The funeral for Nebraska football's spring game last year turned out to be premature. Last spring, it felt as though every school would eventually move away from having such an event. However, with the announcement that the Huskers are bringing theirs back, the sport is doing a 180.
During his appearance on Sports Nightly on Friday, head coach Matt Rhule made it clear NU will have a more traditional spring game this year. However, there is a change as it will be earlier than usual. It's more of a winter game this season.
"I want us to see where our team’s at," Rhule said. "I want us to have a little bit more time if a guy gets injured, to have him back before the season. A lot of southern teams do early spring balls, or at least they have in the past. It’s little bit harder to do in a colder area, but we’re going to do it."
In order to follow that blueprint, Nebraska is starting its spring practices at the end of February. The spring game will then be played on March 28.
Matt Rhule explains why Nebraska moved its spring game earlier this year
Last year, Rhule canceled the spring game in part because he was worried about Husker players getting poached. With no spring Transfer Portal window, that's no longer a concern.
"Because of the portal and how many new players come in, we've moved our spring up," Rhule said. "Instead of the traditional late spring model, we're gonna get our guys in here — they started Monday, they're training. They're going to train for five or six weeks while we're on the road recruiting, and we're actually going to start spring ball in late February, and we're going to go for three weeks at a really accelerated rate, and I want them to get into the football.
Last year, when Nebraska announced it was canceling its spring game, several other schools quickly followed suit. It will be interesting to see if all those schools also reverse course and how many of them might also move things up.
For Rhule, this season feels more and more like one where almost everything needs to go right. Between gambling on moving on from Raiola, to another winter with a ton of staff changes, Year 4 has to be better than Year 3. That's a worry for Nebraska with a more demanding Big Ten schedule.