Fall Practice No. 8 – Quick Hits from Matt Rhule

Nebraska held its eighth practice of preseason camp on Tuesday. Following the action, head coach Matt Rhule stepped to the podium to answer questions from the media in attendance.

Here are the quick hits:

>> SUBSCRIBE: Not a member of Inside Nebraska? Join today at $9.95.month or $99.95/year

Rhule gave a brief injury update before taking questions.

On top of second-year defensive lineman Brodie Tagaloa being out for the season due to season-ending injuries he suffered in a car accident, true freshman jack linebacker Maverick Noonan will also miss the season with a knee injury he suffered on Saturday.

"Obviously Brodie (Tagaloa) is out for the year. Maverick Noonan hurt his knee on Saturday, out for the year," Rhule said. "Not an ACL or anything like that, just kind of a freak thing. so he'll have surgery this week and it'll be about six months. He'll be fine, he'll be good as new. Obviously, our hearts go out to Brodie and Maverick. Everyone else is trending on being ready if they're out right now."

Receiver Marcus Washington was nursing a broken bone in his hand last week. He returned to practice recently, but was injured again, Rhule said. Reporters saw Washington in a yellow jersey on a stationary bike with his left knee wrapped on Tuesday.

"He had a really scary moment when he landed weird," Rhule said of Washington. "But it should just be a couple days they said, so we're expecting him back by the weekend."

Sticking with the receivers, Zavier Betts was not competing at practice Tuesday. When asked about Betts, Rhule didn't offer anything outside of "he's injured right now."

Four-star true freshman Malachi Coleman wasn't on the field practicing, either. Rhule didn't say anything more than that about Coleman.

With Washington not on the field, the receiver group looked awfully thin Tuesday. Rhule was glad to hear Washington's injury wasn't serious and that he'd likely be back by the weekend.

But still, with no Betts and Washington on the field, that opens the door of opportunity for other receivers, especially the young guys, though Coleman wasn't on the field Tuesday, either.

"Everybody says they still want to play as a freshman, but it's really hard to do, especially in today's day and age when you're so distracted. You have to know how to learn," Rhule said. "So we're getting some young guys — Jaylen Lloyd, Jaidyn Doss are getting some opportunities to get out there and play. We'll see where they're at, but they're trending in the right direction."

Rhule went on to mention that Virginia transfer Billy Kemp IV is "unbelievably productive" and the 6-foot-2, 205-pound walk-on Alex Bullock is having a great camp.

Keep an eye on wideouts like Bullock and walk-on Ty Hahn, who Rhule has given shout-outs to in the past.

Rhule didn't offer many thoughts on his starting quarterback, Jeff Sims, outside of "he's understanding situationally what we want from him."

But Rhule jumped at the opportunity to talk about Chubba Purdy, who was challenged during the spring to improve his play.

"Chubba has made huge leaps in my opinion," Rhule said. "I thought he had a great summer, think he's had a really good camp. I'm proud of Chubba. We came to him and challenged him in the spring and he's done nothing but respond. It's a credit to him and his family. A lot of kids nowadays run and hide, and Chubba has taken everything head-on."

John Wooden once said "be quick but don't hurry." That reference came to Rhule's mind when he was talking about Purdy. The quarterback would, at times, be "quick" and "fast" and "jumpy." Rhule said Purdy was trying to be perfect too much.

"A lot of times, quarterbacks are trying to show how good they are instead of playing the play," Rhule said. "To me, Chubba has just like slowed down. His feet aren't antsy. He's not running around trying to do too much. He's taking what they give you. I just like the way he leads his group. They follow him. He has all the physical tools. But just letting it all settle down and come together, it's not easy, especially when you're not behind the first offensive line. But Chubba has excelled."

As for Heinrich Haarberg, Rhule said the Kearney Catholic product "continues to grow and develop."

Rhule touched on offensive line coach Donovan Raiola. Rhule has liked what he's seen from the lone holdover from Scott Frost's staff.

"I think most of our young people these days are dying from the disease of low expectations. We make excuses for young people. Young people will rise and meet expectations if you hold them to that, and no one on our staff does it better than Donnie."

Inside Nebraska will have much more on Raiola later this afternoon following the completion of both quick hit stories.

For Rhule to get Nebraska to where he wants it to go, the best units on the team need to be those that occupy both sides of the line of scrimmage. Good programs are built from solid foundations.

"What I would like to see is them to continue to improve and play well, gain confidence, and also kind of begin to take over sort of a little bit of the locker room, a little bit the way we do things," Rhule said. "When your team follows the the O- and D-lines, you're usually pretty good."

Rhule said the 6-6, 325-pound Lutovsky, who's entering his third season in the program, is "a guy we think can be a starter" and "has a really bright future."

Rhule said he, offensive coordinator Marcus Satterfield and Raiola got together and determined they want to have seven offensive linemen who they feel confident can play, and after that "is all bonuses."

"Justin Evans-Jenkins is a good player. Gunnar (Gottula) is a good player. Sam Sledge, for just getting here, is a really good player," Rhule said. "So you want to have seven guys you can count on and if they're in that seven, great, but if you can make that eight, nine, ten, so be it and things are great."

Rhule said the thought process behind holding a night practice after two consecutive morning practices is getting around eight more hours of recovery.

"Even in season, you'll see me do Tuesday morning, and then we'll do Wednesday evening," Rhule said. "So that extra eight to ten hours of recovery might be the difference between a tweak and no tweak. So we do that for recovery."

Rhule also likes changing practice times because it gets the players more experience playing under the bright lights and provides more team bonding. For example, the football team is headed to the Husker women's soccer exhibition against South Dakota State tonight at 7 p.m.

"I want them to wake up every day and not know exactly during training camp what the schedule is," Rhule said. "We like being comfortable, we like rigid schedules, but the game is not rigid. So I like to change things up on them."

>> Subscribe: All access to Inside Nebraska for just $9.95/month