Nebraska Football: Matt Rhule thinks thin QB rooms is part of the portal era

Nebraska football head coach Matt Rhule isn’t worried about his quarterback room being that thin as he thinks it’s a sign of the college football times.

It’s been an interesting spring when it comes to the Huskers’ quarterback room. Casey Thompson, Richard Torress and Logan Smothers all left the program after at least two of the three seemed ready to compete for a spot on the depth chart this fall when spring practice began.

The departure of those three means that the Nebraska football team’s depth at the position is rather thin. There’s Georgia Tech transfer Jeff Sims, last year’s backup quarterback Chubba Purdy and talented enigma Heinrich Haarberg as the only scholarship signal callers left. There is a fourth in walkon transfer Jack Woche, though he continues to be mostly a mystery.

Despite quite a few Nebraska football fans being a bit nervous about the lack of depth at the position, head coach Matt Rhule recently made it clear that he’s not worried at all. He just sees the lack of bodies as part of the new college football era, including the transfer portal. He said as much in a recent interview with KETV.

"“We have what we have. I think in a good year, you have four. Some years I’ve had three. You have to be creative. Year one, for us to be able to get the roster to even where it’s at right now, I think our guys have done a really good job. People are going to have to get used to a unique number in the new age where people can transfer. You can’t plan it out three years in advance anymore. You gotta kind of deal with it as it comes. But I think what you can’t do is, you can’t panic. You can’t overreact and take somebody who shouldn’t be here, like there’s a standard to be a Nebraska Cornhusker and we can only take guys who match that.”"

Nebraska football coach works with what he’s got

Since Rhule arrived in Lincoln he has said all the right things. He hasn’t yet had to backup that talk with results as he was hired in the offseason. Pretty soon though, the program’s faithful is going to get to see what his philosophy looks like in real-time.

The lack of depth at the position was a problem for Nebraska football last year. It will certainly be interesting to see how the Matt Rhule-era Huskers deal with an even smaller quarterback room in 2023.