Huskers football holds spirited first scrimmage in preseason camp

OMAHA, Neb. (WOWT) - Nebraska football head coach Matt Rhule completely shut down practice Saturday-- minus an appearance by legendary Husker coach Tom Osborne whom no one had the guts to tell to leave-- for the first team scrimmage of preseason camp.

“I wanted the players to have this space of no one’s watching, let me just go play,” said Rhule on closing practice to parents, high school coaches, and even former players.

The Huskers ran about 128 total plays between the offense, defense, and special teams. Overall Rhule believed the scrimmage was “a lot cleaner than normal” for the first scrimmage of camp, despite a couple of pre-snap penalties and a few spirited plays.

“We had a couple personal fouls on offense that hurt us,” said Rhule. “So wanting to control our emotions or control our decision-making is probably something versus a defense like ours-- you get a drive going you certainly can’t go back 15 yards.”

The battle for the starting quarterback position rolls on in Lincoln as Nebraska’s season opener on August 31st looms closer. Saturday’s scrimmage was yet another measuring tool to help determine who could take over the reins of the Huskers offense in three weeks; however, Rhule was looking for more than just physical ability.,

“The biggest thing I’m looking for from the quarterbacks is what things look like when things are going wrong,” said Rhule. “If you’re a true freshman quarterback, if you’re Danny [Kaelin] or Dylan [Raiola], you haven’t had a lot of things go wrong yet. Trying to expose them to strenuous situations to see how they respond, and they’re doing a good job at responding to it, but it’s going to be a fire out there when you’re the quarterback. Heinrich [Haarberg] is used to the fire. Can you handle the fire?”

Nebraska opens its season at home on Saturday, August 31 at 2:30 p.m. against UTEP.

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