Nebraska releases availability report ahead of Friday night matchup with Illinois

Nebraska has released its availability report ahead of Friday night’s game against Illinois. The Cornhuskers will be down two players in the game.

Linebacker Luke Reimer and safety DeShon Singleton have both been ruled out. Matt Rhule previously confirmed Reimer would miss the game after he had to go to the hospital ahead of last week’s game against Michigan.

In four games this year, Reimer has 14 tackles and 2.5 sacks as an anchor of the Nebraska defense. It’s unclear what exactly his injury is, but Rhule said it was “non-football related.”

“Luke Reimer is out of the hospital,” Rhule said earlier this week. “Kind of back-and-forth a little bit with it, so Luke won’t play this Friday. But hopefully we’ll have Luke back and healthy with us here soon.”

Singleton, meanwhile, will be out for an “extended period” as he deals with a knee injury, Rhule announced.

“We expect to have him back at some point,” Rhule said. “I don’t know when that will be.”

For Illinois, the Fighting Illini will be without running back Josh McCray on Friday night. Three players — linebacker Tarique Barnes, offensive lineman Zy Crisler and offensive lineman Josh Gesky — are all listed as questionable on the availability report.

Nebraska and Illinois are set to kick off Friday at 8 p.m. ET.

Nebraska is looking to bounce back from a blowout loss to Michigan in Lincoln last week. The Wolverines cruised to a 45-7 victory as the Cornhuskers struggled on both sides of the ball, and Tony White called out the defense’s performance in that game.

“As a whole defense, there wasn’t one guy you could say played their tails off. Period. We just didn’t get done,” White told reporters during his Tuesday press conference. “Nobody went in there and played the way we’re supposed to play.”

Rhule was also asked about the intensity in that game, but had a different tone than White.

“I didn’t feel us necessarily cutting loose and ripping and going attacking them. And that’s kind of where we have to get to, to be quite honest with you,” Rhule said.

“So I addressed the older guys after the game, I addressed the younger guys after the game because younger guys will play these guys again. There’s only one way to play these types of games and when these types of games and that’s to attack. But (I don’t want to take away from Michigan), they’re really good.”

On3’s Peter Warren and Nick Kosko contributed to this report.