Spaulding Roundup: Nebraska Notes, Care Packages and Concussion Reports

Well folks, we have just about made it through this game week. Especially with last week's bye, the anticipation for tomorrow morning's game has made it tough to make it through to today.

Given the near-media blackout in Westwood this week, even the Bruin beat writers have been focusing on Nebraska's game preparations. Chris Foster noted the Huskers' use of true freshmen in key roles in their defense, including their starting MIKE linebacker spot. Bo Pelini seemed pleased with how the freshmen handled themselves last week, but as expected with room for improvement.

"We trust them, and I think they handled it," Nebraska Coach Bo Pelini said. "They are mature guys who showed good instincts."

Banderas and Gerry each had three tackles against Southern Mississippi. Both, though, brought energy to the lineup. Pelini was reserved in his assessment, saying only, "I thought that they did some good things. I [think] they have a long way to go."

It is going to be interesting to see how those guys handle Noel Mazzone's offense, and reminds us how key it is to have guys like Anthony Barr, Eric Kendricks and Jordan Zumwalt to provide balance when our freshmen enter the game. Jack Wang wrote about how Myles Jack and Kenny Clark handled their first game.

"It was like a dream, kinda," Jack said. "When they first called me to go out on the field, I just ran out. I tried not to look into the crowd and everything, but I was. It was a dream come true, especially with my first game being played in the Rose Bowl."

He said it took him a half to acclimate himself to the pace of the game. ...

Fellow freshman Kenny Clark went through a similar process... "As I started getting more reps, the game started getting slower," said Clark, who took about 20 snaps against Nevada. "It started feeling like practice."

Our Bruins on NFL rosters can expect to get something in the mail, thanks to Coach Mora and the football program.

Excited for our 23 #NFL Bruins to get "care packages" courtesy of @UCLACoachMora & @UCLAFootball #8CLAP pic.twitter.com/mYucq3fpts

— Josh Rebholz (@JoshRebholz) September 12, 2013

Coach Mora is also making sure that people don't forget Nick, and asking people to donate - no matter how big or small an amount - to the Nick Pasquale Foundation. In San Clemente, the OC Tavern will be donating 20% of sales during tomorrow's game to the foundation.

For the folks that have made the trip to Lincoln, Corn Nation has an informal Q&A up for Bruins looking for the best places to check out this weekend, along with an earlier post with their writers debating the one place that visiting fans should not miss. We also shared questions on our teams earlier in the week: CN's questions and our answers are posted here; our questions and their responses will be on the front page early this afternoon.

This is a little old, but the Chronicle of Higher Education published an article last week examining the pressure on the doctors and training staff of various college programs to quickly clear players after a concussion diagnosis.

Nearly half of the major-college football trainers who responded to a recent Chronicle survey say they have felt pressure from football coaches to return concussed players to action before they were medically ready. The respondents included 101 head athletic trainers, head football trainers, and other sports-medicine professionals from the highest rung of college football, the NCAA's Football Bowl Subdivision.

Some not-so-nice words for Lane Kiffen and Mike Leach in there, as well as a couple of unnamed Pac-12 programs who allegedly fired their trainers due to disagreement over concussion protocols.