Mickey Joseph reveals his message to Chubba Purdy after Week 9

With starting quarterback Casey Thompson considered day-to-day with an elbow injury, Nebraska interim coach Mickey Joseph may have to look again toward Chubba Purdy this week.

Purdy played the entire second half against Illinois after Thompson left with the injury, finishing just 3-of-8 passing for 15 yards and an interception. In his Tuesday press conference, Joseph addressed his young quarterback’s struggles and how the coaching staff is working to put him in a better mindset going forward.

“Chubba just has to settle down,” Joseph said. “He has to breathe at that position. He can’t let his emotions take over. He has to be a true leader out there. I thought he was trying to make plays, but he’s got to understand the situation we was in at that time when he threw the pick. We already had three points, so let’s make the score 20-12. You throw a pick and they go and kick a field goal and now they’re up 23-9. So he’s got to understand situations.

“I thought he had a really good day today just talking. Chubba’s a kid you’ve got to talk to every play. Sometimes you don’t wanna do that with quarterbacks, but it’s a little different with Chubba. He’s young. Chubba’s a young quarterback without a bunch of reps. So we’ve got to make sure this week we do a really good job with him reminding him what situation he’s in. If it’s not there, throw it away. If it’s not there, run.”

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The younger brother of former Iowa State quarterback Brock Purdy, Chubba ranked as the No. 15 quarterback in the 2020 class according to On3 Consensus. He spent the first two seasons of his college career playing at Florida State before transferring to Nebraska this offseason.

But despite being in his third year of college football, Chubba Purdy hasn’t gained much starting experience. He started just once as a true freshman at FSU, throwing for 235 yards and two touchdowns against NC State.

However, Mickey Joseph still sees the potential in Chubba Purdy and is confident he can have a better performance this week with some extra time to prepare.

“He plays nervous sometimes and I just want him to breathe and calm down,” Joseph said. “If you go back to his high school film, he’s playing with a lot of confidence. You go back and watch that, you can see him playing with a lot of poise. He’s got to have more poise behind the center when he goes in the game. He wants to make a play so bad that he makes a bad play. He’s not trying to, he just makes a bad play. So we’ve got to calm him down and do a better job as coaches to get him ready, and it starts with me.”

Nebraska is set to kick off against Minnesota at 11 a.m. CT on Saturday in Lincoln.