Firing at Wisconsin Adds a 'Whole Other Element' to Nebraska's Game Preparations

The Huskers just made a similar move by demoting their offensive coordinator. Now Matt Rhule's football team faces the Badgers, who will have a new playcaller after the firing of Phil Longo.

Nov 16, 2024; Madison, Wisconsin, USA; Wisconsin Badgers running back Tawee Walker (3) rushes with the football during the third quarter against the Oregon Ducks at Camp Randall Stadium. / Jeff Hanisch-Imagn Images

Nebraska head coach Matt Rhule had to make a difficult decision when he demoted offensive coordinator, Marcus Satterfield and brought in Dana Holgorsen to take his place.

It remains to be seen how well that decision will pay off for Rhule and his staff going forward, but Wisconsin head coach Luke Fickell just had to make a similar decision. The Badgers' head coach just fired his offensive coordinator, Phil Longo, after Wisconsin's loss Saturday to Oregon in which the Badgers scored only 13 points.

Nebraska lost 24-17 in overtime to Wisconsin last season with Longo as the offensive coordinator. Now, with less than a week's notice, the Huskers will have to prepare to perhaps see a different kind of offense on Saturday. There is also no word yet on who will be calling Wisconsin's plays for the rest of the season.

“I thought last year, Phil Longo had the best game plan against our defense of anyone that we faced," Rhule said. "Sometimes we refer to it as the Wisconsin game plan when people use elements of things they did last year. With him being gone, you don’t know exactly what you’re going to see... We have a general idea of who they are and what they do, but you have a whole other element that you have to prepare for. Best thing we can do is just focus on ourselves and try to fix some of the issues we had last week that prevented us from winning.”

Rhule went on to discuss some of the things Wisconsin did so well against the Huskers a year ago and how they need to prepare for more of the same. Last season, Tanner Mordecai had a successful game as a runner at quarterback for the Badgers. Rhule also knows that other teams have copied what Wisconsin did against the Huskers last season.

“They did a nice job of the quarterback draw against us last year, Tanner Mordecai broke out the quarterback draw last year," Rhule said. "They ran some outside zones and some tempo. They tried to push the ball down the field... There’s four or five things that are pretty creative. People have copied it since.”

Nebraska has a lot on the line in this game with Wisconsin. The Huskers have to snap a four-game losing streak and get their sixth win with only two games left in the season. Missing a bowl game after starting 5-1 would be a disaster for the Huskers. Getting a home win over a struggling Wisconsin team would be a great way to get back in the win column.

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