Most fans think Saturday's Nebraska football game against Houston Christian is nothing more than a "tune-up" game. After last week's 68-0 thumping of Akron, an FBS-G6 team, why wouldn't people think the Huskers could do the same to an FCS opponent? Coach Matt Rhule previewed the Huskies and discussed other topics in Thursday's final press conference before Saturday's kickoff.
Matt Rhule remembers 9/11
Before a question was even asked, Coach Rhule wanted to let the media members know that he was thinking about the 24th anniversary of the tragic 9/11 attacks in New York & Washington in 2001. He mentioned that during Nebraska's bowl trip to New York last December, the entire team visited the 9/11 Memorial. Rhule said, "One of the haunting things at the Memorial is all the phone calls of the people that were trapped...and they had those recorded." Rhule encouraged the team to contact anyone that they needed to make amends with, "call, text, call home, tell people you love them."
Rhule was asked about his memories of 9/11. Coach stated, "I was at UCLA at the time, and I remember I was driving in, I had a Honda 250...scooter type thing, and I was driving in...I don't remember how, but somewhere along the way I stopped and I heard the news." Rhule, originally from New York, mentioned that he had tons of friends living in the area, who worked in the financial district. "I just remember the helpless feeling of being in L.A., watching it on TV, that was in the main area of the UCLA football offices, and um, just very surreal."
Rhule is looking for Nebraska football improvement
A reporter asked Coach if the team was not letting up after last week's performance against Akron. Coach Rhule wanted to stress "that's probably an outside thing, for us, we're just trying to get better. It's all, continue to improve, cuz there's so many things we have to improve. Improving to play Houston Christian, and improving to improve our football team." Coach thought there was steady improvement this week, but he exclaimed, "You never know until Saturday, right?"
Another way of getting better is that the team is now playing their 3rd straight game at a different time, this week at 11 am. The two previous games were at 8 pm & 6:30 pm. "You have to wake up, ready to go on morning games." Rhule was happy that his halftime speech was out there, because "I want that standard set, you know, that's how you're supposed to play."
Coach Rhule thinks that this Nebraska team is building a "killer instinct." "I think we've been building that, and I was just really pleased that they did it last week." Rhule said he always goes into a game "expecting a battle." Rhule then said, "I'm expecting us, no matter what the score is, I'm expecting us to play better than we did last week." Rhule then said they'd be wasting a week if they didn't play better. Rhule ended by saying how pleased he was with practice this week, but with the caveat, "But we'll see what it's like on Saturday, I always make sure I say that!"
Rhule previews the Houston Christian Huskies
Coach Rhule was asked, "What challenge does Houston Christian present this Saturday?" The first thing that came to his mind was the Huskies' defense. "They give you a ton of different looks." Rhule then talked about how Houston Christian had 6 different plays with 6 different looks. "It's the way we play defense, so I think that presents a real challenge," Rhule said that the Huskies have only given up one 3rd down conversion in the first 2 games.
"That's difficult to do." On the offensive side of the ball, Rhule said, "They're going to run the football, with different runs than we normally see, and the quarterback is a good player." For Nebraska to succeed, they need to play consistently. "We're counting on having to play great defense, and sustain drives, keep people out of the touchdown, hold them to field goals, and so, that's been our, kind of our overall emphasis the whole week."
From the sounds of Coach's press conference today, he seems supremely confident. As far as injury news, safety Malcolm Hartzog is questionable right now with an unspecified injury. Jamir Conn played some when Hartzog wasn't in.
Rhule said "If Malcolm can't go, we've got some other lineups we can go with. We had a package last week when Donny Jones went into the game. But Jamir is tough, physical, smart. Has done a great job for us on special teams, and was ready when his number was called." This might be the best time that an injured player takes a week off, with Michigan looming on the horizon. For this week's game, the Nebraska football team will beat the Huskies, 52-10!