Matt Rhule has 'no problem' playing multiple quarterbacks against Louisiana Tech
Matt Rhule hasn’t settled on a starting quarterback for Saturday. And the Nebraska head coach might not even have settled on a quarterback for the entire game.
Sitting at 1-2 and hosting Louisiana Tech on Saturday, Rhule didn’t eliminate the possibility of both Jeff Sims and Heinrich Haarberg playing against the Bulldogs. Just being named the starter doesn’t mean that quarterback is guaranteed to get the whole game to themselves.
“Yeah. I think everybody’s different. Obviously you’d like to know on Monday, right, but I’m also trying to prepare these guys for life and for NFL football. I mean like, you want to play — Christian McCaffrey, who I obviously had a lot of experience with, he got traded on like a Wednesday or Thursday, he played that Sunday. This is about figuring out. So, each week’s different. We try to do our best for every guy. We had one week where PJ Walker found out during warmups that he was starting, so whoever is playing has to go out and play and I have no problem playing multiple guys,” Rhule said on Thursday. “Nothing — obviously having an established guy who’s healthy is the ideal thing, but we’ll addresses whatever happens that happens.”
Sims missed Nebraska’s first win of the season over Northern Illinois last Saturday with an injury as Haarberg got the start. Sims had struggled significantly with turnovers in his first two games, both road losses.
Health may dictate the Nebraska quarterback position going forward
Sims struggled in the first two games before he was hurt, while Haarberg looked fairly capable in his stead on Saturday.
“I think both quarterbacks, we figured out that both quarterbacks are good quarterbacks,” Rhule said. “The situation that Jeff went and played in the first two games was difficult, and a lot of things that weren’t his fault were pegged on Jeff Sims. So we’ve got a lot of confidence in Jeff.”
And with improving health, it seems Sims will get another look.
Still, after winning the quarterback competition Sims’ numbers weren’t very good in the first two outings, with turnovers the most glaring problem.
Sims has gone 20-of-34 passing for 220 yards with a touchdown and four interceptions. He’s also fumbled twice. Heinrich seemed to steady the ship on the turnovers front, though admittedly against less stiff competition than Sims faced.
“We’ve known all along that Heinrich can play,” Rhule said. “We’ve got a good situation. I won’t talk any hypotheticals. I don’t know who’s going to be healthy, who’s not. I know we can win with both guys, and you guys know how I feel about Chubba (Purdy).”
Nebraska will need the signal callers to step up amid other injuries
The injury bug continues to bite Nebraska just a few weeks into the football season as the team has now suffered two losses to their backfield.
Husker Online’s Sean Callahan reported Monday that running backs Rahmir Johnson and Gabe Ervin Jr. will miss the remainder of the football injuries after sustaining injuries, Johnson with an injured shoulder and Ervin with an injured hip.
Ervin currently leads the team in rushing yards with 196 on the season, with Johnson gaining all 66 of his yards on the year in the team’s Week 2 loss to Colorado.