Nebraska football coach says receivers have to 'fight' for the ball more

Before the Nebraska football season started, offensive coordinator Marcus Satterfield made headlines for his ultimatum to his team. He made it clear that turnovers would not be tolerated.

Following a season in which the Huskers were seemingly turning the ball over every other possession, Satterfield and the rest of the coaches talked long and hard about changing things in 2024. So far, they’ve been mostly successful. Through four games, Nebraska has turned it over just three times.

Some Nebraska football fans believe that two of those turnovers, two interceptions by Dylan Raiola are mostly bad luck. These weren’t throws into triple coverage that were easily picked. Both were jump ball throws where the defender came down with it but the receiver had a real shot of hauling it in.

However, Satterfield and the rest of the coaches aren’t happy about the picks in large part because they believe they were even more avoidable than usual. It doesn’t help that one of those interceptions took 7 points off the board against Illinois. It would have been the winning touchdown without it turning into an interception.

Nebraska football receivers have to fight harder for jump balls

“We have to fight for the ball,” Satterfield told the assembled media on Tuesday. “There’s no other option... That’s twice. It’s not being treated lightly."

The “it’s not being treated lightly” comments are certainly interesting. While guys like Isaiah Neyor and Jahmal Banks have shown off massive improvement over the wide receiver performances a year ago, they’ve also come under fire from the coaches for various issues.

Earlier this year, the focus was on blocking on the perimeter. Against Illinois, there were some definite improvements. Now the Huskers are working on something new. One can hope we won’t see if the issues has been fixed for a while. 

Hopefully the Nebraska football team can just move the ball up and down the field and avoid the tossup throws.