Red Report: Purdy's 'huge leaps,' evening practice, and less screen time in dorms

2 hrs ago
Nebraska head coach Matt Rhule has been keeping an eye on his quarterbacks during spring camp.
Rhule had positive things to say on Tuesday about Jeff Sims, Heinrich Haarberg and Luke Logval, but he singled out sophomore Chubba Purdy as a player who has grown in the last few months. Rhule said Purdy “has all the physical tools” but had to learn how to slow down and be less antsy in the pocket.
Through a week-plus of fall practice, Rhule has seen Purdy demonstrating improvements by taking what the defense gives him and not trying to be perfect on every play.
“Chubba has made huge leaps in my opinion; I thought he had a great summer and a really good camp. I’m really proud of Chubba,” Rhule said. “We came to him and challenged him in the spring and he’s done nothing but respond, so credit to him and his family. A lot of kids nowadays run and hide; Chubba’s taking everything head on.”
Evening practice: After going in the morning for eight consecutive practices to open up fall camp, Nebraska will shift to the evening on Wednesday instead. Rather than the 8:30 a.m. practices that players have gotten used to, Nebraska will practice at 6:30 p.m. on each of the next two Wednesdays — and recovery is the reason why.
“My thought process with (practicing) three days in a row is that when you move to the night, you get eight more hours of recovery,” Rhule said. “That extra eight to 10 hours of recovery might be the difference between a (muscle) tweak or no tweak.”
With the night off on Tuesday, Rhule said he has plans to take the entire football team to the Nebraska soccer team’s exhibition match against South Dakota State.
Dorm experience: Every Nebraska player has their own opinion on the two-week experience of staying in the dorms with their teammates — but the positive reviews continue to roll in.
Senior defensive back Phalen Sanford said he’s hardly in the dorms anyway because his long days at the stadium mean he rarely leaves until just before curfew. That being said, he’s enjoyed the experience of arriving at the dorm and seeing teammates there to hang out with.
“You get to be around these guys a lot more; you don’t finish the day and then you just go home to your same two, three roommates every day,” Sanford said. “You go to the dorms, you see guys that you’ve never talked to and they made us roommates with guys that we don’t know, which I think is really cool.”
Another positive that Sanford can take away from the two-week dorm stay is a lack of screen time. Sanford said he’s spent less than an hour per day on his phone due to all the socialization that’s taken place with his teammates together in one location.
“We’re doing something that’s pretty hard, so when you can sit down with some of your friends and joke and laugh, it makes the day go easier," Sanford said.