Matt Rhule reveals Jeff Sims is receiving some No. 1 reps in practice
The Nebraska Cornhuskers dropped Saturday’s road contest against the Michigan State Spartans 20-17. The struggling Spartans were able to upend the Cornhuskers, dropping them to 5-4 on the season and 3-3 in conference play.
In the game, Nebraska starting quarterback Heinrich Haarburg struggled mightily, completing less than 50 percent of its past attempts. And that has led some to wonder whether or not another change at quarterback is on the horizon for Nebraska at head coach Matt Rhule. However, in order to do so, former starting quarterback Jeff Sims would likely need to be prepped in practice to take over the reins of the offense, something that Rhule revealed Nebraska has been working on.
“We give Jeff reps with the ones, at times. So he gets to rotate in,” said Rhule. We’re not like your traditional practice; we get more guys reps. There were times last week, early in the week, that Chubba (Purdy) took some reps with the ones here and there; he gets more two reps and some three reps. But yeah, Jeff does get reps with the ones, as does, obviously, as does Heinrich.
Rhule has had a bit of a quarterback issue in his first season leading the program. Still, he has Nebraska in a position to compete for a Big Ten title. The Cornhuskers are third in the Big Ten West, behind the Minnesota Golden Gophers and Iowa Hawkeyes, sitting just one game out of first place. If a change back to Sims is needed, Rhule and the Cornhuskers offense will be ready for it.
Rhule feels for his players amid 5-4 start
Saturday marked yet another close call for the Cornhuskers, highlighted by a controversial touchdown call that gave Michigan State the lead they needed in the fourth quarter to secure the win. A similar instance happened in Week 1 to the Cornhuskers in there 13-10 loss to Minnesota, which Rhule addressed recently in a press conference along with some interesting comments alluding to Michigan‘s current sign-stealing investigation.
“I feel bad for our players, so we’re sitting at 5-4, we own 5-4,” Rhule said.” But we had one game where the team scouted us, we’ve had two games where replay was wrong. I mean that’s tough to swallow.”
“But you know what, we are where we are, and the issues about giving up sacks and turning the ball over, those are the main issues that we’re gonna work on controlling,” Rhule added. “But you guys did ask me about that and I did want to answer that.”
Michigan State receiver Montorie Foster caught a 25-yard touchdown pass in the fourth quarter on Saturday that served as the game-winner, which was reviewed and upheld as a touchdown despite the ball appearing to move upon contact with the ground, which FOX rules analyst Dean Blandino believed should have been called incomplete.
And in Nebraska’s three-point loss in Week 1 to Minnesota, Cornhuskers’ running back Gabe Ervin extended for the goal line on a four-yard run that could have very well been called a touchdown but was not, with an interception being thrown on the very next play leaving Nebraska with zero points after reaching the one-yard line.