Matt Rhule and Nebraska will not hold a spring football game, instead choosing an alternative game plan — 7-on-7 passing drills with a mix of volleyball and soccer. Essentially, the Huskers scheduled a fan day with a few football players participating in various events.
Former Florida and South Carolina head coach Steve Spurrier caught wind of Nebraska’s spring practice culmination this week and reacted the only way he knows how.
«They’re gonna have passing and kicking contests,» Spurrier said on Pat Dooley’s podcast. «I don’t think I’m going to go to that.»
Spurrier used spring games with Duke, the Gators and Gamecocks to have fun with players, but there was still football being played. He did not believe in tackling the ground during practice, however, in hopes of keeping his starters fresh and injury-free.
Rhule is among the most outspoken coaches with regard to the prevalence of tampering in the transfer portal era. He sounded the alarm multiple times throughout his young tenure with the Huskers and first mentioned skipping a traditional spring game in February in fear of it being a dress rehearsal of sorts for others to watch his players.
«I don’t know that yet, but I’ll be honest with you; I highly doubt it,» Rhule said of whether he will hold a spring scrimmage. «I think it’s really, fundamentally — I hate to say it like this — it’s really because last year we were one of the most televised spring games, and I dealt with a lot of people offering our players a lot of opportunities after that.
To go out and bring in a bunch of new players and showcase them for all the other schools to watch, that doesn’t make a lot of sense to me.»
During last year’s spring practices, Rhule said that multiple players approached him with messages from opposing teams.
«The word ‘tampering’ doesn’t exist anymore,» Rhule said. «It’s just absolute free, open, common market. So I don’t necessarily want to open up to the outside world. I don’t want these guys all being able to watch our guys and say ‘Wow, he looks like a pretty good player. Let’s go get him.’
«But I don’t know yet. I don’t know anything. I just thought it was important that we at least started to broach that subject of it not being televised, yet at the same time I do want to show off our players in some way.»
Numerous programs across the country altered their spring game formats for various reasons, but most notably to manage injuries across their rosters.