2024 Nebraska Football Spring Press Conference

🎙️ Spring Press Conference with Coach Rhule & players.

It’s our team commitment week before we head into spring bowl next week um it’s an exciting week for me personally um uh this Saturday they you know they have the uh admitted students day my son Bryant um coming to Nebraska in the fall so uh the commit the sacrifice he’s made

To live apart from us for a year really excited to get him back and join all the other perspective uh Huskers as they come here so um excited excited for that just on a family note obviously last week uh really sad to see Trev and Angie

Go um more than just a great boss you know I consider Trev a friend uh he’ll be a friend of mine forever Angie the way she reached out to Julie and has taken care of my family I just think they’re just class class class people

And I you know I wish them the best this business is hard um you know people move from job to job you build relationships but uh just really grateful for them and sad to see them go um in the aftermath of that just just been overwhelmed by the amount of people who

Uh have really stepped up um you know Chris kabor serving in the you know interim president role immediately just you know connecting with me and I’m sure with many other of the coaches and I’ve only got to know Chris for a short amount of time oh I’ve only got to know Chris for

A short amount of time but uh just been really uh really surprised not surprised but pleased with just his level of profession professionalism and and um how how quickly he’s he’s responded to me grateful for governor pillan you know um his leadership at a time like this

Reaching out um you know it’s uh it’s obviously difficult when you come here and the president leaves and the football coach leaves but knowing that the top of the state you know I know nothing political just you know at the end of the day we have a Husker there

And that that that’s meant a lot to me personally and really excited for Dennis LeBlanc um he is Dennis is what’s great about college Athletics uh he cares about the student athlete um he’s he this is one of those jobs when you work in college athletics where you can you

Can work a ton of hours or a few hours and uh Dennis Works a ton of hours because he cares about young people and he saved a lot of young people’s lives and so I trust him and he’s done an amazing job for us as our sport

Administrator and excited to see him and then just you know Co you know anytime you know Tom Osborne calls you or all the different donors and fans you know reached out uh just really appreciative of everybody um through what could be seen as a tough time but I mean I I

Think this is a tremendous tremendous opportunity um you know everyone’s going to wonder why Trev left and that’s his story to tell you know I I don’t know I don’t know why I know he was very forthcoming with me and very forthright with me and I have no complaints about

The way he handled anything at least you know with me so very grateful for him but uh this is an opportunity for us to to um look look at everything within our athletic department everything within our maybe even our University and how can we be better because um this is an

Amazing place and uh you know I started off by talking about my son being here I would not send my son here if I didn’t think it was an amazing place um you know my wife opening a business down in South Point we would not invest our

Money and and our futures in a place that we did not believe and we love the state of Nebraska we love Lincoln we love Omaha we love we love every everyone everywhere that we’ve been and everyone that we’ve met and um I just think sometimes we we we forget some of

Those things um we forget how great a place this is to raise our kids and we forget how great a place this is to live and and to work and to be around and so well it is a tough time losing someone of Trev you know caliber all

I’ll say is you know I believe he put 15 years in here in athletic Administration and from everything I see in our athletic department this is a well-run athletic department and this is this is a good place and um I know he’s allowed me to do the

Things I think are necessary so uh he’s left the place better than he’s found in and so I think it’s an unbelievable unbelievable opportunity for us to move forward and the one thing Trev would always say to me is um and I think he took this really

Seriously as the Husker that he is um he said to me no I’m I’m only standing in this position as the athletic director at Nebraska you’re only standing in the position you’re in because of the decisions that coaches like Tom Osborne and administrators made 20 years ago uh

To put us in this position where we’re you know financially stable we’re secure we have Elite facilities we have tremendous commitment and the onus on Trev or and now the next ad the onus on me and the the coaches and Leadership here is to make sure that 20 years from

Now we look back and we say you know what the people that guarded this place during this time were tremendous stewards of the university and I I uh I think that’s really really important you know we can’t take a step backwards we have to take a step forwards and the

Thing that I’ll say is we have to be unabashed in our desire to be the best like we cannot worry about Optics we cannot worry about what people say the way you win in college athletics today is you invest and I I can’t think of a state that should that knows that better

Than this amazing State whether it’s all the amazing financial institutions you know people all across the world you know try to read about the people in Omaha and Warren Buffett and Burkshire hatway I mean you don’t get a return until you’ve invested um you know all the agriculture across our state you

Don’t you don’t you don’t get a harvest unless you’ve invested unless you sewed seed and and watered it and so um whether it’s salaries whether it’s facilities whether it’s upgrades whatever it is um we need to return to the days where everybody across the country is coming to the University of

Nebraska to see how things are being done I called Kirby Smart last week and asked him if I could come down and visit Georgia we sent our our our performance nutrition people down to C Florida and Alabama I want people coming here you know when when Julie was the head

Dietitian at Temple and she was putting together a training table she studied in Nebraska and so um that to me is the place that we’re at and you know I I usually don’t read a lot but I’ve been reading because I kind of hear when people people are saying and um we don’t

Have major problems we have an unbelievable athletic department uh we have an unbelievable opportunity but we must we must have vision for the future for 20 years from now and that’s what Trev had make no mistake Trev spent the last Year trying to tell everybody hey guys Revenue sharing is coming like we

Have to have a plan for Revenue sharing when $20 million is probably going to be going to the athletes at some point here and you know I don’t know if any anyone really listened I don’t know if I really listened and all a sudden now those those those lawsuits are starting to

Come to fruition and it’s like oh what Dre was right and so we’re going to have to we’re going to have to do you know think of things differently and so as he now leaves and as he transitions that’s what has to happen here we have to have

Amazing leadership that is saying to themselves um hey what’s the next 20 year is going to be like and how do we make sure that the University of Nebraska Athletics is relevant in all of that and that doesn’t preclude the university right um you know it’s such a

Hard time in in college athletics because College athletics is big big big big business and if you look at the business the University of Nebraska Athletics is one of the best businesses in college athletics it has the least debt we don’t take student fees we don’t take money from the University where

Most schools Even in our conference are doing that so we have a tremendous financial model I think we have to have a ton of vision moving forward to get to that so I don’t think the issues that maybe everyone’s thinking are out there I I don’t know if they’re out there I

Don’t think that they’re out there I think that we’re just on the precipice of a really really important time to get the right leadership in here who’s not worried about making tough decisions who’s not worried about investing who’s not worried about man what are people

Going to say if we hire a few more people like this is the time and it’s not just about it’s not just about who we hire it’s about who we retain and we have to retain that leadership we have to retain our student athletes we have

To we have to be the model of that across the country because that’s what Tom Osborne and that’s what Bob Deany and that’s what they they they built the best player development University in the country and you can’t develop people if you don’t retain people and so that

To me is the place where we’re at I’m just so grateful for Trev and Angie but I’m also really excited about the future and grateful for for governor pillan and Chris kabor and everybody else that’s that’s reached out to us at this time and so um I think when you look at our

University right now and you start talking about you know hey are we relevant obviously we’re always going to be relevant here but I’m I’m really grateful for our winter sports and how relevant they’re making us across the country you know because when I when I fly to Miami to recruit you know

Everyone’s not only just talking about Nebraska they’re talking about Alabama and Georgia and Texas A&M and Texas and Miami and so when you have your men’s team doing what they did when you have your women’s team doing what they’re doing when you have a wrestling team

Doing what they’re doing um it makes us relevant and it makes us part of the conversation and it and um on a personal note the relationship I had with Mark Manning and you know the trust to work together with Nash hutmacher has been unbelievable as a proud girl dad you

Know of two two daughters you know uh you know 11 and eight you know how many how many games we’ve been able to go watch and I’m out there in the driveway and you know I’m I’m I’m shoot throwing him the ball and I’m saying like jazz

Shell as Leona shoots and marowski backs him down as Vivy takes him down and backs me down I mean them for them to have Role Models like that you like our women’s volleyball team the women’s tennis team I mean just just amazing not just the winning but the amazing

Experiences I mean go watching us go head toe-to-toe with Iowa at home and watching Jaz shell get up and make four free throws with the game on the line and being able to talk to my daughters about that afterwards just amazing moments that are awesome to be a part of

But also relevant nationally and then to watch our men’s team you know to to think about how much joy you know Kay tominaga has brought just my family in the last year to think about how hard Josiah Alec plays to think about you know the pain and passion on Joan Garry’s

Face the other night to think about you know Sam hyberg out there diving for balls I just think it’s an amazing time and so I want to spend today um talking obviously I know you guys ask me about Trev and the future of that but there’s

So much that’s right and there’s so much that’s good and you know I’ve gotten kind of frustrated in the last couple days as National people have called me and you know hey what’s your contract situation like I’m here and I’m all in and Julie’s all in and yeah I love to

Take Carter I love Trev and I came because of them but I came to be at the University of Nebraska and I’ve loved the people that I’ve met and we’re not going anywhere um unless you guys kick us out and so I just want to make sure

That that that I spend my time talking about everything that is right and the last part of that is our team um this team has come so far in these eight weeks I mean the problems that existed last year aren’t the problems now and the team’s adjusting to me because I’m

Becoming a different coach Rule and we’re getting a different Tony white now because we’re going to give our players the gift of high expectations um We snuck up maybe on people sometimes this year like ah the Huskers well they’re going to be ready for us next year they’re going to be

Ready for the 335 they’re going to be ready for you know the players that we have and so we are pushing them and driving them and what I love is they’re accepting it and they’re sprinting and they’re running and they’re working and this is going to be an unbelievably

Competitive Spring ball if we’ve done one thing well we’ve put a lot of Talent on the roster and um I’m really really proud of them and I don’t tell them that very often you know I’m not a fuzzy feely type of a coach so it’s important

That they hear it I’m I’m proud of them and the thing that you know the thing that separates the good from the great in and I believe in today’s generation is their ability to handle frustration you know like think about when we were young and and there was nothing to do

And parents would let us watch TV we we go go do something right our kids they’re they’re on an iPad nowadays they’re they’re on their phone they’re doing something and there’s just not a lot of frustration in their everyday lives and so can we handle frustration

Can we handle it when our coach is really getting on our nerves can we handle it when the stakes are high can we handle it when we have to do something we really don’t want to do the team keeps answering that yes yes yes so

We’re going to push him like crazy in a in a swing ball and see where we end up so and that was long forgive me but uh hopefully there’s something good there coach how did you how did you find out about that he called me yeah he

Called me I was uh I was uh my my son and I um we did our first ever fatherson trip he had his spring break was the same time as our spring break here uh my daughter’s spring break was different so um my son and I you know we were

Actually playing golf and uh Trev had called me but he you know he had talked to me leading up to this you know Trev trev’s a good athletic director he’ had many people come after him and so one thing he he was always pretty transparent with me and um I wanted him

To stay but understood when he left were you surpris then um uh yeah probably yeah probably I thought like you know I knew it was a reality I I was you’re probably CGH caught a little bit like oh wow this actually happened you know and

Uh you know obviously I was uh I was sad um you know because I’ve really really enjoyed working with them kind of leader do you do you like to work with in that athletic department that personality traits things like that not names but just qualities yeah I I I really want

Somebody who who who has unbelievable urgency this is like one of the most pivotal we we we spend a lot of time talking about like the transfer portal and nil this is one of the most pivotal times in college athletics and the we just need doers you know what I mean we

Need doers we need people who just figure it out and work and so um you know I love the fact in Trev that I had an athletic director that was here you know at 7 o’clock 7:30 every morning in a suit and TI you know like he was a

Worker uh Pat craft who I worked with at temples now at Penn State was a worker you know they were right there with you so I I think what we need is somebody that’s going to come in and just get things done um and again they they have

To be really mentally strong because when you come to a place that has as big a brand as Nebraska that people are so passionate about and care about when you do something a lot of people are going to like it some people aren’t going to like it and if you’re listening to the

Outside noise you have no chance so I’m just hoping that it’s somebody that’s a a worker a doer and I also want someone Sam that’s going to go fight okay go fight in the in the in the Committees in the NCAA to go to go fight in the Big 10

Like I can say cuz I’m the football coach I’m mad we’re playing Texas A&M both games cuz now the games are about the ad leaving it’s not about our players our players deserve it the games to be about us and so you know I think having somebody somebody that’s not

Going to just go quietly into the night that’s a doer that’s a worker I think that’s what we need to really take what we have and get it on overdrive how do you what’s your what’s your level of investment in the stadium project that that Trev laid out last fall um how do

You think that should proceed with a new new boss I don’t know that I’m smart enough or well well versed enough to know it right I think when you know when I heard Trev talk about it to to think that you have a hundredy old building it probably needs some Renovations makes

Total sense to me correct um I think when you know I think when you don’t have Wi-Fi so that you can’t have a great experience in terms of concessions that probably makes sense to me right um I think when you know there so some of those things made sense to me I think

When you talk about you know some of the stuff that’s going to come on in terms of Revenue sharing and trying to make more money out of the building makes sense to me but beyond that it’s probably too political for me to worry about my I’ve always been really smart

About I worry about the product that’s on the field maybe I’m going to worry about what sideline we’re on but other than that um you know leave that to be the powers that be all of that you were mentioning about wanting people to come to Nebraska and

Look at what Nebraska is doing as a leader in all of these different spaces you also last week tweeted something a video along the lines of like that poem that’s um I just lost the name of it it’s uh Paul Harvey yes Paul Harvey so is that sort of I think like

Even before all of this news came that’s clearly a vision that you have right now for this team in this program as you’re getting ready for Spring ball is that correct yeah so so that poem um when we were trying to make the decision of

Whether to come here or not um that was the poem that like kept surfacing that that that video it’s actually like a the actual video for it like there’s several versions like a Ford RAM truck and sat was o at Clemson at the time excuse me

At the South Carolina at the time and they were getting ready to play Tennessee and Clemson and he would just keep sending me that he was like you know God made a farmer like this is who we are this is the place we’re supposed

To I mean I might have been born in New York City don’t get me wrong but like this is the ethos this is the type of football we want to play this is who we are and and my wife you know um you know she she was like the she so that that

That poem that resonated with us um and um it’s one of the reasons why we came here and so when that moment came out sometimes when you’re at a loss words you know just sometimes so I texted Jay lit and said hey put some Husker put

Some Husker stuff on this please and um I Love the clips that he used and I put it out and it’s it’s it’s basically to say that like I came here for a purpose I didn’t come here just for people I’ve met amazing people but

Um you know I’m here for that reason and I’m looking for players that are here for that reason that want to build something that want to leave something that that um you know I just want to be able someday like coach Osborne to walk back into the building and have people

Be happy to see me you know I I just want to I just want to you know I just want to be able to you know sometimes like we go out to eat and with my family and you know we’ll sit down and I’m like

Man I I hope we have a good season next year but you know what I I I just believe so much in the fans and the people of the state of Nebraska that even if they’re disappointed when we lose a game or excited when we win a game they’ve always treated myself and

My family with such great dignity and respect and so that was maybe just me saying hey we’re all in in my team’s all in my coaches are all in and we’re all in doing it in a way that um responds to the state how important is it for uh not

Just you but other coaches to have feedback in the athletic director search um I I’m grateful for feedback you know but um when I was the head coach at Temple University I got on a plane Bill Bradshaw hired me I got on a plane to go

Out to the Fiesta Bowl Summit I landed he told me he had retired a new ad came in named Kevin Clark and he embraced me and he brought in a deputy named patcraft and patcraft became my ad and he’s one of my best friends to this day

And so uh I I just believe in my life that through all the things I’ve been through um the right people have always shown up and and when they haven’t they haven’t um so I’d love to have feedback I you know I love that you know like I

Said that uh Chris and and and and and you know Governor pill least reached out to me and the coach Osborne reached out to me um so I’d love to have feedback I’m sure Fred and Amy and Mark and all the coaches coach bolt would love to

Have feedback uh but you know people have to make decisions and and um um I’m sure we’ll get someone that’s that’s excited to be here coach you said that um I think it might have been in your introductory news conf said anybody can during good

Times is this one of those times what we find out about people around in the next month or so yeah well I think um I think you know organizations uh move forward or don’t move forward based upon people’s agendas if everyone has you know you know as coach Osborne would say

His Tre would say Unity of purpose if if everything’s about you know University of Nebraska at Lincoln uh University of Nebraska system if everything’s about Husker Athletics if it’s about the student athletes if it’s about football then you make the right decisions and you you take the criticism that comes

With it you can disagree but you disagree with an open mind um if if there’s agendas if there’s if there’s other things and then you can’t move forward and so I believe in the people cuz I’ve seen since I’ve been here I’ve seen people come together you know it’s

Maybe not always fast enough for me but we’ve we’ve redone so many things and we’ve completely upgraded so many things you know obviously we’re not completely into the the the go big project building yet which you know my hope is that at some point it’s named after coach

Osborne and his family Legacy but and I think I think hopefully I think Trev was moving towards that but um you know so not everything’s happened yet but I think that like I said this is a this is a a tremendous time and um you know when

When when you lose when one of your own leaves when when Trev leaves everyone should stop and take pause and say we know how much Trev love this University hey is there what’s here what what do we need to come together about and I think those have those things they don’t need

To happen on Twitter they don’t need to happen up here they need to happen behind closed doors with people who care um because you’re going to be remembered based upon what you do in hard times you’re not going to be remembered by what you do in really good times I I

Loved the um I love the the day-by-day movies I know you know hopefully everyone’s seen those I love the day-by-day movies and you’re watching the second one and you’re going through you know sort of you know the the the second title runs the third title run and you’re watching the the stress on

Coach Osborne as the national media kind of coming after him and you forget all that right and Coach Osborne’s always reminded me like hey let me tell you about the tough times I had here you know everyone remembers the good times I had a lot of tough times too and so um I

Think I think we’ll see I think we’ll see Huskers come together and um you know we can all believe in different things and then still come together for what’s best for an institution that we love and um you know I think uh I I’m committed to that you know I don’t need

To get my way I just want everything to be I want everything to be as El lead as possible I want us to have unbelievable urgency I want us to be the place that people visit and I want us to invest invest invest going to do things differently

This spring to kind of bring about that sense of urgency with your players and the program specifically it’s a great question I think um I think getting them to embrace doing hard things an understanding that um getting them to understand that like hey um I I went through a lot of hard things

Last year we went through hard things in the season and what I was proud of is you know we lose to Maryland and we come back the next week and a heartbreaker we we play to the whistle again we play to the whistle again so having them

Understand that hey we can we we’re strong enough and resilient enough to handle all that now was within our control to take another step I think a big part of that has been not just working but we’re going to have more competition and more more you know competitive type play

Because last year the roster was a little bit more like this like you had really topheavy like really good players here and then a bunch of young players and new players I think this year we have way more parody and we have some guys in their sixth year that maybe they

Don’t need to do a ton of spring football or they coming off of injuries but we have a lot of really good young talent and so we’ll have to just do a lot more competition because what I want to see is a team in the fourth quarter

When the game comes down with five minutes left that just makes one more play than we made last year it’s not this huge over it’s just hey make one more play on offense make one more play on defense you know we we beat we beat Northwestern because we we blocked their

Field goal and ran it back like not because we did something crazy that week and so playing in competition you know I’ve been going and watching my daughters play a lot of sports and um they’re just way more fun when they’re playing three on three or they’re playing knockout than when they’re doing

Layup lines and and I know you need to do layup lines but this this generation likes to play you know and so uh my guys they like to go out there and compete and play and so I’m I’m going to do more of that this spring so that we get

Really comfortable playing and you know if you take our scholarship quarterbacks we’ve got two freshmen and so they need a ton of reps and so we will take more reps than we’ve ever taken before to get them ready and to get Hinrich ready and have a really

Strong quarterback room how do you feel about how those freshman quarterbacks have have fit in so far in the first couple of months you know in the winter drills and all that stuff they’ve done a great job um you know you can see a fire and a competitiveness in Dylan um he he

He he wants to be at the top he wants you know he he wants to he’s chomping at the bid he’s in there at 6:00 in the morning throwing balls before his lift at he lifts at 10:30 but he’s in there at 6 throwing uh you can see it with

Danny comes in he’s working on football I mean they um you know they’re they’re both winners they they they’re both competitive guys and so you can see it with Hinrich as an order Player working you know we talked a little bit about you know hey his elbow getting up and

Him working on that and taking time over spring break to work on that so I’ve been really pleased I’ve been pleased with their effort um now they got to get to the football and again I talked back about being frustrated you know it’s it’s that game you’re playing

Quarterback in where like just nothing seems to kind of go right right like where like you just keep getting hit and they’re fooling you with the coverages and which quarterback gets kind of pissed off and attacks I mean I I remember as a young coach at at the

Giants oh man Eli Manning you know he might he might have he might have thrown five picks against the Buccaneers in the first half four or five I can’t remember what it was and he came back and D for 500 yards and we won it was like you saw

The competitive greatness in Eli and um so I I think you know that’s the next step for them but I’ve been really pleased really pleased and I see a lot of that fire coming out of them when you were setting up the Spring ball schedule you’re starting you have this week and

Then officially but you waited until after Spring Break um as you’re talking about this competition can you kind of talk through that decision to set it up the way that you have when I got here last year the the spring game was already already set so that what

Happened afterwards was the spring game this we had a bunch of like dead time you know and so I just said well why don’t we maximize the amount of time there’s benefits to having an earlier spring game if someone gets hurt they have more time but um you know with over

50% of our roster being you know red shirt freshman or newcomers you know I wanted as much time to lift as much time so we kind of just pushed the spring game back a week so there’s less dead time on the back end I believe the academic calendar is a little bit

Different this year they get a good break after the spring games we don’t come back till June 1st so those are some reasons of just trying to get that done you know last year I was kind of caught up with when the portal was and

This year I was like you know what uh I’m going to coach the guys you know so and I just felt like hey a bunch of good weeks here would help us and then it worked out where there was this week spring break last week and then this

Week and so we’ve always done this team commitment week you know we divide into teams we go to Twitter we have all kinds of competitions in the morning we do team activities you know voluntary team activities at night um and it’s it’s a chance for us it’s a chance for us to to

To get to know each other you know on a kind of smaller level you know smaller teams within the team so it’s a fun week so we’ll start next week but it was just kind of that reason of just trying to push things back so there’s not as much

Dead time just kind of in May how did you feel about the way they came out of um we heard from you at the beginning of Matt drill’s winter conditioning so at the end of it how’ you feel about their commitment to that the work the work

That they they put in kind of some of the leadership qualities that you talked about in February that you were looking to yeah I’m um I’ve been very pleased um I’ve been really really pleased you know a lot of guys are really good at competitions and working through things

That they like like if you if you had a tug-of war a Madden tournament or 40 yard dash they’ll compete all day not everybody in life likes to compete at things we hate you know we try to avoid the things we hate so things like Matt jills what’s the point of them it’s

Making them compete at something they don’t they don’t like and what happened over the course of of the weeks and we would change it up we did things way different than we ever have you know your your your Isaac gords your Maris Buford your Malcolm hartog your you know

Your hinrichs your Chief borders your rukan Buckley um you know the these guys and there’s many more but you know these guys started to really I think get the guys to understand hey let’s enjoy this and let’s attack this and you can if you can enjoy doing the things you don’t

Like doing or make yourself enjoy it you know as the as the seal say embrace the suck um you have a chance and so I just I saw a lot of that next thing you know you saw the jakori Barney and the freshman and the kelen Smiths and all

Them really starting to attack so I was really pleased with the leadership um I’ve been challenging the seniors when you have a bunch of young players that come in sometimes they have a tendency to like hey let’s get these young guys right what we need is we need Tommy Hill

To make a jump and I we need Ty Robinson to make a jump and Bryce benhart and Ben Scott and Thomas fedon and Nate borer luk ly we need all these older players to make a jump the young players will follow and um I I I I feel like they

Have um they have in terms of their leadership and I think they will in Spring ball if we do what I talked about earlier make it really competitive reflect on you know last season how did you feel like your team’s athletic profile uh went and like how did you

Seek to improve it in the off season and like do you want the team to be faster bigger strong yeah I think we’re always going to chase athleticism we believe in athleticism you know Jeremiah Charles was like the Talk of the Town here for a couple weeks as he won the dunk contest

And you know I just remember I I remember everything I remember being asked like you know take you know taking a guy with no offers and I’m like just trust me I went I went to a basketball game I saw him I’m watching ishmail Smith Flores and the other kid on the

Team I watch him dunk going to dunk and looking like into the rim as he dunked and I said co go watch him on your phone bro and Coach wager was with us at the time was like oh he’s a good player too and we watched him and he here he is

He’s running track he’s winning the dunk contest and he’s going to be a heck of a corner so I think a lot of it’s its recruiting and its development our players are very committed to to the weight room to the performance nutrition to movement um so I I like where we’re

At I think we’re always going to keep pushing it so that’s we just we try to recruit athletes because eventually that speed shows up that that that explosiveness shows up but I think we had a really good year if you looked at our team right now I think you’d be

Really impressed with how they look like we don’t we look we look big and strong and physical um we just have to continue that if you um you mentioned do you like where the Rost the roster is talent wise is there is there any areas in particular that you’re struck by yeah I

Think what we have is we have ask me the question again any specific areas where yeah specific areas of the roster where you’re particularly impressed with Talent you know I think what overall let me say this I think what we have is we just have a like a a breath you know

Like we have we have just a ton of guys that I think are good players just a lot of them aren’t established yet and so can they can they go through that process like it’s one thing to go in and play 10 plays it’s one thing to go in

And be on the scout team it’s another thing to go out there when all the pressure is on the line you know what I mean and and you know you’re you’re you’re playing uh you know you’re playing you know the the UTEP receiver on Fourth and goal with the game on the

Line like you know who can you go compete then so I think we have a lot of just you know young Talent with some older leadership just can we get them to turn over I think um I just you know I’ve always been pleased with with the depth in our secondary um

I’m pleased with the the depth in the running back room um you know some of those guys are still banged up so you know Spring ball you know you know you might not see Gabe Irving you know you know you might see him rir a little bit

But not a ton um but there’s some young players there that you know are going to get some reps so um I uh I I there’s a lot of guys I’ve seen them move I’ve seen them do Matt drills I’ve seen But I just haven’t seen them play football yet

So I’m excited for that but I think those are two areas where you know we’ve we’ve made some progress did you have any um scholarship departure guys before Spring ball starts here and then secondly we had 23 newcomers come in at a semester like this before that is

About as big of a number as you’ve seen when you got the transfers with the yeah it’s um it’s it’s one of the biggest changes in in college athletics I remember I remember my f when I first got back going talking to like dbos Sweeney one of the head coaches meeting

Him talking about their whole team was there in in the in the winter I think that really helps you know you can see the development in guys you know you see Grant bricks walking around at you know 300 lb and you’re like look you know look look look how much you know Mass

He’s put on um it it changes a little bit you know changes a little bit how I think you have to approach the offseason because you have the Freshman from last year Who had who didn’t go through it so the you know the Malachi Coleman’s and

You know the guys who weren’t here in the spring this is their first winner then you have the guys coming in their first winner so there’s a lot more maybe orientation than you’re used to there’s a lot more trying to cross over and getting guys who know each other than

You’re used to and there’s a lot more getting people to understand the standards you know some guys you know what may maybe at their last school they they didn’t make him go to class maybe at their last school they didn’t make him go to lunch maybe at their last

School like when when they’re they’re drinking a water bottle and student manager sit there they just take the water bottle throw it in the ground and you know the student manager goes over and picks it up we don’t do that here and so just just sometimes you’re not

Just you know doing that with young players coming in because the new players coming in all they know is the husk way but having guys who been other places understand that this is what we do here just a little bit more orientation a little bit more taking

Time a little bit more counting on the older players but the good news is we have a lot of talent a lot of guys we can we can really I think amp up and and get ready for the fall time for one more with the prod day uh this week just what

Are you looking forward to for that group of guys who are getting ready to turn the page uh for the next phase of their careers well you know I’m excited for them um I think in that group you have some really really good football players who who can help themselves by

Running well you know um you know qu Nome unfortunately hurt his shoulder there in the Maryland you know Maryland week I think he missed that game right then he came back and played after that so had to have offseason shoulder surgery so his his um his training isn’t

You know maybe where he wanted it to be in terms of time but quinton’s a tremendous competitor and I think you know he can help himself um a lot of those guys can help themselves you know I got a ton of good feedback from Omar

Brown um you know I went down and saw him at the the uh the uh East West game nflp again the one in Dallas and um so I think if he goes out and runs well he’ll really help himself so I hope those guys you know there’s not many of them I hope

They I hope they go out and they they bust our tail and we have guys like faen sford that I I just believe team should take a chance on and bring in and I think they’ll have a chance to make a team and so when they see failen run 438

Or 442 whatever he runs they’re going to open some eyes so it’s a it’s a good group of guys and I hope they do really well and hope we run a first class Pro Day SP so much time last year talking about the quarterback play how much

How much would better receiver play Help the quarterback position and how much better do you feel like you got in the offseason in the short amount of time than some of these transfers well you know um yes the everyone the way the quarterback plays well is everyone plays

Better and um when you go back and look at us play last year okay when we faced Zone teams we we we we threw the football at a reasonable rate when we faced uh either aggressive quarters match teams that were physical with us or man teams we struggled and um so a

Lot of that is you know a lot of guys we invested in early got hurt you know I mean like Marcus Washington ran by the guy at Illinois caught the ball down the sideline we NE and then he got hurt you know Isaiah got hurt um you know ramir

Got hurt kind of as an option R runner on the back field so I think now we have all those freshman that we had to go put in in the end of last year um we have more time on task with them they’re bigger stronger you know it’s like I’m

Sitting there’re talking to you know jaylen’s running track but like J knows what was felt like to go out there against Michigan State and those guys he’s fast so they’re trying to grab him and as he goes to practice now I think you know he’ll be better so I think

We’re way better um I love what Jamal Banks has brought to us uh he’s a competitive guy he’s played a ton of football you know you meet a lot of people in in recruiting and they tell you like you know this is what I’m about and the portal is so different now it’s

Like I hear some college coaches the reason why they like the portal is instead of recruiting someone for two years they can recruit him for two weeks and get them well you don’t know anybody in two weeks and you you know met Jamal he was talking about his his passions in

Life and things he wanted to do and what I’ve really learned is that he’s serious about it he wants to have an impact on the world he’s is’s a really cool guy that everyone should get to know and he’s a really good player uh naor’s got

All the talent in the world and I see those young players they’ve played now they have you know they have confidence you know Demetrius Bell was you know you ask anybody on our defense what Demetrius Bell was like on the scout team last year they’ll tell you and so

It’ll be great to see him this spring so I think we’ll be significantly better but I think to really hone down on it it’s it’s going to be our ability versus manto Man teams it’s going to be our ability versus you know the aggressive quarters grab you defense as you see in

The Big 10 and you know you need you need Trey Palmer every once in a while to run through a safety like you did at Iowa and run by everybody and that changes things and we had a couple of those last year you know I think uh

Jaylen had 350 plus touchdowns so it’s just hey Jaylen takes a year you know a step forward I think we’ll have real com competitiveness in that room thanks everybody Mar Butler will be here Maris Doing today good questions for Jamal where do you think come the most with your transition to Nebraska where what are you gain in the most uh the weight room uh I’ve had some PRS in there uh I say the Playbook learning the plays uh and just building relationships

I’m gotten to know a lot of players uh and uh just pushing myself you know what I’m saying and just being who I am being with my feet are what you learned about the program I mean it’s your first few months here yeah I’ve learned more and more about

The atmosphere um just the the aura of this place you know what I’m saying the history is rich is deep um and it’s going to continue to be that way uh the the school like just it’s some genuine people out here you know what I’m saying like nice kindhearted um and

That’s just who they are uh we we had went to an event uh a Nebraska event at some school and just the just how they treated us and you know how they you know wanted to know about us uh showed how much they cared about us not just as

Athletes but as as people as well what about the opportunity here at Nebraska appealed to you as you were looking at various schools because you had options yeah uh NFL coaching staff was was was huge uh weight room uh coordinators head coach uh just knowing

What it takes to get to that next level uh their vision for me as a receiver um in the system in the offense uh the school having uh spending time with the players uh I learned a lot about them I learned a lot about you know why they chose Nebraska as well and

You know I met some like-minded individuals U you know who were purpose and process driven as well what’s their vision for you what are they when they tell you that you can you can in this offense uh just playing um outside uh playing in the slot a little bit um just

Just making plays getting open um you know of course blocking and uh and being a leader you will get the chance next week for sure but have you already uh gotten to work with the quarterbacks young it’s a young room um and you know what do you think of those guys yeah we

Uh they love throwing and we love catching so um um they they love football you know what I’m saying and um you know they’re they’re humble uh and they care about each other and they want to be the best that they can be um so we get after it

They I told uh I told them they even got like a little grade system for like you know what kind of balls they throw to us um but uh they just they love football they love us and we just want to win you know what I’m saying so what would you

Say about the this receiver room and some of the young guys you’re getting to know them and their skill set yeah super talented like super talented um you know they just some of them just need a little guidance and um and that comes from experience um you know the wisdom

From just being a student athlete um anywhere in the country uh do good decision making um they got the dedication they got the grit got the passion um but just Somebody To You Know push him and hold them accountable but you know doing that out of love so but

It’s it’s been real real good getting to know them how much you Embrace being a mentor to those guys yeah I mean I love it cuz yeah it’s being a mentor isn’t just about um them following you it’s it’s about learning from them as well and in every situation I’m in um any

Circumstance um I learn just as much as uh I give or teach and uh so that’s been huge for me yeah what have you learned so far in this process about playing for Coach Maguire uh he accountability um the love a coach can actually have for their players like you

Know he tells us all the time that he loves it just as much as he loves his parents um and then love for the game like he’s intentional about the way he works how he works how hard he works whether he’s up at 4 4:30 in the morning

Or he’s he’s he has some late nights 11:00 p.m. um but he loves the game and it just rubs off on us uh and he loves to have fun too um he loves to have fun and uh that’s what we want to do as well

We have fun when we win Isaiah is a veteran guy too came in uh what sticks out about him as he got to know him the last couple months he love ball um ex’s and know he a hard worker um and he was actually on me we actually took the same

Official visit uh I I met his parents a little bit and he’s a good he’s good person too what’s your uh impression of the culture that coach Rule and the staff has built so far and maybe how it’s progressed since you been here yeah uh about Brotherhood you know what I’m

Saying and you know some key factors in that uh is sacrifice unconditional love and accountability like we’re here to build a strong Brotherhood but that commitment is it it runs deep it’s about toughness um and it’s about willing you know to do anything to not let you know your your your teammate

Down your coaches uh I see myself as a reflection of everybody in the program um and what they could do I could do and it’s about raising the standard um and then that’s that’s something that I learned about Coach Ru is he he loves you no matter what kind of

Decisions you make but he’s going to make sure you know um whether you doing something right or you doing something wrong um and he not gonna lie to you coach rules praised you for your standard setting the last couple months what do that looked like for you and and

Where does that come from as you go out and set that uh what is what come what is just your your high standard for yourself you uh just my upbringing um just growing up you know all all sisters my mom my grandma um no real father role model um

Just being a being a glue you know keeping keeping my family together um you know wherever they going I’m going uh leaving no man no woman behind uh like I talked about sacrific and unconditional love uh it’s a part of me it’s part of who I am it’s part of my

Source and uh but yeah that’s where it comes from what do you expect this spring I mean what’s your can’t know exactly how it’s going to go for yourself and the team but do you have a vision for what you kind of expect uh I expect hard work I expect uh

Mistakes I expect to have fun um I expect to get better uh I expect to this to to there be a precedent set it set for the team that we we’re going to be in the fall anything app tomorrow your defense had a good season last year I’m sure you didn’t win as

Many games as you wanted but statistically it was strong so how do you build as a defense on what you did did well last year I mean it really is just capital izing off last year like yeah it was we played good last year but it’ll never be good enough so you know

We can fix a couple things as a defense and at the same time get our young guys ready to play what you want to fix what what do you feel like you guys can do a little better than you did last year on I mean just like little stuff like coverage bus

Running the wrong Blitz Small Things how big a deal is it have you noticed in the winter work that guys know what to expect now uh with this coaching staff in year two as compared to year one you see it a lot further along and just how things have gone oh

Yeah I feel like it was a lot like we were more progressed cuz we knew what was coming you know they didn’t change things so I feel like if you knew what was coming you had no choice but to attack it because there’s no other way out of

It individually you had a a solid year last year what when you look back at it um what kind of do you want to build on personally to to take it to the next level I want to become more explosive and gain more weight and I mean really

Just try to finish what I started really but I mean it’s not possible without my team so jar what do you make of the the middle that linebacker group with Nick and Luke moving on who do you like there to kind of step up and be those next

Guys I me I really like all them guys you know they rotated a lot so I’m comfortable with any of them playing because they all have experience how was uh the offseason workouts the Matt drills what have you seen from your teammates in terms of how theyve kind of attacked

Those I mean you can see like is the Brotherhood is still getting built like we’re still trying to find a foundation for it but I mean you can see guys doing it for each other and just not trying to make it through a workout coach White’s name came up for a

Lot of jobs this offseason I mean how relieved was the room to know that he was coming back to lead you guys another year man that was big there lie that was big but I mean he’s a great coach and uh we knew those opportunities were going

To come but I’m very happy he stayed what do you like about him he just let us play there’s not too much coaching during the game he going to make a play call and you just go play is there anybody you think people are sleeping on you expect some big

Things from the spring I mean I expect big things from everybody but if I had to point out like a couple of young guys I would say Larry Tarver or Vincent Shavers they kind of caught my eyes during matad Dills just said the way they go attack

Things or I mean yeah cuz it’s their first time doing it so for you to go out and attack it and you don’t even know what you doing that’s that speaks numbers you guys go back and you know do you reflect on last season do you ever

Watch former like games from last year was that just get flushed yeah it just get flush nothing from last year matters and as a team like we know that jari can you speak to how how how much of a veteran presence there is on the uh on the D line this year obviously

You have yourself got Ty and Nash you know and others with experience how big of an asset can that be for this group I mean that’s very big because God forbid but one of us go down like we can coach up whoever’s stepping up in that position but like I said I’m comfortable

With anybody being in the game cuz we all had experience and we hold ourselves to a higher standard how have you seen um you know you had you had some freshmen last year some true freshmen in that group Van Poppel lenhardt Prince Will what have you seen this in this um

Short period of the year so far since the season ended from those guys and how they’re working to um improve on their first years in the program I mean they they were young last year and they were already kind of moving like vets so for them I mean they all gaining weight

Putting on muscle I mean it’s a big year for them thank you questions what is this spring this winter now leading into the spring for you um it’s been exciting it’s been a grind it’s been a lot of words um it’s been a pleasure you know working out with the

Guys that we have here you know coming in every morning even when we all know no one wants to be here every morning and still giv everything we got it’s it’s special to see and it’s special to be around you know um I I would say a lot of confidence has

Been gained from this off SE this winter and leading up to this spring you know a lot of guys have gotten way faster way stronger including myself you know and I couldn’t be more ready to start you know getting into actual football there was a lot of uh sort of news about the

Possibility of Coach white moving moving on to another job how uh what was your feeling about that and and your feeling about him coming back importance um I know coach white on a personal level so you know honestly when I seen it I wasn’t really as worried about it I didn’t have

To ask any questions cuz I know what type of guy coach coach White is you know he’s he’s loyal he actually cares about every player that he ever speaks to in this building so you know when I saw the rumors or whatever I don’t even use Twitter as much really but you know

Everything comes across your phone at some point I didn’t really have any scared reaction to it or anything cuz I wasn’t honestly worried about him going anywhere you know I know what type of guy he is he works hard and he wants to win and I feel like he knows that the

Group of guys that he has coming back wants to do the same thing and he wouldn’t leave us for none of that what’s the 2.0 version of Tony White’s defense look like in YouTube um it looks like guys who are experienced in playing playing it I don’t I don’t know how much

Is really going to change like strategically or like schematically wise but the guys that are on the field playing in the defense have now had a full year to play the defense and you know wipe out all the little kinks or uh Miss Ops or anything like that so I feel

Like schematically there’s only so much you can do but the 11 people that’s going to go out on that field and play are the ones that’s going to have to make the true difference have you seen um Quinton obviously is going you know pros and and uh you know a couple other

Guys have left to Omar yeah failen um who’s kind of stepped up and tried to become competitive in those spots especially a corner Quinton had started there for four years I mean we have I feel like it’s still too early to tell we haven’t really played any football

Yet um we have a lot of young guys we have a lot of guys coming back and honestly everybody’s just working with their head down right now I don’t feel like anybody’s worried about like any spots or anything like that um everybody comes in with the same mentality that we

Have to get better no matter what and you know we want to make each other what we’re doing right now is trying to push each other to be better and push each other to do things that are like uncomfortable usually for us to do so we haven’t really worried about like who’s

Going to be any of that right now it’s Tony white and that staff really good at you know the defense got kind of patted on the back a lot last year but showing like no it can be better here here here and here oh yeah they don’t they don’t

Give us any they give us praise you know for sure but it’s never enough and we know that we expect Perfection from our defense from our whole team honestly and honestly we know last year wasn’t good enough everyone knows last year wasn’t good enough regardless of any of the

Statistics or what anybody else is saying we know deep down that we didn’t do enough to help us you know get to where we wanted to be last year as a team and um honestly I feel like I feel like it’s that’s that’s the right way to

Approach it we don’t want to be patted on the back we’re not a bunch of people who want everyone to Just Praise us and glorify us cuz we do some good things we want to be the people who do everything good who don’t have Miss Miss opportunities and games and don’t mess

Up on coverages and stuff like that so that’s just what we’re leaning to right now what’s it mean to you to have all of your help back be able to even practice this time of year oh it’s exciting uh I couldn’t be more thankful to you know a

Lot of I feel like a lot of the time guys they take this just Spring ball and stuff winter conditioning and all that stuff for granted even myself at some point since I’ve been in college and you know being out for a year from the one thing that you know and love the

Most is is tough so I’m all in right now I’m I’m 100% ready to you know just go honestly if any if there’s any way to describe it is just go was the plan that you guys had last year where they they waited to play those last four games to kind of

Preserve that red shirt you never got your first year and kind of maximize at least four games um I think it was genius you know even for like just my healthwise like I wouldn’t have been I could have played but it wouldn’t have been a logical decision and I

Wouldn’t have been my best self if I would have tried to play the whole season last year so um just sitting down with the medical team and the strength staff and the coaches we decided that that was the best route to go to get the

Most out of me and keep me healthy as well have you found that it changes anything about your daily approach or just how you go about your business when you have your brother little brother in the program probably watching every move yeah uh it’s it’s it’s it’s tough knowing

That not that I can’t make a mistake but if I do make a mistake the one person who looks up to me the most is going to see me do that and I’ve never wanted to show him any negative side of me anything like that so our whole life

I’ve tried to be a positive role model for him so I would say him being here is just pushed me to elevate everything I do even more what’s your approach with your brother do you kind of let him do his own thing do you keep him under your

Wing a little bit um I mean he has to live so outside of football he’s he’s free to do whatever he wants you know he doesn’t live with me or anything he comes over to my place every every so often but for the most part I’m just

Trying to not really walk him through it but just help guide him to give him the mindset to make the right choices for himself not really tell him exactly what to do because we have a dad and like I’m not his dad I’m his brother so there’s

Only so much I can I can force him to do you know all all the decisions he’s going to make or going to be on his own and I’m just trying to be here to make sure he has the mentality to make the right decisions as a big brother what

Has it been like for you to see him around to to watch him you know go through everything that you have to go through for when you’re conditioning and and all of that um it’s actually amazing you know this is my first time ever playing with him so I’ve never seen how

He is in like practice or how he works out besides like us working out together but you know just seeing him in a team environment I said I told my mom the other day we we um we had our team meeting last night and I was like this

Is kind of weird we’re you leaving with me to go to the team meeting right now like we’re really on the same team but I don’t know it’s it’s special for sure um I love having him here I love seeing him every day and you know I’m just ready to

Ready to actually get to work with him Banks was up here um I don’t know how much field work you’ve got to do with him but just even out outside of the field how much is he kind of impressed about just fitting in and seeming like

Being a leader right away um I love Jamal um before he actually got here once I seen he committed I hit him up actually before he committed I hit him up right on Instagram and I was like hey you gotta you got to make this move bro

But he’s been he’s been a great addition to this team I feel like just the way he carries himself and the way he handles his businesses it’s actually really impressive and I couldn’t be more excited for anybody else on this team else thank you thank you guys