Football Video & Report: Sept. 11

Nebraska football head coach Matt Rhule met with the media to preview Saturday’s game against Houston Christian. He discussed not letting up and keeping attention to detail after a 68-0 shutout.

“Not letting up, that’s an outside thing,” he said. “For us, we’re just trying to get better. Let’s all continue to improve. There’s so many things we have to improve. Before every action, there was a warning. There’s all these things on tape. If you just remove the emotion, you’re like ‘gosh, that’s not good enough’ or ‘that’s better than I thought.’ We’re just trying to be very surgical, so this was a week about improving. Improving to get ready to play Houston Christian and improving to improve our whole football team. I felt this week that everything got better. But you never know until Saturday. It’ll be our first day game. I know that question was asked earlier. You get up and you have to wake up ready to go for morning games.”

He discussed the Nebraska Football standard and how it is maintained.

“One of the reasons that I’m happy that video was out at halftime, which I meant, was that I want that standard set. That’s how you’re supposed to play. My first year against Louisiana Tech, we were beating them somewhat significantly and then there was a lightning delay. They came back out and scored a touchdown and I was like ‘where is the killer instinct on us?’ So, that’s not something you just have. You have to be good enough that it matters. You can have all the killers in the world, if you’re not good, it doesn’t matter. I think we’ve been building that and I was really pleased to get it last week. This is a whole new game. I go into every game thinking, hey, let's win this thing 17-16, expecting a battle. I know these coaches, these coaches are winners. They are going to do an excellent job. So I’m expecting us, no matter what the score is, I'm expecting us to play better than we played last week. If we don't play better than we did last week, then we wasted a week. Sometimes you play better in a loss, sometimes you beat somebody 45-14 and you don’t play better. That’s been the whole challenge. I think the week has been excellent. No distractions and the guys at practice have done a great job. I’ve been very pleased. We’ll see what it’s like on Saturday. I always have to say that. There’s nothing worse than a coach saying ‘we had a great week.’ A great week just gives you a chance, then you have to get yourself ready to play. Good teams throw you curveballs, you have to adapt.” 

He spoke on how Dylan Raiola has grown as a player, specifically with pre-snap and play calling, since last season.

“He was doing a lot last year,” he said. “Since he’s been here, we’ve done it with him. This will be game 16 for him. He’s still so young in his journey, he’s just doing it at such an advanced level. He can come out and he can say ‘it’s man, I’m going to go to this,’ or ‘it’s two-man, I’m going to go to that.’ As a play caller, you can give him things and you can call a play and if it’s not the right play, he’s going to get you into a better play. He’s not just picking plays whenever, they’re giving them to him. I think he did a lot of it last year, I think we’ve just elevated it and added more things. The team is just a lot better. The offense, the guys that were here last year, they’re playing a lot better. We’re better up front, we’re better at a lot of positions. He can get the checks and guys aren’t missing them. We’re just another year into it.”

Kickoff between the Huskers and the Huskies at Memorial Stadium on Saturday, Sept. 13th, is set for 11:00 a.m. (CT) and will be televised on FS1. The game can also be heard across the Huskers Radio Network.