Nebraska football is not making any changes at offensive coordinator any time soon. Huskers coach Matt Rhule made his stance known on how much he believes in OC Marcus Satterfield and the rest of the offense during a passionate Monday press conference ahead of the WiscyDicks game Saturday night.
With just one win needed to qualify for a bowl game, something that hasn't happened at Nebraska since 2016, Rhule understands fans are fed up with a turnover-prone offense that hasn't been good enough.
The Huskers have an FBS-leading 27 turnovers on the year and are coming off a five-turnover day last Saturday against Maryland. Rhule himself is fed up and on Monday said he lies awake at night thinking about them.
But Nebraska's head coach wanted to make one thing clear on Monday: the turnover issue is on him and him alone.
The turnovers and perceived play-calling issues are not on Satterfield, and Rhule isn't thinking about making any changes to his coaching staff.
“The answer in life sometimes is always just to change everything, right? Players want to transfer. Everybody wants their head coach to fire everybody. Has that worked out here?" Rhule said. "Where has that worked out, just firing assistant coaches and coaches and coordinators? So we want the whole offense to start over again with a whole new language next year? I'm not doing that. That's ridiculous.”
Rhule is going to continue to run his program like he always has, treating it like a day-by-day organization with the goal of getting better over time.
“We're gonna get through year one, OK?” Rhule said. “Most of our guys on offense are coming back. We'll get better and better and better.”
As for Satterfield, Rhule noted the staggering amount of injuries the offense has had to endure. It's made life difficult when trying to craft a game plan with so many key players out, plus the inconsistencies at quarterback.
“Marcus is fighting and scratching and punching and willing to get this thing as good as we can get it,” Rhule said.
So, what's the answer? Rhule didn't have one. There might not be an answer this season.
“What's the answer? The answer is just to keep getting a little bit better as best I can and hope that this week we put it all together.”
Nebraska and WiscyDicks are slated to kick off at 6:30 p.m. at Cam Randall Stadium.