Entering the 2024 season, most fans are talking about Dylan Raiola and Daniel Kaelin as the starting quarterback, but to hear Heinrich Haarberg tell it, he’s not done fighting for his job. When he and new quarterbacks coach Glen Thomas spoke to the media, they talked about what Haarberg is doing to try and fight for the starting quarterback job.
During his time at the podium, Thomas was the first to bring up Haarberg changing his throwing motion.
“Mechanics, getting his arm/elbow up and the application from the meeting room to the field,” were some of the things that new coach mentioned the now-veteran quarterback is working on.
He went on to add that as part of the new mechanics, there are some other areas that the Husker quarterback has been working on, including completion percentage, refining throwing mechanics, and “concise decision making.”
Nebraska football quarterback understands that fixing mechanics isn’t simple
When it was Haarberg’s time at the mic, he made it clear that he understands fixing his mechanics isn’t going to be simple.
“It's funny, like I've been working this whole winter on, you know, fixing just like these little things. But then you get into the heat of battle and you go back to what you know. And so, you know, when we go into 11-on-11 sometimes, you know, I go back to some of those bad habits.”
Haarberg added that he knows he needs to be intentional about what he’s doing and that he needs to work on keeping those mechanics in tact even when the pressure is one.
Heinrich Haarberg starting still feels like a long shot
It is obviously good that Haarberg and the Nebraska football coaches are working to get his throwing motion into better shape. However it still feels like the deck is stacked against him being the starting quarterback once opening day arrives this fall.
Head coach Matt Rhule has said that the coaches are accelerating things for the young stars in spring practice. The obvious allusion there is that one of Raiola or Kaelin are going to have to figure things out quickly for the season opener.