Matt Rhule emphasizes focus placed on reducing interceptions

If there’s one thing Matt Rhule and Nebraska can do in 2024 to greatly increase their odds at winning games, it’s to simply stop turning the ball over. And the quarterbacks throwing interceptions is a huge part of that.

Last year, Nebraska had a revolving door at quarterback due to turnovers, with three different gunslingers throwing a combined 16 interceptions.

“I thought last year, we played three quarterbacks, I think when you go back and look at a lot of things that happened, a lot of guys did do a lot of good things,” Matt Rhule said. “It’s obviously overshadowed with numbers like you said.”

It’s hard to overlook the turnovers.

They were a massive reason the Cornhuskers were involved in so many close games. The team had trouble sustaining momentum because every time it got something rolling a costly turnover seemed to hit.

Rhule went out of his way to stress that some changes he made on the staff could help.

“Marcus (Satterfield) is a coach that I trust and believe in,” Matt Rhule said. “We brought in Glenn Thomas to be the quarterbacks coach. We have a lot of history, the three of us, together, and we have a lot of skill.”

In addition to Heinrich Haarberg, Nebraska also has former five-star prospect Dylan Raiola to lean on this fall.

Forget the quarterbacks, though, Rhule thinks the depth that was developed at positions other than quarterback last year could pay major dividends this fall.

“One of the things that happened to us last year is a bunch of our receivers we were counting on early got hurt,” Matt Rhule said. “Two of our tailbacks got hurt. A couple of our O-linemen got hurt. And in the midst of that adversity, I’m always looking for how do we get better?

“We put the Jaylen Lloyds in, the Malachi Colemans, young players, and by the end of the year, Jaylen and Malachi were good players. Now in Year 2, those guys are a year older. Instead of redshirting, they now know what to expect. We have depth at receiver. We have depth in the running back room. We went out and recruited some really good players. We brought some guys in from the portal, like Isaiah Neyor and Jahmal Banks.”

Can all of that development get Nebraska to a healthier place offensively this fall? That’s certainly the hope.

“We have a deep receiver room, and we have a deep running back room,” Matt Rhule said. “We have a veteran offensive line. And we have three quarterbacks that we know can play. I expect us to be great on defense, and I expect us to make a real jump on offense.”