Matt Rhule clarifies offensive coordinator pecking order

Those times have passed us by as the strong majority of college football prospects sign their national letters of intent during the early signing period in December.

Nebraska still signed a host of players on the traditional date. However, only one was a scholarship player: Keona Wilhite, who was a Washington signee before former Washington coach Kalen DeBoer went to Tuscaloosa to replace the since-retired Nick Saban.

Rhule still gave a National Signing Day news conference, but it served as a State of the Union address rather than an availability that only focused on the recruiting class.

Here are three of my takeaways from Rhule’s 35-minute availability:

Some eyebrows rose when Nebraska announced hiring quarterbacks coach Glenn Thomas a few weeks back when he was listed as the program’s “co-offensive coordinator” along with Marcus Satterfield.

Rhule clarified that by saying Satterfield “is the offensive coordinator.” Satterfield will continue to call plays and Thomas is more of the “collaborative OC,” Rhule said. Thomas will be “intimately involved in the play design,” but Satterfield is the offensive coordinator at the end of the day.

Remember, Satterfield was not Nebraska’s original choice to coach the quarterbacks. That came out of necessity. Originally, Rhule and company were targeting Jake Peetz to be Nebraska’s QB position coach and were close to making it happen, but that hire fell ultimately through.

With Nebraska’s quarterback room being so young — two true freshmen and a junior with a little experience — the Huskers needed a coach dedicated to only them.

Speaking of the three scholarship QBs. …

As it stands, the QB room has three scholarship quarterbacks: junior Heinrich Haarberg and true freshmen Dylan Raiola and Daniel Kaelin.

That, obviously, evokes some worry from the fan base. Nebraska played three quarterbacks last year — Jeff Sims, Haarberg and Chubba Purdy. Nebraska played four quarterbacks the year before — Casey Thompson, Purdy, Logan Smothers and, briefly, Jarrett Synek.

But Rhule isn’t stressing out about it. He, in true Rhule fashion, is focusing on the positives of having a smaller room than Nebraska is accustomed to.

“I’ve always had three,” Rhule said. “I’ve never had four very many times — I’d love to have four, we’ll start there. But also understand this, last spring we had six and we had four healthy. It’s really hard to get the guys the reps that they need. Here’s what I know: Heinrich needs reps to be the starting quarterback and win for us. Danny Kaelin needs reps to be the starting quarterback and win for us. Dylan needs reps to be the starting quarterback and win for us.”

From Rhule’s vantage point, he likes having the three so they can get “a ton of reps” in spring.

But he’s not ruling out a late, summer addition … if the situation is right.

“I would love to have a fourth person,” Rhule said. “But that’s kind of the state of college football now, right? Full disclosure, we understand that if somebody gets hurt or something, I’m sure there will be guys in the portal in May. If we have a scholarship slot, we can always do that. But we’re kind of going all-in on these guys.”

Speaking of scholarships. …

Nebraska is way over on scholarships. Way, way, way over.

Based on the latest scholarship distribution chart, Nebraska is at 104 scholarships for 85 spots.

But again, Rhule isn’t concerned about it.

“People have stopped me on the street like, ‘Coach, how are we going to do this, scholarshipwise,’” Rhule said. “(I’m like) It’ll happen, don’t worry. I know what I’m doing.”

Nebraska doesn’t need to be at 85 until the fall, and the natural attrition of things will sort themselves out over spring. Nebraska was in a scholarship crunch last spring, too, and the Huskers made it work.

Is this a problem that needs to be figured out? Yes. But it isn’t necessarily a “today” problem.