Twice this week, Nebraska’s coaches returned to their offices and held conversations about an enviable problem, at least as far as football coaches are concerned: how to dial back the intensity in practices.

“We've had talks two nights in a row about slowing them down,” Nebraska head coach Scott Frost said on Friday. “Because we've been a little too reckless, it's not everybody, but you know that can lead to injuries on the field you got to be able to practice like a pro and take care of each other.

“But I would much rather have a team where I have to say slow down a little bit than one that we're trying to get to go faster. And you know particularly the guys are going to be playing — the older guys — we’re trying to pull the reins back on a little bit ,so I think the toughness and enthusiasm and effort at practice is improved drastically as well.”

Heading into the start of fall camp, one of the biggest priorities for Frost was getting the level of physicality in practices to an appropriate level. In early August, Frost recalled how difficult Tuesdays and Wednesdays were when he was playing quarterback for the Big Red. Those days, Nebraska’s top offense and top defense would face one another. Frost and his staff used the approach during their second year at UCF, choosing the benefits of the tougher practices over the risk of harming depth in the midst of what would be an undefeated season.

“You always run a risk as a head coach when you make that decision because you can get somebody tweaked or hurt in practice, but the benefit that we thought we gained just staying sharp,” Frost said. “Kind of refining our toughness and grit was more valuable than any potential risk of getting someone injured, and that’s a tough decision as a head coach but I think it paid off that year.”

Nebraska’s staff is hoping to implement more of that kind of competition this season. With a roster numbering in the 150s and improved depth at key spots, Frost said Nebraska plans to increase the frequency of good-on-good this season.

“We did it some last year,” Frost said. “I think our players are in a better position to have the endurance to get through the season this year and continue to do it this year. I think we have better depth, so we’re not going to be as worried getting one guy nicked up in a period like that. I think we’ll ramp it up this year and make sure our guys are continuing to compete, but we did it some last year.”

Nebraska offensive line coach Greg Austin said he remembered Tuesdays being heavy practice days when he was a lineman with the Huskers in the early part of the century. He said the way Nebraska acts on the practice field will determine how it stands up to Iowa, Wisconsin and other physical programs who have bested the Huskers in the trenches in recent years.

“We’ve talked about toughness and the mentality, all those things,” Austin said. If you want to improve those things, you have to practice tough. My response to that would be, ‘how we practicing?’ are we practicing tough? Are we running tough runs? Are we putting ourselves in tough situations? That’s how you make a tough team. You don’t talk about it. You do it. Toughness is an action. You have to do it. My rebuttal to that, even coach Frost, is, ‘OK, well let’s practice tough then.’”

Austin said the message seems to be sinking in to his players.

“(Wednesday) was probably the toughest one for the guys,” he said. “The most physical practice we’ve had. It was awesome.”