Matt Rhule's wife, Julie, knows him inside and out, so she made sure to tell her husband: "You're not going to all stressed out, are you? Go have fun." Rhule plans on it. "This is the type of team you can really have fun with ... So I'm going to be loose."
Earlier in Friday's press conference, he said he's having the time of his life right now.
"I really am," he said during the game week presser. "This is as happy as I've been in a really, really long time."
Rhule brings his 8-year-old daughter, Leona, around the team all around. She thinks
Chief Borders is like her older brother, the coach said.
"She sits in the team meetings. She gets on me about my language. But I told the team, 'It's one thing when you bring your son, right?' When I bring my daughter that's a statement about what I think about the men on the team. I would not bring my daughter around men I would not want her to look up to."
What else before Thursday's kickoff at Minnesota?
– Rhule said the Huskers will play a lot of receivers but
Alex Bullock and
Isaiah Garcia-Castaneda are on the top line with
Billy Kemp to start the season. Garcia-Castaneda would've always been a starter to Rhule but he had some soft-tissue things at the end of spring that held him back. He's all the way back and had a great camp. "So excited about Isaiah."
Bullock did receive a scholarship, joining his brother John in that regard. "You just can't deny what he's done. Making one-handed catches. Acrobatic catches. He's been dynamic all camp."
– The coach added he's taking it one day at a time with
Marcus Washington, who got back on the field early this week after multiple injuries to start camp. "He'll be healthy. The great thing about Marcus is he's played so much football. If anything he probably knows the offense better now than before because he hasn't been practicing." He's been focused on coaching the young players.
"I'm sure Marcus will be ready."
– Offensive coordinator
Marcus Satterfield and defensive coordinator
Tony White both like to call games from the field. Rhule would want to be in the press box if it were him in those positions, but he wants every guy to do what's most comfortable to him. He thinks special teams coordinator
Ed Foley will be on the field too.
"I don't spend too much time worrying about it. To me, we've done so much preparation. There's not a thing that will be called that we haven't prepared for and talked about." That includes very specific situations like it's third-and-7 from the 32 and you have two downs. What are you calling? "And they better be able to say it to me like that. And Satt's elite at that. Tony is really smart in that way and so is Ed."
If all the coordinators are on the field, he said
Garret McGuire would probably be in the box because he really sees the passing game well. Grad assistant Aaron Coeling, one of the best young coaches Rhule has said he'll be around, can also be on the headset and will upstairs communicating with
Donovan Raiola down on the field.
He'd guess
Rob Dvoracek would go up to the box and probably another coach as well.
– Rhule said you can't know truly who you are until you play a game, and probably a couple games. He's just challenged them to not have to wait until Game 4 or 5 to have the light come on and things slow down. "Try to do it now."
– The football I.Q. and situational stuff is what his team has improved the most in, Rhule said. They're locked into things now they couldn't have done in the spring.
– Regarding the status of defensive back
Marques Buford, because it's his second time with a major injury Rhule doesn't want to rush him back. Doctors said he made a jump last week but he won't be out there soon. Maybe week five or six is what Rhule mentioned as a best-case scenario. "If not maybe it's the last four games of the year and then he redshirts this year..."
"There's a big difference between letting guys come back when they can come back or when they should come back, and we want him to come back when he should come back," the coach continued. "Because he's got pro potential and want to make sure he's healthy."
– A couple other things to at least note when considering the depth chart that was released.
Jimari Butler was tracking right there in the JACK competition too along with
Chief Borders and
MJ Sherman but had a stinger that caused a brief setback.
Cornerback
Tommi Hill, who is second on the depth chart, is "a physical freak" but got a little banged up in camp too. "He's back to full speed."
– Blackshirts will be handed out Sunday, Rhule said.
–
Tristan Alvano and
Timmy Bleekrode have an OR between them to decide the top place-kicker.
"I think it's just over the next couple of days. Obviously Sunday we'll be in full pads and kick again there ... We'll have one more day of competition. And to me the depth chart, it's like an organism. It's ever changing. I'm not a big, hey, set it stone kind of guy."
Brian Buschini will punt and and handle kickoff duties, as well as be the holder.
Billy Kemp is the punt returner. Freshman
Emmett Johnson is listed as the top kick returner with
Rahmir Johnson also back there.
– The last three single digits were voted on and will be announced later Friday. The players didn't know yet when Rhule was meeting with the media.
– The Huskers had a "simulated game" on Thursday night. Rhule liked that his team was under the lights again before next week's primetime meeting with Minnesota. He also said they were working to make substitutions as clean as possible for the first game, but it was a physical practice too.
"I think the biggest thing I told the team is Coach Paterno used to always tell us you make your biggest jump from game one to game two," Rhule said. "I think of old coaches say that. So we don't want to try to do that after next week. We treated last night like game so we could see, 'Hey, where are we deficient?' 'What do we need to improve upon?' You can sometimes get to this last week and want to worry about the game but we have to maximize every minute to improve."
Husker head coach Matt Rhule on an array of topics as Nebraska meets game week.
247sports.com
