Everything Matt Rhule said about the Nebraska QBs at pre-Wisconsin presser

Nebraska football coach Matt Rhule opened his pre-Wisconsin presser on Monday with some lengthy statements about the Huskers' quarterbacks. And then he went further. And further and further.

Rhule spoke for 36-plus minutes on Monday, using much more than half of that time to address the quarterback situation following a game in which they combined for five turnovers (four interceptions, one fumble) in a 13-10 loss to Maryland.

Here is everything he said about Heinrich Haarberg, Jeff Sims, Chubba Purdy and where the quarterbacks stand going into Saturday's game at Wisconsin, where those three will now be listed as co-starters on the official depth chart.

“Just to get started, quarterback wise Heinrich has a pretty good ankle sprain. So we'll see if we can do anything tomorrow. Chubba came out the game a little bit banged up. He hasn't played much, so he's a little bit banged up from getting hit. Jeff is healthy so we'll go through the week and probably come all the way up to game time in terms of who will play. Obviously, each guy brings a little bit something different to the table. So we'll have a pretty diverse plan and see who is able to go. I won't be able to comment on Heinrich until after I see him tomorrow if he can do anything at all.”

"I think there's been several issues throughout the year. Anytime you're having this (issue), the number one is turnovers, right? We have three, three-point games. I think we have 12 turnovers in those three-point games. Check me if I'm wrong. I think 11 of them come out of the quarterback position. So, to me, it's turning the ball over right?***

“At the same time, a lot of those games were close because Heinrich made great runs or Jeff made some great runs against Minnesota. So a lot of good things happen from those guys. I'm one of those coaches that I don't love to make big statements. Everything to me is very incremental. But certainly, I would be a fool not to sit here and tell you it's protecting the football in the passing game. Obviously, the first interception (from Sims), I still feel like Malachi (Coleman) gets tackled, and we're running a double move. But I'd love to see our quarterbacks, as I talked to them, just be a little bit more intentional about how we can't keep throwing balls up. And we can't just throw balls up to a spot thinking the guy is going to be there.

"At the end of day, you have to be intentional at quarterback. Every ball you throw is a ball you want to throw. We had twice where guys threw interceptions kind of backing up and letting it rip and that's just not who we are. That's not who we should be. So there's always a yin and yang. Obviously, they're young players. I'm trying to guide them through it. We're trying to guide them through it and at the same time having expectations and standards for the way that we want to play."

"What can be fixed in the next few weeks? I certainly think that we fixed the pocket ball security. You go back to games ago, not the pocket, running the ball. Heinrich had two fumbles and so we've certainly worked on that. We certainly worked on the way we hold the football. This was interceptions this week and what can we do? We just keep coaching and I know that sounds trite maybe but we just keep coaching, we just keep pushing, we just keep grinding. We just keep working. And hope that it just continues to come to fruition. Build on the good things and try to eliminate the bad things.

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***Rhule is correct: Nebraska did have 12 turnovers over those three losses to Minnesota (13-10), Michigan State (20-17) and Maryland (13-10) led by Sims with six turnovers (five interceptions, one fumble), Haarberg with four turnovers (three interceptions, one fumble), Purdy with one interception and RB Anthony Grant with a fumble.

"I show them a lot of different things. I talk a lot about basketball. Like last week, we showed them Kobe (Bryant) talking about, as a rookie, shooting five air balls in the NBA Finals Game 7 and then coming back the next year and making those shots. I think the biggest thing is when you're a basketball player – when you're Michael Jordan, when you're LeBron James, that's about the extent of who I know is a great basketball player nowadays – you don't go to take the last shot and think about how you're going to shoot. You just shoot the way you shot 1,000 times. And, to me, that's trusting your training and that's really our process. Our process is practicing so much and working so much that we can trust our training. As you get late in the Big Ten year and you go through the Big Ten for the first time, you start to experience these teams and things that they're doing. Trusting the training that we're going to have – whether it's a read, whether it's a decision.

"You look at two of the interceptions, two of them are backing up and just kind of throwing it. Another one's just throwing it to a spot hoping that it's going to be completed. Those things just can't happen. But in terms of the players, my job is to help them become great players. It's not 'Hey, don't throw interceptions.' It's 'Is this what you're trying to do? You've worked your whole life to get to this point. What should you do in this moment? Hey, it's not there. I should reverse out. I should go make a play.' We want our guys to play free. I'm not giving you great answers other than just, to me, it's always about trusting your training.

"Chubba comes down at the end. Chubba ran the scout cards last week. That's just part of putting your third quarterback in. I have a lot of confidence in Chubba. If you go back to every answer you guys have ever asked me about him: I believe in the kid. I believe in Chubba, and he's kind of healthy now. You saw him running. It's just you put them out there, and he hasn't had a ton of reps. He'll get some reps more this week. If he has to play, I'm sure he'll be ready to play. So I think it's that. I think it's trusting your training. I think it's time on task. A lot of these guys haven't played a ton of football. Jeff has, but Chubba hasn't played a ton. I went and sat down with him yesterday. We kind of just kicked it for a little bit and talked. He played two games in 2020, played a couple games in 2021, started two games last year, played a half. At quarterback, you've got to play. I think you have to play and play and play and get comfortable getting a rhythm.

"There's a lot of things (that go into playing quarterback). I always start with myself. What am I not doing right? I'm the head coach. Everything that happens here, I'm responsible for. You look at that (Maryland) game. A lot of things are the same thing over and over again. We don't really get beat, but we do get beat on double moves in the secondary, right? So we sit there and you look at the teams. You look at a team and you're like, 'Well, they don't do this.' We're kind of a good defense, so we're going to get the same couple things. And so I just challenge our staff – but really challenged myself – like 'What are the things that need to be fixed?'"

"I have not solved this issue in terms of the turnovers. So I don't go in there and say 'Guys, we got 22 turnovers, we got to fix it.' They know that. I just say, 'Are we trusting our training? Is this the ball that you want to throw? Was this intentional or was this just sort of like 'Oh, I don't know what to do.' And if it is, just continue to give them those opportunities, those reps and continue to work. That's as honest of an answer as I can really give you because I don't have the answer. If that makes sense. I'm working through it. But I believe in these guys. I want to make that very clear. I believe in these guys. These guys can play, they just have to continue to work and grind through this.

“To give you an example, I showed them the punt fake in the game, and then I showed them the first time we practiced it in practice the Tuesday before Michigan. Literally, (Nate) Boerkircher and (Garrett) Snodgrass run into each other because we check that play. And then I showed them in the game versus a look we’ve never practiced and there’s one extra guy there, Marco Ortiz. No one ever talks about the long snapper. He makes a huge block and (Alex) Bullock and Ty Hahn and Elijah Jeudy, who I really think wants to be a tight end, makes an unbelievable block. Snodgrass comes back around and picks up the extra guy. My point to them was, ‘Guys, I hate to say this, but everything takes time.’ You have to just keep working."

"What sometimes happens at quarterback is because it’s so visible, the weight of being the starting quarterback at Nebraska can sometimes weigh on you so much, you start searching for answers. There are no answers. You have to just go back to work every week. It’s an incremental, 'one better' approach. I hope that we play really well this week, I hope that we solve the problem this week. The only way to solve it is just to keep getting a little bit better, a little bit better, a little bit better. I’ll say one more thing – and this is going very long so please forgive me – I showed our coaching staff a cutup and these are my friends. (Ohio State coach) Ryan Day is a friend of mine. Justin Frye, the O-line coach at Ohio State, is a friend of mine. You asked me a question a couple weeks ago about the reverse, about Michigan State and why they got eight yards. They ran the exact same play. Ohio State ran the exact same play and they made one more block than we made, and Marvin Harrison Jr. came around for a 22-yard touchdown. We ran a wide sail route in the boundary. They ran about 12 of the same type of concepts, because we all run the same plays. My message to the coaching staff was, it’s not the plays, it’s not the application – you always want to call back here and there – it’s the players and their confidence level and their execution level. It’s not like ‘Hey, players, you have to make it right.’ It’s continuing to watch these guys grow. Look at Javin Wright. Look at what reps are doing for him. This is a guy who was like ‘Hey, should I even come back this year? Am I a corner, am I a safety, what am I?’ Now he’s out there ripping balls out. It’ll all come together for the quarterbacks, we’d just love for it to happen right now.”

“First off, I’ll say this, I take responsibility for that. It’s a good play call. The play is very simple. Every team in the world runs its three-man routes. It’s double under with a corner route. Basically, versus man, the two guys run the under routes, they chase the under routes, you have a one-on-one corner. It’s incomplete, zero blitz it’s 90 protection there’s a gap protection. (Thomas) Fidone stays in, he’s not going to get hit. It’s a confluence of events. We take a long time coming out by number one (Billy Kemp IV). People thought we were throwing to number one. It’s Billy flattening that run out because a guy undercuts him. I would love for Chubba to put that ball in the back corner, and those guys get out of the way a little quicker. It wasn’t quite executed exactly right and when it comes down to execution, it falls on me.

"Their kid (Maryland defensive back Tarheeb Still) made two unbelievable plays. That corner made a double move to beat the safety, and he ran back and picked the ball off. And on that play, he’s playing the guy (Kemp) man and comes off of it and picks it off. When you look at the tape it looks really, really bad. I get that. I’m not saying that’s the players. The play clock was running down on us, things were going fast. I think (Marcus) Satterfield wanted to run a pick play by one to two and three. We wanted to see where they were. I didn’t want to put Chubba in a bad position where it goes to zone. He hasn’t had the reps in any of these plays this week. That play happened. I don’t put that on Chubba. I put that on me. That play is called Indy, it’s old Peyton Manning two unders with a corner route. Versus man, you throw the corner route. They got too close together. That’s one of the ones I wake up to in the morning thinking about it . That’s on me.”

“He just got banged up from being in the game. He hadn’t been hit in a while. I called him yesterday and was like ‘Hey, stop by my office.’ He’s like ‘I’m in treatment.’ Obviously, for him to go in there and for that game to end the way it did, I just wanted to make sure I talked to him. I always worry about the things I say in the press conference. You asked me after the game why we threw it on first down. I was kind of caught, because we didn’t throw it, but then I remembered he pulled it and threw it. So I just wanted to make sure he knew that when those things happen, there’s some accountability to him to know that play. That play is a base play, day one, it’s a handoff. But, for me, that means that we haven’t done a good enough job of getting him reps. We just have to make sure we’re on the same page. He’s fine, he’s just sore from getting hit at quarterback.”

“So that’s four verticals. For us, we have different versions of it. A lot of times we’ll say number three, Fidone, is a really good matchup for us in man. If it’s man, we’re going to work Fidone as the man-beater, kind of like we did in the NFL. Number three is a good man-beater for us. It played out like man, though, and it was kind of like a zone quarters that looked like man. If we would have recognized the ball, it would have gone to Billy, and he would have gone through. Also, if it’s man, the post player should go through the middle. The post player jumped it, but at the end of the end zone, Fidone is still open. Again, just kind of pressure in his face, Heinrich steps backwards. The reason I don’t want to talk about Heinrich all the time is because people talk a lot about Heinrich’s slow release. Really, all it is is the fact that the ball goes below his elbow as he’s going back. There’s a lot of quarterbacks in the NFL who do that. They always struggle. A lot of them struggle in the NFL with the ability to be accurate because his feet always have to be right. So, on that play, he doesn’t step and throw because he has some pressure and has to wing that ball. It’s overthrown and intercepted. Obviously, you have a big play possibility down the field to number two, you have the man-beater, which is open. We have to throw it and catch it.

"When you talk about Coach Satterfield or any of the coaches, I look at it as, it’s going to be really hard to run the ball into free safety pressures the entire game. We’re going to have to be able to throw the football, and we call a play where guys rope, and we expect our guys to go make the plays. When they don’t, I don’t say ‘Hey, you guys aren’t good enough,’ I say ‘Hey, we’ve got to keep practicing.’ That’s kind of the yin and the yang to the way my brain works – taking accountability but also giving the players a chance to make a play. I think when I said number two was running down the field, you nodded your head, so I think you saw it. There are some things that are there.

"I hope over the years that what you guys will see from me is that I don’t want to just take a short, quick, easy answer. There’s always all these different layers of everything, and I try to unpack them for myself and for everybody so that if, all of a sudden, that ball is two inches to the right because we stepped and threw, it’s a completion. If the ball is right down the middle of the field, it’s a touchdown. At the end of the day, it just takes reps because you practice against one thing and get to the game and they have coaches, too. They do different things. You want players who are seasoned who can, in a running offense, throw the ball versus all the looks they get, and it just takes time. That was the thought with that.”

“I don’t think so. I really don’t.”

“I would say that we don’t talk about just one guy. In general, we don’t throw these interceptions in practice like we do in games. Again, sometimes when you run the ball a lot and you finally have a chance to throw, you’re not in rhythm. We certainly came out wanting to throw the ball a little bit more in the last game because we knew how they play. So we hit a man beater and we overthrow Emmett (Johnson), that was a big play and the one where they threw the penalty on Billy. Then they pulled it off, and we had Fidone on the right. If you see that play, Billy is running down the middle of the field wide open.

"There’s just a little different pictures for the guys. It’s not a super-complex offense. It’s just different pictures that maybe guys aren’t seeing, but we certainly don’t have those interceptions in practice like we do in the game. Sometimes in the games there’s a little bit of pressure in our face, we’re not sure where to go and we kind of back up and throw it. I just don’t ever want a quarterback to never throw a ball unintentionally. I want our quarterbacks to reverse out and make plays. We have diverse quarterbacks who can run and if you’re playing man coverage against us then our quarterbacks should be running for 200 yards against them. Those things aren’t happening, so you go back, you look at practice and you do better. We’ll continue to do that this week.”