Rhule Previews Michigan State Game

Nebraska football head coach Matt Rhule met with members of the media on Monday to address the upcoming game against Michigan State on Saturday afternoon.

“We’re obviously excited to get started with Big Ten play and go on the road for the first time,” he said. “It's a group of guys that we have who are committed to doing things the right way, so we are excited to take them on the road and take them into a hostile environment, deal with the crowd noise, deal with the newness of some of these other things, you know, going on the road and staying in the hotel. I feel very confident in our group that they will be ready to go. On a personal note, just for me, it's a pleasure to go against Coach (Pat) Fitzgerald. You know, when I was the head coach at Temple as a young assistant coach, he was obviously at Northwestern at the time, and we were both Under Armour and did a lot of things together at the events, his wife and my wife. You know, when everything ended at Northwestern, I just know the type of man he is, the person he is. I remember him as a player, and so this will be my first opportunity to be on the same field as him. Obviously, we are both going to compete, and we both want to win but I have infinite respect for him and what he has done in coaching, and I am excited about having an opportunity to have that happen for me for the first time but more importantly its our players. They have an excellent team, very balanced, they don’t beat themselves, lowest in the league in penalties, they don’t turn the ball over, run the football. Cam Edwards is a great back, they’ve got a big powerful offensive line playmakers. We had a chance to see the quarterback last year, he threw for two touchdowns against us, he’s really good in the system, the coach (Matt) Sheridan come in and brought what they did with Coach (Kalen) Deboer at Alabama and had every chance to win on Saturday night so they certainly have played some big time competition and we have our work cut out for us on defense and offensively I think Jordan Hall is one of the best players in the Big Ten, I think their edge rush and their edge players are as good as we will see all year, I have a lot of respect for Joe Rossi, I think he does a great job, and last year when we played Michigan State, they certainly did a great job against us, couldn’t get anything started really til the fourth quarter with some kind of special teams play and some turn overs that allowed us to win the game so we know the battle that it will be, our guys have to be ready to go and we have to have our best week and get out there and just play.” 

Rhule discussed the 80-person travel roster and how he cuts it down, along with the benefits of having six more spots than previous seasons.

“It was just a cross-cutting measure so we have all these guys that work so hard,” he said. “We were able to get a lot of guys in the game on Saturday and you know why not take six more guys that can help you on special teams or help you if there’s an injury. So I know the coaches were for it when we talked about it and I think all the athletic directors were as well so I think it’s a great move in the right direction.”

Rhule spoke on Michigan State’s edge rushing ability and Kenny Soares Jr.

“I think (Kenny) Soares is the number one, who was number one last year at Michigan, he’s a great player,” he said. “I think there’s a lot of guys who can push the pocket and Soares can go speed to power but he also has a quick inside move, he can dip the edge. He had two sacks against Notre Dame and I don’t even know if they got a hand on him. Notre Dame has a very very well coached, very good offensive line and I say that with respect to them but that’s how good he is. He’s a factor in their running game as well his analytics grades are all being run to him, he’s very very strong so he’s an excellent player to me. Every week there’s guys that pop off the tape and you say to yourself that’s a guy who causes the other team, whoever it is to win. He’s one of those guys who causes his team to win.”

He spoke on Michigan State’s scheme and defense. 

“I don’t know what Coach Fitzgerald has done, but I think it’s a lot of the same,” he said. “I think they’re maybe pressuring a little bit less, but Coach (Joe) Rossi, I know him, I’ve talked to him, he’s going to limit explosives, he’s going to stop the run, he’s going to try to win the turnover battle. He’s not afraid to play man. They’re going to press all day. They’re going to press outside all day. He’s going to get their hands on you. We have good wideouts, they’re going to have to win against those things. Their front plays really, really hard. Going back to No. 5, Jordan Hall, I think he’s as good a player as there is in the Big Ten. When you can put Hall to the field and you can put Sores in the boundary, you have two dynamic players that can anchor things. Their one safety too is a tackling machine, he’s all over the field. You know what they’re doing, you know their system. I said this last week and you know if you were really listening, I say it to our players, but North Dakota schematically was really, really challenging. These guys are challenging in a different way. They know everything they’re going to get. You run a route on them, you know what they’re going to get to be quarters. They’re off DB’s, they’re turning to the route before you even break. They just know their defense so well. That’s very similar to Iowa and Minnesota and all these guys that are quarter based defense guys. They all have their own slight variation on it, but they all do the same thing. Rob Aurich is kind of from that family. That’s why we hired him. We felt like in these games, we didn’t want to reinvent the wheel, we wanted to do the same stuff, so we’ve seen it all spring and all summer. It’s going to come down to making blocks and, for them, getting off blocks. For us, making people miss and then making people miss and getting off tackles, so it’ll just be a physical, physical game. It won’t be a schematic game; this will be an execution game.” 

The Big Red will travel to East Lansing, Mich., on Saturday, Sept. 26 to battle the Spartans at 4 p.m. (CT). The game will be televised on the Big Ten Network and can be heard across the Huskers Radio Network.