Marcus Satterfield calls Glenn Thomas ‘Mr. Miyagi’

“I call him the Mr. Miyagi of quarterbacks,” Satterfield said. The teacher from Karate Kid.

“Just how he coaches them and prepares them,” Satterfield said. “Very deliberate style. I love it.”

Back to basics. Or, as coach Matt Rhule said earlier this winter, “from the ground up.”

Nebraska’s quarterbacks need such an approach. Two — Dylan Raiola and Daniel Kaelin — have never played college football, and Heinrich Haarberg got his first true taste of it last season. He won five games, lost some, too, and learned a lot the hard knocks way.

“He threw body on the line,” Satterfield said. “We asked him to run the ball a lot and he got beat up. He never flinched whatsoever.”

Satterfield, now the tight ends coach, loves that level of toughness. The Huskers could use, however, a little more finesse at the position.

Husker QBs accounted for repeated costly turnovers — fumbles and interceptions — and perhaps it was a byproduct of feeling, as injuries piled up at the skill positions around them, quarterbacks felt the need to do something special on their own.

“We all got to a point last year where we were pressing a little bit to try and make a play,” Satterfield said. “That’s not good. You want to be able relax and naturally let it happen.”

The dropped snaps — mostly prominent in the 36-14 loss at Colorado — were an example of pressing. I suggested the costly interceptions at Minnesota and against Iowa — when Nebraska was tied and overtime was available, fit into that definition, too.

“I think the one takeaway is, can’t turn the ball over,” Satterfield said. “Just don’t turn the ball over and punt, and I think that probably would have been the difference in two or three games. The huge focus for us is: Just take care of the football. Have discipline, carry the ball correctly, and coaches need to put our guys where they can take care of the football and not put it in jeopardy.”

Satterfield expects Thomas to “allow all of our quarterbacks to improve.” He also thinks Nebraska’s older and revamped receiver room will help, too. Malachi Coleman, Jaylen Lloyd and Jaidyn Doss’ collective trial by fire last season was a bit “helter-skelter,” Satterfield said, but it’ll pay off now. And Satterfield, like Rhule, has high praise for transfer receivers Jahmal Banks and Isaiah Neyor.

“They’re a big brother presence,” Satterfield said of the former Wake Forest and Texas wideouts.

Emotion poured from three Nebraska women’s basketball players and coach Amy Williams after their loss to Iowa in the Big Ten tournament championship. If you ever read someone on social media suggesting conference titles don’t matter, pull up that 13-minute press conference as a retort.

“I’m so sorry,” Williams said halfway through. “I’m trying to keep it together up here.”

“I’ve never been a part of anything like this,” guard Jaz Shelley said, “and it goes to show the people we have on this team. Incredible, incredible people.”

NU led 75-67 with 2:30 left in regulation. Caitlin Clark caught the Huskers at the wire. She had 24 in the second half on 9-of-13 shooting to beat the Huskers, who, given the chance to win Sunday’s game or advance to the Sweet 16, might take the former.

Of course, if NU makes a charge to the second weekend, it might take the latter option of a Sweet 16. Success is contagious like that.

Such a run is possible — with the right draw. The Huskers might squeeze into a No. 7 seed and get talented-but-inconsistent UCLA or USC’s subregional. Or it could get South Carolina’s subregional and ask Creighton what that’s like. (Hint: No different than trying to beat Nebraska volleyball in the Devaney Center.)

A single win in the NCAA tournament would be Williams’ first at Nebraska. Did this team empty the tank at the Big Ten tournament? Back in 2022, it seemed like it. NU lost to Iowa in the semis, got a lower NCAA seed than it expected and shot 32% in the NCAA tournament loss to Gonzaga.

This year, the Huskers might be a little younger and deeper. And feistier — the win over Iowa one month ago kicked up something. Williams has spent years trying to develop players’ belief in themselves — trying to turn perfectionism into resilience — and she’s recruited freshmen Natalie Potts and Logan Nissley, who came to school with belief baked in.

“We’ve been preaching response, response, response,” Williams said. “How do you respond when things go good? How do you respond when there’s adversity that comes through a season? How do you respond when there’s adversity that comes through a game?”

Nebraska has nearly two weeks to flush Sunday’s result and reset its belief button.

They’re in. They are, and if you spend one second this week discussing another 22-win Nebraska men’s basketball team that didn’t make the NCAA tournament, it will be a second you waste.

These Huskers probably punched their ticket last week with a win over Rutgers, but, in beating Michigan 85-70 this Sunday, they removed all doubt.

Nebraska already has more than enough good wins and the Big East — perhaps the nation’s best basketball conference — cannibalized itself. Of four teams that are NCAA tournament worthy — Providence, Seton Hall, St. John’s and Villanova — I think only two make it.

Root for Creighton, I suppose, to make sure Villanova goes home early at the Big East tournament.

Or don’t. Nebraska’s in.

Its 16-point romp at Kansas State in December is a gift that kept on giving, and the Huskers pass, for once, the eye test. They have depth. They make 3s. They average almost 77 points per game.

NU’s 2017-18 team won 22, as well. It played in a weaker Big Ten, if you can imagine that, and one of its “signature” wins, over No. 13 Minnesota, fell apart when the Gophers finished 15-17.

That snub, of course — aggravated by the bizarre NIT seeding from Barry Collier’s committee — has totemic power over a fan base awash in lovable losing, and has been used on social media as a means of warding off over-confident feelings.

But if it means anything to them, or you, here’s a quote, six years old, from ESPN Bracketologist Joe Lunardi when I asked him, on March 8, 2018, whether Nebraska might make the NCAA tournament.

The Big Ten held its league soiree a week early that year to play in Madison Square Garden, so Lunardi did not have to hedge his comments about a potential league tournament run.

“If we were talking about a team, with their profile, outside the Big Ten, we wouldn’t even be having the conversation,” Lunardi said then. “They don’t have the wins or the schedule.”

Lunardi felt so good about his prediction that he quipped it “would probably mean that ESPN has a new bracketologist next year” had Nebraska made the NCAA tournament field.

This year, NU is in every projection. Lunardi had Nebraska as a No. 9 seed Friday.

And that didn’t change on Sunday.

They’re in. Stop worrying about it.