The Nebraska Cornhuskers (5-5 overall, 2-5 in Big Ten) will welcome the Wisconsin Badgers (5-5, 3-4) on Saturday for a 2:30 p.m. game, but it won’t just be the former Big Ten West division opponent the Huskers will be battling.
On Thursday during his final press conference before the game, head coach Matt Rhule said the Huskers seemed to have developed a sickness while playing at USC last week.
“I think USC had a flu outbreak, so this hit us too,” Rhule said. “So we’ve had a lot of guys in and out with being sick.”
Rhule said he’s not ruling anyone out for Saturday at this point.
Here are more highlights from Rhule’s time at the podium:
Nebraska’s defense can’t have the communication breakdowns like it did at USC
At different moments against USC last week, the Nebraska defense had communication breakdowns that resulted in players playing different coverages, thus allowing the Trojans to hit big plays in the passing attack.
While Wisconsin doesn’t have a potent passing attack — quarterback Braedyn Locke has struggled this season, completing 55.1% of his passes for 1,514 yards and nine touchdowns against nine interceptions — the Badgers may still try to see if Nebraska’s defensive backs have made the improvements.
Rhule also said there may be new faces in the back end of the defense.
“We have to play better in the secondary than we did last week. A lot of that comes down to communication, making sure we’re on the same page,” Rhule said. “We’ll probably have to play some young guys at this point based upon just the practice week and the reps and see how the game flow goes.”
One player who Rhule said won’t play is Tommi Hill. Rhule said Hill, a senior corner who’s dealt with a nagging foot injury nearly all season, has been shut down and won’t be available against Wisconsin or Iowa.
Rhule mum on status of sophomore WR Malachi Coleman
A report surfaced Wednesday that Malachi Coleman was no longer with the program. Back in September, Rhule said Coleman, a 6-5, 210-pounder and former 4-star in the 2023 class out of Lincoln (Neb.) East, was on a plan to use the 2024 season as a redshirt year.
Coleman has played in one game this season, on the punt return unit against Rutgers.
Rhule chose not to comment on Coleman’s status when asked if the wideout would be available for the final two regular-season games.
“I don’t know that it’s appropriate on a Thursday of a game week to be talking about redshirting players. I don’t think that’s fair to our seniors,” Rhule said.
Nebraska’s offense might be getting Rahmir Johnson back, but in a limited role
The Huskers could be getting back senior running back Rahmir Johnson for the Wisconsin game. Rhule said Johnson has practiced this week after missing the USC game due to an ankle injury he suffered against UCLA.
Johnson has played in eight games and missed two due to injuries. He’s rushed for 180 yards.
“Rahmir has practiced. We’ll see,” Rhule said of his status for Saturday. “He’ll probably be close to game time, and if so, be probably in a limited role.”
Quinn Clark has impressed as the season has gone on
One young player who has continued to develop and do well behind the scenes this season is true freshman receiver Quinn Clark.
Quinn is the son of the late Ken Clark, a running back at Nebraska from 1985 to 1989. Standing 6-5 and 205 pounds, Clark is a lengthy and explosive athlete who arrived in the summer. He’s played in just one game, the season-opener against UTEP, and has been a scout team guy for most of the season.
Clark, however, has impressed lately, so much so that he was added to the travel roster for USC. Perhaps game snaps are headed his way against Wisconsin and Iowa.
“He came in a big and raw athlete, but he’s got great ball skills, movement, change of direction, body control,” Rhule said. “So he was up last week and there if needed. He’s practiced some this week. Obviously, as I said, we’ve had some situations with the flu and all that stuff. So he’s gotten a ton of reps this week.
“I don’t know that you’ll see him necessarily in the game flow, but by being up with the varsity, I think it gives him a chance to develop and also gives Dana (Holgorsen) a chance to see him. So, excited about what I think he has a chance to be if he does the work.”
Holgorsen is “putting a lot of pressure on the guys”
This has been the third week that Holgorsen has been at Nebraska. Rhule said the growing time inside the program has helped the new offensive coordinator learn the playbook, verbiage and personnel.
After the USC game where both coaches said the players need to be making more plays, Rhule said Holgorsen has been on the players to improve.
“Just out there at practice, he’s putting a lot of pressure on the guys to make the plays,” Rhule said.
Rhule added that Holgorsen has a standard for himself. That standard is full of offenses that score enough points to win football games. Rhule said there wasn’t much of a difference from how Holgorsen handled his first press conference on Tuesday to how he treats the players at practice.
“He was very direct in his press conference. I’m not quite as direct because I’m the head coach, but he was very direct and he’s been very direct with them,” Rhule said. “If they want to win they’re going to have to go make plays, they’re going to have to catch balls, break tackles, make long runs, make big blocks against an excellent defense, score touchdowns in the red zone. And it’s not the plays that do it, it’s the players that do it.”
Rhule said there was a sense earlier in the season that the issue with the offense was the play-caller — Marcus Satterfield. According to Rhule, Holgorsen has come in and said the same things to the players that Satterfield was.
At the end of the day, Rhule said the message has been clear: players win football games, not coaches.
“For all year it was like, Satt was saying it to him, but all the noise was, ‘Well, it’s Satt’s fault.’ So the players can sometimes be like, ‘Well, I mean, gosh, if Satt did a better job,'” Rhule said. “Dana comes in, and he’s saying the same exact thing: ‘Hey, go make that play. We’re not kicking field goals, not kicking field goals on third down in the red zone. Go make the play on third down.’
“So I think that’s good. That’s the way we want to empower our players. We want our players to believe that players win games. So I think Dana’s juice and energy and intensity and the fact that the guys, they have nowhere to turn except to turn to themselves.”
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