Explaining Matt Rhule’s approach to playing time in spring scrimmages
2024 is setting up to be a huge year for the Nebraska Cornhuskers and their head coach, Matt Rhule. Rhule appears to have all the pieces in place to lead the Cornhuskers on an impressive run this season.
During the spring, fans and college football enthusiasts got their opportunity to see just what Nebraska is whipping up for the 2024 season. However, Rhule has been doing some interesting things when it comes to how he has been utilizing players during spring practices and games.
Recently, on the Andy Staples On3 Podcast, Husker Online’s Sean Callahan dropped in to share his thoughts on the Cornhuskers’ off-season thus far. He also expressed his support for how Rhule has been handling playing time in the spring.
“I think the genius of Matt Rhule’s spring plan; he took his basically eight or 10 top players, the guys that have logged a lot of snaps over 1,000 snaps, and he didn’t play them in any of the three major scrimmages,” said Callahan. “So what does that do? It kind of slots up No. 2 guys to the ones; it takes three guys to twos. Who are you most worried about going into the transfer portal?
:Guys that are twos and threes, a lot of times. But by feeding those guys with additional reps with the ones and the twos, giving them more looks, those players were more engaged throughout the spring, got more opportunities to develop, and possibly breakthrough. And you know those eight or ten guys that didn’t play, they’re going to be the key players on this defense.
“I like the idea of Matt Rhule because you’ve got to be worried about the transfer portal, losing some of these guys, if you don’t give them the playing time they want in the spring.”
With the NCAA transfer portal playing a huge role in college sports, it is essential for college head coaches to figure out ingenious methods to keep players within their program. And the way Rhule has been working his rotation during the spring could end up being the blueprint that other programs across the country used to help keep players in-house.
On top of that, it helps keep the injury risk concern for Nebraska’s key players low. And given how injuries played a fairly significant role in the struggles the Cornhuskers had last season — Rhule’s first year leading the program — keeping the wear and tear down on his top players might not be a bad idea, especially if it helps keep some of the younger players in Lincoln and out of the the transfer portal.