Huskers Talk Winter Conditioning, Preview Spring Ball

Head coach Matt Rhule, linebacker Chief Borders and tight end Thomas Fidone II met with the media on Monday, March 6. The group talked about the team’s winter conditioning and offered a preview of spring practice, which begins later this month.

Video of the press conference can be watched by clicking on the ‘play’ button on the image above, or on the Huskers’ YouTube page. A full transcript of Matt Rhule’s press conference are below.

Nebraska Football Press Conference

March 6, 2023

Head Coach Matt Rhule

 

Opening statement

“I just want to touch base with you guys before we head into spring ball, obviously spring break next week. I just want to take this moment just to thank a couple people. I want to thank the players, I think they’ve worked really hard. It’s been a really good seven weeks heading into this week, which is our ‘team commitment’ week, which I can detail for you if you have interest. I want to thank your creative team. I have three kids back in Charlotte who can’t be here right now. I think Jordan Litten and Nick Burkhardt and their whole staffs have done a great job of giving small snippets of how hard our guys are working out. So hopefully the fans, recruits, families and I know my family is grateful for the job those guys do. I want to thank the winter sports. It’s been pretty cool watching Silas (Allred) win the Big Ten championship yesterday in wrestling, watching men’s and women’s basketball, beach volleyball, just all the sports, watching them compete. I know our team has probably seen more sports competitions this winter than they have previous, and I think it’s really good to be part of this campus community, athletic community. And then, as I’ve gone around the state, the one thing that’s really hit me, and I wanted to say it, and I mean this with elite humility and appreciation is, I want to thank the fans. I’ve just been here a small time, but they’ve been coming to Memorial Stadium and supporting this football team for a long time. As you talk to people, I just want to make sure they know we are grateful, and we are thankful, and we are working hard to earn the right to enjoy next season, to compete next season. We are trying to live by the whole mindset of ‘day-by-day’ and not getting too far ahead. We want them to know that we appreciate when they spend their money to come watch us play, and they have been doing it for a long time, and we cannot promise them anything other than the fact that we are going to work really hard today. I want to make sure they know from me, from myself, from our staff, from the football program, that we know how long they have waited for Nebraska football to play the way that we all believe it is capable of playing, and we are not there yet, but we will try to honor their patience and their loyalty with our work so I wanted to make sure I said that. With that I will see if you guys have any questions.”

 

On the priority for the spring

“We came into the offseason feeling like we wanted to build strength and mobility, and I think we have. Feeling like we wanted to learn the process that we are going to undertake and wanting to build a sense of brotherhood amongst the team. I think we have made a lot of steps in that direction. I think now it is time to take that process over into football. In our program, practice is everything. It is the most important thing that we do and whereas people focus on the results, we try to focus on things we can control which is the way that we practice and the attention to detail. What I am finding with this team is they are highly, highly, highly competitive but sometimes the small details, as do with most 18 to 22-year-olds, they get away from us a little bit. So can we take our sense of competitiveness and our toughness – this is a tough group – take that competitiveness and toughness and carry it over onto the football field and also add in precision and detail. If we can be really competitive and tough but also detailed and precise, we have a chance so I am anxious to start that process on the football field with the guys and then our job is to help each player find a way to get on the field and be in the right position so try to teach those guys as best we can.”

 

On the most impressive thing during offseason

“I am not here to isolate any one guy or any group. There is a select group of guys that have been really…really been good. They have earned the most black jerseys throughout the offseason. Two of those guys, Thomas Fidone and Chief Borders, I have asked to come talk today. I would not say that they are the best but we have an offseason competition that we do. Thomas was the captain of that team and probably in six or seven years of doing this, one of the best captains I have ever seen in terms of willing his team to victory. Then Chief as a new player, I think he was the leading point-getter, him and Teddy (Prochazka) were tied, and so I elected those guys to come but I would actually flip it and there is not many guys that I am not happy with. I think a lot of guys have paid a significant price this offseason, and I just have to get to the football now and see who can actually do it on the football field too but I thought the offseason was really good in terms of the wholistic group.”

On offseason competition and team activities 

“We divided up into teams and selected some veteran guys to be captains. We went for seven weeks. It’s everything from daily points for community service, for attending other teams’ events, for competitions. It’s lost points for missing study halls and being late to things so it’s really whereas most football teams are based upon your physical ability, you learn very quickly that your accountability, your ability to do what you say you are going to do, is really important. We want to be a team that when we play, we don’t beat ourselves, we’re measured against reward for what gets done. We’re rewarding guys for doing the right thing and going above and beyond. What it also does is guys break out of their cliques and their friend groups and start to get to know each other and start to value each other for their contributions, not necessarily what’s physical but also personal. So that goes on for several weeks. Ed Foley runs it, he does a great job. They have re-drafts, you can protect a player, there’s some different things they do. That leads us into this week. Thomas (Fidone’s) team won, came down the stretch and blew it out this past week. On Friday we selected new teams. They all selected a twitter handle with what we call ‘team commitment week’ from Friday to Friday. It’s one where the only rule is there are no rules. You get points for doing good things, you lose points for missing things. There are team competitions every morning and there is optional team building activities at night. It’s a great chance for us to get to know each other, not just as football players but as people.”

 

On team competitions

“There were some things along the way in the other competitions. The other competitions were kind of a lead into this, and this is everything. First time around, (it) seemed guys pick their teams based upon their position groups or staying loyal to their friends and they learn pretty quickly ‘I better have a big guy,’ ‘I better have some fast guys,’  ‘better have some guys who are on time all the time,’ and ‘you’re my boy, but you don’t seem to get anywhere on time so I am not picking you.’ I won’t tell you who Mr. Irrelevant was but it was a guy who started here last year. It’s pretty important that guys start to realize ‘hey, if my physical ability can match my accountability, and that can be joined with availability, that I can be a pretty good player’. We always want to talk about people’s physical ability or their recruiting or their production. That’s great but tell me how accountable they are, and tell me how available they are, and I’ll tell them if they are a good player or not. It’s a fun time for me.”   

 

On how fast the team has bought into the offseason activities 

“Quickly. These guys are really, really competitive. I think if you talked to other athletes on campus…I showed up to the tennis match, and I think there were 30 football players at a tennis match. We can do things to earn points. Sometimes guys can be ‘too cool for school’, these guys weren’t. They wanted to do this. I did a similar thing (at Carolina) and Christian McCaffrey was fighting, scratching and clawing to win. Good players like to win, I’ve just learned that over the years. It’s guys like Thomas Fidone, it’s guys like Chief (Borders) and all those guys who drove this thing. We had to replace a captain or two because they weren’t quite doing everything right. This was good for our team to realize that when ‘who you say you are’ is the same to who you actually are and what you actually do, you are living a pretty good life. When you’re not you’re getting exposed. It was fun, but pretty quick to be honest.”      

 

On having vocal leaders and who has stepped up

“I’m really careful about the vocal thing. What we don’t need is a bunch of spokespeople. I watched the highlight tape from last year. We put it together and it’s all people giving speeches in the locker room. If you got to give a speech in the locker room (it) usually means you’re getting your tail beat. To me leadership is who’s the first guy in the building, last one to leave, who does everything right? I said I wasn’t going to single anyone out but you know who is a good leader in his own way is Brian Buschini. Probably one of the toughest specialist I’ve ever seen. When you have guys like that competing at a really high level, it just drives everyone around them. I think we have some good guys. Fidone, he just wants to win. The last week if you got all your teammates to a match and took a picture you got double points. Trying to get 10 other college students to show up at the same time for something is hard, right? What does that mean? I know it means something to the other student-athletes to have people that are watching them. I think we got 11 people to the beach volleyball match and took a picture. He finds a way to get it done, he likes to win and is very competitive.”     

 

On how limited Casey Thompson will be over the spring

“I don’t know that yet. I think that we’re hoping he’ll be able to throw, but he’ll be pretty limited. We’ll err on the side of caution with all of these guys, but I don’t see him being able to do very much other than, potentially, at some point being able to throw.”

 

On a depth chart and if there’s been any roster movement over the last month or two

“Yeah, we put them all up right away. I’m being pretty transparent. I could’ve done the whole ‘hide the depth chart until the very end’, but some guys have made some decisions and they’ve been awesome. No one’s left in a bad way, some guys just wanted to concentrate on school or do some other things. Nothing other than anything that we’ve put out. Nothing else.”

 

On his first impressions of Thomas Fidone

“The first time I saw him move, I was like ‘wow.’ He’s kind of like a long, lanky, athletic – I saw him run around some cones and make a cut – you just see the athleticism. He doesn’t look like a guy who’s ever been injured. He looks healthy and all those things. I’ve tried to get to know him. He, Jimari Butler and I went out to dinner one night downtown. I had a chance to sit there and visit with him. I can see he’s got a love for the game and wants to be a great player. And like I said, he’s competitive. If you’ve got those things, you know you have a chance. But he looks healthy to me. He won’t like it, but I always feel like it takes time after an ACL. ACLs will happen. I always feel like my job is to try and prevent repeat ACLs, which he’s had happen. We’ll probably be a little bit smart with him during spring ball.”

 

On Chief Borders and if the transfers and returning players are on even ground with a new coaching staff

“I think that’s a true statement. I think it’s year one for everybody, right? No one really has any idea, the staff doesn’t have any idea. During team commitment week, I won’t even send the schedule out to the staff. They’ve got to wake up early, sometimes the staff is way worse than the players in terms of wanting to know. They get anxious more than anyone else. I think our transfers have all come in. I think they’ve all been happy to be here and appreciative to be here. It’s a great place, everyone welcomes them in. It can be difficult sometimes adjusting to new protocol, new process, but that’s what everyone is doing. Chief (Borders) is someone – what I love about him is that he is who he is. I don’t want our guys just to be football players. Chief is somebody who – he’s sitting in the back so I have to be careful how nice I talk about him – but I think he’s a TikTok star. He’s elite in the community, and he gives back to people. Here’s one thing I know – wherever Chief ends up on a given day, that place will be better for him having been there. That, to me, is the real mark of a man. I think sometimes, guys come off to college and they have interests outside of football and they just get pushed into this, ‘hey, just be a football player.’ I don’t want that. I’m not just a football coach. I think he brings a lot of elements to the team that I think are really important, but he shows up every day, and he works hard, and he’s doing well in school I believe. So, he’s great to have here.”

 

On separating guys during conditioning

“Yeah, that’s really for the mat drill. What we want is we want them to have elite feedback every day. It takes about two hours for the staff, and we watch every single rep of the mat drill, and we grade guys and they’re getting feedback. People say ‘power corrupts’. I’ve always felt like powerless corrupts. When you’re powerless to change your situation, you feel like, ‘hey, no matter what I do, I’m always going to be this.’ So, there’s going to be transparency and there’s going to be honesty. It’s going to be very, very direct. I’ve learned over the years that you can be direct without attacking somebody, so this is one way. You have a great day, you’re in a black jersey, you don’t have a great day, you’re in a red jersey. It’s been fun for me – this will be my fourth head coaching job – seeing guys on social media from here talking to guys from Baylor and talking to guys from Temple, talking to guys from Western Carolina about the mat drills and about pushing prowlers and all that. That part’s been fun because there’s this common experience of ‘hey, this is hard to go through’ but they get feedback every day. With these guys, if I say ‘hey, let’s go run 10 20-yard dashes,’ they’ll do it. They might not like it. But if I say ‘hey, let’s see who the fastest is,’ they’ll run 50 of them to keep trying to prove who’s the fastest. If we make it a competition, and that’s what the jerseys do, then they’ll compete at it and they’ll fight for it.”

 

On his assessment of the team’s movement and mobility

“I don’t know about last year. When I got here, we felt like after watching them early on – again, you’re getting guys after they went home and ate three home-cooked meals from mom every day, it’s a new way of doing things – we felt like there was a lot of opportunities for improvement, and it could be a real area to separate us in terms of really getting full ranges of motion on some things and movement on some things. That being said, this is a pretty fast team. We do everything off the GPS, and our GPS speeds are fast. If I told you the fastest guys on our team were, you’d probably be surprised. There’s some guys that can really move. I think Chubba (Purdy) and Heinrich (Haarberg) are two of the fastest, if not the fastest guys on the team, in terms of the GPS numbers. We felt like that was an area of an opportunity. Again, if you’re really, really strong, but not flexible and can’t move, it doesn’t really matter. And if you’re really, really fast and athletic but not strong, you’re not going to be durable. So it’s this combination. That’s sort of the things I’ve learned here. I grew up in a world of ‘just get strong and tough’. That’s not really the world anymore, so just that movement. Also, movement efficiency. I think one of the best things we can do, again, is availability. We don’t put that on the players, we put that on us. We can’t have our best players not out on the field. They’ve got to be healthy. That starts with movement quality, gets in the regeneration, and there’s an investment from the athletic department here with the new building, to make sure that we have the best of the best in terms of recovery, regeneration and keeping guys healthy.”

 

On if they’ve had to hold Casey Thompson back and tell him to get healthy instead of playing through injuries

“I think he’s been very diligent about doing what he’s allowed to do. We haven’t had that – he might be doing things on his own that I don’t know about, but obviously, with the rules in college football, we can’t throw with him. He’s been diligent. All the guys have been good. (Athletic trainer) Drew Hamlin has stepped in as the interim ATC and done a great job. He and his staff have done a fantastic job with these young men and helped them. I’m sure everyone wants to be healthy, but it’s important to come back. To me, re-injury is the biggest no-no. We don’t want to have re-injury. We have to make sure things are fully healed.”

 

On how physical spring is going to be

“Physical. It’s going to be very physical. We’ll have a couple scrimmage days. The NCAA has rules. We aren’t going to be wanton, we’re not going to be dumb. To me, it’s all about the quality of the contact. We believe in playing with dominant contact. We’ll drill that way, we’ll rep that way. I’m not a big helmet and shoulder pads, no pads guy. We’ll either be in helmets, or we’ll be in pads. To me, there’ll be live days, there’ll be non-live days. We’ll follow rules, and we’ll do all that. To me, it’s just the quality of contact. Even when we’re thudding, we won’t be tagging guys off, we won’t hit them from the side or from the back. We won’t go to the ground on days we’re thudding, but we’re going to strike. To me, these guys are young, and they’re getting trained. They’re not getting coached, they’re getting trained. You get coached at the next level. Right now, they’re training themselves on how to block, how to tackle, how to get off blocks. So we have to train that and the only way to do that is to do it repetitively. I think it’ll be physical, but it won’t be caveman-like. We’re not going to go out there and have a bloodbath. We’re going to be smart. The greatest gift I can give our players is health. I want to keep them healthy, but I also want to turn them into the best player they can be.”

 

On how they handle quarterback recruitment, especially with the upcoming recruiting class

“It’s probably too granular for me to not get in trouble by answering that too much. I would say, in general, I always want every student-athlete that I recruit to come because they want to come for the right reasons at the right time. I don’t get caught up in ‘I need this guy to get this guy,’ that’s not me. ‘This is my vision for you, this is my vision for you, this is my vision for you, this is our process’, and lay it out. The best success I’ve had is in the old way of recruiting, where I saw a kid his senior year and had a chance to watch him. It gets earlier and earlier and earlier. It’s not really my way of doing things, but modern me, I’ve got to keep up with the times. I don’t want anyone coming because they feel like they have to come, and at the same time, I also don’t want to sacrifice other things. I don’t worry too much about it. To me, this is each young person’s journey, and I want them to do it for the right reasons and come here for the right reasons. That level of strategy, to me, is never about who we don’t get, it’s always about who we get, does that make sense? It’s never about who we don’t take, it’s always about who we take. I want to make sure that guys who we take, whether we take 10, 15, 20, 25, next year, that we take the right guys for the right reasons, that want to be here. That, to me, when you’re really transparent, I want people to come watch us practice. I don’t know how you could commit to play for me without watching me at a mat drill or at a practice, because I am who I am. I’m not changing on the field for anybody. Terrance Knighton isn’t changing for anybody. I want people to see it because some people will love it. Some people will be like ‘wow, they’re going to maximize me.’ Some people will want a different vibe. So I want them to see it, know it. Hopefully we have a really good recruiting class, hopefully it goes through this year, goes through the spring, but I think people would be smart to come watch us practice and figure out if this is the right place for them.”

 

On the defensive staff

“Tony (White) has got a quiet confidence to him that I like, a real humility in terms of ‘hey, we were pretty good on defense in places we’ve been too, so how did you guys do this?’ I think it shows a real strength in Tony that he would take a job as the coordinator and have the other three coaches all be, not tied to him, but tied to me previously. But he’s confident in who he is and what his system is, and he’s brought in some great analysts. Coach (Kevin) McGarry has been doing this a long time. He’s brought in two guys, Josh Bringuel and Jack Potenza, I didn’t know them. The greatest compliment that I can give both of them is that if Tony left, I would hire them again. They’re fantastic. It’s been fun, I think it’s going to be unique. The important thing to me is that they’re watching the players and how they do things. Are we a 4-3, are we a 3-4, are we a man team, are we a zone team? His system has a flexibility that gets all of that. We have a lot of defensive backs – I’ve got to see what guys can do this spring, and then really figure out, ‘hey, this is the best system that can give our guys the best chance.’

 

On if there’s a learning curve with Tony White teaching his defense to the other coaches

“Yeah, I would say so. He has his system and his verbiage. They have to learn that and also learn all the coaching points, like ‘when we were in our three-down stuff and the guard pulled, we ran through the backside a-gap.’ That level of detail is difficult. Even Sat (Marcus Satterfield) was with me, and he called plays for me at Temple, he was with me at Baylor, he was with me at Carolina, now he’s sitting here. He calls it this, but he changed it in Carolina, so we’re all having to get the verbiage where we’re using precise language, precisely. I think there’s a learning curve for all of us. We’re all coaching in the morning, recruiting, and before we can teach, we need to learn. I try to be the most flexible one. I’m not getting involved in Tony’s defense right now. I’m listening, learning, and when the time comes, I’ll give my two cents. To me, that’s the best thing – let us all get on the same page, and once we’re all on the same page, then we can make the tweaks we need to really take advantage of the guys we have.”

 

On how he would describe himself during practice 

“Just when the cameras are out there or when you guys aren’t out there? No, I’m just kidding. I feel like, and I stole this from someone years ago, I feel like leaders insert themselves at the points of most friction. I think the program gave that to me and it made sense to me. I’m by trade, an o-line and d-line guy, linebacker guy, that’s where my heart is. If I see something I don’t like or if they’re struggling in an area, there’s been years I’ve taken the d-tackles for indies on Wednesdays or Tuesdays or whatever, but I like to get around. I like to listen to the coaches teach or coach. I’m probably obsessed with the teaching. I think coaches should teach with a socratic method in their meeting room, so I like to listen. I like to walk in, I don’t like to infringe, I don’t like to take over people’s meetings, but I like to listen. I think the best thing you can show people as a coach is that you’re coachable, that you can take critique. I think, when you see me at practice, I’m different at different times. There will be times when I’m quiet, there will be times when I’m setting the tone. I try to bring in what the team needs at that moment, kind of like a parent. My dad used to always say to me ‘hey, as a father, you should always see what shape of love they need at that moment.’ If the team isn’t, like today they weren’t listening early on, and I snapped. Then, they’re going really hard, and I’m cheering. To me, I’m kind of just going to be who I am. Practice is the most important thing in our program – not recruiting, not weightlifting, not the offseason, not travel, nothing. Practice is the most important thing in our program. I take that very seriously, and I defend practice at a high level. I don’t even know what I’m saying at this point, other than I can’t wait for spring ball, I can’t wait for spring practice. This is my favorite time of the year. This is my favorite time of the year. People ask me all the time how we’re going to be next year and all this stuff. We’re just going to try to earn the right to enjoy next season. Try to earn the right into a game week feeling like we have a chance to win and that only happens at 6 a.m. in the morning or in our spring practices. I think I used to be a pretty good football coach, now I’m a head coach. It’s different. Every once in a while, I do try to get my hands dirty.”

 

On not putting labels on young players

“You can always tell when someone really doesn’t (like football), but we got to be careful with young people. We put a lot of labels on kids at 17, 18, 19. People tell me ‘this guy doesn’t love football’ but sometimes they just aren’t confident or got something going on at home. I am really careful about the labels I put on kids. I’ve seen it so often the wrong way. Some kids say they don’t love football, but they’re good at it, use it to get what you can get out of it. Some kids really, really, really love football. The point I make to our team all the time is, you start looking at lates, very rarely is it a non-scholarship player at the University of Nebraska late to anything. They’re paying to come to school and to be on time for everything. It’s pretty humbling for some of our other guys. Our team has really come a long way in that. I think you can see a lot about who guys are this time of year, because you have to love something about it to show up every single day and do the hard things we are asking them to do.”