Matt Rhule clarifies comment on transfer portal quarterbacks returning to Nebraska

Recently Nebraska Cornhuskers head coach Matt Rhule caused a bit of a stir when discussing three of his quarterbacks that recently entered the transfer portal. To prevent his statement from getting misconstrued any further, the Cornhusker’s head man decided to clarify his comment on whether or not he would accept any of the three quarterbacks back into his program. 

“My point to them is very simple, ‘Hey guys, quarterback is so different, only one plays.’ I was like, ‘If you want to go look, you can still come back.’ So I don’t know that anyone will,” said Rhule.

Rhule appears to be allowing the three quarterbacks, Casey Thompson, Logan Smothers, and Richard Torres, to test their value on the market, similarly to the NFL’s free agency period. And although they have left his program, the Nebraska head coach is still finding ways to look out for his former players.

“A couple of the guys, they still call us all the time. Like I had one guy call me today and say, ‘Hey, what do you think about this coach and this place?’ So, the doors open on that on our end because if you’re here, I want you to be all in on being here. Jeff (Sims) played well, and Heinrich (Haarberg) had a good spring. And so, I’d love to have one more guy. We have three scholarships if one of the guys wants to be here. But if it’s right for them to go; I saw Richard found a place. So yeah, just kind of open door.”

 Rhule‘s comments came during his monthly show on the Huskers Radio Network. He also pointed out that all three decisions by Thompson, Smothers, and Torres came after “great conversations” with each player.

Torres ended up at Incarnate Word back in his native Texas. Thompson and Smothers, though, are both still on the market. Rhule made it clear that the door remained open for either to return to NU if they wanted.

Below is Rhule’s original statement on the three quarterbacks.

“That’s different than playing linebacker. That’s different than playing tight end and running back. You don’t really rotate,” Rhule said of the quarterbacks. “If a guy’s in a situation where it’s his time to play and he wants to play, I’m OK with him going into the portal and seeing if there’s a better situation to get on the field. 

“If not, then we’d love to have somebody back.”

On3’s Robin Washut contributed to this article