The Nebraska football team practiced for 2 ½ hours inside the Hawks Championship Center on Tuesday as it turns its attention toward the Iowa State Cyclones and a Saturday matchup in Ames, Iowa. Defensive Coordinator Carl Pelini said he was impressed with the speed and intensity of the day’s practice.

“We had a good day of practice,” Pelini said. “Early on we did some ones against ones. It was as fast a period as I think we’ve had since we’ve been here. It was physical and we were getting after it on both sides of the ball. We came out ready to go, and I’m excited about how we practiced today.”

The Husker defense prepared for the Iowa State offense, which struggled in last week’s loss at Baylor but still has the potential for explosiveness.

“They’re real multiple,” Pelini said. “They go all kinds of personnel groups. We’ve to be ready for a lot of things, real similar to what we saw against Virginia Tech.”

One area the defense is focusing on is creating turnovers. The Huskers haven’t forced a turnover in their last three games.

“We just need to keep working on it,” Pelini said. “Those things tend to come in bunches, and sometimes you hit a dry spell.”

Pelini added that he expected linebackers Cody Glenn and Philip Dillard and safety Rickey Thenarse to play on Saturday, as the three have been battling injuries this past week.

Kickoff against the Cyclones is scheduled for 11:30 a.m. and the game will be shown on the Versus Network.