Rhule Shares Post-Scrimmage Thoughts – University of Nebraska

Nebraska football head coach Matt Rhule met with members of the media following the team’s spring practice on Tuesday. 

He spoke to how the team handled the scrimmage on Saturday, particularly the quarterback room.

“I thought they were really good. It’s a really hard defense to go against. I thought we protected the ball well, which is the first thing. We’re on a mission to be in the positive territory in turnover margins. I think there was only one turnover on the day, through a lot of reps. I thought they handled all the pressures, I thought they adjusted to the different things. The biggest thing is just getting into the stadium for the first time. I put crowd noise on, so you can’t have coaches out there like ‘no, cut your split!’. Coaches are the worst, they always want to tell guys what to do. So I put crowd noise on so they couldn’t hear from the sideline. We just wanted to test the guys and see what they knew. There’s a lot of things to work on, but a lot of positive things. I think we’ve made a lot of strides in a short amount of time.”

He talked about the transfer portal opening today and how he balances spring practice with the portal.

“I think, if anybody on our team wants to go into the portal, it’s open today. That’s their right. Obviously, no one has yet. I don’t anticipate anybody going in. When we get done with spring, a couple guys will have a couple days to see if something is best for them. Our guys are really transparent. We’ve had players on our team already have people from other teams contact them. They’ll come in, walk in and say ‘coach, look at this’ and show us the text message. It’s a sad state of college football, but the problem isn’t the players. Let me start there, the problem isn’t the players. I love our guys. I want everyone to be here. But I also want them – we had guys transfer to other places last year – I’ve talked to their coaches, talked to them, and asked how they’re doing. Once you’ve played for me, you’ve played for me for life. Maybe it’s a unique challenge in terms of some guys, but we’re pretty transparent with our guys. If they want to come talk to us, we’re here to talk to them. I ask coaches after scrimmages to meet with guys one on one, I’m always available. I just don’t think it’s prudent – maybe this is pollyannaish – I don’t think it’s prudent for me to coach guys while thinking about the portal. The worst thing you can…