Two things were apparent last Saturday as the Huskers out lasted and ran away from Michigan State – 1) Mike Ekeler didn’t need a season or two to turn special teams from consistently frightening and one of the worst in the country to one of the most electric on multiple fronts, and 2) playing in high winds absolutely has a noticeable effects on a game.
Coach Matt Rhule was asked about both and instead of chucking in my thoughts on all of it, I’ll just let him tell his side of things for a change.
Let’s get to it.
First off, Coach was asked if there was anything beyond the impact of Coach Mike Ekeler which had allowed those units to start affecting games in positive ways. Rhule, of course,began by going straight to Mike and staying there:
“I think you’d have to start with Mike, you know? I think he’s brought like an energy to it, but I don’t want to minimize it because I think everyone sees him “AAHHHH” jumping around in the locker room and stuff. And that’s not what it is. It’s – his teaching progressions are amazing. His attention to (detail). In his interview. I had to tell him to STOP because he uses a Socratic method where he’s consistently asking you questions and making you respond and I was thinking, ‘I can’t do this. It’s too (much), it’s like an hour of this, like, please.‘ But I think it’s great because you go to meetings and everyone’s dialed in, everyone’s logged in here.
“Here’s how I knew. It was like, Thursday or Friday and Sat(terfield) was like, ‘Man, I can’t wait for Jamir. Like they’re gonna come out like this and when I check to this and Jamir is gonna ice on the guy.‘ I mean when your tight ends coach is saying that this is what’s gonna happen in the game, it’s because it’s been taught so well.”
“And then I think the energy and the passion of it inspires belief. And he has your back if you do make a mistake like ‘We told you here, I personally told you,’ which is not the way I am.”
And I’m pretty proud of the fact right now that we’re 15th in the country in (fewest) penalties, because that’s not the way it was the first two years. But I said, ‘Hey, if you run them up like, I don’t care, go block the kick.‘ We just want to free him (Jamir Conn) up. So I think, I think Ek is teaching progression easily.“
So, later on, I stuck my neck in and asked, while acknowledging that the physics of high winds will obviously alter the game, what effect can it have on a team mentally? And what were his thoughts on Raiola and company turning things around on that quick TD drive in the waning minutes of the 3rd quarter?
I think my message released about that drive is with the guys, showing them all the other plays (had) guys wide open. If everyone does their job, the guys will make the play. So it wasn’t like we all said, ‘Oh, we finally got someone open.‘ We had guys open on other plays. It’s just ‘I forgot to block this guy,’ or ‘I missed it.’
“I think sometimes the wind can be in your head a little bit, though. That’s certainly not true when it comes to the punt. Like with Arch in the team meeting, I said, ‘They don’t have a wind like that in Australia, do they?“ The last (punt), you notice he adjusted to kick the low liner to the right, because the wind was down at times. And all of a sudden, it gusts back up. And so there were some challenges.”
“So, I think some of that was probably in our head. I think anytime you get into a game and things aren’t going well, you have a tendency to press. Anytime you press, things don’t go well. You keep saying, ‘Stop. Don’t listen to anything else. Just keep play the next play.‘ And eventually, if you believe that, something good will happen, and then you know that (the 3rd quarter TD drive) happened, right?”
So it’s funny, we were trying to get the ball to the fourth quarter on that drive. You know, we didn’t actually want to kick a field goal into the wind. Like, Hey, let’s go. Well, they went out and scored a touchdown. And then we kicked the ball into the wind, which we didn’t want to do, because it means they’re gonna have good field position and they fumble it, because it’s just hard to deal with, right? So, yeah, I think it was probably in our heads some, but it certainly had an effect on the overall game.
“And my whole thing with the guys is just trying to keep them neutral, just kind of keep them focused on each play, and play each play. I understand that’s never gonna truly happen. It doesn’t happen for me, but it’s just what you’re trying to do. But I did like Dylan. I think when Dylan has a little bit of an edge – he’s still a very young player – and (when) he’s got a little bit of rage in his eyes, he’s pretty fun to be around.”
So there you have it.
The wind shouldn’t be an issue in College Park, however the constantly changing forecast in College Park, MD, has changed once again from what I published in yesterday evening’s How To Watch column – It’s now calling for a 40% chance of showers from before kickoff till around 4:00 or so before drying up.
But the special teams? The Special Teams Coach/genius/teacher/mad scientist/loveable psychopath Mike Ekeler (Dana Holgorsen on the punt block – “I was attacked by Ekeler. I was one of the victims.”) will likely have something else dialed up. And will Maryland follow Michigan’s State’s odd decision to boom it deep to Jacory Barney Jr. and give him space to run? We can only hope.
Just no onside kicks, please. We’re just not there as a fan base yet.
