Much chatter about offensive coordinator Marcus Satterfield circulated after Nebraska’s loss to Maryland. On third and goal, with time winding down and a third-stringer under center, he called a pass play.
The resulting interception was the last of five back-breaking turnovers and ultimately cost the Huskers the game. For many fans who have been frustrated with Satterfield all season, that play was their breaking point — they want him gone.
But head coach Matt Rhule was having none of it Monday at his weekly press conference.
“We want the whole offense to start over again with a whole new language next year, right? I’m not doing that, it’s ridiculous,” Rhule said with a heavy dose of sarcasm.
It’s an emphatic statement given the current landscape of college football. Just within the last week, USC, Penn State and Texas A&M — all powerhouse programs with better records than Nebraska — made massive coaching staff moves. But Rhule refuses to be rash in year one.
“Everybody wants their head coach to fire everybody, like, has that worked out here?” Rhule said. “Where has that worked out, where you’re just firing assistant coaches and coaches and coordinators.”
Stability has certainly been lacking in Lincoln. Since 2021, Nebraska has played with five different combinations of head coach, offensive coordinator and defensive coordinator. Nine different coaches have occupied those positions over a three-season stretch.
Rhule has no plans to lengthen that list anytime soon.
“[Satterfield] is fighting and scratching and punching and willing to get this thing as good as we can get it,” Rhule said. “That’s what all the guys are doing. I’m proud. I just couldn’t tell you how proud I am of that.”
It’s no secret that this staff is under a microscope — Rhule welcomes criticism of both himself and Satterfield. But adversity and painful losses won’t sway him from his coaching regimen. He remains steadfast in his mission to restore a winning culture, one game at a time.
“With as many injuries as we’ve had and different things that have happened, we’ve never made an excuse,” Rhule said. “We’ve always shown up each week, we battle and we’re in every game…I think our guys are fighting their tails off.”
If Nebraska can eke out a win in one of its final two matchups, that message will ring true. A bowl game appearance in Rhule’s first season would do wonders for the future of the program.
Get anywhere near five turnovers again though, and the Huskers will enter a long, cold winter on a four-game losing streak.
Rhule took the blame for the gaffes, repeating “everything falls on me” countless times. He won’t criticize Satterfield, but the play calling must improve if Nebraska is to win another game.
Redshirt freshman running back Emmett Johnson averaged five yards per carry on Saturday, including a massive 29-yard run on the final drive. He’s clearly the Huskers’ best offensive player. Yet on the most consequential play of the game, he had a blocking assignment and no chance to get the ball.
Thanks to both injuries and incompetence, the quarterback position is once again up in the air. Now, more than ever, Nebraska needs to lean on Johnson and the run game. Saturday’s loss proved that the Huskers can’t be confident in any of its three signal callers.
“I’d love to see our quarterbacks just be a little bit more intentional,” Rhule said. “We can’t just throw balls up to a spot thinking the guy’s gonna be there.”
Even after back-to-back dreadful passing performances, Nebraska isn’t getting conservative.
“How are we going to build a championship team if everything is like ‘to not make a mistake,’” Rhule said
The staff clearly has long-term growth at the forefront of all decision-making. But for fans who crave the sweet taste of a bowl game, running the ball 50 times a game might be the more attractive solution.
If Satterfield continues to put his limited quarterbacks in harm’s way, there’s no reason to believe they won’t continue to turn the ball over.
“The weight of being the starting quarterback at Nebraska can sometimes weigh on you so much, you start searching for answers, and there are no answers,” Rhule said. “You gotta just go back to work.”
