Week 2 Press Conference and Thoughts Ahead of the Game
Robby Hamberg
We are just over 24 hours away from kickoff against Coach Prime and his Colorado Buffalos in Lincoln. This is going to be one of the most highly watched games of the week in America, with last seasons game garnering 8.73 million viewers. That was largely in part to the fact that this is a historic rivalry and because the Colorado Head Coach decided to make it “personal”, drawing a good storyline for the media to use. This year however the Colorado coach has been more complimentary of the Huskers as he heads into Lincoln.
Yesterday Nebraska Head Coach Matt Rhule held his final Week 2 Press Conference in Lincoln. Here are the highlights of what he had to say:
– Coach Rhule believes that a team makes the biggest jump from week 1 to week 2 and believes that we have mad a big jump in week 2 based off practice
– In order to keep the players focused on a night game they bring players to the stadium early and scatter some meals in and give them free time to not get over hyped
– Expect Rhamir Johnson to be the third down back to start the game. Unknown at this time who will be the starting running back
– Blye Hill, Gunnar Gottula, and Henry Lutovsky are all ready to go if called upon this Saturday
– Tristen Alvano will be the field goal kicker
– Matt Rhule doesn’t currently have any thoughts on facing Colorado in the future, focusing on the here and now instead
– The message to the players for this game is no different than any other game, compete and play one snap at a time, maintain the standard
– Players were shown a Bud Crawford fight this week to give a picture of what maintaining composure will do
– Javin Wright is trending in the right direction and may be available later this season
Coach Rhule only spoke for 7 minutes yesterday and kept things short, simple and to the point.
In my opinion this is a massive game for the Huskers this weekend, not only because beating Colorado is always enjoyable but because this could be a good test to see how far this team has come in year 2 under Matt Rhule. A win this weekend can give the Huskers momentum heading into conference play as well as signify to the college football world that Nebraska is making it’s comeback right now. There will also be a massive amount of talented recruits coming in for this game, to include 5 star talents Michael Terry III (WR), Jackson Cantwell (OT), and Brandon Arrington (WR), as well as a litany of other 4 and 3 star talents.
A big win over Colorado in Lincoln under the lights could mark a huge stepping stone for this program moving forward, not only for this season but for future seasons. I anticipate this to be an absolutely insane atmosphere that will give the Colorado offense some troubles and cause a few false starts throughout the game, rivaling the atmosphere of the 2014 Miami game if not better. Potentially one of the more pivotal stepping stone games in recent Nebraska Football memory.
So yes, this isn’t just another game against Colorado and the odd hype train that follows them. This is a game that can potentially set Nebraska up for success, not only for this season but for years to come. Rhule has already shown how good of a recruiter he is by being so close to landing top tier talent, and a win over Colorado on a heavily watched broadcast with an insane Memorial Stadium could just be the tipping point to start landing more of these type of players.
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