Watching QBs, Frank Solich and Matt Rhule’s bold recruiting play

Matt Rhule’s first Husker football team will get there soon enough. For now, Saturday’s spring game is the appetizer that’ll have to tide over Nebraska fans for a long summer.

Rhule’s old-school approach suggests a hearty bite. He plans a full game between Red and White teams with 15-minute quarters — running on NFL-soon-to-be-college timing that doesn’t stop the clock after first downs — with lots of physicality. Four scholarship quarterbacks — Jeff Sims, Heinrich Haarberg, Chubba Purdy and Richard Torres — should each get opportunities to run the offense, and the ball. Offensive linemen will don gray jerseys so they can play for both teams.

And Tony White’s 3-3-5 defense? Rhule suggested Thursday he won’t keep it under wraps. So Nebraska fans will get a sense of who plays the new rover spot and who will be counted upon to rush the quarterback.

Picks to click? A ton. But take a good, long look at the newcomers — transfers and early enrollee freshmen. Rhule added roughly 40 guys in three months so he could juice playmaking at quarterback, receiver, linebacker and edge rusher.

Other notable items on a busy spring football day:

This was reported on several years ago when Nebraska announced its new football building, but the Huskers will be making their final walk through the northwest tunnel for the Tunnel Walk.

It’ll switch to the northeast tunnel next season once the new building opens, with a walkway connecting the new locker room to the stadium. 

Frank Solich is all the way back after 19 years away from the program.

For a lot of years, that made sense; he had his own team to coach at Ohio. But it was clear Friday, as he met with the media, that his return was going to do as much for him as Nebraska.

Solich attended a private meal Friday night followed by a large reception at Memorial Stadium that was all over social media. He’ll be honored at halftime Saturday, and clearly be back in the fall for some football games.

Don’t be stunned if Solich is honored in more ways than one, too. 

The new one is the old one with the overalls.

Major recruiting weekend for the football team — where two of the top 2024 linemen on the West Coast arrive for a visit — and the men’s basketball team, which is hosting both Hunter Sallis (Millard North grad, Gonzaga transfer) and Josiah Allick (Lincoln North Star grad, New Mexico transfer). Other programs bring top recruits in for the event, too, so it should be a star-studded event.

On the football side — this is a bold play by Rhule, welcoming in so many California players.

Guys like offensive tackle Brandon Baker and defensive tackle Aydin Breland — both five-star prospects according to 247Sports — rarely commit to NU. They visit. They enjoy it. And they go somewhere else.

But Rhule’s taking a chance, and perhaps selling the idea of playing in Los Angeles as a sweetener.

Oh yeah — Colorado’s got its spring game on Saturday. Minnesota, too. And Iowa. And Wisconsin.

Lots to watch and discuss in the next several weeks about the “core four” opponents for Nebraska in 2023.