Nebraska football QBs coach Glenn Thomas breaks down 5-star freshman and Daniel Kaelin, Heinrich Haarberg

Nebraska football quarterbacks coach Glenn Thomas will be inextricably linked to the legacy of true freshman starting QB Dylan Raiola, in addition to the development of fellow first-year signal caller Daniel Kaelin and 2023 starter Heinrich Haarberg.

In addition to OL coach Donovan Raiola and all three of those quarterbacks, Thomas is set to meet with the media this morning (Friday) following the Huskers’ third practice of fall camp in as many days.

Prior to that extended session with reporters, Thomas hopped on Huskers Radio Network earlier this week for a brief breakdown of the Nebraska quarterbacks. Thomas gave his thoughts on all three signal callers, took a quick look back at spring ball and looked ahead to the next few weeks.

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One of the first things Thomas said, when he was first made available to the media in mid-February, upon arriving in Lincoln: He wanted to get as many reps as possible for Raiola, Haarberg, Kaelin and the rest of Nebraska’s QBs.

Mission accomplished in a big way.

“Of all the years I’ve coached, it was one of the better springs I’ve been a part of for the simple fact of reps. I thought Coach Rhule did a fantastic job,” Thomas said. “It’s well documented with the Spring League and what that consisted of, but I think it was super, super important for the quarterbacks. They had hundreds, literally hundreds, of reps in the spring with true team 7-on-7 reps, situational reps that they got.

“You talk about young quarterbacks, how do you get better? You got to play and get hundreds of reps. There’s not many quarterbacks in the country, particularly an 18-year-old kid, that got hundreds and hundreds of reps in the spring. So I think that really accelerated that process, not only for he young freshmen but also Heinrich.”

There wasn’t necessarily a “pitch count” of any kind for any of them, either, due to the way Rhule and the staff planned and executed the practices.

“It was structured in a way that we didn’t really feel like that was a concern because of how you spread it out and the meetings in between,” Thomas said. “Corey (head strength coach Corey Campbell) and his staff do a fantastic job of the weight training, the preventative and the cold tubs, all that technology you’re talking about. We have a whole section – the regeneration room, if you will – with cold tubs and so forth. So they do a great job after practice, before practice, in between, as far as getting that work, getting their bodies back. Then, once practice starts, they’re ready to roll.”

Raiola entered the program with more fanfare, or at least an equal amount, than any Husker signee of at least the last 30 years. That hype train has not ceased at all, especially after his head-turning spring game performance.

Thomas has been extremely pleased with the way the five-star freshman has conducted himself and handled his business both on and off the field.

“He’s been fantastic that way,” Thomas said. “At the end of the day, he’s coming in the building (saying), how can I get better today? I think he takes a humble approach, he’s coachable, he wants to be better, he wants to be elite. Just like Danny, just like Heinrich, they’re coachable. They want to be the best they can possibly be. So anytime you have the combination of urgency and humility, I think that’s a nice ingredient to really continue to grow. I’ve been proud of that room in general, as far as the approach that they’ve taken, the initiative and the intent of how they practice and how they come to work.”

Thomas, Matt Rhule and Marcus Satterfield will be tasked with helping get Raiola as ready as possible four weeks from now when he leads Nebraska’s offense onto the field in the season opener against UTEP.

Raiola has already shown significant growth and progress from the time he signed in December to the time he began his first practice of a collegiate preseason training camp. And there’s plenty more room to elevate even higher.

“It’s unlimited growth,” Thomas said. “I don’t say that for him specifically, that’s for all quarterbacks. (Even if) you’re a 12-year NFL vet, there’s always just unlimited growth that you continue to push, continue to get better whether it be ball placement, accuracy, timing, footwork. But for him specifically, he’s got a great skill set, I think he’s got a great mentality, I love the application from meeting room to the field. That’s been really unique, both for him and Danny, because typically that’s the biggest obstacle as a young quarterback. It’s, ‘OK, I can kind of learn the basis of the offense in the meeting room, but can I translate that to the field?’

“So that part of it’s been really nice and then seeing that transition from learning to the application. We continue to build on that, and I think good things will come.”

Again, as Thomas said, the improvement has not been limited exclusively to Raiola. Kaelin, Thomas says, has also shown “tremendous growth.”

“I’m a true fan of Danny both on the field and off the field,” Thomas said. “I remember texting him last week. Wednesday’s their regeneration day, so I was texting him (asking) how’d it go? And he’s like, ‘Well, I went in early to get it because I was going up to Omaha to do some community service.’ I mean, that’s just typical Danny, and I’m just proud of being around a guy like that. He’s got a great character, great work ethic and the humility to get better. And I’ve been really, really impressed.

“He’s super coachable. He even made some mistakes, and I appreciate this: He made some mistakes in the spring that you look back and (you realize), well, he was trying to do what he was coached, and he’s trying to fit it into these windows like we’re trying to coach him to do. You kind of pull back and be like, ‘Well, if this isn’t here, then do this.’ But he’s really trying to be coachable and doing that what we’re asking him to do. As that maturing and that experience happens, he’ll see what we’re talking about and then (say), ‘Oh, that (receiver) isn’t open? I’m gonna go to the number two receiver.”

Thomas described Haarberg, who’s now listed at 6-foot-5 and 225 pounds, as a “huge value” to the Huskers both in terms of the strengths he brings as an athlete and quarterback, in addition to what he adds to the locker room and position meetings.

“Super impressed with what he brings, both on the field and off the field,” Thomas said. “What a great guy, great personality. He’s been a huge asset to the room. He’s been extremely helpful for the young guys. There’s been a lot of talk, obviously, with some of the younger guys coming in, and he’s been nothing but supportive and really made a conscious effort to really help those guys, help them grow and accelerate their process and learning.

“I didn’t know much about him coming in. I obviously watched cut ups, and you knew there was a competitiveness about him because of how he runs and some of the hits that he took during season. He got up and kept going and kept going. So you knew there was something there from a character standpoint. But to see him and his interactions with the teammates, then how he goes and works every day, I’ve been super impressed.”

The key question – one of them, anyway – surrounding Haarberg as Thomas came into the picture was justifiably centered around the mechanics and fundamentals, especially the throwing motion, of the soon-to-be fourth-year Husker QB.

“I don’t know how much you actually change,” Thomas said of working on mechanics with a quarterback. “I know there’s a lot of discussion of that in the TV world and so forth, if you will. From the NFL on down, how much can you change? What year can you not change? Can you change a young guy? Can you not change an NFL guy? We talk about it – whether it be (getting the) release point a little higher, footwork, adjusting your drop to get your body in position better to throw, touch, touch versus pace, timing.

“There’s a lot of elements that you can talk about and emphasize – not only the mechanics piece, but also those little other intricacies that I think can help in more accuracy in the passing game.”

Haarberg, however, did show improved play at QB – in terms of footwork, motion and processing – during April’s spring game. So, whatever they were working on during spring ball seemed to have a positive effect.

Still, given that he remains a less refined thrower than Raiola and Kaelin, and that his No. 1 weapon (or “superpower,” as Satterfield labeled it last year) is an area that the two freshmen are not as strong at, Thomas says it’s “probably accurate” that Haarberg is simply a different QB than those two and that Nebraska needs to do different things on offense with him under center. (Not exactly breaking any news to any Husker fan that watched the games last season.)

“Obviously, he had a lot of success with his legs last year – not only in the run game world as far as zone read and that stuff, but also just the off-schedule passing,” Thomas said. “Like, you have this great scheme in the passing game drawn up, and nobody ends up being open, you might have to do something whether it be you run, scramble, something like that. Obviously, a lot of his production came in that scramble world. I think that’s a whole ‘nother threat the defense has to account for when he’s in the game.”

Thomas has gotten limited work in with Jalyn Gramstad, a walk-on addition to the Huskers’ QB room.

Gramstad spent four years at Iowa’s Northwestern College where he was the team’s starting QB for his last two seasons and finished with 6,237 yards and 60 touchdowns on 68 percent passing (438 completions on 647 attempts), added 1,822 yards rushing and 31 TDs, won the 2023 NAIA Player of the Year award, was named a First-Team All-American and led his program to an NAIA national title in his first season as a starter (2022) and a national runner-up finish in his second (2023).

That’s a whole lot of experience, a whole lot of stats and a whole lot of winning being brought into the Nebraska QBs room. Certainly not a bad thing to bring into a program that’s still learning how to win.

“That’s been a really nice addition for us,” Thomas said. “Kind of unique timing as far as when he got here. It was right before we went on our summer break – about a week before we went on break – so I only had a chance to meet with him a couple times before we got away from the office for a few weeks. But really excited about him.

“Obviously, (he brings) the experience and the success he’s had from Northwestern. He came to one of the camps, did a really nice job as far as throwing the ball. He’s really a natural passer, great rotation, athletic, above-average athlete who makes a lot of plays with his feet. So we’re excited for his experience and his skill set to add to the room.”

The comfort and familiarity between Thomas, Rhule and Satterfield is well-documented.

This is the third time – and third year – in which that trio has worked together. Thomas joined Rhule’s Year 3 staff at Temple as QBs coach, which moved Satterfield from OC/QBs coach to OC/RBs coach. Satterfield took the head coaching job at Tennessee Tech as Rhule and Thomas both made the move to Baylor, and Satterfield later joined them for the final year of Rhule’s time with the Bears – Thomas as co-OC/QBs coach; Satterfield as TEs coach.

Now, that band is back together, and they’re playing the hits again – Rhule as head coach, Satterfield as OC/TEs coach and Thomas as co-OC/QBs coach.

“Oh, it’s been great,” Thomas said. “It’s been a lot smoother than some of the transitions (in my coaching career). We speak a lot of the same language now. Some of the languages have transformed and evolved through the years. But at the end of the day, it’s like, ‘Hey, remember when we played Penn State in ‘15? We did this.’ Whether we call it that or this, just that history, that experience and (communication of), ‘Well, that didn’t work because we did this. Well, let’s change it, maybe evolve it to do this.’ So I think we can gain a lot of ground, and expedite that transition faster, just with that experience.”