Marcus Satterfield on opening with two road games: 'It sucks, it's terrible'

It’s been a difficult start on the offensive side of the ball for the Nebraska 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,” Marcus 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.”

Through these challenges, Marcus Satterfield thinks that Nebraska will be better off for this moving forward. It’s going to give them valuable experience and force them to be a better team overall.

“Last week was insane and the crowd noise and everything that we’ve had to go through the first few weeks offensively to force the issue of communication, really ramping up the communication, new ways to communicate. I think it’s going to be dividends for us six, seven weeks from now. So, what sucks right now is going to be a blessing in the end.”

Through two games, Nebraska is 126th in the country in scoring offense, averaging just 12 points per game. A major issue has been the turnovers, where the Cornhuskers rank 131st in the country in turnovers lost, with eight.

Satterfield and the offense will look to get on track at home against Northern Illinois on Saturday.

Nebraska head coach Matt Rhule on his comfort level without Jeff Sims

Toward the end of the Colorado game, Nebraska starting quarterback Jeff Sims was injured. Now, with his availability in doubt, head coach Matt Rhule shared his comfort level with the backups.

“I just lean back on kind of what I said at the end of training camp that I thought we could win with Chubba [Purdy] and I felt like we could win with Heinrich [Haarberg]. They both can run, so we can maintain some of the things we’re doing quarterback run-wise. I think some of the plays we’ve called have been quarterback draws and maybe they’ve been seen as a scramble, but we’ve called some quarterback draws those guys can execute at a high level. So, I think both those guys can run the offense,” Rhule said.

“Obviously, with where we’re at right now, the offense isn’t doing what we want it to do, in general. So, I think all of us as a team have to be better as a team to have a chance to win the game, but I have a lot of confidence in both those guys and I think they both bring unique skill-sets to the table.”