Football Video & Report: Oct. 17

Nebraska head coach Matt Rhule met with members of the media following Thursday’s practice. He spoke on the difficulties of narrowing down the travel roster.

“When you don’t have a very good team, it’s a lot easier. When you have a good team, it’s a lot harder because as a guy gets banged up you have other options, so many options. Maybe you want an 11th o-lineman, or an extra corner. So, we’ve got a lot of good young players that, maybe they’re in their redshirt years, but it’s a game that we need them to step up and play in. There were hard decisions this week.”

Rhule also discussed the Hoosiers’ defense and defensive lineman Mikail Kamara, who has five sacks on the season.

“They do a tremendous job with their line games and twist games. They’ve never trailed, so they’ve had a lead in every game and they’re able to come out and just attack you, rush you. They have a great defense, great design. He (Kamara) is an excellent edge rusher, he’s got speed to power, he can beat you with the inside move, he can take the edge. We’ll see all of that. Take No. 6 (Kamara), No. 41 (Lanell Carr Jr.), No. 99 (James Carpenter) is one of my favorite players I’ve seen, he came from James Madison, with an interior three technique, twitchy. The nose is a big powerful man who can push the pocket. They have an excellent d-line, excellent pass rush.”

Rhule talked about his message to the team before the game against Indiana.

“Focus on us,” he said. “We can’t control the other team. It’s the same message I said at UNI, same message I said at UTEP, same message I say every week. The team that plays the best wins. It’s not the team with the best roster, it’s not the team with the best record. It’s not the team who won last week. It’s not the team that has the better music in the locker room. The team that plays better wins. Have a good week of preparation. Be in the moment, one snap at a time. Don’t worry about the scoreboard and go play. What I respect so much about this team that we’re facing is that they’ve outscored opponents in the fourth quarter 80-17. They’re one-score ball games that they pull away from because they stay in the moment. That’s a veteran team with a bunch of guys who have won a lot of football. They know what it takes. I think our guys have gutted out two straight wins, they’ve had some big moments. They took a tough loss and learned from that. We’re just going to focus on us and go out there and just play.”

The Huskers will face the Indiana Hoosiers on Saturday, Oct. 19 at 11 a.m. (CT) in Bloomington, Ind. The game will be televised on FOX with audio coverage from the Huskers Radio Network.