Nebraska coach Matt Rhule says quarterback TJ Lateef keeps growing

Nebraska quarterback TJ Lateef stepped into the belly of the beast at Penn State on Saturday night.

And the beast was ready.

The majority of the crowd of 105,038 was revved up, as prime-time crowds usually are, to help the Nittany Lions keep alive their bowl-eligibility hopes.

Lateef, a true freshman, was making his second career start — both on the road. There are friendlier places to make your second start.

Despite Nebraska’s 37-10 loss, Lateef handled himself well and impressed Huskers coach Matt Rhule in doing so. Lateef completed 21-of-37 passes for 187 yards. He did not throw an interception. He scored Nebraska’s only touchdown on an 11-yard run in the third quarter.

“He moved the offense,” Rhule said about Lateef at a news conference Monday. “We just didn’t score enough touchdowns in the red zones.”

Lateef drove the Huskers down the field on game’s first possession. The drive stalled when the Huskers and running back Emmett Johnson couldn’t get a first down, or a touchdown, on a third-and-2 from the Penn State 3-yard line. They gained a yard, and were stopped on the next play for no gain.

Lateef faced a traditionally rough, blitzing Penn State defense, one that had the young freshman squarely in their crosshairs all game. The Nittany Lions knew a sound strategy to winning the game was to rattle and roll the inexperienced quarterback.

“Better defense [than UCLA, in his first start]. Good defense,” Lateef said about Penn State at a news conference after the game. “They’ve got some good guys coming off the edge like 33 [Penn State defensive end Dani Dennis-Sutton]. D-line was very good.

“I felt like the most important thing of this game was the O-line. O-line did a good job handling those guys up front. That was a good crew up front and the O-line did a great job handling it.”

Beaver Stadium bullies

Rhule played linebacker at Penn State. He knows what it’s like to play at intimidating Beaver Stadium. Rhule knows there aren’t many more difficult stadiums in which to play.

“You go to Beaver Stadium, you’re in silent cadence. That’s hard for a quarterback,” Rhule said.

Nebraska coach Matt Rhule was impressed how freshman quarterback TJ Lateef handled himself at Penn State. | Kenny Larabee, KLIN

“All his motion shifts. Mentally, I thought he was elite. He didn’t make the catastrophic mistake.

“You know, even on the sack at the 1-yard line, I think I said to you guys the other day, that ball doesn’t hit the ground. We’re still able to punt it away.“

Lateef's traits

Rhule saw something else in Lateef, traits any coach would want in their quarterback: poise, moxie and toughness.

“But I think the biggest thing was he was trying to run guys over and I think his teammates saw that for a young guy and he wasn’t intimidated,” Rhule said.

“Thirty-three is a great player for Penn State. Came off the edge. He [Lateef] made him miss and ran for a touchdown.

“So, every day that TJ gets is another day for him to grow. And I think he grew in that game. I think his teammates saw that when bad things happened, he didn’t let it affect him. He just wanted to keep playing and he wanted to play until the very end of the game.

Nebraska wide receiver Jacory Barney returns kickoff against Penn State. | Matthew O'Haren-Imagn Images

“I mean, I’d say the same thing about [wide receiver] Jacory Barney. The guy had five catches, he returned punts, he returned kicks, he made a tackle on the fake punt.

“You know, there’s a lot of guys out there like [defensive back] Ceyair Wright [who] played to the end of the game. So, you can’t control the score. You can control what you look like on tape.

“And I thought TJ did that to the best of his ability. And I’m excited for him. This will be his first start in Memorial Stadium when you think about it.

“It’ll be a tremendous, tremendous challenge and I just know after seeing him in last week’s game, he’ll be excited for it.”

Lateef will experience a friendlier crowd on Black Friday when the Huskers play visiting Iowa.

“They got to me a few times but it’s football,” Lateef said about the Penn State game. “It’s going to happen.

“We have a game in six days against our rival. So, I feel like I’ll be doing my team a disservice if I dwell on this loss for too long.”

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