Matt Rhule met the media Monday with a short week ahead. Nebraska (5-3) plays at Illinois on Friday at 7 p.m. CT on FOX, coming off a 17-10 home loss to Washington (Nebraska Athletics). Excerpts and video of the full press conference are posted at huskers.com. Here is what stood out.
The Washington film
Rhule said Washington played a lot of man coverage, and Nebraska’s plan was to beat it with throws. It did not win enough of those snaps.
“Part of our game plan was we were going to have to win on these deep balls…but to your point I don’t want to throw the ball 44 times and run it 25 or 30, I would like to have true balance.”
He pointed to the play right before a field goal, a quarterback draw with an RPO: “When we looked at it, we were like, ‘wish we would have thrown it here’.”
Why Illinois is familiar
Illinois runs a 3-3-stack defense, and Rhule said Nebraska knows it well because the Huskers ran it for three years.
“It’s a challenge and so I don’t want our guys going out there thinking too much, I don’t want our guys out there pressing, so how do we keep it simple while also not being simplistic? That’s our challenge this week, that’s why we had the guys in here in the evening on Sunday.”
Shared blame
Rhule did not put the loss on one coach. He named Dana Holgorsen and said everyone in the building carries part of it.
“If you want to believe when we win that you helped us win, then when we lose you have to feel like you helped us lose. It’s just real simple.”
He added, “I do not want Dana depressed, though. I want Dana to look at why and just keep going out and being him.”
On Demond Williams
Washington went to Demond Williams at quarterback during the game. Rhule said Nebraska had packages ready for both Williams and Elijah Brown all week, and that Williams’ speed forced the defense to spy him. “I don’t want to minimize who Demond is and his athletic ability is elite, absolutely elite,” he said.
Friday
For the full Illinois picture, read our Illinois scouting report and Friday night preview.
Featured image: Photo: Bobak Ha’Eri. CC BY 3.0. Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:2023-0831-Matt_Rhule.jpg.
