Omaha World Herald has an interesting story on the winter preparations now taking place on the second floor of the Osborne Athletic Complex.

In addition to six hours of strength and conditioning per week, the NCAA allows for two hours of watching and reviewing film directly with the coaching staff. Players can do more on their own.

Ndamukong Suh is one player maximizing his time.

“One of my goals is to be up there, be a football rat, and pick the coaches’ brains and see what they’re like,” said Suh, a junior nose tackle. “Obviously you want to interact and you want to get to know them and get a feel for them before you get into football.”

Defensive coordinator Carl Pelini said, “They have classes, they do have social lives, they have their weight training. You’ve got to kind of let them come to you at this point — and the nice thing is that’s happening.”

In other news, offensive coordinator Shawn Watson said Joe Ganz will have to compete for his position this fall. Watson said Ganz, who started the last three games of the 2007 season, will enter spring as the No. 1 quarterback. “You don’t take that away from a guy. But he’s going to have to — and he knows this — keep working, because he’s got a lot of good players behind him.”