Nebraska Head Coach Matt Rhule Pre-Colorado Press Conference

Opening Statement:

“Appreciate all you guys being here. I think the guys have done a good job since Thursday night working hard to improve as a team. Excited about this week obviously going on the road again versus another power five opponent. Great chance for us to take a step as a team to try to improve and go 1-0 this week. I have a lot of respect for the team that we’re playing. I had a chance to watch them on Saturday obviously playing a ranked team. They'll be a ranked team this week maybe even a Top 10 team and that’s well deserved. I’m excited to see our guys match that environment and handle that environment. I’m excited for the week.”

On updates about injured players:

“Yeah, Isaiah Garcia-Castaneda got hit in the side of the knee, tore his ACL. Heartbroken for him. Really one of the great stories on our team and sad for him. Really sad for him. And Nick (Heinrich) and Jimari (Butler) we’ll see going through tomorrow and the day after if they’re ready to play or not.”

On the plan at receiver, losing a starting guy and who he looks to step up

“Yeah I think it’s kind of all hands on deck. It’ll be those young guys. We got Jaylen (Lloyd) in and got him on the reverse. Hoping Malachi (Coleman) can help us. Obviously we’ll have Marcus (Washington) now back full time, so it’ll just be all hands on deck. We used Heinrich (Haarberg) last game a little bit so we’re just going to have to go with the guys that are there and trust and believe that they’ll make the plays.”

On Jeff Sims’ mentality about being able to bounce back

“Yeah when I left last night he was in there watching tape, so he’s not the first quarterback that’s ever thrown three interceptions. The great ones bounce back from it even better. I think you find out about people when they go through a little bit of adversity, so obviously he had not been trending that way. Got in the game, made some plays that he would take back if he could, but he can’t, so we’ll just be there for him as he gets better this week.”

On Colorado prep and what to expect: 

“Well I think they have really good coaches. You go back and look at their coordinators. You look at Sean Lewis from Kent state, he’s a friend. He’s an excellent coach. He comes out of Art Briles tree. You’re going to get the ball run from B gap to B gap. They’re going to attack you on the perimeter. They’re going to take 10 deep ball shots a game. They have the guys. They can go down the field and their ball skills are elite. They have a quarterback that can make those throws. It’s really a perfect storm and perfect hire. That style of offense with that skill set of guys they have, plus the altitude and tempo in Boulder, it’s really well thought out. On defense obviously Coach Kelly comes from the (Nick) Saban tree. You watch Florida State film and you can’t look at everything from what they did last week. Obviously they were facing a new offense with TCU and it’s like two different worlds of what we played last week compared to now. We’re studying everything. They have a lot of new players and we have new players so this is their first time too. A lot of work has been done this summer and a lot of work has been done right now.” 

On the tempo and altitude leading into the Colorado game: 

“We’ve been practicing with tempo all training camp. It’s a great way to practice when running defense and it’s a good way to prepare, as well as get in shape. The things we teach and the fundamentals we believe in show up in these games. What happens when it goes that fast is guys start to get sloppy. For our guys we’re going to have to make this about football. We can’t make it about altitude or tempo. This can’t be about a ranked opponent or being on the road. It has to be about football. That’s what we’ve done all training camp. There was a lot of questions about how the three-three-five stack up. I thought we handled the run game really well and like how you said it’s a whole unique challenge. Maybe more of the three-three-five so we’ll just have to play well. We’ll have to play football.” 

On the team getting ready for this week and their mentality

“Yeah I don’t think there’s any moving on. At the end of the day we’re going to play each week. There’s a great Kobe (Bryant) quote, ‘we’re going to come back and do the journey all over again whether we win or lose.’ We go through the opponent. We go through the last game, so Friday we came in. We got back late. We came in Friday afternoon. We went through the game. This is what we did well. This is what we didn’t do well. Everythings very methodical and unemotional because there was a lot of good. It wasn’t like one of those ‘hey we’re down by two scores and we scored at the end to make it a one score game.’ We had the lead. Unfortunately we made some catastrophic errors down the stretch. We learn from those. We eliminate those mistakes. We had a chance to win that game so that was Friday. Saturday we gave the guys off, and I was in here Saturday morning in here working. We had a ton of guys in here taking care of their bodies. Recovering. It’s been a long camp. Then brought them in yesterday and we started on Colorado. It’s a little unique for us as coaches. I went home and watched the game on TV because I didn’t know what to expect. It’s not like you can watch it on tape. This is the first game so having a chance to watch the game was good, see the flow of the game and see them in action. Yesterday we came in here and worked with the guys last night. Today is their off day, and we’ll get back to work tomorrow morning.”

On if Colorado’s success was a surprise:

“No. Coach Sanders is a football guy. While you can watch all their practices and stuff on TV, at the end of the day when has he ever not been serious about football? He’s been a head coach now. They’ve got elite players and elite players up and down the front. Every time you have a great quarterback you have a chance to win. I wasn’t surprised at all.“ 

On Coach Sanders being a ‘football guy’:

“He’s won in everything he’s done in football. He’s won as a player. He’s won as a coach. Everyone thinks, not me thinks, this is a big show. His poster was on people’s walls when he was a player because he is one of the most hard working players who played the game. Why would we think his team would not be the same? CJ White on our staff was a strength coach for him. He told us early on, ‘let me tell you how they’ll practice. Let me tell you what they’ll do.’ I have the utmost respect for Coach Sanders. When he was the head coach at Trinity Christian, I recruited (Qualan) Jones out of there. He’s a football guy. The commercials all of those things are the extra things you get to do when you’re elite at football. I’m not surprised at all. Everything he’s ever done in football he’s been successful at so he’s being successful here already.” 

On dealing with a guy like Travis Hunter:

“Well he’s one of the most conditioned athletes I’ve ever seen, so god bless him. You know his lung speed is unbelievable. His ability to accelerate at 30 yards is something that’s hard to simulate in practice but I think the biggest thing about Travis is his ball skills. He just goes up and even the one where his foot landed out of bounds I mean his ball skills. That’s really going to be the theme of the week. Again with this offense they’re going to throw the ball down the field 10 times a game minimum. You have to play the ball. He can go up and get the ball. You saw him do it on offense. You saw him do it on defense. I mean he took the ball out of the young man’s hands on the flat route in the end zone. It’s not like he got the ball first. He took it out of his hands, butif you watch them practice all summer, on the stuff they put out, I mean he’s got those kinds of ball skills. He’s a competitor.”

On Ty Robinson being out in the first half and the other players that will step up: 

“They played well, Ty was at a different level when he was playing. He got to the quarterback four or five times. Obviously it’s unfortunate we won’t have him in the first half but I told him he’s going in on every play in the second half when you get back. So you better rest up. Ty’s level of football in the first half was really impressive. We played a lot of guys. We were able to get some guys in for three, four or five plays. We’ll need all of that for this tempo and we’ll need all of that for this opponent.” 

On the physicality on defense and special teams:
“Again I’m an incrementalist. I’m a process guy, so I can say two things and mean them. I’m crushed we lost the game the way we did, not for me but for the guys. I’m upset for them, but at the same time I can recognize how much better the football is than early last year. I’m proud of that for them, like ‘hey look at where practice got you.’ To turn the ball over four times and to turn the ball over two times inside the five versus a Big Ten opponent and to have the lead is outrageous. We have to clean all that up, but I recognize the things that are better. The way I think you build a program that will last is you keep improving the things that aren’t good. Early on in the game I walked out on the field and was like hey guys they’re third or four right now on a third down. We got better at those third downs as the game went on and thought Tony (White) adjusted. I would like to see us make those steps in our passing game this week and see us make those steps in protecting the football and taking away the football. I thought we were really physical and I thought we ran the ball hard. We played four, five, six linebackers and we rotated guys in. There was no ‘oh he’s in call it differently’. Javin (Wright) went in and he played really well. Mikai Gbayor was unbelievable on special teams, but he gets in on defense and you see him play well. You’re playing MJ (Sherman) and you’re playing Chief (Borders). If we continue to do that as we get into the stretch of Big Ten play we’ll have a bunch of guys that can play up to the standard. This week we’ll be able to do it versus excellent skill and versus tempo.” 

On what Heinrich Haarberg has been able to contribute:

“Yeah Heinrich’s is about 230 pounds. He runs 4.5. He’s competitive. We had some more things in for him. I don’t want to sound like excuses but we had three drives in the first half. The first one kind of came in with like ‘hey we’re going to start this way’ and the ball starts at the one yard line. Just kind of never got that rhythm going until really the third drive. You saw us getting into a rhythm. You saw us kind of get in and out of things. Sat (Coach Satterfield) was calling some tempo plays. Unfortunately we false started and didn’t get the ball in the end zone, but Heinrich can help us in a lot of different ways. He’s the backup quarterback but he’s also a guy that’s going to help us play some other positions. He can catch it. He knows every position because he is the quarterback so hopefully he can help us all out as we move forward.”

On Javin Wright being and why he trusts him to play so many snaps

“He’s practiced really well. He didn’t do anything in the spring. His father was here, obviously former husker legend, he was kind of laughing like ‘he thinks he’s a corner coach, move him inside’ and Javin bought into it. We said right before the spring, ‘hey we’re going to play you,’ because he was able to do some things. ‘We’re going to move you in and have you play backer,’ and he was all for it, which was a great step. I can tell you every NFL scout that comes here all say ‘okay coach tell me who 33 is,’ cause he’s big, fast, rangey, explosive, but he’s had to learn how to play, right? He’s had to learn how to play the game and had to learn how to play the different things that you see at that position. But to have a guy with that speed playing linebacker is awesome. He’s got a tenacity and a physicality that I like. He’s got a great personality and he’s another guy that was excellent on special teams.”

On comparing and contrasting Rhule and Sanders building their programs:

“Yeah I’m sorry to do this to you but respectfully I can’t talk about anybody else just for me. Guys in the portal that we have a relationship with or that we have respect for or we know or something, they fit us. Obviously we’ll take some of those guys. We’re going to try to recruit high schools as much as possible, specifically local guys. It’s always taken me a couple years to get the program up and running. We got to Temple and we lost the championship and we won it the next year. We won it a couple years after with the new coach. I went to Baylor. We lost the championship in year three. COVID hit year four. The same kids won the Big 12 and went to the Sugar Bowl. I only know how to do it one way and the rules are a little different now, but I respect anybody that’s just trying to figure out how to win. There’s different ways of doing it, however Coach Sanders, however Luke Fickle is doing it, however everybody is doing it. It’s not really for me to say. For me, this is how we’re doing it and this recruiting class we have right now is a really big one for us as we move forward. Obviously, they’re going to be a ranked team and what they’re doing is working.”

On the new clock timing rules and game tempo:

“Yeah I was starting to say that and I forgot to say it, but like that first drive, you know and only having three drives in the first half you could kind of feel a little bit of that. That won’t really be a factor this week. I think they’ll snap the ball within 8-10 seconds of what we do. At Baylor I used to go against Kliff Kingsbury and those guys so I have some experience with guys who like to go this fast. It’s a great way to play football. So the clock rules last week, you could definitely feel them. Just how short the first half was and it took us a little time unfortunately to get in rhythm.”

On Tommi Hill’s improvements and the split time between offense and defense: 

“Last week he was on defense because he was coming off of that injury. He was on defense and he got a couple plays on offense. We really knew that that shot we took on him and we knew he’d get open in that formation. We knew that he would run by the guy. We just knew it was going to be there and it was. We just weren’t able to quite connect on it. So, that was kind of a one off thing and he had another play that we had for him that didn’t hit. I think as we move forward that we see the type of shape Tommi is in. He’s a really smart football player and his mental toughness is something I really like where he’s at. So, last night he was asking me what he can do on offense. It’ll remain to be seen in the game plan today. He’ll have some other roles on offense. I also really like to watch him play offense last year and he was one of the best blockers. I mean he came in and he was blocking the heck out of people. You have to be careful with what you’re allowed to do, but he’s kind of blocking the old Husker wide receivers’ way. So, I’d love to utilize him in the blocking game as well.” 

On getting Billy Kemp IV and Thomas Fidone II more involved:

“Yeah I was disappointed, especially for Billy. I think of the 60 plays we called, nine he was the first guy in the progression. Some of them either they took that away or there was pressure or something like that. Called a play for Thomas down the goal line, thought it was going to be a touchdown, he kind of got banged by the guy and wasn’t open. Really Billy we have to get going. We have to find a way to get him involved because he’s too good of a player and too competitive of a guy. Thomas as well. Talking about things we want to improve upon. Just the overall passing game this week for us to have a chance versus a team that can score like this. We’re going to have to make some more plays. So we got through the first week. We identified, ‘hey we need to improve this,’ and hopefully we can make some strides.”

On the offensive line and it’s importance against Colorado’s tempo:

“Yeah I thought the offensive line played well. We had the back-to-back sacks on the one drive that were less about getting beat and more about a miscommunication. Unfortunately just two guys working together. I thought had we not fumbled the ball at five minutes I felt like we were starting to wear down the opponent. With the greatest respect for them, I thought we were going to be able to run the ball out and finish with about 250 yards rushing. When you only have three drives in the first half and you have four turnovers, it’s really hard to wear down your opponent. All that being said it was a good first game. We know where we are and we know what we have to improve upon. Colorado has really good skill upfront. Their edge rushers are really twitchy, explosive guys. We tried to slow that down last week with some quarterback draws, even when they only get two or three yards. It does slow down the pass rush, so we’ll have to do a lot of different things versus Colorado because they are so talented upfront.”  

On comparing the tempo against Minnesota to this week’s opponent: 

“When we played Minnesota we knew they were averaging like a 34 or 35 time of possession specifically against the Huskers in the last couple years. So, to have it close to even was a step in the right direction. With the four turnovers or say even two turnovers we probably had it for 33 or 34 minutes. again we’re heading in the right direction, not good enough, but we are heading in the right direction. What I have found versus a team like this is again just make it football. The tempo is there. I don’t even want to think about it. If they're going really fast and we can force three and outs then they start to wear down their defense. If they’re going really fast and they’re going one first down, two first down or even three. I have such a unique perspective because I was at Baylor after Coach Briles and I would hear the guys talk that had been in that offense, and they’d say, ‘hey get two first downs and it’s a touchdown.’ They just want to get on the field against you and wear you down. Our guys were just going to try and make it football. Again, we’re going to try and win on the deep balls that they’re going to throw and try to stop the ball. They will run the football and they will tackle well. I think for us on offense it’s just about converting third downs. It will always come back to being on third downs. During the first half we weren’t doing a great job of that, but as we started to convert the third downs all of a sudden we had seven points on the board and things happened. We’ll try to make it football as best we can.” 

On preparing the team for the Colorado stadium environment:

“Yeah again, I’ll say it cause this is exactly what I’m saying to the team, ‘make it football.’ All that’s what it is, but it’s still going to come down to blocking and tackling. You know they went down to TCU last week and while everyone thought it was going to be all this stuff, they played football. They went out there. They caught the ball. They played good football and they won the game. We’re just going to try to make it football. We’re lucky we had - unfortunately the loss last week but - it was game one of the season and the other team did a goal route. Like how often does that happen on the first game of the year? We recognize every game we play in. Every game the Nebraska Cornhuskers are in is a big game. For a team to do that in the first game of the year, it was really really loud. Minnesota had a great student section. A lot of our mistakes happened down in their student section, which was unfortunate for us. We have to learn from that. But last week happened maybe to prepare us for this week or maybe to prepare us for the future. But we’ll be a significantly better team after these first two weeks of being on the road in these two environments. When we come back home and then when we go back on the road late in the year. In terms of preparing them for it, it’s football. If we can’t lock in and just play football then nothing I say will matter. The pregame pageantry will all be over. It’ll be football once the game kicks off.”

On the legacy and history of this week’s matchup:

“Yes certainly before this year and I’m here all the time. There is nothing but cows out by where I live. No one really sees me that often in the season. Obviously I respect that tradition, that history and that legacy. When I was going through the job and looking at the job, and Trev (Alberts) and I were talking, my wife and son and I would sit down and watch on YouTube and watch all the different games over the years. Coach Osborne, Coach McCartney, Coach Solich, Coach Barnett. All the different games that happened. We understand the legacy. When you have a legacy behind you, you have to live up to it and you have to build on it for the future. We also recognize once the ball is kicked we have to play. We have to play for 60 minutes.”

On Shedeur Sanders’ play: 

“I thought he was in complete control. I think there is a lot of freedom in that system where if a guy is uncovered, he is just going to raise it and throw it out to him. I thought his deep-ball accuracy was excellent. I thought his pocket movement was excellent. I thought he played like a guy who’s played a lot of football and trusted his receivers. To have four guys with over 100 yards of receiving means he doesn’t just trust this one player. When you look at the game the tailback (Dylan) Edwards really broke the game open with some explosive plays. I thought he was in command. He was in control. Again it’s not like you’re just taking away one thing. There are four receivers who had over 100 yards rushing.  You have a quarterback who threw for over 500 yards. They’re going to run the ball. There’s tempo. There’s a lot of things but we’re still going to show up. Our defense is going to be there. We’ll play and see what we can do.”