Head Coach Matt Rhule met with members of the media ahead of Saturday’s game against Purdue. He spoke on the importance of special teams, mindset and the remainder of the season.
“Especially in games like this week, where weather could be a factor, you want to play great on the special teams,” he said. “Purdue has dynamic kickoff and punt return games. They blocked a field goal against Iowa in a crucial time, they’re excellent on special teams. We’ve made some good plays on special teams, pinning the ball down, Tommi (Hill) with the kickoff return last week. We’re also missing some opportunities. We had a punt block last week, we missed it. We’re just going to continue to try and get better at it…Guys fill in the void as we have injuries. I think special teams are vital. They’ll be really vital this week. We’re down our starting kick returner. We’re down our starting punt returner. Those are big things, so other guys have to step up.”
Rhule discussed the team’s mindset of finding a way to win, even when they’re not playing their best.
“The danger, and it goes back to Bill Parcells, who used to talk about the psychology of results,” he said. “There’s four things to it. One of them is, when you don’t play at the level you want to play at, when you don’t play well and win, sometimes you start to think ‘hey, I can win.’ That’s why you’ll hear me say I don’t care about the score all the time. Obviously, I want to win, but I care about how we play. There’s a standard.”
He also talked about the process of the rest of the season.
“We have 29 days left in the season,” Rhule said. “That’s it. We could do anything for 29 days. And so I just want them each day to get a little bit better for 29 days and see if we can’t earn ourselves another chance to play another ball game.”
Kickoff between the Huskers and the Boilermakers at Memorial Stadium is set for 2:30 p.m. (CT) with live television coverage from FS1. The game can also be heard across the Huskers Radio Network.