Maddie Peterson | Athletic Communications Intern
LINCOLN, Nebr - Nebraska Head Coach Matt Rhule met with members of the media on Tuesday of the bye week. Rhule discussed the identity of the team.
"We did a bye week plan to win with the guys with all the things we need to improve upon," he said. "The one thing we are doing well is we are first in the Big Ten in rushing offense. We are first in 10 plus yards rushing. I think we're third in yards per carry with 5.1 We are second in rush defense, maybe first or second in defensive yards per carry and first in 10 plus runs so we are defending the run well. Third down we need to get about seven percent better on offense and seven percent better on defense. I think we're middle of the pack, I can't remember the numbers but we're 40 percent on defense. We need to be in the low 30s. We're 37 percent on offense, we need to be in the mid-40s. There's a lot of things that are close. The one thing that's giving us a chance is running the football. Through six games, we're minus seven in the turnover battle. We're 129th out of 133 teams. That could have been a 30 to 7 game, 35 to 7, 40 to 7 game so there's a lot of things but our identity of running the football and stopping the run, that can't change, that's just the bedrock of who we want to be. We couldn't get it done against Michigan but as we move forward we have to continue to do that. These young receivers, I think we started making some plays in the passing game this game that allowed us to score some touchdowns by Ty (Hahn) and some third-down conversions so we have to continue to augment that as we move forward."
Rhule talked on the importance of accomplishing more offensive explosive pass plays.
"Who's winning in college football that's not running the football and playing good defense? We have to be more explosive on offense," Rhule said. "We're not going to be able to win long-term if you can't make explosive plays in the passing game. We're one of the top teams in terms of explosive run plays but we're going to need explosive pass plays. On the flip side on defense we have given up way too many explosive 20 yard passes, so that component will continue to come. Part of that is getting comfortable and part of that is playmakers as they develop, as you recruit them. There's a lot of teams on Saturday that catch a slant and take it 80. We have guys that can do that, we just have to continue to get them confident and I see them becoming a more confident team day by day."
Rhule was asked what he hopes to see from the team during the second half of the season.
"For the second half of the season we should try to win every game," he said. "We'll have a chance in every game and also there's not a team that can't beat us. There's not a team we can't beat and there's not a team that can't beat us so we will probably just prepare at a high level and I hope the one thing we learned from last week was what seemed like really hard like we're in full pads on a Sunday the day after we played Michigan probably will end up being one of the better memories from the year and probably led to one of their best weeks of football and that gave them the right to have that swagger...I told them if you practice that way, then you earn the right to play that way so I think they understand that they have to prepare, they have to have edge, they have to play a certain way and they have to play as a team."
Following the bye week, the Huskers will take on Northwestern on Oct. 21 at 2:30 p.m. (CT) at Memorial Stadium in Lincoln, Neb. The game is set to be televised on the Big Ten Network, with radio coverage by the Huskers Radio Network.