Fall Practice No. 13 – Quick Hits from OC Marcus Satterfield

Following the team's 13th practice of fall camp Monday morning, Nebraska offensive coordinator Marcus Satterfield stepped to the podium to answer questions from the media.

This comes two days after a Saturday scrimmage that was "dominated by the defense," according to head coach Matt Rhule. Here are the quick hits of Satterfield's time with the media. You can find receivers coach Garret McGuire's quick hits right here.

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Satterfield knows the team needs to build its depth at receiver. He noted there are players who are injured who will be back for the season-opener, like wideout Marcus Washington.

But still, one or more of the freshmen wideouts need to step up, whether that's Malachi Coleman, Jaidyn Doss, Jaylen Lloyd, Demitrius Bell, Brice Turner or Jeremiah Charles. Walk-ons Alex Bullock and Ty Hahn will also be expected to push everyone.

"We have guys coming off injuries that will help us," Satterfield said. "I think it's a great opportunity, it's a great opportunity for us to see what these young kids can do. We have some young wideouts who are very talented and explosive and they're going to get a chance."

Yeah, Satterfield's playbook can be difficult for a first-year receiver to learn, especially when that receiver got to the program as an early or summer enrollee.

But if Satterfield sees them struggling to pick things up, he'll dial it back.

"It's steep, but by no stretch of the imagination would we be that hard-headed," Satterfield said. "If that was going to be detrimental to a kid being able to go out there and function and be able to play with his speed, then we would definitely scale back anything we had to. We're not an organization that's going to say, 'This is what we do, you have to figure it out.' We're going to maximize the athletic traits of our kids and let them play freely."

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Rhule said the defense won the day at last Saturday's scrimmage, and that the offense was sloppy, with pre-snap procedure issues, getting different personnel on and off the field and other things that need to continue being worked on.

"Just the operation," Satterfield said of what his main concern was. "We got in the stadium, those young kids got in the stadium for the first time. The play clock, real officials, getting players on and off the field, getting personnel groupings on and off the field. At times early on, we struggled with that in the scrimmage, but they calmed down and kept chopping away.

"I told them, 'It's easy to lock up right there and not be able to perform,' but they got better as the scrimmage went on and made some plays later."

The Huskers' playcaller saw some good things from Sims and some bad.

"Was it his best day? It wasn't his best day, but it was far from his worst day. And the way Jeff does it is, he goes about each day and just wakes up, has a strategy and attacks it and gets better, tries to get better every single day."

According to Satterfield, Sims responded well from his scrimmage by getting in the film and meeting room Sunday.

Satterfield said he's seen good things from both Chubba Purdy and Heinrich Haarberg.

"Each one of them have different skillsets and different traits they bring to the table," Satterfield said. "You can game plan things and have things ready for them to be able to go attack a defense, maximizing what they do and what they do best. We're not really ready to name a No. 2 guy right now, but we feel both of them could go into a game and help us win."

At 6-5 and 215 pounds, Haarberg is a physical runner who could provide the offense with a quarterback run package.

The coach said high school and college football is a completely different animal, so there's going to be a learning curve for the freshman wideouts who are expected to step up.

But Satterfield did provide a hint as to who's been catching his eye at practice.

"You look at Jaylen Lloyd and (Jaidyn) Doss," Satterfield said, "those guys have made some plays and been able to go out there and function from a physical standpoint and athletic standpoint, make some plays on their own."

The opportunity is there for several young wideouts to make a name for themself this season. That includes Doss, the 6-foot, 190-pounder who starred at Raymore-Peculiar High School while being used in multiple roles, like outside and slot receiver and running back.

Satterfield is seeing the same player on the field as he saw on Doss' highlight tape.

"His physical traits, athletic traits, speed an everything, his power. It gives him a chance to do some things early on," Satterfield said.

One of the perks of White's 3-3 stack defense is it can cause confusion for opposing offensive lines. Satterfield has seen that at practice and especially Saturday's scrimmage, but he liked how the Huskers' O-line handled it.

"It's literally like trying to solve a puzzle every snap," Satterfield said. "There's different things coming at them. I think coach Raiola does an unbelievable job of preparation just for practices, just for walk-throughs, to make sure we don't have a lot of unblocked players running through the line of scrimmage.

"So I'm really pleased, especially coming out of the scrimmage, with our pass protection. I thought they did a really nice job of sorting that stuff out — it's not easy, but it's a credit to their hard work. They're having to do a lot of extra work just to make sure they can identify where everyone is on that defense."

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