Matt Rhule on Anthony Grant's late-game fumble: 'He feels terrible'

One of the main reasons Matt Rhule decided to go with Gabe Ervin as Nebraska‘s starting running back over Anthony Grant, last year’s leading rusher, for one simple reason — he fumbled too much.

Fast forward to crunch time in Week 1, the Cornhuskers led Minnesota 10-3 in the fourth quarter. Grant fumbled in the final five minutes of the game which led to the Gophers’ first and only touchdown of the night.

“In the scrimmage, he fumbled the football. He fumbled a couple of times,” Rhule said postgame. “We know Anthony can make a ton of plays, but he has to protect the football, especially in those moments. Everyone on the team knows how we want to run the football. It just didn’t work out. Anthony tried to fight for more yards, but credit to their guys. … He feels terrible in there but there are a lot of plays that we could have run better.”

An interception from QB Jeff Sims on the next drive sealed Nebraska’s fate and Minnesota’s placekicker Dragan Kesich went on to nail a 47-yarder up the right upright as time expired. It’s tough to point fingers right at Grant, but things went south after he coughed up the football. Sims also threw three interceptions, two having been key situations, so it’s a team effort.

The talent is there, though. In 2022, Grant was responsible for a team-high 915-yard rushing yards. To Rhule, however, turning the ball over can negate anyone’s past success, as it erased any hopes of Nebraska picking up the Week 1 victory.

“As I said to our guys, we can be a really, really good football team,” Rhule said. “To think that we turned the ball over four times, to think that we turned the ball over going into the half in the end zone, to think that we turned it over twice – twice – in the last (five) minutes of the game and they still had to kick a walk-off field goal really shows what I think we can be.”

All Nebraska can do now is right their wrongs in practice this, and come out with a sense of urgency next weekend. The Huskers will want to wash the taste of loss out of their mouths when they travel to Colorado for a Week 2 matchup against Deion Sanders and the Buffs. Kickoff is set for Noon ET live on FOX.