Jeff Sims enjoyed live hits during spring scrimmage

Matt Rhule decided that the best way to evaluate his team was to play a live game during Nebraska‘s spring scrimmage — that meant going full tackle on all positions, even the quarterback.

Jeff Sims, the presumed starting quarterback in Lincoln after last year’s QB1 Casey Thompson entered the transfer portal last week, is 6-foot-4 and weighs 220 pounds. His stature and natural running ability suggests he’d rather run over someone than play two-hand touch.

“[Live hits in the spring] help a lot. As you know, in football the quarterback is live in the game, so I’ve always been one to want to be live in practice. You feel like it’s more of a game rep,” Sims said. “As a quarterback, if you’re not live, you’re going to dial it back a little bit as far as running the ball, but once coach decided to make us live, I feel like it has helped us a lot because the intensity in the room picked up.”

Sims welcomed contact with open arms (or rather, a lowered shoulder). He earned his first touchdown inside Memorial Stadium after bouncing off two defenders, walking straight into the end zone on a designed quarterback run — a play that wouldn’t have been possible if Rhule hadn’t made the scrimmage full contact.

That was just a taste of what Sims is capable of on the football field. In three years at Georgia Tech, he rushed for 1,166 yards and 11 touchdowns on 4.3 yards per carry. His game isn’t one-dimensional, either. In three years for the Yellow Jackets, Sims threw for 4,464 yards and 30 touchdowns. He didn’t throw the football as often as a normal ACC quarterback, but still managed to amass 1,000 yards through the air in each of the three season played for Tech.

“He’s a passer,” Rhule said of Sims after Nebraska’s spring game. “He’s a passer who runs a 4.4 [40-yard dash]. He’s not a runner who throws. He’s a passer. I think he does some things with his legs extending plays, had dead to rights on the one he spun out. That’s really what we’re looking for from him.”

The next time Sims will be in a live game setting will be during Nebraska’s season opener on Thursday, Aug. 31 on the road against Minnesota. More interestingly, Sims and the Huskers will travel to Boulder to play Deion Sanders and the new-look Colorado Buffaloes on Sept. 9 the next weekend.