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Zack Carpenter • InsideNebraska
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Nebraska held its second scrimmage of spring ball on Saturday, and Matt Rhule met with the media afterward for a little more than 15 minutes.
Here are three key takeaways from his time at the podium, including a recap of the scrimmage, health updates and more details on the spring game.
Rhule recaps Saturday scrimmage
On a gloomy and windy, mid-40s day in Lincoln, the Huskers held their entire scrimmage outside at Memorial Stadium.Rhule wanted his team to get some springtime experience to help prep for late-season Big Ten games, and he also wanted to emphasize situational football. That's been one of the key focuses all spring and it will continue to be that way going into the final week of practice.
The quarterbacks were all live once again, and they had a few explosive plays. Most of them came from the receiver position – like Marcus Washington snagging a big touchdown catch from Jeff Sims – and the quarterbacks rattled off some nice scrambles, which was highlighted by a long Sims run on a zone-read type of play. Overall, though, the Huskers need to start making a few more of those.
“We had some explosive plays, not enough," Rhule said. "Our running backs previously had (the explosive plays). We’re really doing a much better job tackling and vicing the ball — keeping the ball (inside). The defense, you can see them really taking a step in terms of how fast they’re playing.”
The offense's ball security issues were noticeable on Saturday – specifically the quarterbacks and running backs each putting the ball on the ground "a couple times," he said.
“For this to be Scrimmage 2, disappointed in the offense to fumble the ball," Rhule said. "Interceptions are part of the game, but fumbles are controllable. A lot of people don’t have their quarterbacks live in scrimmages, so the quarterback doesn’t turn the ball over, doesn’t get hit and fumble. So at least they’re getting that work done now. I wouldn’t say it’s a major thing, just one of my observations of the day.”
While it was the offense winning the first scrimmage of spring ball, the defense won the day this time around with Rhule saying that the Tony White-led crew "was significantly improved" on Saturday.
“Overall, the defense was better than the offense today," Rhule said. "The defense was better than they had been the first time, which was good. Our guys on defense are really settling into the system.”
The scrimmage ended, though, with the offense snagging a win over the defense.
Rhule put the team in one final situation at the end of the scrimmage by putting the ball on the nine-yard line with nine seconds left, the offense down four points with no timeouts and facing a third down.
The defense made a stop, but a defensive player threw a punch after the play was over. Rhule said he "screamed at the defense" and made the defensive players and coaches run a gasser. After that, he gave the offense one untimed down, and Sims took advantage by scrambling around and eventually finding Washington for a touchdown.
In celebration, the offense all ran right from the field and into the locker room – which is what Rhule directed them to do if they scored. It was all a lesson: finish games
“The defense won the whole day; the defense won the scrimmage," Rhule said. "But you know what they didn’t do? They didn’t make the play at the end to win it. It wasn’t anything physical, it was just mental. Our awareness of the situation, our awareness of doing the right thing. I believe good teams do good things and bad teams do bad things. Most of the world believes that good teams have good players and bad teams have bad players.
"...Just gotta keep bringing them along situationally. We’re gonna be in games this year where it’s gonna come down to the very end, and I don’t want our heart rates going through the roof like we’re so nervous. I want us to have been there 100 times. The situational football this week can be really fun. I went and practiced against Coach (Bill) Belichick and saw the way he did it, so I stole that from him. Throwing different situations at them at different times."
Health updates
There were no major injuries to report stemming from Saturday's scrimmage.Rhule said defensive lineman Elijah Jeudy got hurt early and left, and tight end John Goodwin got hurt late. But both were minor injuries – perhaps rolled ankles, Rhule said.
Other than that, everyone who has been in yellow or green jerseys recently remained either sidelined or limited. That included Ben Scott and Ajay Allen. Rhule said that both players likely would have played in a game if they had these same injury situations in the fall. But there was no reason to put them on the field right now. Allen, Rhule says, is "trending toward being back this week."
Blaise Gunnerson was a full participant in practice once again after having been sidelined for most of the spring until recently returning to full contact.
“He’s a player I’m really excited about," Rhule said. "I like what he does.”
More spring game details
Rhule said earlier this week that he wants the Red-White Spring Game to be formatted like an actual game – an actual competition instead of just a glorified practice.He doubled down on that Saturday, saying that the plan is to have the No. 1 offense go against the No. 1 defense and for the No. 2 offense to compete against the No. 2 defense. So, the plan is for the rosters to have the No. 1 offense paired with the No. 2 defense on one side and the No. 1 defense paired with the No. 2 offense on the other side – in order to have the entire spring game be 1s vs. 1s and 2s vs. 2s. The only way that plan will be changed or adjusted is if the offensive line doesn't have enough healthy players to conduct it that way.
Rhule, in continuing with his goal of putting the players through as many situations as possible to get them prepared, also said that he wants to have a running clock after first downs – in line with the new NCAA rules that will be implemented this coming season.
“I talked about the spring game today with the guys, and I just want them to understand that this is not a show," Rhule said. "I watch some other spring games on TV where they’re just kind of like a show. This is not a show. I expect them to get better all the way up through the spring game, however long that is, if we practice for an hour or four hours. Whenever that’s over, that’s when they can relax. That’s when the coaches can relax. I expect us to go out there, accelerate and put our foot on the gas pedal this entire week.
"I’m a guy who always has themes. So just putting themes on these guys to be continuously grinding. It’s a very happy place. We have a great fan base, we have a great everything. But I need them to understand that we’re 4-8. It’s not a negative thing. We have to earn the right to say that we’re a good team. We have to fight to be a good team."
In other programs, the final week of spring ball might be the slowest time, or a time to pump the brakes a bit. Not in this program.
Rhule wants his players to get off their feet a bit, relax and enjoy the weekend (while also carving out some time to focus on football) but come back ready on Monday. Relax over the weekend, yes, but it's time to clock in and work hard this final week.
“I expect this to be our best week of practice and our best week coaching-wise," Rhule said. "I expect our coaches to work harder this week than they have because we’re always trying to get a little bit better every day, and I think that’s an important message to our team.”
