By Scott Salomon
This Saturday, Folsom Field will be rocking as the Nebraska Cornhuskers (0-1) travel to Colorado to take on Shedeur Sanders and Travis Hunter and the Buffaloes who are 1-0 and nationally ranked, checking in at No. 22 in the Associated Press poll.
Vegas has the Buffs as three-point favorites at home.
Matt Rhule praised Buffs coach Deion Sanders on Monday and knew that he was going to succeed at the Power 5 level.
“He’s won in everything he’s done in football. He’s won as a player. He’s won as a coach,” Ruhle said. “Everyone thinks, not me thinks, this is a big show. His poster was on people’s walls when he was a player because he is one of the most hard-working players who played the game. Why would we think his team would not be the same?”
Ruhle said he was not surprised at all that Colorado came out strong last week against TCU.
“I’m not surprised at all,” Ruhle said. “Everything he’s ever done in football he’s been successful at so he’s being successful here already.”
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So, what does Nebraska have to do to defeat the Buffaloes on their home field and bring Colorado back down to reality?
First, quarterback Jeff Sims has to come back from a dreadful game against Minnesota and stop turning the ball over. The Georgia Tech transfer does have the ability to throw the football and get first downs with his legs. His mobility will be a factor on Saturday.
Rhule said that Sims has been watching plenty of tape and is ready to accept the challenge of facing a Buffaloes team that allowed over 540 yards against a very mediocre TCU team last week.
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“He’s not the first quarterback that’s ever thrown three interceptions. The great ones bounce back from it even better,” Rhule said of Sims. “I think you find out about people when they go through a little bit of adversity, so obviously he had not been trending that way. Got in the game, made some plays that he would take back if he could, but he can’t, so we’ll just be there for him as he gets better this week.”
Colorado’s defense did yield 279 yards and two touchdown passes to TCU signal-caller Chandler Morris in their win last Saturday. Their secondary, sans Hunter, is suspect at best.
Sims is going to have to have a good game without his best receiver, Isaiah Garcia-Castaneda, who got hit in the side of the knee against Minnesota and tore his ACL.
“Heartbroken for him. Really one of the great stories on our team and sad for him, Rhule said. “Really sad for him.”
Rhule said it is just a case of “next man up.”
“I think it’s kind of all hands on deck. It’ll be those young guys. We got Jaylen (Lloyd) in and got him on the reverse. Hoping Malachi (Coleman) can help us. Obviously we’ll have Marcus (Washington) now back full time, so it’ll just be all hands on deck,” Rhule said. “We used Heinrich (Haarberg) last game a little bit so we’re just going to have to go with the guys that are there and trust and believe that they’ll make the plays.”
Rhule spoke very highly of Haarberg and the other receivers and he knows what they are capable of.
“Heinrich’s is about 230 pounds. He runs 4.5. He’s competitive. We had some more things in for him [last week against the Gophers]. I don’t want to sound like excuses but we had three drives in the first half,” Rhule stated almost apologetically. “The first one kind of came in with like ‘hey we’re going to start this way’ and the ball starts at the one-yard line. Just kind of never got that rhythm going until really the third drive. You saw us getting into a rhythm. You saw us kind of get in and out of things.”
The dead ball fouls and false starts must be cleaned up and the Cornhuskers cannot make mental mistakes against Colorado to stay in the game. The offensive line also cannot allow Sims to be sacked like he was at Minnesota.
“I thought the offensive line played well. We had the back-to-back sacks on the one drive that were less about getting beat and more about a miscommunication. I thought had we not fumbled the ball at five minutes I felt like we were starting to wear down the opponent,” Rhule stated. “With the greatest respect for them, I thought we were going to be able to run the ball out and finish with about 250 yards rushing. When you only have three drives in the first half and you have four turnovers, it’s really hard to wear down your opponent.”
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You can also look for some tempo from Nebraska and for Haarberg to be a major part of the game plan.
“Sat (Coach Satterfield) was calling some tempo plays. Unfortunately we false started and didn’t get the ball in the end zone, but Heinrich can help us in a lot of different ways,” Rhule added. “He can catch it. He knows every position because he is the [backup] quarterback so hopefully he can help us all out as we move forward.”
When you think of stopping Colorado, you must try to contain Hunter and Shedeur Sanders, perhaps the best two players in the country after week one.
Hunter is a double-edged sword and will look to make plays on both sides of the ball. He must be stopped as Shedeur Sanders will be looking for him all afternoon as he did last week against TCU. On defense, the ‘Huskers are going to have to run plays away from Hunter, or throw bubble screens and let their offensive line get down and block.
Rhule gushed when he spoke about Hunter.
“Well he’s one of the most conditioned athletes I’ve ever seen, so god bless him. You know his lung speed is unbelievable. His ability to accelerate at 30 yards is something that’s hard to simulate in practice but I think the biggest thing about Travis is his ball skills,” Rhule said. “He just goes up and even the one where his foot landed out of bounds I mean his ball skills. That’s really going to be the theme of the week.”
Rhule stated that the deep ball is his biggest concern and stopping Hunter on offense goes along with it.
“Again with this offense they’re going to throw the ball down the field 10 times a game minimum. You have to play the ball. He can go up and get the ball. You saw him do it on offense. You saw him do it on defense,” Rhule said. “I mean he took the ball out of the young man’s hands on the flat route in the end zone. It’s not like he got the ball first. He took it out of his hands, but if you watch them practice all summer, on the stuff they put out, I mean he’s got those kinds of ball skills. He’s a competitor.’
