Nebraska HC Matt Rhule has high praise for one Michigan football coach

Michigan travels to Nebraska this weekend to take on the 3-0 Cornhuskers. Nebraska played UC in Week 1, but the Huskers are mostly unproven. Its big test will come this weekend against a proven Wolverines' defense -- that has underwhelmed at times this season.

On Monday, Nebraska head coach spoke on that Michigan defense and gave defensive coordinator Wink Martindale a lot of praise for the way he can scheme up pressure.

"Wink’s elite. Pressure. He’s pressure," Rhule said on Monday. "He’s one of my favorite coaches when I was in the NFL. I got a lot of respect for him. He’s a tough guy. These guys are going to play unbelievably hard. What I just said, how do you stop a passing game? You can get pressure on the quarterback. He can do that multiple ways.

"Part of the pressure is also painting pictures for the quarterback and showing him different things. A lot of quarterbacks can come out and say, oh, it’s man. It’s my man beater. Oh, it’s cover two. I should throw the ball here. It’s when the picture changes. That’s hard for a lot of guys. They just throw the ball to the man beater, but it was cover three. Or they throw the ball. That’s what we’re always working on, Dylan and TJ. Those guys want to see in the picture. You have a pre-snap clue, but it has to be confirmed by a post-snap cue. Like, oh, I should go here with the ball, pre-snap. But then the picture changes and then I confirm it post-snap on whatever that cue is. The safety, the corner.

"And I think Wink, like John, does a great job of showing you one picture. Oh, here he comes. Then they bring the jack and the corner. Oh, they run to cover two. They bring the five man pressure. They run to cover two. So Dylan will have to be prepared. Coaches will have to be prepared for all the different pictures you see and might see."

According to PFF, Nebraska has the 10th-best pass blocking of any team out there, and the Huskers are one of the best third-down offenses in the country, converting 62% of their tries. But Nebraska has the 87th-ranked red zone offense, scoring 80% of the time it reaches the opponent's 20-yard line. One area that Martindale can get tricky is in the red zone.

This past weekend, Michigan experimented with using LB Jaishawn Barham at edge and that opened up a whole new element to the Wolverines' defense. While the Michigan offense looked great this past weekend -- after unleashing Bryce Underwood -- it will be the defense that needs to step up in Lincoln against Dylan Raiola and Co.

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