Nebraska Cornhuskers News: Heinrich Haarberg has believer in Rhule, more

Nebraska Cornhuskers hero Heinrich Haarberg has proved people that thought he had to move positions wrong, and Matt Rhule claims he was never one of them.

When Matt Rhule and his staff first came to Lincoln, there were quite a few people who thought one of his first acts would be to move Heinrich Haarberg to another position. However, the head coach said on Monday that was never really in the cards.

“We made cut-ups of all the players playing in games, but also we made practice cut-ups of everybody … and studied them,” Rhule said on Monday. “And so we were like, ‘Man, this guy’s got a great release. He’s athletic.’ And everyone was like, ‘Yeah, he’ll be a great tight end, he’ll be a great fullback, he’ll be a great this…”

Rhule said that he chatted with Saturday’s hero back in the spring and told him that the coaching staff wasn’t all that keen on moving him to receiver or tight end.

"“I said, ‘Everybody says you should go play tight end, you should play fullback.’ I could kind of see the look of disgust on his face. But I said, ‘I think you should play quarterback. I think you should try to play quarterback and see what happens. If at some point I don’t think you can play quarterback, I’m going to tell you, ‘You know what, you should play something else.’ And then you can make a decision if you want to leave or stay there. But you should take a shot at this thing.”"

Rhule added that he talked to offensive coordinator Marcus Satterfield about it and the two agreed that Haarberg was going to be given every opportunity to play quarterback. Now, there’s a legitimate quarterback controversy in Lincoln.

Other Nebraska Cornhuskers news

• While Rhule was all about the positive when talking about Haarberg, he also had to deal with the downside of his job this weekend. Speaking on his television show on Monday night, the Husker head coach talked about how hard ti was to tell Rahmir Johnson that his season and, possibly his playing career, was over. Rhule said it was “”probably as devastating a moment for me meeting with him.” He added he got emotional when he was telling the team about it on Sunday.
• The Nebraska football team wasn’t the only squad that had success this past week. The Nebraska volleyball team wrapped up an undefeated non-conference slate with a 3-sets to one win over Kentucky. That win vaulted the Nebraska Cornhuskers to number two in the country. They are behind only top-ranked Wisconsin. They’ll get to prove they deserve that ranking this week as they’ll play 21st-ranked Ohio State on Friday and then 12th-ranked Minnesota next Sunday.
• Harper Murray has been a pretty massive addition to the Nebraska Cornhuskers. That was demonstrated on Monday when she was named the Big Ten freshman of the week for the second time this season