It's a new year with a new coaching staff, but some bad feelings still linger from last year's 5-7 season that some players are only too happy to make known.
In separate stories in the Lincoln Journal-Star, offensive lineman Matt Slauson and running back Cody Glenn both aired their frustration with former coach Bill Callahan and his coaching staff while, at the same time, expressing optimism that things will be different under new coach Bo Pelini and his staff.
Slauson, who played through a shoulder injury, said it was frustrating on a team level, as well as for him individually.
"There was definitely a frustration for the team, one, but for me especially," he told the Journal-Star. "Because I kind of feel like I got jacked around a little bit, switching positions all the time, switching playing time all the time, playing a few plays here, a few plays there. I was really frustrated the whole time."
Slauson said things were so bad that some players didn't know who was going to start until 10 minutes before kickoff.
"I had no idea what was going on the whole year," he said.
Glenn, who was coming off a foot injury suffered late in the 2006 season, looked to be in good shape heading into 2007 and was projected as someone who would compete with Marlon Lucky for starting time in the backfield.
Instead, Glenn saw little action and had 27 carries for 78 yards in five games in 2007. And he couldn't trust the word of running backs coach Randy Jordan.
"The thing about me is, when you tell me you're going to do something, I expect you to do it," he told the Journal-Star. "Once you don't, I just kind of don't have any trust in you. We had a few situations like that, and I never got an explanation for it, where he'd come up to me and say, 'I did it for this reason.' I was like, 'Man, I can't believe anything he says.'"
Both players added that they are happy to be playing for a new staff that is willing to wipe the slate clean and give everybody a chance to show what they have to offer the team.
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