Thursday afternoon Matt Rhule kicked off the beginning of spring practice with a press conference. It’s the first time Husker fans have heard from Rhule in close to 50 days. A bit unusual for the man who likes to talk. But fans are tired of talk. They are ready for something more than words. This season they expect results.
Compared to what we got in the past, I thought Rhule was somewhat laid back. We didn’t get any of the year three guff we heard last season, there were no ‘Hell on Wheels’ remarks either. He provided information and talked about football. I don’t know what the rest of you think, but I find Rhule’s silence over the last few weeks, and now his, let’s get to work approach, refreshing.
Injury List
Rhule kicked off the press conference by quickly rattling off a list of players that won’t be available for spring practice. The list included WR-Demetrius Bell, TE-Janiran Bonner, OL-Nolan Fennessey, S-Rex Guthrie, OL-Gunner Gottula, CB-Blye Hill, P-Kamdyn Koch, Edge-Mac Markway, TE-Carter Nelson, OL-Gibson Pyle, OL-JuJu Marks, LB-Dawson Merritt, and LB-Gage Stenger. They will all be out for the duration of spring camp. Thirteen players in all.
Some of the names were expected, others were not. For example, we knew Bell, Markway, Bonner, and Stegner were all coming off serious knee injuries and would be integrated slowly. Merritt, Nelson, and Guthrie were more surprising. We knew they were dinged up during the season, but perhaps not so badly they would miss all of spring ball. Then again, spring ball has never started this early, and they will have plenty of time to fully recover before fall.
Four players out and waiting to be cleared are edge-Conner Connely, DL-Tyson Terry, LB-Trent Uhlir, and OL-Jake Peters. The hope is they will be fully cleared and participate before the spring game on March 28th.
Two players who were not mentioned were transfer additions, linebacker Dexter Foster and defensive lineman Owen Stoudamire. Both players had their seasons end early at their previous schools due to injuries. Both suffered leg injuries, with Foster’s being a knee injury, so for them not to be listed at least waiting to be cleared, makes you wonder.
Practice Times
Rhule then touched on having 15 practices over the next five weeks. There will be a week off during that time for spring break. Call it a bye week if you will. Maybe not a bad thing, giving guys time to recoup from the initial bumps and bruises before the spring game.
The head coach also shared the fact that they were moving practice from morning sessions to afternoon. Practice will now run from 2:30pm to 6:30pm. He discussed the advantages of afternoon practices with Texas Tech head coach Joey McGuire, who was one of his assistants at Baylor. McGuire switched Tech’s practices to afternoons last season and found it helpful. One reason Rhule mentioned was the weather and conditions. Morning practices are much colder, and the practices fields have not had a chance to dry off from frost or overnight dew, causing slick surfaces.
But the biggest reason seems to be recovery time when traveling coast to coast. Rhule had this to say, “There’s a large part of us that likes morning practices, but this league is a lot different now. There was twice last year we went to the East Coast and played a Friday game after. That takes a toll on your body certainly that week, and the weeks after.”
When offensive coordinator Dana Holgorsen was asked about afternoon practices, he added, “Sleep. It’s the number one recovery. The number one thing in recovery is sleep, right. If you’re waking people up at five-thirty, six o’clock in the morning then they don’t get as much sleep. They’re gonna go to bed at the same time. We’ve done many, many studies on this, I don’t care what time they have to wake up, they’re going to bed the same time.”
Holgorsen also suggested that one of the benefits of afternoon practices was that it gives coaches more prep time prior to practice.
I like the sound of switching. It makes sense to me and football was made for practicing in the afternoon.
Key Thought from Rhule
If I heard anything from this press conference, it’s that these coaches believe this roster has talent. What’s been lacking is development and coaching. I totally agree. Great coaches can accomplish amazing things with good players. Indiana’s roster isn’t the best in college football, yet they won the national championship. Nebraska can win with this roster. When talking about the defensive line Rhule said this.
“We’ve got talented players, but I think the onus now comes on the coaches. Wherever they are, to maximize them and develop them, and make them better than they were,” Rhule said.
What DC Rob Aurich Sees
Aurich didn’t clean house when it came to defensive assistants, retaining linebacker coach Rob Dvoracek, cornerbacks coach Addison Williams, and former edge coach Phil Simpson. He did however add defensive line coach Corey Brown, edge coach Roy Manning and safeties coach Tyler Yelk. The three additions have all worked with Aurich in the past. With spring ball starting yesterday Aurich sees their addition as a definite advantage.
“With that timeline in mind, I know their work, I know their familiarity with our defense and so getting them here I think took a lot off the plate of staff preparation. I thought it expedited and our ability to teach the players rather than teach the staff. There are still some changes we’ve made over the last couple of years, but it’s been awesome having those guys back,” Aurich said. “They’ve grown since I last seen them. They’ve brough great ideas to the table and how we improve what we do. A few manipulations of some coverages and some stunt schemes and getting back with them it’s been impressive how much they’ve grown since our time apart.”
Aurich reinforced Rhule’s belief that it isn’t a talent problem.
“When I look at our defense, I think the pieces are there, I think the talent is there, I don’t think it’s a question of the personnel. I think we have to execute and play defense at a high level. And how fast can we get our guys to execute at a championship level.”
A Fact from OC Dana Holgorsen
Holgorsen takes offense to people questioning his running back room and is bullish about what he has at his disposal. Since he replaced Marcus Satterfield as the OC, he’s never hidden the fact he likes Mekhi Nelson. That was still evident when talking about the running backs.
“Hey, if you look at the running back room, Mekhi had a great bowl game. I mean he did some things Emmett can’t do, and Emmett is going to be so mad I said that. But he just did. His first touchdown, I don’t know if Emmett could have got there, you know, and everybody knows how I feel about Emmett, but Mekhi – Mozee is an incredibly powerful freshman, he’s gonna get better and better. You got Kwinten, everybody is mad about our short yardage run game, including me. He was 4-for-4 on short yardage third down in the bowl game. He took a step in December. If he had went the other way, well we might’ve went and got somebody. But he showed promise. Jamal Rule, freshman, talented, probably runs better maybe than all of them, he just got here. Conner Booth is a scholarship kid. I mean we have five guys, six guys.”
I agree with Holgorsen, Nelson has that little extra burst Johnson doesn’t have. We saw Emmett get caught on a couple of long runs last season. And stop and look at Emmett Johnson, did anyone think he would have the season he did and be anointed the 3rd best running back in the NFL draft?
Chill out Husker fans these coaches see something in this team. Whether it’s Rhule talking about the defensive line, Holgorsen talking about the running backs or Aurich on the defense, the talent is there.
GO BIG RED!! SIMPLE, FAST, VIOLENT!!
Photo courtesy of The Falls City Journal
Stay on top of Husker football at CarrikerChronicles.com