Matt Rhule shares appreciation for senior class
Matt Rhule’s first season as head coach of the Nebraska Cornhuskers means it’ll be his only season with a handful of players who will be leaving the program at the end of the football year. Although his time with the seniors and graduating Nebraska players has been brief, Rhule is immensely grateful for the time that he has spent with them.
On Monday, in preparation for the Cornhuskers’ final game of the season against the Iowa Hawkeyes, he spoke on that gratitude while highlighting a few players in the process.
“I just wanna express my deep, deep, deep gratitude for the 24 guys that are gonna walk out on Friday as seniors; some guys are still making some decisions,” said Rhule. “You can’t do this job without buy-in from players. And these players, well, I think they bought into us. More importantly, I think they cared deeply about Nebraska and Nebraska football.
“When I see Ethan Piper, when I see Nick Henrich limp off the field the other night; they’ve given us everything. They’ve absolutely given us everything, and I’m just very, very, very grateful.”
Friday’s matchup with Iowa could be Rhule’s final game coaching the seniors if Nebraska does not find a way to beat the Big Ten West champs. However, if the Cornhuskers win on Friday, they will get to have one more game together — a bowl game.
Rhule provides update on health of Heinrich Haarberg
On Saturday, head coach Matt Rhule and the Nebraska Cornhuskers came up just short in overtime on the road against the Wisconsin Badgers. The game featured two teams sitting at 5-5 on the year and one win away from being bowl-eligible. In the end, Nebraska could not overcome Wisconsin without quarterback Heinrich Haarburg, falling 24-17.
With his top-performing quarterback of the season out, Rhule turned to sophomore quarterback Chubba Purdy to run the offense. But could Harberg have played against Wisconsin? And what is his status heading into Nebraska’s final game of the regular season? Rhule addressed these questions and shared his thoughts on Purdy’s performance against the Badgers.
“He could go. It’s like I said to you guys on Thursday,” said Rhule. “He was in uniform, just hadn’t really practiced, and kind of been out there on a limited basis. So made sense to put Chubba out there and let him play.
“I thought he had a good week, and I liked the way he looked last week. He certainly came out like gangbusters and got us going. But I think even in the interim, on the plays we didn’t quite get, I wouldn’t put any of that on him. I thought he did a really nice job.”
Purdy played well against Wisconsin on Saturday despite Nebraska not leaving Madison with the win. He finished the game with 274 yards of total offense, with 169 yards passing and 105 rushing. Purdy also had two touchdowns in the game, one rushing and one passing but did throw an interception.