Nebraska head coach Matt Rhule
***Rhule said he had a minor ear procedure done this morning to address some “pressure issues.” He apologized in advance if he had trouble hearing questions, but said he would be fine.
***Rhule thanked the Kansas City Chiefs for allowing Nebraska and Cincinnati an opportunity to play in Arrowhead Stadium. He said KC had some of the best grass in the NFL, and that helped lead to the Huskers moving to a grass field.
***Rhule said
Gibson Pyle underwent season-ending knee surgery on Thursday. Pyle’s injury was not related to his ACL, as Rhule only called it a “knee injury.”
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Mario Buford is out while going through concussion protocol, while
Roman Mangini continues to recover from offseason groin surgery and will miss the next couple of weeks.
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Pierce Mooberry and
Gabe Moore are out with hamstring injuries, while
Vincent Shavers is dealing with a “lingering hamstring strain.”
“If you guys know V9, I wouldn’t count him out.”
***Rhule opened his Cincinnati talk by calling UC head coach
Scott Satterfield a “winner.” He praised how Satterfield had developed the program and listed all of the Bearcats’ offensive threats. “With Scott, they’ve never not scored.”
***Nebraska held a mock game on Thursday night inside Memorial Stadium. Rhule said it was “probably the best mock game I’ve ever been a part of.”
***Rhule was excited for the first college football games to start this weekend. He plans to make a long film cut-up of some of the first-game mistakes other teams make to show his players what he’s been talking about all offseason.
On NU’s first depth chart and lingering position battles
***Rhule said
Williams Nwaneri and
Cameron Lenhardt were both starters, and there were packages where they’d be on the field together.
***Rhule said
Elijah Pritchett was not the starter if Nebraska played today. However, NU has not decided on a starting left tackle. Rhule said Pritchett’s spot was purely based on performance, and “that competition will go on through the game.”
Rhule likes “Elijah a lot,” but Nebraska has the luxury of a lot of talent and depth. Dependability and consistency will ultimately define who starts and plays the most at that spot.
***At right tackle, Rhule said
Teddy Prochazka would probably be the starter today, but
Tyler Knaak was “right on his heels.”
Turner Corcoran is the top swing tackle.
***At QB, Rhule said
TJ Lateef’s dynamic ability as a runner and comprehension of the offseason this early earned him the No. 2 spot. “
Jalyn (Gramstad) is right there, but (Lateef) has just ascended into that spot… I think the sky’s the limit for what TJ can do.”
***On the kicker competition, Rhule said
Kyle Cunanan would be the starter today. Again, that was another position where the battle would continue through the opener. He said NU was pretty consistent from about 48 yards out, but they were still establishing consistency beyond that.
***Rhule said he was going to “keep it really real” when talking about
Rex Guthrie being the No. 2 rover. “Rex is a Big Ten starter at safety. As soon as he believes tgar, he’s going to play.”
Rhule added that
Amare Sanders was “an FBS starter” who was a No. 3 cornerback, while
Jeremiah Charles (No. 2) was maybe the best athlete on the team. He said
Caleb Benning was “a really good player” and “really, really smart.”
He called
Donovan Jones “a starter” who would see extensive snaps in certain packages this season.
Quick hits
***Rhule said
Emmett Johnson has had “a breakthrough in camp” and has taken his game to a new level this fall. Much of that is how much he’s improved his downhill running and physicality.
***Rhule said Cincinnati’s defense would feature “as formidable of a front seven as we’re going to see.” He singled out UC defensive tackle
Dontay Corleone, calling him a “fantastic” player who could wreck a game if you didn’t account for him.
***Rhule admitted that getting after the officials during games hadn’t “quite worked out for us” over the past two seasons. While he’s still going to stand up for his team, Rhule has considered taking a different approach when talking with the refs.
***Rhule said Nebraska’s marching band played during Thursday night’s mock game to help add to the simulated game-day environment.
***Rhule said
Grant Brix underwent a minor procedure over the summer and was now firmly in the two-deep at right guard. He said Brix had an excellent camp and could play guard or tackle on either side of the line.
***Rhule said Nebraska’s travel roster would be around 80 players for Kansas City on Wednesday. On game day, NU will bring down the rest of the team. He wanted the entire team to travel and have that experience, but he also wanted to be honest about where guys stood in the actual pecking order.
***Rhule said Nebraska’s defense has gotten plenty of looks at mobile quarterbacks this offseason from guys like Lateef, Gramstad, and
Marcos Davila. All three would play big roles in preparing for Cincinnati’s dual-threat QB
Brendan Sorsby.