Nebraska freshman DL Princewill Umanmielen very eager to earn a role on the field

Nebraska freshman defensive lineman Princewill Umanmielen has big plans for his freshman season. The Texas native isn’t content with just coming in and falling in line. Umanmielen wants to play right away.

He recently joined Sports Nightly and discussed his plans for his first year in Lincoln.

“I was eager. I ain’t come here just to sit on the bench. I’m trying to earn a role to play, earn a role to start,” Umanmielen said.

Umanmielen impressed for the Cornhuskers this spring, including in the spring game when he had three tackles for loss. After being rated as a four-star recruit and the No. 228 overall player in the country, according to the On3 Industry rankings, Umanmielen quickly showed why he was such a coveted recruit.

He plans to carry over that success from the spring into the fall and hopes to be a difference-maker in Year 1 for Nebraska.

“Just keep getting one percent better every day. I can’t be satisfied, can’t be lazy,” Umanmielen said. “The more I keep going, the better I get. So I’ve just gotta keep staying motivated and pushing.”

Umanmielen finished his senior season of high school with 65 tackles, 22 tackles for loss and eight sacks. As a junior, he recorded 65 tackles, 25 tackles for loss and 13 sacks.

Matt Rhule reveals how he’s instilling physical toughness back into Nebraska

Princewill Umanmielen will play for first-year Nebraska head coach Matt Rhule this fall.

Rhule comes to Nebraska with the goal of winning football games the old fashioned way — through sheer physicality and out-toughing its opponent on a weekly basis. It’s the same mindset that previously built the Cornhuskers into a national power — something the Rhule wants to recapture during his tenure in Lincoln.

“We have to make sure that we establish the way that we want to do things,” Rhule said, via ESPN. “This is how we’re going to practice. Some people might call that culture, some people might call that process, whatever it is. It’s like, ‘Hey, let’s establish this so that as the talent gets better, it grows up, develops, or we bring players in, there’s a standard for how we’re going to do things.’”

So, how does Rhule plan to implement that?

“I want to tackle at practice, I want to run the ball and I want to play defense,” Rhule said. “I want to use a fullback. All these things that I did (at past jobs) is what the people here in the state want.”