Matt Rhule knows Heinrich Haarberg took some hard hits against Purdue. Despite leading Nebraska to another win, Haarberg fumbled twice with both leading to Boilermaker takeaways.
Asked how his quarterback was feeling after the game, Rhule admitted Haarberg wasn’t feeling really good on Sunday. However, the head coach admitted he told Haarberg one of the big hits was his own fault.
“I don’t think he felt real good. I love the guy, I love the competitor, right? I kind of said to him what I said to you guys. I don’t want to say anything in here that I wouldn’t say to them,” said Rhule. “I said well the one was your own dang fault. He said ‘Coach, that guy could have come off the sideline for all I know, I didn’t see him.’”
Overall, Rhule went on to say Haarberg is impressive as a competitor, but he also knows there is a need to improve the QB’s decision-making ability. That’s mainly related to knowing when to slide and get down to avoid contact.
“I love the competitor, I think he’s caught in the middle right now. As I head coach, I have to do a better job of ‘Hey I don’t want to slide,’ but he kind of slows down right before contact,” Rhule explained.
“The week before I thought he was hesitant, this week I thought he was just unsure what to do because he hasn’t played a super ton so we’re going to work on that this week.”
While Haarberg struggled at times vs. Purdue, he did throw a pair of touchdowns in the win. That included a big bomb to true freshman Jaylen Lloyd.