Matt Rhule lists Nebraska injuries ahead of Saturday night practice

The Nebraska Cornhuskers held a huge Saturday night practice in preparation for the fast-approaching start to the 2024 college football season. But before the Cornhuskers took the field, their head coach, Matt Rhule, provided an injury update, revealing the players who would be held out of Saturday night’s practice.

“Jaylen Lloyd will be out tonight. [He] kind of reaggravated some tightness; nothing long-term that we expect,” Rhule said. “We will probably hold Tommi Hill out of tonight because he dealt with something in the summer. So just kind of load management for him, just getting him back. You might see a fistfight out there because he wants to practice.”

“Princewill (Umanmielen) banged knees. Nothing long-term, but we’ll hold him tonight. (Henry) Lutovsky reinjured a calf that he’s had all summer. So he’ll probably be a little bit more long-term. He’ll probably be like two to three weeks. We expect to have him back for the first game, but he won’t be out there tonight… Marques Buford is out tonight. Marques banged knees yesterday in practice. So he and Princewill have bone bruises that should hold them for a day or two.”

Rhule and the Cornhuskers still have some time to get everything aligned before the start of the 2024 season. Nebraska will kick off this year’s campaign was a home game showdown against the UTEP miners. That game is scheduled for a 2:30 p.m. CT kick-off time on August 31, the opening weekend of the college football season. Rhule anticipates that all the individuals listed in Saturday’s report, though they will not partake in the evening practice, will be ready to go by the time Nebraska defends its home field against UTEP.

Matt Rhule continues staff overhaul with Tariq Thompson

Rhule recently added former San Diego State safety Tariq Thompson to his Nebraska staff as a graduate assistant, per 247Sports’ Matt Zenitz.

Thompson was named All-Conference in the Mountain West all four years at San Diego State, including First-Team in 2020. He has 12 career interceptions.

Thompson signed a rookie contract with the Buffalo Bills in 2021 but was waived in August. He’ll now begin his coaching career in Lincoln.

This isn’t the first move pulled off by Rhule this week. Thompson joins the staff after Rhule hired Rashaan Mevlin as an assistant defensive backs coach.

Nebraska recently retooled its football coaching staff, hiring John Butler as the new defensive backs coach. But it’s not a move that Rhule would’ve wanted to make during the middle of the summer.

But when then-defensive backs coach Evan Cooper resigned, Rhule didn’t have much of a choice. And he was actually able to lock down Butler as a new assistant after previously trying to hire him in the spring.

Now, Thompson is in the fold for the 2024 season.