Nebraska O-lineman Bryce Benhart is “an NFL player,” Matt Rhule says
Nebraska Head Coach Matt Rhule gave offensive tackle Bryce Benhart one of the biggest compliments a college football player could get, especially from a former NFL coach.
“I say that about Bryce, I look at him and I see an NFL player,” Rhule said. “I see an all-conference caliber player.”
The 6-foot-9, 315-pound lineman is practicing at right tackle. He has started 29 games at the position in his four seasons (with a redshirt freshman year) at Nebraska.
The Huskers’ offensive line, including Benhart, received buckets of scrutiny during the 2022 season. Nebraska’s new head coach has a fresh perspective on the line and its players.
“I think with what we’re doing and the way we’re playing, I think it’s going to turn Bryce loose,” Rhule said. “I think a lot of those guys, I think they’ve been beaten down. The narrative is the O-line’s terrible so they hear that a lot. I think Bryce, like all those guys on the offensive line, just has to play with great confidence.”
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Additionally, Rhule sees great potential in the group this season.
“That offensive line is as talented as anyone I’ve been around in college football in terms of as a head coach,” he said. “Are they going to believe it? Are they going to put it together? That’s why we’re trying to practice the way we are practicing right now.”
Benhart, and likely the rest of the O-line, can feel the support Rhule is offering them.
Offensive coordinator Marcus Satterfield has the offensive line in mind when play calling. Benhart said he’s excited to play in the new offensive with an “explosive offensive play caller” who also loves the line.
The right tackle said he heard that Rhule told the media he’s an NFL talent. Receiving praise and having support from the head coach can definitely boost confidence, just like Rhule wants.
“It was cool,” Benhart said. “It’s always great to have a head coach behind your back and especially just not my back but the whole team’s back. He believes in this team.”
Support and preparation
Just as Rhule said, Nebraska’s offensive line and everyone on the team needs to play with confidence. Husker Offensive line coach Donovan Raiola, strength coach Corey Campbell and Rhule have seemingly provided parts of the support and preparation the O-line needs to believe in themselves.
Raiola does an exercise every day with the linemen to focus on what each individual needs to improve on. Benhart, in particular, has improved with the requirement.
“Bryce, he’s done a great job,” Raiola said. “We just focus on improvement within us every single day. I tell them to write down one thing to improve on in the run game, one thing to improve on in the pass game and that’s our focus. Obviously, you can see the difference in how he looks and all of them look.”
Another area of improvement has been flexibility, as several coaches and players have noted. Flexibility has come in handy for the linemen, specifically.
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Benhart said the strength and conditioning program is different than the previous staff but “in a great way different.”
“Flexibility affects how you play,” he said. “Flexibility, it helps a lot – just be able to bend, get lower, get under, start the fight and come off the line.”
In practice, Benhart has been going against several players on the outside edge. He mentioned freshman Cameron Lenhardt as an explosive and ambitious player to battle.
Rhule said the right tackle has also been facing a few of the Huskers’ top pass-rushers.
“So Jimari (Butler), one of our best pass rushers or (Elijah) Jeudy or whoever’s working on Bryce every day and working on (Ethan) Piper every day,” the head coach said. “They all just keep saying, “Hey, we’re getting better,” because iron sharpens iron.”
Each offensive lineman is getting plenty of chances to improve by repping against some of Nebraska’s best. Currently, the Huskers have 13 O-linemen for the spring but could potentially add four more freshmen for the fall.
Nine of the 10 scholarship players will be available for the spring game.
The O-linemen will be wearing gray jerseys during the Red-White scrimmage on Saturday. This allows them to switch sides if need be.
Benhart has taken a positive approach to the limited numbers in the group in addition to the spring game.
“It’s been tough, but we all need it. It’s great,” he said. “During games, you’re not going to sub in, sub out all the time. You can’t sub in, sub out so it’s good to get that in your body now just to prepare for down and deep into the season.”
However, all of the preparation can look good on paper, but it doesn’t matter until it translates to the field on Saturdays. Raiola and Rhule hope to take the new skills, throw them in a pot and mix in a big helping of confidence.
“The key for these guys for how the season will go – because people always ask me how the season will go – we have coaches, we have players, a lot of it will come down to confidence,” Rhule said.
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