The Husker head coach gives an update on his team after Saturday’s scrimmage. Three weeks until it’s for real. Saturday was also a scrimmage day with «closed practice» signs on the doors. Although Matt Rhule joked that nobody was going to kick Tom Osborne out when he showed up. Obviously these scrimmages are important in separating position battles – we’ll get to his thoughts on some of those in here – and running backs is as tight as any competition.
Rhule likes the group and said Dante Dowdell is starting to «catch his wind» after maybe lagging in the spring – mentioned yesterday as E.J. Barthel as in that group trying to be part of the 1-2-3 punch. Rahmir Johnson and Gabe Ervin Jr. are really attacking and Emmett Johnson is having a really good camp, Rhule said. Who can make defenders miss at that second level could be the leading separating point as the practices add up.
«The big challenge for me, obviously when we play running back, you need guys who protect the football, you need guys who can protect. Like them to be able to catch.» And while it may seem obvious they need to have rush skills, what Rhule wants to see is guys who can take good gains into explosives. «The difference between where we were last year and where we want to be this year is that four-yard run that maybe we make a nice cut and get eight on, we need to get 80,» Rhule said. We need guys that can make somebody miss and have juice and are electric and take off. That challenge against our defense, they’re swarming, they’re protecting the ball a lot. But also finding guys that can make guys miss. I see them all working at it. «I’d say that’s a tight, tight race and it will all play itself out.»
Scrimmage summary
The Huskers conducted 128 plays total during a scrimmage on Saturday morning. «I thought it was a lot cleaner than normal when you see a first scrimmage in terms of a ton of pre-snap penalties and things. There were a couple with the younger guys, but with the older guys I thought it was pretty clean. We had a couple personal fouls on offense that hurt us so want to control our emotions, and control our decision making. Versus a defense like ours, you get a drive going, you certainly can’t go back 15 yards.
«I thought it was good, spirited work. I always look at scrimmage one as the rough draft for the paper. It’s number one. We’ll look at it, we’ll revise it. But I thought there was a lot of good work there.»