Matt Rhule spoke to the media following his team's 14th practice of fall camp.

Along with Rhule, tight ends coach Josh Martin and players Thomas Fidone II, Anthony Grant and Nouredin Nouili all took to the podium, too.

Here are Rhule's quick hits:

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We know Jeff Sims is the starting quarterback. But as for the backup, that battle is still ongoing. On Tuesday, Rhule continued to sing the praises of his backups Chubba Purdy and Heinrich Haarberg.

"We can play and win with Chubba or Heinrich. We get a lot of reps here, and those guys are playing really good football. Chubba's made just massive strides. I think probably a lot of it was trying to prove a lot in the spring, and I think he's settled down and just played football. He's been excellent in the passing game and can really run. Heinrich's passing ability is really developing. Getting through progressions, understanding protections. Seeing the field. I think both guys have had a good camp. Both guys are dual-threat quarterbacks, they can both run and throw, they're both 4.5 guys. So they give us a lot of flexibility."

Rhule also made sure to mention walk-on Luke Longval, a transfer from Iowa Western Community College.

Rhule said he won't truly know about some of those freshmen defensive linemen until they actually play in a game, but he sees their talent and what they can become in the future.

The D-line saw a couple young guys go down for the season — Brodie Tagaloa due to a car accident and Maverick Noonan due to a knee injury — but for the most part that unit has stayed healthy. Princewill Umanmielen, a true freshman early enrollee from Texas, is injured and didn't practice Tuesday. Rhule said Umanmielen's injury isn't long term.

"I know we have at least six guys we can play with," Rhule said. "I'd like to be at eight or nine. I feel like some of those guys are really coming along. We have to continue to grind through this. This isn't just about the first game or the second game. For me, it's about the entire season and we're going to need a lot of guys."

Rhule said the 5-10, 160-pound Nation, a true freshman corner from Georgia who arrived this summer, is catching people's attention because he's dynamic and explosive.

"He plays really hard on defense. He's aggressive and kind of has a feel for getting the ball," Rhule said. "He looks dynamic as a returner, though we haven't done a lot of live returns yet with him. We've done some thudded up ones. Young returners, it's always about their ball security and ability to protect the football, so I don't have a great feel for that yet because he is a defensive player. But I can see his athleticism, his explosiveness and his mindset."

Nation's mindset is what Rhule really enjoyed talking about. And it may be the trait that sets him apart from other freshman defensive backs.

"A lot of this is just about maturity," Rhule said. "Everybody has the talent to play. Who has the mindset to prepare to play all the time? He has that confidence, that swagger and is humble enough to also coach."

Rhule talked about all the procedure mistakes during last Saturday's scrimmage. He thought the team was slow and not efficient enough in getting different personnel groups on and off the field and in and out of a huddle.

On Tuesday, Rhule wanted to clarify that he liked the actual football he saw during the scrimmage, and that the "pass protecting was the best it's ever been."

But the coach now knows which area to focus on cleaning up the most.

"We ran into a phase of like, we spent so much time getting reps," Rhule said, "...we probably haven't spent enough time yet coming off the sidelines, subbing off the sidelines, all those different things. That was sort of a little bit of a wake-up call."

There's been good and bad moments with the offense when it's in red zone situations. Rhule said it gets difficult in the red zone because Tony White's defense has been tough down there.

"I'm pleased with the way we've run the ball in the red zone," Rhule said. "Our creativity has been pretty good. So I think we're right where we need to be. I'm always looking for big receivers down in that area, so I think guys like Malachi (Coleman), Marcus — we're still waiting for Marcus Washington to come back, he's close, I'm expecting him any day now — those are the kind of guys I think can help you down there. Fidone can help you down there."

Rhule, like many coaches, divide the red zone into multiple areas. There's a high red zone (from the 20 down to the 11-yard line) where he's telling his quarterbacks to not take sacks because there's potential for being out of field goal range. Then the 10-yard line and in is the low red zone, where Rhule is OK with quarterbacks taking a chance and scrambling.

"We want to score touchdowns, not field goals. That's our whole mindset," Rhule said. "I like the way we're proceeding, the quarterbacks get a lot of work down there. They're doing a good job managing that situation down there because it's completely different for a quarterback."

In a perfect world, Rhule wants to run the ball for touchdowns when he's in the red zone.

"There's nothing more demoralizing on defense than having someone run a touchdown in," Rhule said. "It's one thing to get tricked — I played for coach Paterno, and if someone ran a trick play against us and scored a touchdown in a game, he expected us to laugh because, 'Hey, they know they're not good enough to beat us.' So we don't worry about things like that, but when someone runs the ball in, or we run the ball in, it's demoralizing."

Arizona State transfer Ben Scott has a firm grasp on the starting center job on the O-line. Rhule said playing against White's 3-3 stack defense that shows several different fronts has helped Scott and his line mates.

"He sees so much from our defense," Rhule said. "They're never in the same front twice. We have big, powerful interior D-linemen and they're on his nose quite a bit. So blocking and also from a football intelligence standpoint, I think he does an excellent job."

On Saturday, the day Rhule announced Zavier Betts had left the team, the head coach said some of the true freshmen receivers will need to step up due to the depth problems at the position.

“Some guys are gonna have to step up. At the end of the day, the receivers is probably the area that we had the most question marks about,” Rhule said. “This (Betts’ departure) obviously leaves another question.”

On Tuesday, Rhule said he'd love to play the freshmen, but they need to be ready first.

"I'm giving them all an opportunity to play, I don't know if we need any of the freshmen to play at wideout," Rhule said. "We'd love to have them play if they're ready, but the older guys know how to play. That first game, the team we're playing, that's gonna be a grown-man game. They play real football. I told our older guys, if you guys want to win you better see a bunch of veteran players out there on special teams. You can subcontract out winning to young players."

Rhule said some young players will be ready, but some won't. The coach doesn't want the freshmen going home at night putting pressure on themselves to play right away or not make mistakes, but Rhule said "this is a game of mistakes."

"If Malachi is ready, great. If not, he's going to be a great player here. He's an amazing young man with the things he's done and overcome in his life. If he's ready, great. If Jaylen Lloyd is ready, great. If Jeremiah (Charles) or Jaidyn (Doss) are ready, great.

"But the older guys are the ones who will lead us through. I think one or two of those guys (freshmen) will step up, I really do. Maybe it's game six, game seven."

"We all know Anthony can run the ball at a high level, but there's also a lot more to playing running back than that," Rhule said. "I see him developing in those areas. He's been very dependable in terms of being where he's supposed to be, taking care of his body, handling all his business."

Rhule said Grant had an internship this summer where he got to work with kids. That internship came to Rhule and told the coach how well Grant did with the kids.