Football Video & Report: Oct. 31

Nebraska head coach Matt Rhule met with members of the media following the team’s practice on Thursday. 

He discussed the secondary and UCLA’s defense, while also providing injury updates. 

“We’re beat up. We don’t have Malcolm (Hartzog), we potentially don’t have Tommi (Hill). Malcolm is doing his best to get back, but I don’t think that he will. We’ll be counting on some other guys. They’re competitive. Part of that is, we have a great rush, so that helps. I think everything on defense is interrelated. We’re seeing an offense this week by Coach (Eric) Bienemy that’s truly a west coast offense – a rhythm offense, the ball is out. The quarterback hits his third snap, the ball is out, one hitch, the ball is out. They’re not built to turn the ball over. They do an excellent job of getting it out of their hands. I think our guys are focused. They play a lot of coverages, they study a lot and prepare. Hopefully whoever is out there will play to a good standard.”

Rhule also provided an injury update and spoke on Jeremiah Charles’ performance.

“He hurt his hamstring in the first drive in the fourth quarter in the last game, so Jeremiah (Charles) went in and played the rest of that after he was down. We’re planning on Jeremiah starting, he’s a tremendous athlete. He’s had to play in some serious situations, he has the benefit of going against two of the best wideouts in the league last week. He should be very confident, he goes against those guys and does a good job. Probably not many guys as fast as him. Just like any young player, building their confidence, it’s a lot different when you’re older. When (Ty) Robinson or (Isaac) Gifford have a bad play, they think it’s just a bad play. When you’re young, you think it’s condemning of your ability, but it’s not. Jeremiah is going to be an excellent player, and this will be quite a challenge. He’s practiced well this week and will be ready.” 

He discussed UCLA’s defense and its success stopping the run. 

“First of all, they have excellent, excellent, excellent defensive linemen. There’s a whole group of people that play – Kentucky is doing it, Oregon is doing it – quarters teams that get two huge, athletic men inside and they two gap and let you play coverage. That’s what they are. They’re rugged, they’re aggressive, they’re physical. The linebackers do a great job running through gaps. They’re elusive, they attack. Number two is as good of a pass rusher as we’ll see. They just have really good players up front. They’ll play man and bring pressure. They’re able to sit there and play two high and stop the run, and they’ll also, when they need to, bring different pressures. I just think they have excellent players. They’re well coached, they have excellent players, the most yards they’ve given up rushing is 150 something to LSU. No one’s really run the ball on them at a high, high level. We’ve given up 200 something to Indiana, but they haven’t.”

The Huskers will face the UCLA Bruins on Saturday, Nov. 2 at 2:30 p.m. (CT) at Memorial Stadium. The game will be televised on the Big Ten Network with audio coverage from the Huskers Radio Network.