free rushers or false starts.

Sirles said he benefitted from his redshirt season and is far more confident now than he was a year ago. Linemate Rodriguez isn't going to get the same time to grow as a player as injuries have forced him to step right in at left guard.

"The learning process just became a lot shorter," Cotton said. "Now you've got to become a lot more mature in a very short time."

Rodriguez saw significant playing after spending fall camp behind senior Keith Williams at left guard.

Only seven other offensive linemen in Husker history have seen the field as true freshmen.

It's an impressive list that includes All-Americans Will Shields, Jake Young and Toniu Fonoti, and Rodriguez is the first to play right away since Jacob Hickman did so in 2006.

Cotton said he likes Rodriguez's physicality, but the 19-year-old still has a lot to learn.

"Practice is one thing, but to be out there against 85,000 people where everybody's looking at you and everything is going a lot faster than it does in practice (is another)," Cotton said.

"Hopefully, he'll take a big step forward from that experience."

The Huskers are going to have to rely on youth for depth this season on the offensive line, and Sirles and Rodriguez know improvement isn't going to come overnight.  

It should be a lot easier, though, now that those first-game jitters are out of the way.

"On that first play, I was shaking," Rodriguez said. "I was nervous, and the older guys were just telling me to relax. They helped me through it."

dougburger@dailynebraskan.com