Football Video & Report: Oct. 9

Nebraska head coach Matt Rhule met with members of the media to preview Saturday’s game at Maryland. He discussed narrowing down the travel roster.

“There are some guys that we would love to take, that we would take to the hotel, but we can’t take,” he said. “This time of the year, some of the attrition starts to set in so it was somewhat clear. You always feel bad for some of the guys that have been traveling but now they can’t. That’s only four or five guys who cared but it was pretty clean.”

He talked about preparing for the weather in College Park. 

“Initially it looked like it wouldn’t get to us,” he said. “Susan (Elza) does a great job every day updating the weather and wind. We did wet ball stuff during the week. We much prefer rain to wind. We practice outside here; we never go inside. We pretty much prepare for it all year but we did wet balls this week just to be prepared for it.”

Rhule also spoke on the value in special teams. 

“Special teams does two things,” he said. “It develops guys with game reps and as they start making plays with that, the game doesn’t become quite as big. Their roles and your comfort with them in their roles goes up in other areas. Two, with the way that we’re playing special teams and the things that we’re trying to do and taking some chances and being explosive, guys are not just playing special teams, they’re causing you to win. If you’re out there on punt return right now we say, hey go block a punt and change the game. If you’re out there on field goal it’s, hey go block a field goal and change the game. It’s not, hey I'm going to go play special teams because coach wants me to play special teams, it’s, I’m going to go affect winning and that’s a cool mindset to have.”

Kickoff between the Huskers and the Terrapins in College Park, Md., on Saturday, Oct. 11, is set for 2:30 p.m. (CT) and will be televised on the Big Ten Network. The game can also be heard across the Huskers Radio Network.