Nebraska Coach Matt Rhule Says TJ Lateef is 'Going to Play Great' in Bowl Game

Something that might have been overlooked in the aftermath of Nebraska’s devastating, 40-16 loss to Iowa in the season finale was that starting quarterback TJ Lateef suffered a hamstring injury.

As if the Huskers hadn’t endured enough problems, now their starting quarterback was hurt. His availability for the bowl game was unknown.

The Huskers (7-5) now are in Las Vegas preparing for their bowl game against Utah (10-2) on New Year’s Eve. And Nebraska coach Matt Rhule reported some rare good news on Saturday afternoon when he declared Lateef ready to go against the Utes.

“I think TJ is going to play great,” Rhule said about his true freshman at a press availability for the Las Vegas Bowl. “It’s been good for Jalyn [Gramstad] and Marcos [Davila] to get a bunch of reps early. TJ took a bunch of reps that didn’t require him moving.

“There’s something really cool about when you’re the starter and you’re not getting reps because of an injury, which you don’t love, but just the paying attention to the things you have to notice.

“It really accelerates your development and your learning. I think he’s learned from that. I think he looks good out there at practice so I’m excited for him to play.”

Getting Lateef ready

With the quarterback being the most important player on the field, the Huskers don’t want to be hamstrung — so to speak — heading into a meeting with No. 15 Utah.

Rhule said the Huskers have been careful in getting Lateef up to full speed.

“Yesterday, he had a couple of rep caps on him [at practice],” Rhule said. “Hey, we’re not going to take more than 300 [reps]. Then today he just took every rep.

“We’ve been cautious with him because obviously we have a game, we want to get him to the game.

“He looks fast, he looks like he can run the football. The entire offense is up with him. We’ll run him, we’ll move him around and we’ll play.”

Lateef started three games after sophomore Dylan Raiola suffered a broken fibula against USC on Nov. 1.

When healthy, Lateef can be a dual-threat quarterback. He has the ability, speed and inclination to tuck the ball away and run. He completed 59-of-95 passes (62.1 percent) for 722 yards, with four touchdowns and zero interceptions. He also gained 98 yards on 27 carries with four touchdowns. He scored the Huskers’ only touchdown in a 37-10 loss at Penn State on an 11-yard run in the third quarter.

Lateef’s leadership skills

Rhule was asked about Lateef’s leadership skills, as he has stepped into Raiola’s big shoes.

“Just being himself, just being one of the guys,” Rhule said. “At the end of the day you’re always looking for a quarterback who has ‘it’.

“Steve Addazio [head coach at Temple when Rhule was an assistant coach there in 2011 and 2012] used to say to me, ‘You can’t even describe what “it” is but you know it when you see it.’

“I want TJ to go out there and play with joy, practice and prepare to be coachable. I think even in the Penn State game — the game didn’t go our way — out there with that crowd, that noise, that duress. You know, every snap, every motion, silent cadence, he’s getting guys lined up.

“He doesn’t have to be guy being the spokesperson, giving a bunch of speeches. He just has to do his job at a high level and prepare and coach the guys in terms of, hey, be here and do this.

“He’s doing it at a really high level right now. I learned over the years I can’t control what I can’t control. We gave Jayln and Marcos a bunch of reps. [The doctors] told me they felt like he [Lateef] would ready by the bowl game.

“We did two game weeks. Get him to the first week, give him limited reps here. Get him to this week here, get him full reps. The plans worked.

“TJ told me very early on, ‘I’ll be full go.’ But if Jalyn goes into the game, I expect Jalyn to play great. Everybody on this team loves Jalyn. If he goes out there, they’ll be ready to go. But TJ told me he’d be ready and he looks great.”

More From Nebraska On SI

Stay up to date on all things Huskers by bookmarking Nebraska Cornhuskers On SI, subscribing to HuskerMax on YouTube and visiting HuskerMax.com daily.