If Nebraska head coach Matt Rhule thought that getting rid of offensive coordinator Dana Holgorsen would set things on a positive trajectory, tight end Luke Lindenmeyer’s comments on Tuesday were a big speed bump on that road. Lindenmeyer’s comments about penalties in practice no doubt have plenty of Husker fans scratching their heads.
Lindenmeyer and center Justin Evans gave a joint press conference on Tuesday as part of their weekly media availability. For the most part, the conversation with the two players was upbeat and earnest, and there was plenty to hear that should make people optimistic about the program's direction over the next three weeks. However, Lindenmeyer's answer to a question about whether the Huskers have seen the same volume of penalties in practice as in games isn’t going to win Rhule many new fans.
“We've seen the penalties in practice, and maybe we were just like, 'Oh, it won't happen in the game,' but we're bringing in some serious accountability about that. We're not gonna let stuff like that slide anymore.”
It’s great that they’re not going to let it slide anymore. The question, of course, is why they let it slide for weeks.
Luke Lindenmeyer’s penalty comments create another Nebraska accountability question
It’s not as if this program just suddenly fell apart. Nebraska is in the midst of a four-game losing streak, and even when it was winning, it still had plenty of penalties called on offense. The inability of Husker wide receivers to stop themselves from committing penalties like blindside blocks has been especially frustrating. Those kinds of penalties have gone on since Week 1.
So why weren’t the coaches noticing that the penalties occurring in practice were carrying over into games? Is this one of the big reasons why Holgorsen was fired? Because he didn’t think it was that big an issue, and Rhule let him make the call on that until it could no longer be dismissed?
If this was a situation where Holgorsen was ignoring it, that still doesn’t sound great for Rhule since the buck stops with him. It’s hard to imagine that Rhule didn’t see the same penalties popping up in practice that were happening in games, even if he wasn’t spending every minute of the day with the offense.
Even the most generous reading of Lindenmeyer’s comments is that perhaps they just started seeing this happen over the last few weeks, but that doesn’t make it all that much better.
Matt Rhule has already established a reputation at Nebraska for his teams going in the wrong direction in the second half of the season. If part of the reason that happens is that the Huskers stop doing things like making sure they’re not committing penalties in practice, that’s a big deal.
Rhule better hope that a change in leadership at OC helps fix some of these problems quickly. Lindenmeyer’s comment is one that’s going to be brought up again after any game where Nebraska commits a costly penalty. It would be nice if that didn’t happen often.
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