Matt Rhule reveals season-ending injures across Nebraska offensive line
The Nebraska Cornhuskers got their second win in a row on Saturday, beating the Northwestern Wildcats in a low-scoring game. However, injuries are starting to take their toll on Nebraska. Now, head coach Matt Rhule and the Cornhuskers offense are going to need to replace three offensive linemen who will be out for the season.
Rhule explained during his Monday press conference that guard Ethan Piper and left tackle Turner Corcoran are out for the season. Another guard, Nouredin Nouili, will miss several weeks. That’s three of five starting offensive linemen who will be out for the next few weeks and two who are done for the season.
It looks like the plan to replace the injured offensive linemen is to have Justin Evans-Jenkins and Henry Lutovsky move into guard spots. Meanwhile, Teddy Prochazka is going to take over at left tackle moving forward.
Teddy Prochazka has good experience at the left tackle spot for Nebraska and has great size at six-foot-eight inches tall. A redshirt sophomore, he has unfortunately missed time in all three seasons he’s been in college due to injuries. That included multiple season-ending injuries in 2021 and 2022.
Both Justin Evans-Jenkins and Henry Lutovsky have played this season, though not in a starting role for Nebraska.
In his first season as the head coach at Nebraska, Matt Rhule has gone 4-3 through seven games. With five Big Ten games remaining, the Cornhuskers are in a good position to go to a bowl game for the first time since 2016. To get to that point, though, Rhule will need to overcome these massive losses on the offensive line.
What making a bowl game would mean for Matt Rhule, Nebraska
HuskerOnline‘s Sean Callahan spoke to On3’s Andy Staples, explaining what a bowl game would mean for Nebraska and Matt Rhule.
“Yeah you think about 2016 they went to Nashville, that was their last bow trip. And I’ll tell you what, I think a lot of Husker fans would kill for a trip to Nashville or Vegas for a bowl game right now. You think about the Scott Frost era, that was the home run of coaching hires, like this cannot fail. They never went to a bowl game once under Scott Frost. They could gone in 2020, they players actually voted not to go to the bowl in 2020 after Scott Frost lobbied to play football in 2020, took a lot of heat for it at that time,” Callahan said.
“So yeah, a bowl game of any kind if it’s in Detroit or it’s in Vegas, or Nashville, or New York, wherever. I think Rutgers would be a lock by the way at this point going to the Pinstripe Bowl getting their sixth win that just makes too much sense. But I think anyone here would just crave [a bowl game] and they need these practices Andy, they haven’t those 15 bowl practices since that 2016 season.”