Matt Rhule: 'All hands on deck' as Nebraska looks to offset loss of Isaiah Garcia-Castaneda

With the news that Nebraska wide receiver Isaiah Garcia-Castaneda will be out for the season after tearing his ACL, Cornhuskers head coach Matt Rhule said the team will be looking for someone to step up in his absence.

He highlighted true freshmen Malachi Coleman and Jaylen Lloyd — as well as veteran Marcus Washington, who missed the first half of last Thursday’s game — as potential players to step up without Garcia-Castaneda

“It’s kind of all hands on deck,” Rhule said during his press conference Monday. “It will be those young guys. We got Jaylen in there on the reverse. We’re hoping Malachi can help us. We’ll have Marcus back full-time. It will be all hands on deck. We’ll use all those guys…So we’ll just kind of go with the guys who are there and trust and believe that they’ll make the plays.” 

Coleman was the team’s top recruit in the previous cycle. The native of Lincoln, Neb, was the No. 60 overall recruit in the 2023 class, according to the On3 Industry Ranking, a weighted average that utilizes all four major recruiting media companies.

He had no catches during the loss to Minnesota. Lloyd had one carry for nine yards.

It was not a great day for anyone on the Cornhuskers offense. Alex Bullock led the team with three catches for 56 yards. Washington had three catches for 31 yards in the second half while Garcia-Castaneda had just one catch for seven yards.

Starting quarterback Jeff Sims was turnover prone with three interceptions, including two devastating picks. One came in the red zone that ended a scoring opportunity while the other came with under a minute left that led to a game-winning field goal for the Golden Gophers.

It won’t get any easier for Nebraska as it now has to go to Boulder, Colo., and play Colorado for the Buffaloes season opener. Deion Sanders’ squad is riding high after their Week 1 win over TCU while the Cornhuskers’ loss was a dispiritng one for the fans.

On3’s Andy Staples even said that Sims’ job may soon be in question if he can’t limit the turnovers.

“Matt Rhule is going to have to answer a lot of questions about quarterback play,” Staples said. “Remember they started with five quarterbacks in spring and were deciding between them. I’m not saying bench Jeff Sims right now. I’m saying let’s see what he does against Colorado and then if this happens again, if it’s more of the same, then you probably need to start thinking about opening up the competition.