Matt Rhule shares impressions of Northern Illinois after film study
Matt Rhule and Nebraska don’t exactly need to caution against an upset from MAC foe Northern Illinois. The Huskies have already pulled off a Power 5 road upset, beating Boston College to open the season.
As such, Rhule knows the Huskies will give his Cornhuskers a challenge in Week 3. He knows it’s a proud MAC program with a winning tradition, but with Nebraska sitting at 0-2, a win is much needed.
“Sometimes you hear people say ‘Ah they’re a well coached team. They’re a well-coached team.’ But this is like, this family of coaches, Northern Illinois coaches, going all the way back to Joe Novak, they know how to win. You watch them against Boston College, they played the game perfectly. They do everything right, and so they find a way to win the game. So I think the challenge for us is going to be, their defensive line up front is tremendously, tremendously movement oriented. A lot of disrupting things, pressure. They can play man on the backend. Quarterback’s excellent, the tailback’s excellent. They’ve got great receivers. And they believe that they can win,” Rhule said.
Northern Illinois features former Michigan State quarterback Rocky Lombardi under center, providing some serious upside for the offensive attack.
But more than personnel or specific schemes, Rhule sees a Northern Illinois program that knows how to win, and knows they can win.
And any MAC squad would greatly savor two wins over Power 5 teams before the calendar flips to October.
“Programs either are winning programs or losing programs. This is a winning program,” Rhule said of Northern Illinois. “They believe that they can win. They won the MAC championship two years ago, they know how to win. So it’ll be fun. It’ll be fun to go compete against a team that is here for all of it. They’re not coming to show up. They’re coming to win. And that’s what we need to do right now. We need to beat a team like that, one rep at a time.”
The Cornhuskers will be happy to play at home, finally
It’s been a difficult start on the offensive side of the ball for the Cornhuskers. Now, offensive coordinator Marcus Satterfield is glad to be home for a game in front of friendly fans.
Satterfield wasn’t shy about voicing his opinion on starting the season with two straight road games, either.
“Right now, it sucks,” Satterfield said. “I mean, it’s terrible. You’d love to have been at home and been comfortable playing like some people do, what would be seen as a smaller opponent, that would have felt better.”
Nebraska lost a close Big Ten game to open the season at Minnesota. After that, the Cornhuskers traveled to Boulder, where they kept it close with Colorado for a while before the Buffaloes pulled away.
“But, in the long run, six weeks from now, would it have been better? No. What stinks, right now, kind of doubling down on the process, is gonna make us stronger six weeks from now. We needed to go through that. I mean, we played in two hostile environments. I was in the SEC for two years. Those were some crazy stadiums.”