Rhule Speaks Prior To Michigan State

Head Coach Matt Rhule met with members of the media ahead of Saturday’s game against Michigan State. Rhule discussed the progression of the freshmen in the program and if they will go over the four game cap. He also talked about this week’s practice and the new drills surrounding ball security. 

“There’s not many that are in that situation,” he said. “I think if a guy helps us win we’ll play him. That’s what they’re all here for. They want to play. As long as they want to play, if a guy is like ‘hey coach I don’t want to play,’ I don’t know how you win with players who aren’t ready to play. That’s not a negative thing, sometimes guys are not ready mentally, but I think if a guy can play a couple snaps and help us win then great. If they’re playing 10, 12 snaps in a game of real football a lot of times you’re playing a redshirt freshman or a sophomore. If they’re just going in at the end of the game or to be the two on kick off and someone else can do that, then try to rotate someone else in there so the team is a little more healthier long term. If anyone is having a significant impact we would probably continue to play them.” 

He also spoke on Saturday’s game and being on the road after a couple games at home. 

“I love going on the road,” Rhule said. “I get to sleep on the plane and I usually try to get to the hotel and sleep, unless Keith (Mann) has media for me. I love being in the hotel, I love being with the guys and the coaches. I love walking into another team’s stadium, especially a place like Michigan State, a place that I respect. I’m excited to watch these guys go play and I expect this to be a great football game. Two physical, tough blue-collar teams and I love playing at 11 a.m. I like to wake up and play, so I’m really excited to see the guys and see what they can do.” 

Rhule discussed his observations on Michigan State’s team and what Saturday’s game will look like. 

“This is a good football team with really good players that’s been stuck in some adverse situations,” he said. “They played the number eight team in the country, they played the number two team in the country and I think they were told three days ahead of time you probably have to change all your signals before the game. So, I can’t count that against them. They were beating Iowa in the fourth quarter, they were beating Rutgers in the fourth quarter and it was a three-point game in the fourth quarter against Minnesota. This is kind of who we are, it was a four-point game in the fourth quarter, it was a seven-point game in the fourth quarter for us in some games. They fight, they battle, they have excellent players. (Nate) Carter is as good of a back as we’ll see all year long. The personnel on defense is outstanding, number eight is dynamic on defensive tackle that we’ll see in the league. They have really good players, really good coaches, they’re playing for each other and I have a lot of respect for them.” 

He addressed the ball security in practice this week and the steps the team is taking to improve the skill. 

“I hate to say this because it’s embarrassing to say, but we coached it better,” Rhule said. “We coached it better, we sat down as a staff on Sunday and went through every single fumble, why they’re happening, a lot of them have been on the center quarterback exchange, but why they’re happening and what we could do better. We just created drills based upon our body of work to help us. We do ball security every day, but the results weren’t showing that we do ball security everyday. To me, you don’t change, you do things better. If you still do something better and you don’t see any change then you have to change something. So we just changed the impact with the drills that we were doing and I hope it shows up this Saturday. Sometimes they don’t show up right away, sometimes it takes a couple weeks. I feel good about our process this week that we really put our guys in the position to be successful, because if we’re having this many fumbles, if we’re leading the nations in fumbles then I as the head coach am not doing my job. No one wants to fumble, they’re not careless fumbles. We have to improve that.” 

Kickoff between the Huskers and the Spartans at Spartan Stadium is set for 11:00 a.m. (CT) with live television coverage from Fox Sports. The game can also be heard across the Huskers Radio Network.