Rhule in the red zone: How Nebraska football plans to attack in enemy territory

Often, Rhule likes to dial up a red-zone scenario. He has a passion for studying how an offense should play at or inside an opponent’s 20-yard line. He’s taught a seminar on it. He puts his coaches and players through the rigor of it in practice.

“Coach Rhule does a really nice job of preparing us for every situation known to man,” NU offensive coordinator Marcus Satterfield said. The OC didn’t want to “jinx” his group and declare the red zone "mission accomplished" before camp ends. But he likes where Nebraska stands so far. So does Rhule.

“We want to score touchdowns, not field goals,” Rhule said. “That’s our whole mindset. And I like the way we’re proceeding.”

Nebraska’s red zone offense in 2022 ranked among the team’s better units since joining the Big Ten.

The Huskers scored on 87.88% of their trips inside the opponent's 20, which tied for 33rd nationally. The touchdown scoring rate of 66.67% ranked 39th. NU only reached the red zone 33 times — 115th nationally — but the efficiency, once there, was good.

It hasn’t always been so.

NU’s 2019 and 2020 seasons went sideways in part due to abysmal play inside the 20. Ill-timed interceptions. Poorly conceived short-yardage plays that had Nebraska pondering shovel passes and jet sweeps just feet from the goal line. Taking sacks — like in overtime of the 2019 Colorado game — at the worst moments.

That’s one teaching point for Rhule, who divides the red zone into a “high” portion — between the 11 and 20 — and a “low” portion, inside the 10, that allows for additional freedom.

In the high red zone, Rhule said Tuesday, a quarterback can’t afford to take a sack that pushes the team out of a potential field goal make.

“A quarterback has to be really cognizant down there of kind of having a sniper’s mentality of touchdown/check down,” Rhule said, describing the need to either fire the ball in the end zone or take the safe throw that may not get a first down but doesn’t give up field position. “Not scrambling around and taking sacks.”

In the low red zone, a field goal is less in jeopardy, and there’s more reward to be gained by a scramble drill. But Rhule also wants passes thrown to specific points of the end zone where only Huskers can catch them.

“Front pylon low, back line high,” Rhule said. The back line end zone throws tend to be toward bigger receivers and tight ends.

Aside from 6-foot-1, 200-pound Stanley Morgan in 2017 and 2018, Nebraska hasn’t had much luck finding its tallest guys in the red zone. Tight end Austin Allen — 6-8 — caught three touchdowns in his Husker career. Travis Vokolek — 6-7 — caught two at NU.

At Baylor and Temple, Rhule long relied on taller wideouts — Denzel Mims in Waco, Robbie Anderson in Philadelphia — to make plays in the red zone. In Lincoln, Rhule hopes to rely on Marcus Washington — still recovering from a hand injury — Malachi Coleman and Thomas Fidone.

“It gives you the opportunity to be big,” Fidone said. “We have a ton of plays where we can catch balls in the front or the back of the end zone ... as a tight end, that’s your best asset, be big. Be big and make plays, and that’s what I think I’m good at.”

A quarterback’s sense of when to play it safe and when to be aggressive is crucial. In the Scott Frost era, quarterbacks tended to be on the safer side, throwing just 29 red zone touchdowns over 56 games. In Rhule’s combined seven years at Temple and Baylor, his QBs threw 73 touchdowns over 91 games. That ratio, 0.8 red zone touchdown passes per game, is better than NU’s 0.52 ratio over the last five years.

Nebraska hasn’t been above one red zone touchdown pass per game since 2015 — Mike Riley’s first year.

Rhule would surely like a return to that success. But he likes touchdowns by land, too. Prefers them, in fact.

“When someone runs the ball in or when we run the ball in, it’s demoralizing,” Rhule said. “So we’ll start there, but we’re going to turn Jeff loose. We trust him. We’re going to let him go play.”