Cam Lenhardt out, Jeff Sims not listed on Huskers' availability report
Nebraska football has just one injury designation in its Week 4 game against Louisiana Tech: true freshman defensive lineman Cam Lenhardt is out.
Lenhardt suffered an ankle injury against Northern Illinois last week when his leg got caught under a tackle and got rolled up. Rhule said on Thursday that Lenhardt practiced a bit on Wednesday and Thursday and that he was "questionable" and "probably a game-time decision" heading into Saturday.
After being one of the top three in the Huskers' D-line rotation in each of their first two games, however, Lenhardt played just six snaps against NIU and will not be back until next week against Michigan at the earliest.
“Cam's such a tough, tough, tough player," Rhule said. "Young players have to learn to play when they don’t feel great. At the same time, we also don’t want them to hurt themselves even further. If he can go, though, he’ll go.”
In other injury news, starting quarterback Jeff Sims is not listed on this week's availability report after being "questionable" for NIU. It sounds like Sims will be good to go against Louisiana Tech, though ESPN's Pete Thamel reported early Saturday morning that Heinrich Haarberg was set to make his second consecutive start.
Rhule, though, said on Thursday that Sims looked “good” throughout “a good week of practice," and it sounded positive for the Huskers' QB1, who was listed as a co-starter alongside Haarberg on this week's depth chart.
“(Sims) moved around well, threw the ball really well,” Rhule said. “Coming off an injury like that, I can’t say that he’s 100 percent, but you don’t notice that there’s anything wrong with him when he plays."
Rhule’s philosophy on deciding who will start at quarterback is “so simple,” he says.
“It’s nothing else other than who I think gives us the best chance to win, at every position,” Rhule said. “It’s nothing about who established this, who’s done this. It’s just about, ‘Hey, as we think about what we’ve done, what we do, what we need to do this week, who gives us the best chance to win?’ So that’s at left guard, left tackle, right tackle, defensive end. And when you get in the game, if that changes in the game, if your linebacker gets dinged up and the second linebacker gives you a better chance to win, you play him. Winning comes first. We want to be 1-0 this week. There’s nothing else other than that.”
In other words, Rhule says there are no politics involved or favorites being played.
That’s when Rhule tossed in notable item, alluding to the chance that both Sims and Haarberg will play against Louisiana Tech – which is something offensive coordinator Marcus Satterfield also hinted at on Tuesday.
“Whoever’s playing has to go out and play,” Rhule said. “I have no problem playing multiple guys. Obviously, having an established guy who’s healthy is the ideal thing, but we’ll address whatever happens as it happens.”
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