Nebraska Tuesday Fall Camp nuggets: Rhule gives latest injury updates
Nebraska wrapped up its eighth fall camp practice on Tuesday morning. Head coach Matt Rhule, offensive line coach Donovan Raiola, and a handful of players met with reporters afterward.
Here is a full recap of what they had to say…
Nebraska head coach Matt Rhule
***Rhule announced that linebacker Maverick Noonan suffered a season-ending knee injury. It’s not an ACL injury, but he will have surgery this week and faces roughly a six-month recovery.
***Rhule said receivers Malachi Coleman and Zavier Betts were not at Tuesday’s practice, but neither was dealing with anything long-term.
***Marcus Washington is out with an ankle injury, but Rhule said the receiver should be back in action by this weekend.
***With all of the injuries and guys out of practice, Rhule said wide receiver was the biggest question on the offense right now. However, he added that it also created opportunities for younger guys to get more reps in practice.
He named Alex Bullock, Jaylen Lloyd, and Jaidyn Doss as receivers who had taken advantage of increased workloads.
***Rhule said Nebraska’s quarterbacks had been playing “really well” in camp. He said Jeff Sims was developing a great “understanding” of the situational offense, while Chubba Purdy has “made a huge jump” since the spring.
Rhule said he challenged Purdy going into the summer, and Purdy had responded as well as he’d hoped. Rhule said things were starting to slow down for Purdy, and now he wasn’t trying to do too much on every throw.
***On Raiola, Rhule said: “Donovan’s a lion.” He said Raiola held the offensive line to “an unbelievable standard” in everything the unit did.
“No one on our staff does it better than Donny…” Rhule said. “He’s kind of the o-line coach I’ve been waiting for. I love him.”
***Rhule said Henry Lutovsky had done a good job with his increased reps with Nouredin Nouili limited, saying Lutovsky had “a bright future.”
***Rhule’s philosophy has long been that “on good teams, starters play on special teams.” He doesn’t want the third element to be considered a “consolation prize.” Rhule thinks Nebraska’s attention to detail and the number of reps they devote to each practice reflect their emphasis on special teams.
***Rhule singled out Eric Fields as a true freshman who would almost certainly play right away on special teams.
***On holding later practices on Wednesdays during the season, Rhule said that was an effort to give players more recovery time during the middle of the week. Those 8-10 additional hours on Wednesdays will hopefully keep guys fresher and make for better practices.
***Rhule said the voting for single-digit jersey numbers would start on Tuesday night. He said Nebraska would hold 2-3 votes with a handful of players announced each time. The Huskers will publicly announce the first round of single digits tonight.
***Rhule said he wanted players who “regulate the temperature of the team” every day. He listed off the usual suspects of who those players were, but he also included Tommi Hill in that role.
Offensive line coach Donovan Raiola
***On Teddy Prochazka, Raiola said the left tackle was working hard to return and that his latest injury was “just a bump in the road.”
***Raiola said Justin Evans-Jenkins was working as the No. 2 center and “doing a great job for us.” Others are working at center, but Raiola named him when asked who was the top backup behind Ben Scott.
“He’s doing a great job for us,” Raiola said. “He’s a developing player, and he’s improving a lot… That’s the main guy right now.”
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