Nebraska football coach Matt Rhule has put his Huskers through what players admit has been a tough fall camp and preseason practice – even "brutal," as offensive lineman Ethan Piper described it.
In the eyes of Nebraska athletic director Trev Alberts, that work is starting to pay off ahead of the Aug. 31 season opener at Minnesota.
“A lot of times when you go into a place the first year, you’ve got cultural issues, the guys don’t wanna buy in, and (Rhule) said ‘Trev that just isn’t the case here. These guys want to be great, they’re hungry, they allow us to push them.’ They don’t have any issues with that, so that’s been really good," Alberts said. “... I know it’s Year One. We don’t need to be getting too excited here, but the things we can control as best we can, I think Matt’s been really focused on that.
"So I’m confident that we’re gonna have a team that plays really, really hard. I don’t think we’re gonna be scared of anybody, and I think we’re gonna play four quarters. That’s a good start.”
The third-year Husker AD shared those thoughts and more during his one-hour appearance on Huskers Radio Network on Wednesday night.
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Alberts has been in attendance throughout the three weeks of fall camp and throughout the Huskers' preseason practices. He was asked for his observations and his own evaluations after seeing Rhule and the team up close, and Alberts pointed out the "very specific things that I think are important" that the Huskers have been working on. That includes "situational things" and "just very fundamental details that I think we sometimes take for granted."
Alberts is as good, and probably better than, any others to ask for his opinion. He has his number retired and hung up inside Memorial Stadium, after all, following one of the best careers for a Husker defensive player that saw him win the Dick Butkus Award and become a first-round NFL Draft pick.
So, when asked what has stood out to him, of course the former Blackshirt turned toward the side of the ball that put him on the map – plus another facet of the game that many lifelong, die-hard Husker fans are hungry to see.
“I’m very interested in seeing our defense," Alberts said. "I think Tony White’s got a good defense. I think our defensive front, I like the havoc that they can create and this defense can create. I think it’s going to cause a lot of negative plays. ... I’m interested in the defense, I’m interested in the front because I like their movement, and I like the havoc that they can create. It’s a risk-reward defense, there might be plays you give up at times, too.
"... And then I’m really interested in Gabe Ervin and our running game and seeing some of the effort there to establish the ability to run the ball. If you wanna be a physical football team, you have to be able to do that and practice that way. So I’m excited.”
Rhule pointed out a fact that he called "unheard of" during a press conference following two-plus weeks of fall camp: The Huskers have not finished with a positive turnover margin since 2016, which was the last time they finished with a winning record (9-4). Alberts turned toward that stat, too, when breaking down what he has seen from Rhule's first team in Lincoln.
“I don’t want to speak for Coach Rhule, but I think the one thing that he’s been very keenly aware of is the turnover margin – I think that piece is the (most) undervalued and underplayed stat of every game," Alberts said. "Matt even said this at one of his press conferences. If you go back and look at the last several years, there was only one year where we won the turnover margin, and we won nine games. Those type of details and fundamentals and paying attention to that (is very important)."
Nebraska is set to celebrate the 100th year of Memorial Stadium this fall. There are a number of ways in which the university and athletic department plan to honor the history, tradition and "relive some of the things that make this place and this culture unique," Alberts said.
Beyond all of it, though, the most valuable way to feed Husker fans' hunger for nostalgia is to play like the teams that everyone used to talk about and still talk about to this day.
“More importantly, the best thing that we can do to honor 100 years of this stadium, is to have a football team that plays in a way that our fans identity with," Alberts said. "Let’s be tough, fundamentally sound, disciplined, let’s never quit, and let’s play as a team. Those are things we can control, those are things that Coach Rhule is working really hard on, and I’m really hopeful that that’ll be obvious to our fans. I think that’s the best way that we can honor this place. ... As Matt always says, we want to have a team that our fans are proud of, and that’s what we’re working toward.”
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