Rhule gives full outline of spring game: 'Traditional game' with QBs live

Nebraska's spring game is set, and Husker fans are going to get what they have been dying to see for a long time:

An actual game at the spring game.

The Huskers will hold just one more practice – on Thursday night under the lights – between now and Saturday before the Red-White Spring Game kicks off at 1 p.m. (game available on Big Ten Network)

Prior to that practice and team meetings on Thursday evening, Matt Rhule stepped to the podium to deliver an outline of the team's final plans for the format of Saturday's contest – which is shaping up to feel like an actual contest.

Rhule said that the Huskers are going to treat Saturday as “a traditional game” with “some modifications.”

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The teams have already been selected by the offensive and defensive coaches with Rhule saying he didn’t have a hand in that decision and that the players had not yet been informed as of Thursday evening’s presser.

Whatever the teams are, it will be a snapshot of where the depth chart stands at the end of spring ball: The No. 1 offense will be going against the No. 1 defense, and the No. 2 offense will be facing the No. 2 defense.

“At the end of the day, the guys who have been running with the (No.) 1 offense are gonna be going against the guys who have been running with the (No.) 1 defense,” Rhule said. “You see some people have the 1s go against the 3s and everyone feels good walking out of the stadium. But this is a work day for us.

“I’ve said it a bunch of times — we’re a 4-8 football team. We’ve gotta earn the right to even talk about winning. Games are lost in the fourth quarter, games are lost with turnovers. All I wanna see on Saturday is a team that is in the moment.”

That mix of traditions and modifications will feature four 15-minute quarters with “NFL rules” for the handling of the clock, Rhule said. The clock will not stop after first downs except for when the two-minute mark of the first half hits and with five minutes left in the fourth quarter. So we are almost certain to see a quicker game in terms of overall time.

Rhule said last weekend that the only issue that could have put a halt into plans would be availability for the offensive line as the Huskers have just nine scholarship players available this spring, in addition to a host of walk-ons. The adjustment to that will be to have the O-linemen wear gray jerseys so that they can play on both teams depending on 1) who’s available and 2) if any players go down with an injury, the team can rotate offensive linemen to fill necessary spots.

“That could look a little bit weird, but it is what it is. That’s how we’ll do it,” Rhule said.

The quarterbacks will be fully live as they have throughout much of the spring. So that adds some extra flair as we will all get to see Jeff Sims, Heinrich Haarberg and the rest of the Cornhusker crew get after it in the pocket, on scrambles and on designed quarterback runs.

There is the obvious injury risk that comes with making the signal callers live, but Rhule says the defense has been smart with how they’ve hit their quarterback teammates. He told a couple quick anecdotes of true freshman Cameron Lenhardt ripping through the O-line and veteran Quinton Newsome having a direct line on a quarterback via a corner blitz. Both of them, though, let up before putting down a brutal tackle or a blindside hit (on the Newsome play, Rhule said he gave Newsome a thumbs up and said “thank you, buddy.”)

“I need to figure out which quarterback, or how many of the quarterbacks, can go move us in the fall,” Rhule said. “And the defense needs to figure out if they can tackle a mobile quarterback. … So we’re gonna tackle ‘em, but we’re hopefully not gonna hurt anybody.”

Marcus Satterfield will be calling the offensive plays. That decision comes after Rhule initially said last weekend that he was contemplating getting the players in the mix to design the game plan and call plays. But he opted to have Satterfield take the controller in favor of continuity and comfortability.

And don’t be surprised to actually see those plays like a Haarberg zone-read play or Sims keeping it on a broken-play scramble. The Huskers plan on opening up their playbook. Not to its fullest extent, obviously, but we are going to see more of what this offense will look like than you might see at some other programs that are installing new systems.

“A lot of times coaches say, ‘We’re gonna keep it vanilla,’ especially when you’re a first-time coach,” Rhule said. “We’re not gonna do that. We’re gonna run our plays. We’re gonna run our plays on offense and defense. I can certainly understand, ‘Hey, maybe we can surprise Minnesota with something.’ But we’ve gotta get good at playing football. So we’re gonna go play and do what we do and see who plays well.”

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Rhule said there will be “some different things” that the Huskers do on special teams and there are “a couple different” other ways in which the game is formatted. But he said he didn’t want to expound on that until explaining it after the game because he wants to “surprise everybody. Maybe you’ll like it, maybe you won’t.”

Rhule also mentioned that he is hopeful that his players will not be drawn too far into the crowd and get caught up in the hype and hoopla of the day’s events.

“There’s gonna be a ton of people in the stands,” Rhule said. “I’m very grateful for that. … (But) just play football. Give them something to cheer about with our play. I’m trying to take advantage of that by just really leaning into it and seeing who can make plays in that situation but also make sure it’s a work day as well.”

Beyond all of that, the reasons for Saturday’s format comes down to some simplicity, in Rhule’s eyes.

“Playing football is fun. … We’re just gonna play a game,” he said. “We’re trying to learn how to win. There’s an ebb and flow to a football game that I think is really important as you react to the situations. We’re gonna play it out.”

Rhule wrapped up discussions of the spring game format by giving some status updates.

Essentially, everyone who has been held out of practice will remain out.

“We’re not gonna hold anyone (back)," Rhule said. "Everyone (who can play) is gonna go play."

It remains unclear if Rhule meant that players who have been limited throughout the last five weeks will be held out (such as Omar Brown, Javin Wright and others). He may have also only been referring to the players who have been held out of practice entirely (such as Casey Thompson, Nick Henrich and Marques Buford Jr.)

Offensive lineman Ben Scott and running back Ajay Allen, who each suffered minor injuries recently, will be back to full participation and will not be limited on Saturday.

Three players who Rhule named as guys who will be monitored during Thursday night's practice: defensive linemen Elijah Jeudy and Jacob Herbek each have minor ankle injuries they're dealing with, and defensive back Noa Pola-Gates "tweaked something the other day," Rhule said, but the team is hopeful he will be cleared to play.