Nebraska football used a rather unusual practice schedule in the week leading up to the game against Illinois and some thought it was a sign of panic.
Following Nebraska football’s blowout loss to Michigan last Saturday, one thing is clear. Head coach Matt Rhule believed some things needed to change.
It appears that the practice schedule was one of those things. At least for this week.
On Monday morning, Rhule announced that he’d had his Nebraska football team do something that just isn’t usually done on this level of football. He had his guys “full go” in pads the day after the Michigan game.
Rhule said that normally Sundays are used for recovery but he felt as though things needed to be shaken up. His players needed to wake up. However, not everyone considered that a fantastic idea.
There were more than a few college football fans out there who thought the idea was a bad one. Those ideas were centered around the position that it simply wasn’t healthy for Nebraska football players to be doing that.
Just going to say for the record going full pads the day after getting your sh-t rocked by Michigan is and was a bad idea. https://t.co/JFYrSs5d5o
— RedDirtSport (@RedDirtSport) October 2, 2023
Completely irresponsible for their health
— Bryant C. (@thatmanbryant) October 2, 2023
And if you chose to do this very dumb very bad idea, maybe pick a week to do this other than on a short week against what may be one of your most winnable games left in the schedule.
— Brett Morey (@Brettmorey1) October 2, 2023
To be honest, surprised it's even allowed.
— Warden11 (@warden11) October 2, 2023
For their part, Nebraska football players didn’t have a problem with the approach. Those who spoke about it seemed to agree that Rhule had a point.
Ben Scott, the transfer center from Arizona State who has still been trying to get a feel for Nebraska football and everything its up against as Rhule tries to build a winner took the side of his coach.
Scott told the assembled media at a press conference earlier this week that while he’s never done that kind of thing in his football career, he felt the Nebraska football team needed to do it.
On Friday night, we’ll get to see just how the short week practice schedule worked. Will the Nebraska football team look sharper like they’re playing harder? Or will they look like a team off a short week that didn’t get to recover from a tough game the weekend before?