Matt Rhule Impressed with Jeff Sims Despite Loss to Minnesota

Nebraska head coach Matt Rhule was disappointed with the outcome of his team’s season-opening loss to Minnesota, but he was impressed with the performance of quarterback Jeff Sims and how he is handling the loss.

“He’s not the first quarterback that’s ever thrown three interceptions,” Rhule said of Sims. “The great ones bounce back from it even better, so I think you find out about people when they go through a little bit of adversity. He had not been trending that way, got in the game and made some plays that if he could take back, he would — but he can’t — so we’ll just be there for him as he gets better this week.”

There’s no moving on from losses, Rhule said, because “everything’s very methodical and unemotional” in Nebraska’s process of putting a game in the past.

The Huskers spent Friday going through film from the loss and identifying areas in which they struggled and those which they excelled in. Players had the day off on Saturday but many still chose to spend their morning in team facilities, Rhule said, in order to get recovery work in. Nebraska then began its game week preparation on Sunday before players had their scheduled rest day on Monday.

“There was a lot of good… we had the lead (but) unfortunately made some catastrophic errors down the stretch,” Rhule said of the takeaways from film study. “We learn from those, we eliminate those mistakes and we have a chance to win that game.”

Other Takeaways

• Junior defensive lineman Ty Robinson will be suspended for the first half against Colorado due to his targeting ejection in NU’s Week 1 loss. It’s a big loss for Nebraska, with Rhule saying that Robinson’s level of play in the first half was “really impressive.”
• “Obviously unfortunate we won’t have him for the first half,” Rhule said of Robinson. “I told him, ‘You’re playing every play of the second half when you get back out there so you better rest up.’”
• Defensive back Tommi Hill’s brief cameo at wide receiver was “a one-off thing” according to Rhule, who also added NU had another play in its playbook for Hill. The NU head coach also didn’t rule out further involvement from Hill on the offensive side of the ball moving forward.
• Isaiah Garcia-Castaneda received less-than-ideal news over the weekend. After getting hit on the side of the knee against Minnesota, he tore his ACL and will be done for the rest of the year.