Lincoln – Nebraska concluded its home preparations for the Jan. 1 Cotton Bowl Thursday with a two-hour, half-pad workout inside the Hawks Championship Center. The squad split up for the holidays following practice for a four-day break before it leaves for Dallas.

Head Coach Bill Callahan said that his team had a productive three days of workouts this week despite the looming holiday break.

“It was a very good practice—solid preparation by our football team,” Callahan said. “I’m really proud of their efforts in the way they came out this week focused and prepared. We’re excited about the challenge of going to Dallas and playing Auburn. We’ll reconvene down there on Tuesday.”

With many Huskers from around the country traveling home over the next few days, Callahan expressed concern for those players preparing to trek through inclement weather.

“I just hope the (players) make it home safe,” Callahan said. “We have a lot of players traveling from coast-to-coast. I hear there’s some bad weather out there, so I know the guys heading out west may be hung up a bit. But I hope everyone makes it home and arrives safe in Dallas.”

One development to surface during practice this week was freshman defensive back Major Culbert receiving reps at I-back for the first time this season. Callahan said Culbert was placed in the role due to recent injuries to I-backs Brandon Jackson, Cody Glenn and Kenny Wilson.

“We worked him pretty good,” Callahan said. “We’ve had some guys (injured), and Major filled in and unselfishly stepped up and got a lot of reps. We had a lot of confidence in his abilities when he came out of high school and thought he was a terrific back We bantered back and forth around the staff table about whether he was going to be a running back or safety, but we put him at safety because we needed the help there. Surely, he has demonstrated the ability to play running back, and he has picked it up pretty fast.”