Marcus Satterfield Breaks Down Thomas Fidone Offseason, Carter Nelson Move To WR, Newcomers At TE

Everyone knows what was the No. 1 backbreaker for last year’s Nebraska football team: Turnovers.

That, of course, includes offensive coordinator Marcus Satterfield, who said during a Monday night appearance on Huskers Radio Network that there has been “a huge emphasis on protecting the football” and that the offense did a good job of consistently doing that throughout the spring.

Hopefully so for the Huskers, who finished with a massive negative turnover margin (-17) that Satterfield said on Monday he has “never” experienced before as they finished with the second-worst TO margin out of 130 FBS teams.

“It’s one of those things that you just – you work it, you talk about it, you practice it, and it was like, I don’t know, I’ve never been a part of it, but it’s not gonna happen again. It can’t happen again,” Satterfield said, still at a loss for words to describe the turnover issue. “The players understand it. The coaches obviously understand it, but the players understand that we have to take care of the football. That was a huge reason that it could have been a total different season last year if we just fumble half as much as we did.

“Don’t wanna jinx us by continuing to keep talking about it, but that’s one thing that we are going to make sure that never happens again. Something we gotta make sure we get fixed.”

Satterfield touched on several key points during his 15 minutes on air. He will make another media appearance on Tuesday as the Huskers are set to trot out the OC along with Matt Rhule, defensive coordinator Tony White, special teams coordinator Ed Foley and a host of players for the program’s “Pre-Camp Media Day.”

Before all of that gets underway, here are five quick takeaways from Satterfield’s radio hit:

=================================

ENJOYING INSIDE NEBRASKA?

>> CONSIDER AN ALL-ACCESS SUBSCRIPTION for less than $2/week to unlock all of our premium articles and sound off on the hot topics on our INSIDER’S BOARD

>> Follow us on Twitter (@NebraskaRivals) and Instagram (@nebraskarivals)

>> Subscribe for free to the Inside Nebraska YouTube channel

Satterfield, in reiterating one of his own keys from spring ball and one of Rhule’s focal points, said that the Husker offense was balancing the concerted effort of decreasing turnovers with extra emphasis on creating more explosive plays.

Whether that be a downfield bomb against man coverage, a quick pass to the flat to take advantage of the speed and the dependable perimeter blocking in their WR room or a breakaway running play, Satterfield saw positive returns in that area as well.

“I felt like we became more explosive this spring throwing the football. It was a huge emphasis,” Satterfield said. “We love to run the football, and we can manufacture ways to run the football. But we said going into spring, ‘We have to throw the football. Have to be able to throw the football.’ And I think we came out feeling that we improved and are in a position to continue to improve, to get to where we need to be to throw the football this year.”

Rhule’s original plan when hiring Satterfield was to have him as the OC and tight ends coach, rather than doubling as the team’s QBs coach. He is now back in that originally planned role with Glenn Thomas’ hire this past offseason, which Satterfield says he is personally more comfortable with handling.

“I love coaching the tight ends,” Satterfield said. “That’s more my mindset. I’m an emotional guy, and it’s probably not good for quarterbacks all the time. So it’s good to get in there with the room that I have.”

The tight end room took “a huge step” during spring ball, “especially from a productivity standpoint,” Satterfield said.

He noted that there was an extra emphasis on getting the ball to Thomas Fidone and Nate Boerkircher – and even Luke Lindenmeyer – at a quicker pace in order to just get it in their hands and in space to take advantage of their size, athleticism and let them go to work.

“Obviously, they all have things that they do, strengths that they have, and we have to put them in situations to use those,” Satterfield said. “But the cool thing about those three is they can all play all three (tight end) positions, and they all know it very, very well.”

Fidone has had an “unbelievable” offseason, Satterfield said, and “looks like a different guy right now” as the Huskers head into the start of fall camp with the first practice tomorrow. Fidone is “moving very well” and is up to around 250-255 pounds now.

“He’s humongous … and can absolutely roll,” Satterfield said. “His ball skills continue to improve. He’s got really good ball skills, but that’s something he works on every day. The great thing about Thomas is he’s obsessed with being the best version of himself, so he attacks it every day. He’s improved since spring ball, so it’s been really fun to watch him this summer.”

Boerkircher got an unprompted shoutout from Rhule at Big Ten Media Days last week with the head coach calling him “an unsung hero.”

Lindenmeyer constantly gets an added mention from multiple coaches during media sessions whenever they are assessing either the tight ends room or blocking in the run game.

So, how big of a part will they play in the 2024 season?

“Huge part,” Satterfield said. “Nate has played a lot of football. He’s big, physical, has really good length, understands the offense. He’s played a lot of football, so the experience gives him an upperhand on a lot of situations. We rely on him very heavily to know all three different spots that the tight ends play.

“Luke, I think he showed us in the spring just how valuable he is. He can split out, he can play at off-the-ball tight end, he can play on-the-ball tight end. He’s got an unbelievable football mind like the other two.”

Satterfield, while sharing a story about Lindenmeyer from spring ball, remarked that he trains Lindenmeyer “like a quarterback” because of his “high football IQ.”

That training method briefly paid off during a team period in one of the Huskers’ spring practices. One of the staff’s punishments for committing a turnover is that the offense has to run across the field to touch a sign. During one of the team drills, a quarterback fumbled a snap and had to abort the drill to go touch the sign.

“But we had to continue to play,” Satterfield said, “so Luke runs out there, takes a snap and plays a snap of quarterback just to continue the drill. So he’s one of those type of kids that can (do that). He’s just a football player.”

Carter Nelson, one of the Huskers’ biggest gems from the 2024 recruiting class, is on campus and ready to get things rolling after joining the program as a summer enrollee.

Nelson was the No. 76-ranked overall player, No. 1-ranked recruit in the state of Nebraska and the No. 3-ranked tight end recruit. The former 8-man football star at Ainsworth, however, will be starting off his college career in the WR room.

“He can still do some of the things at the tight end position,” Satterfield said. “We just thought the best way to get him on the field early is use what he does best, which is run and catch. We want him to learn the passing game, and at least that allows him to get out there because making a jump from high school to the Big Ten – from a physicality standpoint – that’s tough. He’s definitely gonna have the ability to do that moving forward. But we thought, ‘What’s the best way, best scenario we can put him in to get on the field?’ And we thought splitting him out, letting him play receiver first and then bring him in the box as he develops (was the best way).

“He’s super competitive. I mean, he comes across as a quiet kid from Ainsworth. But you get him out there on the field, he’s super, super competitive and tough and he’s fun to watch run around.”

Nelson finished his 8-man high school career with 128 catches for 2,346 yards and 43 receiving touchdowns. He earned his way to a pair of all-star showcases to wrap that stellar career, playing in both the All-American and the Polynesian Bowl, where he teammed up with QB Dylan Raiola. (OL Preston Taumua played for the opposing team at the Polynesian Bowl.)

Nelson was not a one-trick pony at Ainsworth. He did not specialize in football, which is one main reason for why he wound up not enrolling early to participate in spring ball.

Instead, he put a bow on his basketball career in the winter, leading Ainsworth to 20 wins and a Class D1 state runner-up finish at PBA as a senior following an honorable mention all-state junior season with 12.5 PPG and 7.4 rebounds.

In the spring, Nelson wrapped up a terrific track & field career in which he won the Class D state high jump as a sophomore with a leap of 6-10, then finished fourth as a junior and fifth in the pole vault while also being a state qualifier in the discus and as a member of the 4×100 relay team. He topped it all off by winning the Class C state championship in the long jump with a leap of 23-02.5 and finishing third in state in the 200-meter dash.

That impressive list of accomplishments came by way of an equally remarkable physical and athletic skillset, which Nebraska will be looking to take advantage of sooner rather than later. And his multi-faceted ability across the three sports had Satterfield comparing him – more tongue in cheek, it should be noted – to an all-time college football great who became legendary due to his versatility.

“Coach (Rhule) will tell you all the time, we don’t want (specialization). We want guys to play all sports,” Satterfield said. “We’re not believers in, ‘Just focus on one sport in high school.’ We want guys that compete at all different types of sports. (Nelson) does, obviously. He’s like Jim Thorpe, he did everything. (Nelson) is super athletic, so we’re glad to have him on our team.”

IAN FLYNT:

“Ian got here in January. He had a whole offseason to learn the offense and to practice against Big Ten defensive linemen. Ian has done a really nice job. Ian can play both on the ball and off the ball. He had a really good spring game. Had a catch in the spring game, which was good to see, scored a touchdown in one of the scrimmages. As a true freshman just getting here, he’s had some success. It allows him to have confidence to develop into the player that we think (he’s) gonna be.”

ERIC INGWERSON:

“Eric got here in the summer. Eric would come during the spring and to some of our meetings and stuff. It’s good to get those guys up and going. Eric’s got a huge frame, and he’s got tremendous upside. He’s got great length, he is a very hyper-competitive human being that does not like to lose. He’s very physical, really excited by him.”

WALK-ONS DANNY KING & CONNOR SCHUTT:

“Really excited about Danny King, a kid from Minnesota. From a physical standpoint, really pleased with where his progression has gone through the summer. Connor Schutt, super athletic kid that. He’s a lot like Carter – can really jump, he’s fast, great ball skills, great body control. So the room is in a good spot right now, and we’ve got some young kids – whether they’re scholarship or walk-ons, we don’t really care – we think are gonna develop into some really good football players.”